Reading resumes ranks right up there with interpreting the fine print on the back of your credit card statement. You know it's important but it's oh, so painful.
After 30 years of reading resumes, I know I'm going to find just one or two nuggets of useful information in any resume. I don't care about the rest. I know a resume is so over-edited that it's just a faint representation of the person it's about. That's why so few resumes yield interviews.
On the other hand, I love talking with prospective job candidates to find out what their stories are. Few have one to tell, and that makes it easy to move on to the next without hesitation or guilt. The one who has a story--well, now we're getting somewhere.
A person with a story to tell knows the importance of having a beginning, a middle, and an end. (Can you say, "project management?") The best of them know it's also important to have a plot, a conflict, and a resolution. The rare resume has a distinct theme that reveals itself; I don't have to try to figure it out. That's the person with insight and motivation. That's the person whose aspirations I care about. People with credible aspirations will work hard to deliver what a manager needs so they can get what they need.
How do you craft a resume that tells a compelling story? Don't. Toss your resume in the trash.
Just tell your story. Fast Company provides examples in every issue. The first section of Fast Company I turn to is Fast Talk. It's the stories I look forward to. Check out these stories about Fresh & Easy's chief marketing officer Simon Uwins and Logo Viacom's executive vice president Lisa Sherman.
I want to meet the subject of almost every story in Fast Talk. Many of them have a theme. Almost all have a stimulating beginning, an engaging middle, and a provocative ending that leaves me wanting to know more.
Consider:
Q: What's the big difference between a resume and personal contact?
A: One of these is actually an interview-in-progress.
Make your resume read like a Fast Talk interview. That's where job interviews come from.
So, does your resume tell a story? Notice I said, "Tell a story," not "Hope the manager can piece together a story from all the facts."
Nick Corcodilos is the author of How to Work with Headhunters . He also writes the free weekly Ask The Headhunter Newsletter. Ask The Headhunter is a registered trademark.
Related Stories: | Topics:Management, Careers, Work/Life, ask the headhunter, career, employer, employment, hunter, job, Nick Corcodilos, Fast Company Magazine, Business, Job Searching, Jobs and Labor, Simon Uwins |
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
Recent Comments | 6 Total
October 28, 2009 at 1:43pm by Carol Cox
I'm reading through resumes right now, and I completely agree! Prospects need to tell us who they are and what they love rather than just listing where they worked and what software they can use. I would love to see more interactive/online resumes that showcase the person's capabilities, experience and passions (especially when they are applying for jobs in the Internet industry!).
Carol
--
Carol Cox, Owner
http://www.InterMedia4web.com
Blog: http://carolcox.squarespace.com
Twitter: @CivicLink
October 28, 2009 at 2:37pm by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
Nick,
I agree! Toss that traditional resume and craft a story that provides a vivid snapshot for the reader that ignites interest, stirs emotion and touches their pain points. Inspire the reader to pick up the phone and call.
Your example of Simon Uwins' Fast Talk interview is illustrative of the essence of a muscular, story-telling resume. First, a Theme: How Tesoo Tweaked Its Fresh & Easy Concept, coupled with an overarching initiative/result: Simon helped Tesco, the $87B British Grocer, enter the US Market. Next, the Challenge: Company stumbled out of the gate. Action: Customers initially found stores sterile , so Simon's team took action and warmed up the look. Results: Same-store sales are up 30%.
I know I'm abbreviating his story, but the framework is there. The issue that job seekers often have is they often feel compelled to rush to write their resume (as a matter of course, versus treating it as a strategic communications document), thus bypassing the introspection and attention to unearthing their relevant, stimulating and provocative career story points tied to their target audience's needs. As a result, the career nuggets get buried,are under-communicated or left off the page entirely. More frustratingly, the reader is left feeling uninspired and disinterested in a disconnected and lackluster stream of bullet details.
