How To Write An SEO Technician Resume

The shortest interview I ever gave a job applicant lasted between 5 and 10 minutes. I really felt sorry for the young man because I had invited him to come talk to us based on his resume. He really needed a job but I needed to hire someone who could do more than he was ready for.

So why did I pick his resume? Because he used some buzz words that caught my attention. Getting attention is easy, but the proof is in the doing, not in the buzzing.

Let me share a little story from my youth as a backroom computer programmer. I was the whizkid they chained to the desk and didn’t show to the clients unless situations became dire. I was the guy who would dial into a 2400 BAUD serial connection and write his own software tools over the modem rather than rely on the operating system tools to fix the problem. It took less time if I did it my way.

So one day I was doing my thing in the backroom when my boss came in and said, “Michael, are you doing anything this weekend?” When a girl says that to a young man, he feels good. When a boss says that to an employee, he feels like his whole life is over because that girl isn’t going to talk to him again.

So, as it turned out, I wasn’t doing anything that weekend that was more important than earning a paycheck. To save time, let me cut to the chase. I was handed a standard data and program conversion project. Basically, you rolled up to the client site on Friday afternoon, backed up everything, took your data down to the conversion center, ran the conversion over the weekend, and installed the coverted data and software on the client’s new computer system on Monday morning. Worked like a charm every time.

Except this time. This was the client with the paper tape reader. Not that I couldn’t handle a little old paper tape reader but when my boss took the contract she declined to do anything with the paper tape reader. Needless to say, I was held responsible for not converting the paper tape reader programs. So a week of phone calls, meetings, and contract readings ensued and I was finally told to do something interesting with my — I mean, I was asked to convert the paper tape reader software.

Of course, the guy who had hard-wired the paper tape reader to the old computer 15 years before was dead and he hadn’t bothered to write down any specifications for the data formats — or else they were all lost. So I wrote a program that read the same paper tape I was given. Worked like a charm.

Except it blew up Monday morning when they put the SECOND paper tape into the machine (be patient — this has something to do with SEO technician resumes). Nobody knew to tell me that there were two paper tape formats (they came from different locations). The senior execs at the client company kept muttering, “This is why we never changed out the old system….”

Hey, I can be flexible. So in an afternoon I modified my program (I was told to do it quickly, not the way I wanted to do it, which was to read the tapes byte-by-byte, looking for end-of-record markers). Worked like a charm.

Until they put the THIRD paper tape into the machine. Well by now I was no longer the whizkid; I was the idiot who couldn’t write a decent program. So now the computer vendor stepped up to bat and said their systems programmers would write the program. They had three guys in that particular office. The head system programmer was a legend. Every client wanted him to fix their problem (because it would not only be fixed if he took it on, it would STAY fixed). He was, of course, busy. Then there was the “senior” systems programmer, who was competent but didn’t know a paper tape reader from a hole-in-the-ground.

Fortunately for the client, he was busy.

That left “the kid”. A nice guy, kind of quiet, a bit ambitious, had more education than me at the time. Let’s call him “Bob”. Bob got stuck with the paper tape reader. Now, keep in mind that he was green and about the most complex job he had handled on his own at the time was a by-the-book data conversion (literally by the book). And data conversions are nothing to sneeze at, but they actually sent Bob out to client sites on a regular basis. Whizkid programming might have been in his future but he wasn’t there yet.

So Bob and I conferred quietly in the lab on how to write the program I had been forbidden to write. Not to take anything away from him, I tried my best to explain how you read an input stream byte-by-byte. He couldn’t quite get it. So we went with Plan C. I wrote a program for him that read all three paper tape formats. Bob was so happy he bought me a steak and said he’d be glad to give me full and complete credit for the work I’d done. “No, thanks,” I said. “I’d rather keep my job.”

So, imagine my surprise (ha!) when Bob called me the next morning. “Um, Michael, you know that program I wrote last night — the one where you and I talked over the basic concepts? Do you think you can share some thoughts with me?” I said, “Bob, are you sitting in a room full of people with broken code on your hands?”

