Story Telling Resume

What does your resume say about you? A well-written resume should tell the story of your career and educational experience, not simply list your job skills. Think of your resume as a first impression. It’s the first thing that a hiring manager looks at, so it needs to present you in the best possible light. Fortunately, turning your resume into a well-written career story is simple as long as you know what to include.

Career History

Before you begin to craft your career story, write out you career history, including the names of the companies and your dates of employment, in reverse chronological order. This is the order in which your career history should be displayed on your resume. Jotting it down beforehand allows you to look closely at your dates of employment to see if you have any gaps that you’ll need to explain during the interview process.

Achievements, Responsibilities, Skills and Traits

Your resume needs a corresponding section for each job listed in your career history that details your achievements, responsibilities and job skills. Start by listing your achievements and responsibilities — including the results of your work. Then, if needed, list some job skills and personality traits that you think are pertinent to your industry. Avoid listing any job skills or personality traits that are extremely common, such as punctual, detail-oriented and works well with others. Your goal is to create a resume that stands out from the crowd, and using commonly used adjectives makes you blend in with other applicants. When you’re writing this portion of your resume, consider:

• Your industry expertise• Any published work you’ve completed• Awards that you’ve won• Job promotions

Filling in the Gaps

It’s common for people to have gaps in their career history, so you shouldn’t assume that you won’t obtain the position you want just because you’ve had gaps in employment. People take time off of work all of the time. Some people take time off to raise families, others have been laid off unexpectedly, but taking time away from work doesn’t mean their careers ended. Even though employment gaps are common, you shouldn’t ignore them. Use your cover letter to address the issue. Don’t make it the primary focus of your cover, but use your cover letter to touch briefly on the reasons for any employment gaps that you have. Addressing issues in your cover letter shows the hiring manager that you’re concerned about the issue and gives him some insight into your personal life.

Finishing Your Story

Once you have everything written down, you need to put the finishing touches on your story. Read through your resume, looking for any trends. Then, use these trends to write a detailed and impressive executive summary in place of a career objective. For example, if you’ve consistently broken company sales records for the past 10 years, don’t list this year-by-year beneath the job. Instead, use that achievement to create a summary that details your sales abilities and accomplishments over the course of your career.

When you write your resume with a specific story in mind, your resume has a clear focus. The more focused your resume is on your story, the better. It's your story that tells the hiring manager exactly who you are.

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