If Resume Is No Indicator of Person Behind It, Something Is Seriously Wrong

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I was reading a blog entry by Corey Harlock directed at recruiters when this sentence stopped me dead in my tracks:

A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it.

The point of the article (I think) is that recruiters should not be so quick to dismiss applicant resumes.

But seriously? A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it?

With all the buzz about personal branding and authenticity, it’s disheartening to think such a disconnect could exist between resume and job-seeker. It’s true that some people hire professional resume writers to craft their resumes, but a good resume-writing practitioner should be able to authentically capture the job-seeker in print.

What’s the best way to ensure your resume really an indicator of the person — you — who created it? In my opinion, storytelling. A storied resume opens a window into your personality, conveys the authentic you, creates an emotional connection with the reader, and makes you memorable. As I’ve written many, many times in this space, the perfect incarnation of the storied resume is yet to emerge. But I’ve developed some ways to add storytelling to your resume. You can read about them beginning here or here.

Story Takes Center Stage at Oscars

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I wish I had been writing little hash marks each time “story” or “storytelling” was mentioned at last night’s Oscars. So many who spoke cited the importance of storytelling in the movies.

The very first honoree, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz, cleverly crafted his acceptance speech in story form, describing his journey to playing his role in Inglorious Basterds, and weaving in the names of the “characters” in his journey that he wanted to thank.

As the blog Crystal Street (which I think is the name of the blogger) notes, one winner declared that “short films are ‘the jewel box of storytelling.'”

Actors told the stories of working with the best actor and actress nominees.

Many were surprised that The Hurt Locker won for both best picture and director over the wildly successful Avatar; yet I’ve also heard many say that, as groundbreaking as Avatar was in its look and feel, its storytelling was deficient.

As Crystal Street also reports, the same short-film producer said: “The tools never make a great film, the story makes a great film.”

I agree with her words, that “it is refreshing to see that the art of the story is still celebrated in the entertainment industry.”

Here’s Where to Review the Week in Storytelling

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One of my newest discoveries, Gregg Morris (pictured, from his Twitter profile), produces a weekly feature in his What’s Your Story? blog called The Week in Storytelling.

I freely admit that I am seduced by the fact that Gregg cites a number of entries from A Storied Career and calls me his hero. But he lists plenty of other sites and blogs in his review, so this feature is a great way to get a snapshot of what’s been written about storytelling in the past week. Gregg also runs a near-daily feature of curated stories, “a daily post that shares and curates links to the content that I consume over the course of each day … items [that] all deal with change, stories, writing, business issues, marketing and pr, social media and networking. “

The Week in Storytelling appears to be a new feature. Hope it continues.

Are Brands Static? Are Static Brands Storied? Are Storied Brands Static?

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I’m still feeling curmudgeonly about the concept of personal branding, and when I read skeptical views about personal branding like one called “I am Not a Brand. I am Me,” by Gareth Jones, my curmudgeonliness is reinforced.

One of Jones’s arguments against the personal-branding concept contrasts typical brands with humans:

Brands are largely static. Brands don’t rationalise their actions. Brands don’t change their behaviour or opinion after life changing events or after reflecting on some new piece of evidence. Brands don’t offer humility in the face of arrogance. Brands don’t eat humble pie when they got it wrong and then share that experience over social media.

Even though part of me wants to agree with Jones’s conclusion that “the whole notion of a personal brand is a bit of a nonsense and serves only to create another bit of jargon around which some ‘instant guru’ … can build a consulting proposition that preys on the insecurities of others,” I started to wonder if brands really are static.

Given my belief that brands must have stories and the best brands are the best because they have great stories (like the Moleskin notebook for example), can brands really be static? Stories suggest an ongoing plot.

I find it amusing and ironic that personal-branding gurus assert that one’s personal brand must be authentic, but the very thing that personal-branding naysayers rail against is a lack of authenticity, or as Jones writes, a watered-down authenticity:

And then there is the question of authenticity. Brands are strong, stand for something and carve out their definitive position in their relevant consumer space. They don’t try and water down their personality or message on the basis someone might not buy them if they don’t.

Jones’s final argument is that his online identity does not comprise a brand:

I am the sum of a number of profiles, opinions and conversation online, nothing more. These do not constitute a brand. Yes, I should definitely keep out any potentially offensive content. But water down my online and offline personality or manipulate it to present myself as something other than who I really am? Most definitely not.

Well, of course, Jones’s “profiles, opinions and conversation online” do constitute a brand because, in part, they help tell his story; it’s just not a brand or story that he has consciously crafted and manipulated. He has not concerned himself with whether or not anyone will buy his brand.