Yup.

Okay, the story ended happily for the “senior” programmer (number 2 in the team of 3). He was given responsibility for the paper tape reader and he spent a solid week writing a program I could have written in a day if people would have just shut up and let me do my thang. He walked into the conversion center the next weekend and said, “Michael, I wrote that program and I didn’t have to use any of your logic.”

Well, I was dumbfounded, as a system that has to handle an endless supply of uniquely formatted input streams that don’t even use the same end-of-record markers generally has to look at every byte and build up a record (and figure out what an end-of-record marker looks like). So I was immediately curious and asked how he did it without having to rely on what was basically textbook computer science. “Well,” he said grudgingly, “maybe I did have to read bytes after all, but I did it my way.”

So the point of this story is not that Michael Martinez is the greatest programmer who ever lived (I’m not), but rather that you should be careful about what you take credit for — especially when you’re trying to impress other people. I can spot technical B.S. a mile away — I see it on a daily basis in blogs, forums, and news articles. I also see it on resumes.

I may, against my better judgement, ask someone to come in for an interview because I’m not always interested in the technical skills. Maybe the day of chaining whizkids to the desk in the back room are over. I don’t know, but I need to work with technical people who can interact with other people on a professional level. So I’m flexible on resumes when I feel there is some other value the applicant may bring to the table.

That said, there are certain basic skills I look for in a search engine optimization specialist. If those skills are not present, I’ll consider other skill sets, but at some point you have to have some actual technical experience. And measuring technical experience is very difficult. How many Web sites should a Web site developer have developed in order to be a professional Web site developer? 1? 2? 5? 10? What’s the magic number? What if he spent the last five years working on 1 site? What does that mean?

I think that if you have agency experience or in-house SEO experience (and I mean that was your position, not part of the job), you should list that first in your experience section. That’s common sense, of course. But I’m tired of scanning resumes that jabber at me with long lists of acronyms. I can pick up a book on CSS, Flash, and HTML design and add it to my resume in a heartbeat.

What I would like to see on a resume is an explicit “SEO Skill Set” section, an explicit “Web Development” section, an explicit “Copywriting” section, and/or an explicit “Graphic Design” section. And in that order, please, because that is the order of preference for ranking job applicants. If you have no SEO experience but have done Web development, you’re next on my tier. If you have no Web development but have done copywriting, you’re next. If you’ve done graphical design, well, your creative abilities may help you get in the door. I need to see how you think, where you want to go, etc.

When you’re unemployed and the rent is due, any job will do. I understand that. And it’s often been said that people are considered more hirable just because they are currently employed. I’ve never understood that point of view so I’m not adverse to talking with someone who has been out of work for a while. In the technical industries, people sometimes CHOOSE to be out of work for extended periods of time (I’ve done it more than once).

I won’t hold recent work (or out-of-work) history against anyone if they can show me they’ve got what it takes to do the work. Experience speaks for itself as long as you can enumerate tasks you’ve done, show me some Web sites, and maybe get some referrals.

Under that “SEO Skill Set” section I want to see things like: Specified title tags for 100+ pages, specified meta tags for 100+ pages (meta descriptions, meta keywords, robots), optimized internal navigaton for 10 Web sites, optimized copy (or oversaw copy production) for 100+ pages, etc.

Plug in the numbers from YOUR real experience. Tally up the pages you’ve done. Divide the “I did all the work” pages from the “I worked with a team” pages. Don’t assume you have to show that you did all the work yourself. Be honest. Be blatantly, brutally honest. If you were a Junior Web Developer for most of your life, don’t pretend you did all the optimization.

If you did keyword analysis, tell me what tools and resources you used (divide them into Tools: and Resources: lines). Show me how many queries you analyzed. If all you can put on a resume is “keyword analysis” then you didn’t do any keyword analysis.

