Ten things your resume doesn’t mention — but it should

by Liz Ryan, Apr 11, 2017

For 50 or 60 years job-seekers have been taught to write their resumes in the most opaque and unhelpful way imaginable.

Job-seekers have been taught to use terse, governmental language in their resumes, so that almost every job-seeker sounds identical to every other job-seeker!

That’s the worst possible approach. You are not a dry, dusty person — you are lively and creative! Why not show some of that creativity and spark in your resume?

These days we need to tell our story in a resume, but traditional resume-writing rules say nothing about your story. That’s a shame, because your story is your brand!

Your path in life is one of the most critical things anyone could hope to know about you — but it’s almost entirely missing from a traditional resume.

Here are 10 things your resume needs to convey if you want it to sing your song effectively:

1. Why you changed jobs each time you did

2. How you see yourself in your career (how you are different from every other person with a similar career path)

3. Why you chose the career path you did

4. Why you were brought on board at each job

5. What you left in your wake at each job

6. Your personality and sense of humor

7. The context for each of your triumphs

8. Your priorities in your job

9. What you accumulated experience-wise at each job you’ve held, and

10. How your brain works

None of this is typically taught to job-seekers, but all of it is critical!

Here are two excerpts from Miranda’s Human-Voiced Resume that illustrate these essential elements.

Here is the Summary at the top of Miranda’s resume:

“
I’m a Product Manager in the construction industry, focused on revenue and product cost. I thrive when I can work closely with product developers, suppliers and my Sales and Manufacturing colleagues to make sure every product I launch leads the industry and finds it audience fast.

What has Miranda told us so far? We see that she is not afraid to use her human voice, for one thing.

If some corporate weenie turns up their nose at Miranda’s full sentences and her use of the word “I,” she’s fine with that. Miranda know that not everybody deserves her talents!

Miranda tells us plainly what she intends to do in her next job. We see that Miranda is driven and down to earth.

Here is another excerpt from Miranda’s Human-Voiced Resume. This time, she describes her tenure at Acme Explosives.

Acme Explosives, Inc., Fayetteville, Arkansas

Product Manager

2009 — 2014

Acme is a $10M family-owned stick dynamite manufacturer. I was hired to establish the company’s first product management function and to launch the world’s first modular (and thus shippable) stick dynamite product.

• In my first year I built the Product Management team and department, launched the X-15 modular product and revamped two older product lines.

• The products we launched generated $5M in sales, doubling the company’s revenue

• I left Acme after its acquisition by Toontown Industries

Miranda covered several of our ten essential elements in her description of her time at Acme Explosives:

1. In her third and final bullet, she tells us why she left the firm — something every hiring manager wants to know!

2. In her initial framing statement, she tells us what Acme Explosives is all about and how large a company they are — and why she was brought on board to help them.

3. Miranda gives us the context for her accomplishments and tells us what she left in her wake at Acme Explosives. This is far more relevant and useful to a hiring decision-maker than a list of the tasks and duties any Product Manager would have performed!

4. Finally, Miranda is opening her brain so we can see how it works. We know already that Miranda is very focused on revenue — a good thing for a Product Manager to be!

You can do the same thing Miranda did. You can convey a lot more information in your one-or-two-page resume than most job-seekers do!