» Your Resume Is A Story

Ben, great point. I was at a resume-writing convention this spring and they said that too many resumes are, rather than grocery lists…. obituaries! Yuck. Made me think about the purpose and potential of this document.

Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
.. self-serve job security ..

Once upon a time… (appropriate for the post, no?) I had a resume that I made into a story. I had a lot of calls from people who loved the resume.

The downside was that most of the people who called wanted someone to buy into their latest MLM.

I absolutely didn’t get any calls from any large companies (which, to be honest, was a lot of my intent) and I got a number of calls from smaller mid-sized companies that started, “I almost didn’t call, but…”

The problem becomes that the people who look at resumes don’t know what to do with a story. And, as you well know, anything that confuses them goes in the trash.

Personally, this is where I think video resumes come in. A place for people to tell their story that enhances a resume, not replaces it.

FWIW,

Dan

I’m with you on this one, Ben! Talking about accomplishments, focusing on unique or amazing factors, works whether you are using a modern video resume or feel bound to a traditional format. No matter what format you use, it takes a lot of work to make a resume that really tells your stories.

Your blog and your podcast ARE your resume. They are demonstrative of your skills and POV the way a resume on a piece of paper can never be. The “fact sheet” that is a typical resume is nothing more than back-story about education, where you’ve spent time and energy, and a bit about some skills you think you have gained in the process.
I think a typical resume or CV establishes nothing more than talking points for an interview. The best interviews are the ones where you get to know someone a bit better- conversation over lunch or often, even over the phone, tells you more of what you need to know about someone than a piece of paper ever will.
IMHO.

Ben,

Could not agree more. The problem we run into is the experience of the hiring managers and their interpretation of how a resume should look. To many “old schoolers” looking for traditional formats. Really pays to investigate who the audience is.

Brad

I’m not sure how I feel on this one. I have been in positions of reading resumes form applicants for a long time. Especially during 2000-2002 you had to be really good at it. If you could decide on a yes-no in the first few seconds, you would spend your whole life readin resumes.

In my opinion, a resume should read like a story, in that it should show progression. It should show you constantly improving… moving the plot along. But a resume should read like a table of contents. I can tell roughly what most books are about if they have a good table of contents. If I have to read the whole inside flap of a book to get the jist of it, I might pass it by, since I have so many to look at.

Resumes should show what you have done spectacular. If you ahve bullet items on your resume that say “did my job… here’s a description of my job… did my job.” Then you seem lack luster. Your bullets should say “kicked butt… kicked butt again…”

Also, bear in mind that unemployment is EXTREMELY low right now. That means that as an employer, I don’t even ask for resumes, because true or not I assume anyone sending them out is out of work for a good reason. Now more than even it is important to work personal networks. I just filled one position, and am in the process of filling another. I placed no adds. I networked through blogs, and personal networks, and tried to find the right people. The assumption today as an employer is that the really good people are not looking for work.

That may be unfair… but know that if someone who you know knows someone I know, and they mention you to me, you are much more likely to get the job. Want to work someone? Find someone who does, and get to know them.

Anyway, that’s my two cents as an employer who ahs read a ton of resumes.

Daniel - Do you have an old copy of your “story resume” - I’d be curious what it looks like vs. your more traditional one…

Steve - I agree that finding people through your existing network is one of the best ways, but it’s not always possible. And even still, a resume is handy as a record of a person’s work.

Storytelling in a resume doesn’t have to be about radically changing the format of a resume; it can be about intertwining personal ideals with work accomplishments, or merging goals with past positions you held.

well, something to think about all right.. But you really have to cater your resume to your target audience. A lot of folks are still looking for shopping lists. True, not bland shopping lists, but shopping lists still…

The idea of progression (thanks, Steve!)… I think that’s probably the key point that I will take away away from all of this.

Ben… Resumes enter at the top of the candidate selection funnel where it’s likely read by software known as a resume parser. The resume parser has its own logic and rules. Shopping lists may be boring, but it’s much easier and more accurate to apply explicit semantic analysis to a list that is preceded by a header, e.g., PROFESSIONAL HISTORY, than it is for resume parsing software to make sense of a story. If your resume’s data is not tagged correctly, the information will not be found by a recruiter searching a resume database.

I agree with Jeff that a candidate should determine who the target audience is. If it’s likely to be a resume parser first, I’d stick with traditional resume format. If you drop out at the bottom onto the employer’s short list, maybe that’s the time to tell your story during a phone or on-stie interview.

Resume parsers? Wow, that sounds scary.

Why would I want a job that requires me to go through a parser, again?

I appreciate the input Tom, because there’s no question my advice isn’t suitable for every job in every industry. My target (for Standout Jobs) and the people I speak to most regularly are technology people - early stage and startup companies - where hiring is a huge problem of finding top talent.

Many of those companies would throw out generic resumes instantly. Heck, I have a hard time looking at someone if they’re not blogging…

The audience is definitely the issue…but resume parsers? Ouch.

I do appreciate the discussion though!

Ben… The answer to your question, “Why would I want a job that requires me to go through a parser, again?” has nothing to do with the job you’re applying for. It has everything to do with the fact that a candidate’s resume will be parsed sooner rather than later at some job board or at an employer’s career portal. Parsing simply tags the data so that it can be searched like other structured databases.

If you’re interested to see what a resume looks like after it’s parsed, contact me offline and I’ll send you a sample. We use the same parser as the largest job board on planet earth.

your resume simply represents whole thing about you, your personal, educational, and carrer life. it reveals who and what you are.It must be interesting,informative and less story

Some time ago, when thinking about what I wanted my online presence/identity to be, I decided that I would put up a page (on an ego domain) that tells a short story about me. In a few sentences: what I believe, what I’m currently up to, and a short history of some of the highlights from my past. No, it’s not exhaustive - but it does let a touch of my personality and strengths shine though, enough that an interested party would contact me to learn more, which is the whole point right?

FYI, it’s the site I link to above (and on all blog posts, for that matter). It’s the online “me”.

I decided that no, a blog, would not be my online identity; but instead an extension of me. I may have many blogs over the course of my life, but I will only ever have my single “identity” page. Besides, blogs contain so much thought and writing that it’s difficult for anyone to glean a good summary of “you” from reading a few posts. Sure there’s the About page, but I don’t ever want to worry about managing multiple About pages, and instead just link back to my “me” site, the one that will forever exist, and evolve…

For me, this works. I find the question of online identity/personal history really interesting and hard to get right. I’m interested on feedback on the way I’m going about it. Any suggestions for improvement?

The thing about stories they need both a story teller and an audience.

Little Red Riding Hood is a marvelous story with some very interesting and some very disturbing concepts.

I have read it to little children and very “open-minded” adults but not the same way of course!

I see my resume as a clarity document that must not be a subject open to wide interpretation , it says what I want , what I can deliver and the type of organizations I want to be associated with.

I worked over 24 real hours on the content and then another good while with a professional marketing writer [from Cobblestone ] getting it into a format that could get the message across clearly.