And there’s the issue — whether we want to put our brands and stories out there as they are or whether we feel we must watch what we say and massage our stories so as to make them more palatable to the rest of the world. Much depends on whether we have something to sell — ourselves as employees or purveyors of products or services.

And the other question is whether we can truly be authentic — be ourselves — if we seek to present our storied-branded-selves to the world.

Tellers: How Do You Organize Your Stories?

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Reader Stephanie Jones asked me a question I couldn’t answer but readers who are oral-performance storytellers perhaps can:

Do you know of any web tools that would enable a storyteller to keep a log of the stories they tell, along with notes about the stories, sources, places they’ve told, etc.? I know I could use a blog or a wiki, but I would like something more like LibraryThing or Shelfari? I am going to be teaching a storytelling class online this summer for my school library candidates and would like them to keep a record of stories they are learning.

If you have suggestions, please e-mail Stephanie.

Things That Are NOT Stories

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Recently, some of my favorite story practitioners have been registering protests over manifestations of “story” that they consider to be too loosely characterized or defined.

I’ve written a number of times (most recently here) about the six-word stories that are the stock in trade at SMITH Magazine and have caught on in other venues. When an executive coach, part of a team at a school for professional speakers, announced a six-word story contest, Terrence Gargiuolo snarkily responded with this six-word “story:”

Clever marketing imitating engagement misrepresents stories…

Sean Buvala recently reacted to the concept of digital-only groups running “storytelling” contests: “Nope,” Sean said, “yer running some good video contests. There’s a difference.” I know from previous communications with Sean that he believes storytelling involves a live teller and a live audience. His exact definition is: “Storytelling is the intentional sharing of a narrative in words and actions for the benefit of both the listener and the teller.”

Most recently Thaler Pekar wrote in a blog entry on PhilanTopic:

I fear the term “story” is being used so broadly as to render it meaningless. Messages are not stories. Statements of belief and opinions are not stories. And, most of the time, answers to direct questions are not stories.

Thaler offers this definition of story: “‘Story’ implies a series of unfolding events. Something happens to someone or something. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”

She goes on in her excellent entry to tell why recognizing what a “story” really comprises is important. She then tweaks a set of story-eliciting questions from a Nonprofit Quarterly article, “Unraveling Development: Collecting Stories From Your Donors”, suggesting that instead of asking the direct questions suggested in the article …

  • What interests you most about this organization? What is less interesting to you?
  • Why does this cause matter to you?
  • How does your philanthropy reflect your values?

— that story eliciters consider inquiring about the audience’s actual experiences:

    • If you look back over your years of knowing and being a part of this organization, what experiences come to mind? What incident stands out as the most delightful?
    • Can you tell me about an experience that was less interesting to you?
    • When was the first time you heard of our organization? With whom were you speaking? What was happening?
    • Tell me about a time when you felt really connected with the mission of our organization.

I know from my Q&A series with story practitioners that, while the majority define “story” loosely and broadly, some are quite vehement about what a story is and is not. I compiled practitioners’ thoughts on defining story in this downloadable PDF: DefiningStory.pdf

But sometimes it’s easier to get at what a story is by recognizing, as these three practitioners have, what a story isn’t.

By the way, I’m planning to start a new series of story-practitioner Q&As soon. Please feel free to suggest yourself or someone else for a Q&A. I also welcome suggestions of questions to pose to story gurus. I’d like to mix up my roster of questions a bit. What would you like to ask story practitioners? E-mail me with your thoughts.

Welcome, Transformative Narratives Blog

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Because so many great storytelling sites and blogs exist out there, with new ones emerging all the time, I don’t usually write full blog entries about any single site or blog but rather group them together and/or list them on one of my inside pages.

But I’m singling out the brand-new blog Transformative Narratives by Yvette Hyater-Adams (pictured) because her story practice really resonates with me, and I’d like to encourage and support her new venture (and hey, it doesn’t hurt that she shares a birthday with my son and lives a few miles from where I grew up in New Jersey).

I especially love her story of how she came to develop her storytelling approach:

In the early 1980s, I took a Franklin Planner class where part of the course entailed writing down goals and integrating them in my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars. This was a logical and mechanical process. Because my artist brain didn’t work so linear, I did more than write a goal sentence. My goal became a little story. In order for me to experience the goal, I stepped into my imagination and created a fictionalized story about me living and breathing that goal. It was so real, I could smell, taste, and touch it. Writing that visual image made such a difference. Having written the story, I could release it and be it.

And here’s how she characterizes transformative narratives:

[T]ransformative narratives 1) emerge from real and imagined visual, written, and spoken stories, that 2) become material to use for self-awareness, insight, and visioning, and 3) crystallize into deliberate actions for change

I’m really looking forward to more from Yvette and her new blog.

