Mastering Resume Narrative: Strategies for Compelling Storytelling

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Stand out to a hiring manager by mastering resume narrative with strategies for compelling storytelling in your job application.

A strong resume is more than just a list of your skills and achievements. It’s a story that showcases who you are, what you can do, and why you are the best fit for the job. 

So why write it as a short, sterile, boring set of concise bullet points and tables?

In this post, we’ll explore the concept of resume narrative and how to structure and craft a well-written narrative resume that stands out from the crowd and showcases your relevant skills for the job.

What is a resume narrative?

A resume narrative is a way of writing effective resumes that uses cohesive storytelling techniques in sentence and paragraph format instead of bullet points to describe your work experience, education history, and skills.

It allows you to highlight your accomplishments, challenges, and learnings in a more detailed and engaging way. It also allows you to showcase your personal brand, voice, and style, which can help you connect with the recruiter and make a lasting impression.

Narrative vs. bullet points – why use narrative in your resume?

The average resume is 438 words long and uses a two-column format with bullet points to maximize the use of space. However, being the most common format doesn’t make bullet points the best way to write and format a resume.

They can be boring, generic, and impersonal and will hardly stand out among hundreds of similarly formatted CVs.

The alternative is to write a narrative resume, as they:

• Allow you to tell a story that showcases your career journey, achievements, and goals.
• Help you highlight your experience, unique skills, strengths, and personality traits that make you a good fit for the role and the company.
• Enable you to use relevant keywords throughout your resume that’ll be picked up by recruiters’ HRIS software, ensuring your job application reaches human eyes.
• Make your resume more memorable and interesting to read, increasing your chances of getting an interview.

Structure of a narrative resume: applying the storytelling elements to your CV

A narrative resume has a similar structure to a traditional resume, but with some differences. The main sections of a narrative resume are:

• Headline and header summary
• Professional summary
• Skills and education
• Work experience

Resume headline and header summary

The resume headline and header in a narrative CV are the same as in a standard resume. The headline is a short yet impactful phrase that captures your professional identity and goals, such as:

“Creative Marketing Manager with 5+ Years of Experience in Digital Campaigns.”

The header summary is a brief introduction that expands on your headline and highlights your essential skills and achievements, such as:

“I help businesses design and execute successful digital campaigns that increase brand awareness, engagement, and revenue. Skilled in SEO, SEM, social media, email marketing, and analytics.”

The narrative professional summary

The professional summary is a short paragraph that summarizes your career history, skills, and objectives. When crafting your summary, you should write in a style that showcases your personality and voice and tells a compelling story that connects your past, present, and future.

It doesn’t have to be a Hollywood-worthy script — it’s all about finding an interesting way to tell your story.

For example, you can focus on the important decisions that, in retrospect, were the most impactful on your career path. This is relatable and catches others’ attention and reveals much about your decision-making process.

The skills and education section

The skills and education section is where you list the broad range of skills and qualifications that align with the job description. The narrative should demonstrate your proficiency and experience in using those skills and how they relate to the role and the company.

Part of mastering resume narrative is using it to highlight your skills and software proficiency in your resume. For example, suppose you’re a hotel manager applying for a job on an online hotel management website.

Besides customer service skills, patience, and flexibility, you should also list your proficiency in tools like hotel administration software, channel managers, and booking engines.

Using storytelling to describe your professional experience

The work experience section is the most crucial part of your resume, as it showcases your accomplishments and impact in your previous roles and relevant experience. It’s also another excellent opportunity to let your storytelling shine.

One way to write this section is to craft a story arc that follows the three stages of the classic hero’s journey: the departure, the initiation, and the return.

• The Departure is where you introduce yourself and how you started on the path to your current career. For example, you can describe the challenges and opportunities that motivated you to pursue a new role or career.
• The Initiation is where you describe your work experience and achievements in your previous relevant positions. You can tell stories showing how you faced and overcame various obstacles and difficulties and how you learned and improved your hard and soft skills along the way.

You should also highlight the results and outcomes of your actions and the value and impact you create for your employers when assuming positions of responsibility.

• In The Return, you summarize your career journey and how it’s prepared you for the new role you’re applying for. You restate your value proposition and relevance to the job and express your enthusiasm and interest in joining the employer’s team.

The art of compelling storytelling in your job application

Here are some tips for mastering resume narrative using the art of storytelling in your job application:

Tip #1 Start with a strong attention grabber.

The recruiter will spend only a few seconds scanning your resume to decide whether they should read it, so you must catch their attention and interest from the start. 

The key is writing a strong attention grabber, such as a catchy headline, a powerful statistic, a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or a compelling question.

Tip #2 Write for your audience.

One fundamental storytelling principle is knowing your audience and tailoring your story to their needs, interests, and expectations. 

You should research the company and the role you’re applying for and use that information to craft a resume that speaks to their pain points, business goals, and values.

Tip #3 Show with evidence, don’t just tell.

One of job seekers’ most common mistakes is telling the recruiter what they can do but not showing them how they have done it. This makes their resume vague and unconvincing and doesn’t demonstrate their value and impact.

Tip #4 “Fake it until you make it” can backfire.

While storytelling can help you showcase and highlight your potential, you shouldn’t use it to exaggerate or lie about your qualifications and experience. Faking it until you make it work in some situations, but not for faking hard skills. Doing so can damage your reputation and credibility and ruin your chances of getting the job.

Tip #5 Expand your personal story in a blog

Even narrative resumes need to be concise, sometimes forcing you to leave some things out. If that’s the case, you can include a link to your blog in your job application to expand your personal story. 

If you don’t have a blog, there are various free blog sites where you can start one.

Every story can be interesting if you tell it right

A resume narrative is a powerful way to showcase your skills, achievements, and personality in a story-like format that captures the attention and interest of the recruiter.

By following storytelling best practices, such as starting with a strong attention grabber, defining your narrative arc, writing for your audience, and being honest and authentic, you can rest assured knowing that you are mastering resume narrative and creating a compelling job application that stands out from the crowd.