By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
In a recent, Glassdoor.com blog post, I spoke to the need to differentiate yourself in job search via a nuance-rich career story that will elicit emotion and interest. Interestingly, a commenter honed in on a particular phrase (i.e., ‘weaving in word ribbons of career wonderment’) and dressed-down my post asserting that a resume that ‘sounded like that’ would be tossed. They went on to assert that the ‘hard-core business dealings’ that they review resumes for require ‘someone who can fit our particular mold.’
Interestingly, I felt this reader missed my point and zeroed on an their own agenda. In fact, the energy and the ‘how’ you do what you do in a hard-core and ‘life and death’ decision-making environment often requires evidence of your resilient personality, critical thinking skills and crisp decision-making skills under pressure. To accurately depict such a story requires breathing personality into headlines, lead-in statements and the like.
I’ve cut/pasted my response to the commenter’s comment, hereto. You can read the commenter’s assertions at the original post, HERE.
You CAN Breathe Life Into Your Resume Without Exaggerating Your Value
I can appreciate your opinion. Having owned my resume strategy business for 14 years, and specializing in writing for senior executives and professionals, I have a track record of crafting strategic and high performing career positioning documents. In fact, many of my clients are senior technology executives and highly analytical professionals tasked with serious, fast-paced and pragmatic initiatives.
Well written career resumes must clearly depict what a job seeker’s done as well as his attitude (as you mention). Each individual for which a resume is developed brings to the table his unique ‘way’ of performing his job; how and why he problem solves, works as a team member, envisions and acts on ideas for process, customer service and productivity improvements is unique.
Whereas ’embellishing’ (your word) may imply ‘exaggeration,’ brightening the career picture with smart, interesting words works and spurs interviews, versus the dull drumbeat of lifeless verbs that are often dumped into the resume to create a buzzword-laden, dry repository that neither influences nor encourages the reader (hiring manager, recruiter, HR pro) that the candidate is a fit or can effectively meet the challenges of the job.
A resume, well done, is, indeed, an interesting story that wraps itself around the innate needs and pain points of the reader, and the company to which he is applying. Regardless of what you may assert, a company, and the human resources, therein, are a living, breathing, emotional team of folks driven by more than facts and figures to not only get the job done, but to maximize opportunities and sometimes even, leap over tall buildings to deliver beyond expectations.
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