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You’re a Marketer. Why Are You Still Writing Your Resume Like It’s 1959?


Recently, I was helping someone with their resume. They're a budding, talented marketing copywriter ready to make the jump into a role that will allow them to leverage their talent.

Knowing this person and their work, then seeing their resume, I was surprised at the disconnect.

His resume was stiff, formal, robotic-nothing like how he usually writes or talks.

How did this kind of writing pervade resumes and CVs? How is it that even talented writers are falling into this trap of crappy, impersonal resume writing?

It's also surprising how the ancient myth of keeping your resume to one page still exists.

I get it. No one's a professional job seeker.

It's Hard to Promote the Person You're Most Critical Of

Every 2-4 years, we dust off our last resume, try to remember all of the remarkable things we've accomplished- but we can't. It's a struggle because, as David Baker says in his book *The Business of Expertise*, "it's hard to read the label from inside the jar."

Promoting ourselves is challenging because we're too close to ourselves, and we're our harshest critic. Try writing a glowing review of someone you think sucks at everything they do.

It would be hard.

That's essentially what we're doing when we write our resumes.

We never give ourselves enough credit, and it shows in the wording we use. Things like "I support" or "I worked with."

Cut the crap.

Tell people what you did. Be proud of what you've accomplished.

Sure, there may be people who have done more or done it better, but who cares.

They're probably not applying to the same role you're applying to.

Besides, if you're working through someone you know in your network, that helps you immediately stand out from the competition.

Having a 'wing man' or 'wing woman' inside a company counts for a lot.

The bottom line…be proud of what you've done. You've spent a lot of your time - time you'll never get back - doing it. That's why you're doing it - to advance your career. Make that time count. Let people know what you've done and what you're doing.

Equally important, write like a human. Read your resume out loud. Is that how you'd describe what you've done and accomplished if you were talking to someone in person or in a call?

If not, rewrite it.

Be human. Give yourself the credit you deserve- you've worked hard for it.

Tell your story like it needs to be told. No one else will.

 


 

 


Photo Credit: Andraz Lazic on Unsplash 

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