Can You Tell a Story in Six Words?

A story does what facts and statistics never can: it inspires and it motivates.

An American master in the art of storytelling was Ernest Hemingway. His best work, as he once said, was a story he wrote in just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

You don’t have to be a literary master but you must be able to pack a meaningful punch with your profile statement on your resume. When the average hiring manager reads resumes from a candidate database, which contains hundreds of resumes for each posted position, you must instantly stand out. No one reads long paragraphs outlining your career objectives and the type of company you want to work for. Hiring managers don’t care about what you want, they want to know who you are and how you can help them solve a problem they have.

Period.

So read your current resume. Do you have a crisp Profile Statement that grabs someone’s attention?

If not, start immediately to develop one.

Save precious real estate on your resume and remove lengthy objective statements and lists of skills.

Circulate your resume to friends and network contacts and ask them to scan your resume for 30 seconds…then ask them what they recall from their scan. This simple test will give you an idea of just about what the average hiring manager will also recall. If it’s not what you want them to remember about you, then work to tell your story through your resume. It’s worth all the effort in the long run when you get a screening call for an interview!