Inject Some Personality Into Your Resume

When we take on new clients, we try to make sure that they understand (and like) our approach to resume writing, but every now and then we fail.

That happened recently, when a client expressed unhappiness with his new resume because he felt the whole thing needed rewording. I had been pleased with my work on his resume, so I was surprised to see this. But when I reviewed his comments, I saw the problem immediately. My client was expecting his resume to sound formal, to be filled with the types of words and phrases he's accustomed to reading on resumes. Instead, he received a document that told his career story in very natural language - the kind you would use when talking in an interview.

This was just a style mismatch and easy to rectify, but for me the use of natural language is such a crucial tenet of good resume writing that I wanted to take a moment to write this post. I am such a strong believer in this approach that I would rather refund money (as I did in this case) than rewrite the resume in a less effective style.

To believe that formal, stilted language is the right approach on a resume, you have to believe that recruiters and HR folks put their personality in a locker when they arrive at work. But of course they don't. They are real people just like you and me, and they have to wade through piles of resumes that all look and all sound alike.

If you inject some personality into your resume by writing in a natural style, your resume will convey the essence of who you are - the reader will sense your character as he or she reviews your resume, and you will stand out from the crowd because everyone else will be using what some in our industry call 'resume speak' (meaning language that you wouldn't find anywhere but on a resume).

Of course, I'm not suggesting that you use slang, or put jokes into your resume ... just that you review it for any signs of highly formalized language - language that you are only using because you have seen it on other resumes. When you find an example like that, ask yourself 'how would I say this in an interview?' Chances are, that's the way you should write it.

Comments

[Totally Consumed]

I had a roomate in college who, upon graduating with a Masters Degree in Accounting, sent dozens of resumes out and didn't hear a thing back; not one call. About a month later he sent out a second batch to different companies, but this time he made one small change to his resume. He affixed a gold star next to where it listed his 4.0 GPA (something he was very proud of). I was as surprised as everyone else when his call-back ratio for the second batch hit 50%!

[Louise Fletcher]

Wow - that's so interesting!