I was at the Department of Motor Vehicles renewing my license and a woman in front of me was having trouble. She turned to me and asked "Can you help me fill out this form?"
"Sure!" I said. "What's the problem?"
"Whenever I have to fill out a form, I panic," she said, laughing. "I'm six years old all over again."
The lady was confused about how to complete a form to replace her lost driver's license. I helped her get the form completed and turned in to the staff member on duty. Her statement stuck with me.
Lots of us revert to to our six-year-old state when we have to report 'official' information. When we see a form, we think of all the forms we've completed. We stress about filling the form out correctly.
When we're job-hunting, the same fearful outlook can take over. Most people don't claim their biggest career triumphs on their resumes. They don't think they're allowed to - but of course they are! If you did something, you own the story forever. You get to claim it on your resume, and there's no reason not to!
That's why when we collaborate with our clients on their resumes, we tell them "This is a branding document. It's not a legal document. You get to share the information you want to share. Your old boss isn't here. He or she isn't looking your shoulder. If you did something, claim it!"
Most people understate their accomplishments. They flatten and deaden their stories to sound more "professional" in their resumes. They end up sounding like every other job-seeker. They leave out the best parts of their most amazing stories and waste space with boring business jargon.
You can liven up your resume and make it a lot more powerful by telling your favorite Dragon-Slaying Stories right on the page, in abbreviated form. That will bring you to life for the hiring manager who's reading your resume. You won't be another anonymous job-seeker then!
Here are ten things you probably aren't claiming in your resume -- but you can, and you should!
My Undercover Triumph
Maybe your old boss didn't know about your greatest accomplishment at your last job, because your boss never asked you what you were working on and didn't listen when you tried to explain. That's okay! Describe your triumph on your resume anyway.
You did it, so claim it! It doesn't matter whether anyone at your old job recognized you for what you accomplished. As long as you can answer questions about your career wins, go ahead and include them. You earned that privilege!
It Wasn't Really My Job
Lots of people have great career accomplishments that they don't include on their resumes because the work they did wasn't in their job description. Maybe it was somebody else's job -- maybe even their boss's job. Maybe you were told not to work on a project, but you did it anyway to be helpful. Did you do it? If you did, then claim it now!
I Didn't Get Paid For It
Volunteer assignments can be give you powerful Dragon-Slaying Stories, but lots of people don't include their volunteer work in their resumes. It's part of you, so tell the story! Human managers want to hire living, breathing humans like you. Give a manager something to latch onto in your resume - tell us what you got done outside the office as well as in it.
It Was Only One Time
Some of our best stories happened in an hour's time, but we say "I only that did that thing one time -- I'm not really proficient in it" and leave it off the resume. That's crazy. Our client Neal created an online community for his ex-employer and attracted forty thousand members to join, but he told us "I'm not looking for that kind of job" and left the online community off his resume.
We encouraged him to put it back in, even though he's not looking to build another online community anytime soon. That doesn't matter -- Neal branded himself for the jobs he wants, and his online-community-building experience is powerful whether he wants to take on another similar project or not.
Neal got a call from a Marketing VP within two days of updating his resume. "We're talking about doing some online community projects in 2016," said the Marketing VP. "Funny that we're meeting just now. Timing is everything, right?"
I Don't Want to Take Credit...
Job-seekers say "That project was a team effort. I don't want to take credit." They hedge and minimize their involvement in big initiatives. When we get them on the phone and dig into the particulars, they'll tell us about the databases they built and customer communication plans they designed, but then they say "But I don't want to take credit!"
Your next manager doesn't know you yet. Your Human-Voiced Resume will be your possible next manager's introduction to you. Why not put your biggest triumphs out there in order to start a conversation?
Once you're in the job interview you can be sure to say "Of course, that project was a team effort." Everyone knows that anyway, but if it makes you feel better you can say it one more time!
I'm Done With That Kind of Work
Even if you're no longer in the field where you had your biggest career wins, aspects of each of them can make a hiring manager's heart beat faster. Think about the 'right-brain relevance' of your career accomplishments to the new managers you're approaching.
Maybe the function and the industry are different, but certain key themes -- saving a huge customer, pushing an idea to fruition against bureaucratic resistance, or teaching people to do something they'd never done before -- will resonate with any manager in pain.
Your proudest Dragon-Slaying Stories from industries and functions you left long ago are still powerful indicators of your abilities. Don't hide them under a bushel!
It Was So Long Ago
Can you include a Dragon-Slaying Story in your resume if it happened at job that no longer appears in the resume? Of course you can! Tell that Dragon-Slaying Story in the Summary at the top of your Human-Voiced Resume. Here's how that might look in the Human-Voiced Resume Summary for a job-seeker, Patricia:
I'm a Product Development Manager who loves to bring simple, powerful personal finance solutions to market and manage them to lead their categories. My first big launch was the private-label Visa card for Sears, which became the gold standard for retail credit card products. Now I'm looking to join a forward-looking financial services firm that sees product opportunities in its online business.
That Sears credit card was a gazillion years ago, but people in the industry still remember it. The quick mention of it in your Human-Voiced Resume Summary is a conversation starter. People in senior-level positions in Patricia's industry are old enough to remember that Sears Visa card (we made up the example for this story) and will want to talk with Patricia about it.
Like a common interest outside of work or a common ex-employer, well-known industry stories are great ways to bond with people who don't know you yet.
Now the Impact is Clear
We spend years in our careers doing what we're told and what our sturdy instincts instruct us to do. Sometimes the impact of our actions isn't obvious at the time. Now that we are older and have altitude on our paths, we can reframe our past experiences to show the power in them, even if it wasn't clear to us when we did the work. Here's what Joanie, aged 24, said in her resume about her three years of summer camp counselor experience:
Camp Granada
Camp Counselor, Summers 2011 - 2013
I supervised seven-to-11-year-old campers, stayed with them in our bunk and organized their activities during the day. We did arts and crafts, canoeing, swimming, chores and hiking trips.
Now that Joanie has had time to think about those formative experiences (formative for her and the little campers, both) she has a new slant on her summer-camp experience:
Camp Granada
Camp Counselor, Summers 2011 - 2013
As a Junior Counselor for one year and a Senior Counselor for the next two years, I taught self-confidence, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills to young campers ages 7-11 through water activities, hiking, arts and crafts and daily chores.
I Wasn't Qualified
"I wasn't qualified to do what I did" is a terrible reason to leave a career triumph off your resume. You weren't qualified -- but you still did it!
My Boss Considered That His Win
The last item on our list is the one that gives most job-seekers pause. Even when they did something incredible -- saved the day with a huge customer, came up with an amazing product idea or devised a new process that saved time and money -- they often hesitate to include the triumph on their resume if they think their boss would claim it, too.
Forget your old boss. This is your resume. It's a new day, and if you can tell the story about how you came, saw and conquered, tell it! Your boss can tell his or her own story. Now it's your turn!
