I’ve explored the idea of the storytelling resume many, many times in this space, always on the lookout for what the ideal storied resume would look like. I still don’t know the exact form the perfect storytelling resume would take, but one place to start is with an existing resume.
Karen Siwak (pictured), about whom I wrote here (be sure to read her comments on the entry), has formulated a checklist to gauge the storytelling quality of a resume. In a guest blog post on HRMargo, Karen notes, “I am a fanatic about resumes that tell an interesting story, and frankly, most don’t. In fact so many resumes fail spectacularly when it comes to story telling, that having to screen through a stack of resumes has been likened to water torture.”
Here are the first few items on Karen’s 12-item checklist, the rest of which you can read in the guest post:
Here is my storytelling check list, and I can tell you that less than 10% of the resumes I’ve critiqued over the years have met even half of these criteria:
- Is there a target job title and a profile or summary that speaks to a specific target audience?
- Is the summary laden with warm and fuzzy “plays well with others” self-aggrandizements, or does it contain factual statements that show why this candidate is the perfect solution to a specific kind of challenge?
- Is there an easy-to-read “table of contents” outlining the candidate’s top 10 to 12 core skills and expertise?
The next step for the job-seeker would be seeing what perfect, storied execution of the dozen items on Karen’s checklist would look like on a storytelling resume.
[Thanks to Terrence Gargiulo for alerting me to Karen’s guest post.]