Video Resumes as Holy Grail of Storied Job-Search? Not So Much

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One of a whole list of possibilities I’ve considered over the years in my quest for what the perfect storytelling resume would look like has been video resumes, which I wrote about as recently as the Ink Foundry internship series that started here. I’ve long been aware of issues with video resumes, but my colleague Barbara Safani does a great job of laying out why they’re probably a bad idea in her article No One Wants to See Your Video Resume … Really!.

Barb presents the opinions of hiring decision-makers as well as some pretty laughable video resumes.

As I stated in the headline of this entry, video resumes lend themselves to storytelling.

Here’s a summary from Barb’s entry of hiring-decision-maker issues with video resumes:

  • They are too time-consuming to view given that text-based resumes are eyeballed for just a few seconds.
  • It’s impossible to quickly discern the job-seeker’s accomplishments on a video resume.
  • It takes a great deal of space to store them on a computer, and employers must save them for legal purposes.
  • Job-seekers probably aren’t going to create a video tailored to each specific job opening, so the video resume they use is likely to be too generic and not targeted to the job applied for.
  • Video resumes expose the job-seeker to discrimination based on age, ethnicity, and other factors communicated in a visual medium. Hiring decision-makers are at the same time exposed to litigation if the job-seeker should claim discrimination after being rejected based on the video resume.

As Barb points out, video does have its place in job search, such as using a short clip of yourself as a feature in a Web portfolio or blog, which you can link to from your various social-media profiles.

These Questions Can Help You Position Your Story

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Michael Margolis recently published a list of “20 questions that can support you in your story positioning.” Although a few of the questions are best suited for entrepreneurs seeking clients, the list as a whole is great for job-seekers, too. Michael writes: If you go about answering these questions for yourself, you’ll begin to stake out a bigger story really worth telling.”

PERSONAL MOTIVATIONS

  • What motivates you?
  • What has shaped and defined you?
  • What is your point of view?
  • What do you care about?
  • Why trust and believe you?

AUDIENCE EMPATHY

  • Who defines your market?
  • What do they care about?
  • How do people perceive your issue?
  • What needs do you serve?

DIFFERENTIATING VALUE

  • What value do you provide?
  • What’s memorable about you?
  • What’s ignored, overlooked, or not said?
  • What’s your bigger truth?
  • What’s your thought leadership?

MARKETING YOUR TRUTH

  • How do you reach people?
  • Why do people want what you offer?
  • What do you gift and give away?
  • How prove what you care about?
  • What do you want to be known for?
  • How do you make yourself approachable?

Michael has used these questions as the basis for the curriculum in the four-week telecourse that’s currently under way. If you missed the course this time around, I’ll bet he’ll do another as he had significant demand. If not, he’ll have plenty of other story topics as part of his new initiative, Story University.

Business-Storytelling Model May Inspire Additional Applications

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Pam Hoelzle has developed what she calls a “visual and quick outline to aid in business and organizational storytelling.” Especially given the nifty graphic she’s developed to go along with the outline, I think we can safely call it a “model.”

I was naturally intrigued to apply this model to my favorite type of business storytelling, storytelling in the job search. What follows is Hoelzle’s outline with my adjustments (in bold)

  1. What’s the BIG Idea that inspires you as an employee or prospective contributor to an employing organization?
  2. Who is the target employer or type of employer?
  3. Now, what is the problem/opportunity (stated in the employer’s words, such as in a job posting)?
  4. What is it that differentiates you from other candidates?
  5. What is YOUR PROMISE? What is the one sentence that clearly states what you have to offer prospective employers, particularly the targeted employer? (You can think of the response to this question as your personal branding statement.)
  6. Now, what are your high-value innovative solutions? How have you solved for past employers similar problems to those the prospective employer is faced with or addressed opportunities similar to those the prospective employer has?
  7. Values and Personality: What are your values, your preferred workplace culture, personality, tone of voice, likes, dislikes?
  8. Keywords. These are the keywords of your story. These are the words you want to engage in and around online and in real life. These are the words you will be found around, listen for, engage with. [I’m really glad Hoelzle includes keywords because they are extremely important in the job search and should appear on your resume.]
  9. Reviewal and Storytelling. All of your past employers’ testimonials, excerpts from performance reviews, and stories should be retold in written form, video, audio so that they are easily shareable across today’s media and networks. [All of this might be a bit much for the job search, but recommendations, testimonials, and success stories can certainly appear on your LinkedIn profile and other social media.
  10. Engaging. Engaging happens as we share, listen and relate, online and in real life.

In Hoelzle’s posting about her outline/model. she provides examples from her own business. If you’re more interested in using the model for its intended purpose — business storytelling — than for job search, you’ll want to check out “her posting.