In 2024, recruiters are being flooded with resumes from people with ample degrees, skills, and qualifications. Given the rise of bootcamps (the count of bootcamp alumni grew by 65.9% from 2020 to 2022), and a plethora of free or very inexpensive online training platforms (e.g. Lynda, Coursera, etc.), gaining qualifications is not the differentiator that it was in the early 2000s. Additionally, cheap (and easy to get) educational loans made it easy for almost anyone to get a degree. 

Thus, recruiters are being flooded with resumes from people with ample degrees, skills, and qualifications. Now, the best way to differentiate yourself is to tell a compelling story that paints a vivid picture in the screener’s mind about who you are – and how you can help their organization. This emphasizes your skills, and humanizes you – which helps the screener envision how you might fit into the company. 

Effective storytelling conveys your narrative and professional journey – while keeping your resume succinct and engaging. It’s not about the skills you have, but how the skills tie in to the person that you are. Think about dating – you might describe someone’s personality as “cheery” or “mysterious”; and list out someone’s physical attributes such as “thin” or “athletic”; but when dating you are looking for something that combines everything into a profile that you enjoy being around. Interviewing is “professional dating” – and the recruiter is looking at all your attributes to see if you are the type of person that would fit in the organization. 

Looking for ways to find a new job? See our post How to Prospect for a Job

Build your Narrative

Spend time planning out the narrative you want to tell about yourself, in interviews. Forget about your credentials, and the technologies you know. What can you say about yourself (professionally) that is unique, and of value to an employer? In marketing terms, an “Unique Value Proposition” is a statement that explains how a product is different from its competitors, and benefits customers. What is your unique value to your customer (the employer)? 

If you are having trouble defining this, start with self-reflection. Think about the jobs, projects, or environments that made you successful in the past. What is the common theme? 

For example: 

• Think about the roles you’ve held – not your title, but the actual role. For example, if you were a Product Manager (in IT), and then a technical manager, you could paint yourself as someone that understands how to interface between different technical and non-technical groups. Or if you were working in banking, and then switched to FP&A, your narrative would entail how you use numbers to help find business trends. 
• Is there a common industry? For example, if you worked in a hospital environment, and then worked in biotech, you would claim to be established in the healthcare industry. Or if you were in the military, and then worked in a law enforcement capacity, you could weave a story about your experience ensuring security and order.
• Think about the knowledge you have, not the skills you’re listing. Instead of talking about your knowledge of PHP and Java, talk about why that is important – what types of programming problems did you solve? If you were employed in finance, and worked on equity valuation – how did you incorporate industry and market conditions in order to complete valuation? You have to transition from the skill / technique, to what it actually accomplishes for the employer. 

Recommended Read: Stop Being Nervous

Weave your Story into the Resume

Uniqueness and Specificity: You must avoid the temptation to make your resume appeal to everyone! Generic resumes that apply to all simply don’t stand out, and end up being lost in the pile. This is why people shy away from telling a strong story, because you are going to have to disqualify yourself from some jobs and situations. But at the same time, you are strongly qualifying for the right job. You don’t need to be liked by all jobs, you just need to be hired for the right one. 

Context and Scope: Explain your skills, experience, and accomplishments with context about how it solved a problem, and what results that solution provided. Explaining your skills in the business environment helps a resume screener perceive how you might help their organization. 

Role and Responsibilities: Don’t just provide a title, explain what you did. Titles mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so simply providing a title could hurt you if the recruiter has a different perception of what you did – simply based on the title. 

Show Chronological Progression:  Showing chronological progression in your resume helps you tell a cohesive, compelling story about your professional growth. It should show increasing responsibilities and development skills over time. You highlight not only what you’ve done, but how you’ve evolved over time; and demonstrate a clear trajectory of responsibility and achievement. In this way, it’s good to downplay your first role, because it helps to show progression to your current role. 

Demonstrate Consistency and Dedication: By showing steady career progression, you demonstrate reliability and dedication. Employers value candidates who have a proven track record of staying focused on their career goals and continually pushing themselves to reach new heights. It reassures employers that you’re committed to your professional growth, and capable of thriving within a team over the long term.

Example Narratives

Here are a few examples of how storytelling can improve a resume by turning bullet points into engaging narratives, which highlight your unique value proposition.

Example 1: From Basic Task to Problem-Solving Achievement

Traditional Resume:
– Managed social media accounts – including content, trend analysis, and audience measurement
– Increased engagement by 20%.
With Storytelling:
– Faced with declining engagement on our social media platforms, I revamped the content strategy by identifying trends and understanding the audience’s preferences. Within six months, my efforts led to a 20% increase in engagement, driving more meaningful interaction and fostering brand loyalty.

Example 2:  Showcasing Leadership and Adaptability

Traditional Resume:
– Led a team of 10 in project development, in an agile methodology environment
– Delivered project 2 weeks ahead of schedule.
With Storytelling:
– Tasked with leading a team of 10 on a high-stakes project with a tight deadline, I implemented agile methodologies to streamline communication and task delegation. By fostering a collaborative environment and maintaining a clear project roadmap, we not only met our objectives but delivered the project two weeks ahead of schedule.

Example 3: Highlighting Career Growth and Learning

Traditional Resume:
– Handled customer complaints and resolved issues.
– Received “Employee of the Month” award twice.
With Storytelling:
– Starting as a customer service representative, I quickly identified common pain points among clients and developed proactive solutions to address recurring issues. This led to faster resolution times and a 15% reduction in complaints, earning me two “Employee of the Month” awards within my first year.

Example 4: Demonstrating Creativity and Initiative

Traditional Resume:
– Designed a new onboarding system for new-hire onboarding
– Improved new hire retention by 10% (within the first six months)
With Storytelling:
– Observing a high turnover rate among new hires, I designed and implemented a streamlined onboarding process that incorporated mentorship and interactive training sessions. The new system fostered a stronger connection between employees and the company, resulting in a 10% improvement in new hire retention within the first six months.

Example 5: Illustrating Collaboration and Influence

Traditional Resume:
– Collaborated with cross-functional teams to launch a new product.
With Storytelling:
– Collaborating across marketing, engineering, and sales teams, I led efforts to align messaging and product features for our latest launch. Through effective communication and consensus-building, we brought the product to market three weeks early, achieving 15% higher-than-expected sales in the first quarter.

Example 6: Framing a Career Transition

Traditional Resume:
– Transitioned from a sales role to marketing
– Improve lead generation by 25% in the first year
With Storytelling:
– After five successful years in sales, where I consistently exceeded my targets, I noticed a gap in our marketing approach that was limiting lead generation. Driven by a passion for creative problem-solving, I transitioned to the marketing team, where I applied my deep understanding of customer needs to develop campaigns that boosted qualified leads by 25% in my first year.

Storytelling in a resume helps you go beyond listing responsibilities and achievements. It lets you communicate the *how* and *why* behind your work, making your experience more engaging and relatable to the hiring manager. Through storytelling, you can emphasize key soft skills, such as problem-solving, leadership, adaptability, and initiative… that would otherwise be lost (or subject to the recruiter’s interpretation) in a traditional bulleted format.

But most importantly, you make yourself memorable, and differentiate yourself from every other resume in the stack.