You've organized the information you want to use for your resume. You've followed some good advice you've seen on identifying “accomplishments," not just what tasks you performed or the skills you have. But now come the most important next steps: translating these accomplishments into effective “stories" for both your resume and your interviews. Stories? Absolutely!
Related:Can Listing 'Awards' On Your Resume Portray Arrogance?
Stories have three compelling components that make them a powerful part of your career search strategy:
Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Stories include emotion: excitement, suspense, humor, or strategy.
Stories spark interest in the reader to know more.
Now comes the toughest part – both your resume and interview need to contain short stories – only short stories. And this is where lack of preparation – and perhaps a natural tendency – creates the biggest mistake.
Many job seekers are OK with the idea of telling stories, but they start the stories with the equivalent of “Once upon a time…" and drag on until the reader or interviewer figuratively (if not literally) falls asleep. On resumes, this is represented by a “just the facts" boring description of job duties.
At the same time, other job seekers are uncomfortable trying to tell stories, so the answers to interview questions are too short and they struggle making even known accomplishments interesting on their resumes. A big factor I've noticed is simply stated, if not simply solved. High school or college graduates frequently tell me that they “haven't accomplished anything yet." Individuals with years of work history tell me that they “just did their jobs."
We're easily misled by novels, television shows, and movies – where it takes 100's of pages, multiple episodes, or two hours to get to the solution or the end of the story. For your resume and interview preparation, you're better off looking at some examples from news media, either print or online. There you'll find the importance of headlines. You'll also find that almost all news articles are written in an “inverted pyramid" style – where the most important information comes first and all the details trail off to the end of the article.
Your accomplishments in a resume should be no more than the first paragraph of a well-written news story – and the first 2-3 paragraphs are your answer for an interview.
Resume Stories
You should create 3-4 stories for your current and most recent positions. Each story should be no more than 3-4 lines – that's about a 20-30 second story. There are some different formats suggested by experienced recruiters. I find the “Challenge-Action-Result" format to be one of the best. What was the “challenge" you faced? What did you “do" to meet the challenge? And what was the result?
Here's an example from a “Construction Manager:"
Organized and executed out of state deployments with only 2-3 days to prepare, successfully overcoming obstacles and issues to ensure crews arrived punctually and ready to complete the task at hand.
“Executed, overcoming obstacles, ensure" are strong words. “2-3 days, arrived punctually" are specific results. What's important about this statement is that, as a hiring manager, this statement sparks my desire to know more about how the candidate “overcame obstacles." I want to know more about the story. The same is true for this example:
Designed and presented an employee “onboarding" program at the request of department managers. Involved representatives from each department in presenting department visits as part of the program. Produced video on company history for program. Presented program bi-weekly for one year while training department managers to take over presentation.
Interview Stories
Much is the same for your interview preparation – but there's one big difference. Your interview stories cannot be 20-30 second responses. That's too short. So for interviews, you need the “Goldilocks" solution. Stories that are too short will lead the interviewer to believe there's not much substance to your responses – or at least you're not prepared. But if you give a wandering five minute response, your answers are too long. So your need to prepare – and practice – interview stories that are “just right."
Hiring expert Lou Adler has an outstanding format for preparing a “universal answer" to interview questions: the Say-A-Few-Words 2-Minute response. The SAFW 2-Minute response should:
Have an opening statement
Amplify the opening statement
Add some examples
Wrap it up
Let's look at the last example in the context of an interview – “tell me about your experience at…"
Open: I directed the training for all managers and employees…
Amplify: One of my most important responsibilities was developing new, highly experiential training programs.
Example: I developed a completely new employee orientation program… (details)
Example: I responded to a request from the owner to improve the effectiveness of managers meetings…(details)
Wrap: The programs I developed were all reviewed positively with excellent participant attendance.
With the details added as indicated, it should be easy to see how this answer could be a SAFW 2-Minute response. You should prepare 3-4 of these responses for each of your positions, and if recent, for your education. Prepare and practice! If you develop true stories, you'll spark interest in companies and interviewers – they're your stories. Tell me more!
Jim Schreier is a management consultant with a focus on management, leadership, including performance-based hiring and interviewing skills. Visit his website at www.farcliffs.com.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.