If you did competitive analysis, tell me what tools and resources you used (and don’t be afraid if all you’ve done is backlink analysis — even I occasionally do backlink analysis). There is more to competitive analysis than backlink analysis but no one has to have every skill in the industry.

If you did “link building” — well, sorry, but I’m not looking for link builders.

Tell us what verticals you’ve worked in. Don’t worry about what the exact names of the verticals are. Everyone knows “Real Estate” is a vertical. Not everyone knows that “hobbyist flywheel provisioning” is a vertical. What’s a vertical? Any group of related queries that have 5 or more sites competing for search engine placement. Usually there are paid links in the SERPs. You get some flexibility as long as you can explain what the industry is about, who their customers are, and name 1 or 2 of the major competitors you’ve worked against.

If you feel like you have to throw a long list of SEO and Web development acronyms into your resume, please do me a favor and put all that nonsense at the bottom, or at least after your list of skills. Sure, some head hunters and corporate HR people will tell you otherwise but they have different needs. They are filling out job listings per specifications handed to them by managers. The managers will work with you to learn what you really know. When you’re submitting your resume directly to a Director of Search or Search Marketing Manager, think a little differently about how you’re organizing your resume. You get one shot to make it past the REJECT pile.

Web developers should tell us what types of sites they have designed: Flash-only, flash-embedded object-based design, HTML only, CSS, non-CSS, etc.

They should tell us if they have developed accessble Web sites (that requires compliance with standards).

They should tell us if they have developed table-based sites without cringing or pretending they said a naughty thing (table-based design is a part of the Web — don’t bring your idealistic dreams of unified standards to a job interview).

Tell us what kind of navigation systems you’ve used. Tell us what tools you’ve used. Tell us which browsers your Web sites work with. Tell us which operating systems and Web servers you’ve worked with (this makes a huge difference if you’re a Mac-only developer applying for a job in a Windows shop).

Tell us which verticals you’ve worked in.

Copywriters, tell us whether you’ve written long copy or short copy (do you know the difference?). Describe the types of articles you have written: news stories, feature stories, interviews, biographies, essays, op-ed pieces, product reviews, technical specifications, etc.

Tell us whether you’ve worked with PPC campaigns, if you have written titles, meta tags, etc. Even if someone told you how to do it, tell us that you have written these things. Tell us if you had to mark up your copy. Tell us if you had to submit your copy for review.

Summarize these points but make sure you include them in your resumes. We’ll discuss the details in the interview. Don’t load up the resume with explanations and copy.

And for everyone who wants me to look at their resume, tell me the following things:

What is your favorite search engine and why?

How many search engines do you use on a monthly or weekly basis and why?

Do you have a blog or personal Web site that you have managed in the past 12 months?

Name three people other than me, Aaron Wall, and Rand Fishkin whom you feel have influenced your search engine optimization philosophy. They don’t have to be great thinkers or speakers at conferences. They should be people who have established visibility for themselves for some concept. What is each influencer’s concept? I should be able to search for these people and confirm that you have actually read their stuff. Put something like, “Fantomaster because he is the master of cloaking” (NOTE: We don’t cloak).

That is the kind of SEO resume I’d like to see come across my desk.

Tell you what. If you’re interested in interviewing for an SEO technician job with us (keep in mind this blog post is being written on August 21, 2007 and may be around for years to come), FAX a resume to my attention (you have to find the FAX number). Email resumes will not be accepted. Submissions from recruiters will not be accepted. Offshore firms will be ignored. Onshore firms will be ignored. Mailed resumes will not be accepted. Hand-delivered resumes will be okay (please leave them at the front desk).

Make darned sure I can reach you if I decide I want to interview you.

1st Query is located in Seattle, WA. Take that into consideration as well.

If you’re happy with your job but you know someone who wants to work with one of the most dynamic and experimental SEO teams in the field, spread the word.

We’re hiring. Have you got what it takes?