possibility…

In an article in BusinessWeek (February 22, 2005), Liz Ryan said: “We are emerging from a dull age in which the dominant paradigm was that your resume had served its purpose if it listed your jobs and employers in a reasonably accurate fashion. Yuck! There’s no story in that. The fact is, you did what you did at each juncture for a reason, and your resume has to get that across.”

Don’t wait for the inteview to describe your motivation for changing positions. Instead of the typical bland job title and a date, Ryan suggests including an additional bullet point that describes a [positive] reason for leaving jobs you’ve listed. When you list projects or accomplishments, explain why they were important to your employer. Make connections between events and activities in your story to desirable attributes from the potential employer’s perspective. Ryan offers the example of linking your experience of playing semipro ball to cooperation and team experience in the workplace.

“You’ve got to paint a picture by putting a lot of yourself in your resume–not just your degrees and titles…”