Writing your resume in your voice may undermine your value
Your authentic voice may be diminishing your executive resume story.
It may be tempting to do so, but writing your resume how you naturally speak or write is not always good advice. This is because when everyone is trying so hard to be their authentic selves, they often become storytelling pragmatists, leaving marketing and sales strategy in the dust.
However, it is generally more powerfully worded resumes that strike a chord rather than your sensible bottom line voice. Humble language can unintentionally lead you down the path of dullness and invisibility. Being overly modest and underplaying your wins will in turn weigh down the reader with the work of having to search out your strengths, influence skills and results-cinching talent.
Moreover, when your executive pragmatism and self-consciousness intersects with your colleagues’ or mentors’ opinions, you further shrink your value, weakening your resume message.
Crowdsourcing your friends can lead to a watered-down career story
For example, you may find yourself uncomfortable enveloping yourself in words that are bold or that you feel are braggadocios, which feels in contrast to your humble communications style. As a result of your discomfort, you then crowdsource your collegial circle of friends and mentors to review your new resume. You lead the request by saying something like, “I am not sure if some of the word choices or phrases sound like me, so I’m reaching out to you for your opinion.”
Prejudiced with your opinion, your colleagues assume your resume may be misaligned with your voice and are then on-the-hunt for inauthentic language versus reading the resume with a blank-slate objective viewpoint. As such, their responses further perpetuate your concerns that the resume language is too strong or distracting for what they presume will be the readers’ preferences.
Hiring managers and recruiters are compelled by muscular resume writing vs. your authentic voice
However, not every reader is going to read it in the same way. Many people, even the pragmatic, bottom-line types don’t know what they don’t know. They often are the first to be compelled by more surprising, interesting and muscular language, enough to text or call you in for an interview. In other words, while they may be quietly subdued in their own communication style, they possess an ability to be influenced by more colorful, energized storytelling. You must leverage that opportunity to influence them, with your career storytelling verve.
Following is a before and after resume achievement example
This is the type of energetically worded achievement statement I recommend for my clients compared to the more tempered, ambiguous and/or watered-down types of narrative that I often see on the resumes that are NOT WORKING for my executive clients – and thus, the reason they hire me to write for them!
BEFORE. The Way You May Humbly Articulate the Results in Your Voice
- Responsible for increasing profit by accepting new ideas and financial concepts and testing out new opportunities.
AFTER. Powerfully Worded, Marketing - Centric Resume Content
- Catalyzed continuous 20% YOY profit by inviting idealization and financial concepts that drove multi million - dollar engagements, and by demonstrating the courage to make a decision: identifying and acting upon opportunities to win big.
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As you can see, extending your resume writing strategy beyond your authentic voice into a more substantive and stimulating career storytelling process delivers more inspiring results.
So, what are you waiting for? Rev up your story today with more dynamic content that exudes your true value. Confidently empowering your resume with the details and deliberate nuances that not only have nourished your career growth, but also have propelled the marketplace value of the companies to which you’ve contributed, will pay dividends in your next chapter.
For More Information: https://resumescoring.com/
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