What is a Resume Anyway?
So, you want to get to the table for a conversation, every time. But it’s not easy to break through the clutter that is the competition and to find a way of being noticed. A great looking resume will be a start, but what’s more interesting will be the stories that it contains.
You need to learn to write a compelling and interesting career story, one that makes you proud of what you have done and is one that is reflective of your complete identity.
Action
Let’s start with the 4 Key Questions, to get a sense of where you are at and what you are looking for.
Resume overview
It won’t come as any great surprise to hear that a Resume is a marketing document. People will tell you over and over again how important it is to market your brand effectively or to “sell yourself”, but the reality is that many people don’t know exactly how to do that. They will waffle on about value propositions, brand propositions and all sorts of other propositions, but nothing has really changed in the Resume space, leading us to believe that we don’t yet understand the practicalities of doing so.
Can we start with an observation? In the absence of any other form of knowing you, the resume is the only tool I have to decide on whether I want to talk to you.
If it doesn’t build a sense of curiosity, then you will have failed in this endeavour. Broadly speaking, I need to feel that there is enough information in your resume to motivate me to move to the next stage and to connect with you on a personal level.
In terms of nudge factors, the resume is one of the first areas that we can exploit for a positive outcome.
Important resume aspects
You can get advice on a resume from a million different sources, including a million different ideas about what makes a good resume. You can also get a million different templates. We don’t want to get into an argument about the minor details, but we do want to talk about the psychology of a great resume.
So … let’s outline a few things that we think are important in building a resume that demands a response. Let’s start with a few questions you might ask yourself as you read this … with resume in hand.
- When someone reads your resume, are they going to get to know you, or just a work history and a set of competencies?
- When someone reads your resume, do they really get to see the real you or a sort of altered or vaguely familiar version of you?
- Is it really clear to the reader what makes you amazing and interesting and does it compel them to pursue the next step in engagement with you?
- Does your resume look, feel and sound confident? Do you speak about yourself with a sense of pride in what you have been able to do and what you will do for your new employer?
- Can someone read your story and absorb the important elements of your story quickly, or is the important stuff lost in the volume of information that you feel compelled to include?
- If everybody else had similar competencies or skills, is there enough in my resume to somehow stand out from the crowd?
- Is your resume more about your ego, than it is about having an impact?
If you can look at your resume and feel that you have all of this covered, then … send away. If you are not confident of these outcomes, then you need to have a look at your resume again.
Key resume attributes
The resume needs to tell a story, not only about what you have done, but who you are. In order for me to express this, I need to understand my gifts, talents, passions, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, those things that form the nucleus of my career story.
The reader needs to feel and understand the potential impact that you might have within their organisation at two levels … CHARACTER and COMPETENCE. You have to bring me a sense of both connection and credibility. We tend to look at a resume as a capability-based document, but what we know is that capability is only a component of the story. You may have significant expertise and experience in a particular area, but if I like someone’s character more than yours, you might be in a little bit of trouble.
The resume is designed to make you compelling enough for a conversation. It’s important to note that only a select few will get the opportunity to put their career story to the employer face to face. You want to end up on the pile of resumes that will be given more time and attention, not lost in the vast majority of resumes that lack impact and interest. If the resume is not converting to a conversation, then it’s not doing the job it is designed to do. Given the stack of resumes that the recruiter, HR manager or employer has to review, it’s no surprise that they give each resume a cursory glance. Some say that it is as little as 20 seconds, but whatever time is involved, there is not a lot of it. Is your story interesting and compelling enough to survive the 20 – 30 second sweep.
Logic is not the end game. It only represents 10% of a consumers buying response, so why do we try to demonstrate our brand almost entirely in a logical sense? Do we believe that outlining my work history and my achievements will be enough?
Likability is a factor and the only way to bring the ‘likability factor’ into play is through language. Every word need to be carefully crafted to get across a message that is accurate and designed to get the response that you desire.
The Resume is an expression of identity, in that it is how you want the market to identify you, your experience, your personality, your gifts and your desires. Once you have a clear picture of that identity, it should make the expression of it very simple. With that simplicity and clarity comes great self-concepts and confidence, in that I now understand who I am, what my message is and how to express it. That in itself, will differentiate you from the rest of the market and create positive impact.
Don’t get caught in the 2 pages vs 5 pages debate. If you have a significant career, you do yourself a great injustice trying to get it down to a couple of pages. Tell in in as many pages as is required to be interesting or conversely, not send the reader to sleep.
BUT … In this TED talk, the speaker talks about how a resume wasn’t necessary for success in our careers but having stories to tell and knowing how to tell them is essential. He focused on the 4 years of stories as being critical to opening up doors. CEO’s wanted interesting people to have conversations with … over a cup of coffee.
Let’s now break down a few of the ideas from Dave Wilkin.
- Mistakes are important and can set up our careers with forward momentum. Don’t be afraid of the impact that they can have. They are part of your story.
- The story starts before our career starts. What were your dreams, aspirations and motivations?
- Don’t let anybody tell you what you will be doing and what you are limited too.
- The real world wants to talk about things and people that are interesting.
- Don’t be afraid of being unconventional and taking a proactive approach.
- Go and talk to people and don’t rely on the resume.
Your resume is a reflection of you, not just the work entity, but you as a human being. Too many people assume that all we want to hear about is what you do, but really compelling people understand that emotion and connect are critical areas that can be exploited in our resumes. The resume will be as long or a short as is needed to get the message across. The key to a great resume is to encourage the reader to read on and to be curious about meeting you.
Cool Stuff
The difference between and resume and a CV –https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cv-vs-resume-difference-and-when-use-which
What’s next?
Given that the only process we have to get the information to you is via my resume, I better make certain that it does what I need it to do. It needs to get you to a conversation. Knowing that emotion is important, it’s a given that somehow we need to align the written word with emotion, in order to come across as interesting. How do we build that sense o0f curiosity and connection through a resume?