I was on LinkedIn again yesterday, in preparation for a call with someone who had been downsized, and found myself sighing, for the umpteenth time, over the format of an on-line resume.
Another list.
This job title. That company. This short list of tasks. Even some undefined insider acronyms. Just swap out the particulars and you could be any one of a billion commodity people.
Don’t undersell yourself. You’re not a list!
When people hire me to help re-write their LinkedIn profiles, I employ some of my Clarity Therapy process to extract three things from them:
- What they’re really good at and want to do more of;
- The story of how they got to where they are;
- The key point of brilliance they want to “sell” to their next employer.
Then, we go back through the profile and turn it into a story. The main themes leading to the new desired role are woven into the past job responsibilities, highlighting the individual’s greatest strength and accomplishments, and showing how they lead in the direction being pursued.
Bullet points and biz-speak words don’t paint a clear picture. They leave you undifferentiated. A resume should not merely be a summary of facts; it needs to tell a story. Your story. And it needs to strongly suggest what your next chapter should be.
Your next employer doesn’t have the time to help you figure out who you are and where you’re going. That’s YOUR next job, before you seek your next job!
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Hire Steve Woodruff for Clarity Therapy
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