In fact, recently after receiving a 20-page worksheet from a sales management client, we spoke for 90 minutes, and it wasn't until 1 hour into the conversation that we really drilled down to her unique value drivers that were the essence of her story (and what would compel the target reader, hiring manager, recruiter, etc.). At least, that is our hope. Though no magic bullets exist, I do believe that professionals, executives and front-line workers need to take time for introspection to unearth their career nuggets and weave together a meaningful, compelling and focused story that bears the reader in mind, first and foremost.
October 28, 2009 at 3:52pm by Nick Corcodilos
@Carol, @Jacqui: How do we find jobs or hire people without resumes? What are the relative merits of those approaches - and why are resumes so central to job hunting and hiring today? I don't mean that as a rhetorical question. But nor have I ever heard or seen a good explanation. "It's how we do it" ranks right up there with "Let's keep smoking cigarettes because it seems to have a benefit and besides, we're hooked..."
October 29, 2009 at 12:09pm by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
Hi Nick,
Hmmm. In response to your non-rhetorical question, I don't believe it's necessary to find a way to hire people without resumes. It seems the resume (again, the story-telling resume and 'not' the traditional or old-style dinosaur career document) is the hub and the hiring methods / job search strategies are the spokes.
Even when simply used as a tool during the interview, or after the interview or opportunity conversation has been conducted or scheduled, the resume is a story repository, that snapshot that is necessary to refresh, expand upon, distill value and/or invigorate conversations.
The written word, in combination with the spoken word is a perfect recipe for communication clarity. One, without the other, I believe, often leaves the story a bit wanting and the hiring process waning.
As well, several channels exist to find a job/to be found by recruiters, hiring managers, HR, etc., and the resume is just one of those channels.
Ultimately, because of the reasons I've expressed hereto, I believe even if a connection between hiring decision-maker and candidate is made through other means (LinkedIn, face-to-face networking, Twitter, referral, etc.), the centrality of a career snapshot in the hiring process will never quite go away ... and not sure there is a need for that.
Respectfully,
Jacqui
--
Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, Master Resume Writer
Owner, Career Trend - www.careertrend.net
Twitter: @ValueIntoWords
October 29, 2009 at 5:21pm by Harry Urschel
I have to agree with Jacqui's latest comment. Although I agree that telling a story, live, face-to-face or on the phone is ideal... the reality, especially in today's job market of a multitude of candidates, it's still far more efficient for a company to be able to screen resumes rather than hope that one of the few people that got through on the phone is actually the best candidate.
Employers are not yet ready to give up on the selection that resumes can provide, nor should they.
Great thought-provoking piece though! Thanks for the contribution!
Harry Urschel, Owner
e-Executives
http://www.eexecutives.net
Blog: http://www.thewisejobsearch.com
Twitter: @eExecutives
October 30, 2009 at 8:59am by Nick Corcodilos
I agree that resumes are useful, primarily to "fill in the blank," to provide details that don't come through in personal discussion. After an introduction is made.
But I also think that people use resumes as a crutch. By nature people tend to avoid personal contact with people they don't know. They "network" a bit, and awkwardly. They rely on that piece of paper (or that resume file) to introduce themselves to employers. It's bad enough that they initially rely on a piece of paper to introduce themselves, but then they have to defend that piece of paper. There's simply no telling what preferences, biases or prejudices a manager has. A candidate can be summarily dumped and never know why, and in fact, we know that's exactly the experience people have. They naturally resent impersonal rejection, and one need only look at the complaints Ask The Headhunter readers lodge on my other blog. Yet, they trigger this impersonal rejection process by applying impersonally.
Will people (employers and job hunters) give up resumes? Of course not. As a headhunter, I count on that. So do many assertive job hunters, I think. Resumes, job boards serve as a herding mechanism to remove the more meek and passive job hunters from the more active process of getting a job. We talk about getting an edge and standing out. The world is flooded with resumes. Tough way to stand out.