Storytelling Resumes Breach Walls to Interviews

Katharine Hansen’s blog posting, “Are We Now in the New Storytelling Economy” really resonates with me. As an executive resume writer, I tell client’s stories every single day! The results are indefinable at times, and incredibly profuse at others.

A resume is not just about bottom-line results. It must ooze the individual’s value proposition, which extends well beyond measurements and outcomes. What is a value proposition, really? Yes, it is about what the individual contributor brings to the party – how they can whittle down costs, boost revenues, catapult profits, grow marketplace reach, cultivate customer relationships, innovate new products … and much more. But after that message is solidified, the resume must resonate with a unique “story” that extends the candidate’s value prop and absorbs the reader.

Creative and conceptual stories (the New Model of right brained thinking as Katharine refers to — she references an article by Frank A Mills) further describe what I believe to be the framework for meaningful and gripping resumes. This “web-weaving, histological storytelling” is the new storytelling model, as Katharine references (also from Mills’ article).

Probably the most vivid reference (for me, particularly as it relates to executive resume storytelling) in Katharine’s blog is the snippet from Mills’ article:

“Each and every story contains other stories, each opening up … the observer is always in the process of observing …” I believe an intricately woven executive resume will harvest nuggets of career gold and wrap them, layer by layer into a focused but fluid career story that … and here’s the key … speaks to the heart of the decision-maker (hiring manager’s) needs and taps their pain points. Just like an elegantly but determinedly written book, a resume story must breach the reader’s emotional and intellectual walls to motivate interview conversations and hiring solutions.