Overheard a manager say 'your resume is just a ticket to the interview'

I was getting coffee at a networking event in Columbus last week. Two hiring managers were talking nearby. One said your resume just gets you in the room, but your story gets you the job. Hit me hard. I spent hours tweaking bullet points on my resume. But I never practiced telling my work history as a simple story. So I started recording myself talking about my last job for 2 minutes. Cut out all the jargon. Just what I did, why it mattered, and what I learned. Made a huge difference in my next interview. Has anyone else tried switching from resume prep to story prep for interviews?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason49912d ago

Hard to believe a 2 minute recording changes everything but ok.

miles79813d ago

Did you actually get more callbacks after switching to story prep? I want to try this but I'm worried about rambling or leaving important stuff out. My resume already feels like a boring list of duties and I think my interviews suffer from the same problem.

robinson.paul13d ago

Heard this exact worry from my buddy Dave last year. He'd walk out of interviews feeling like he just recited his resume out loud. Boring as hell. So he tried the story prep thing, picked three specific projects where he solved a real problem, not just listed tasks. One was about cutting shipping delays by reworking their warehouse layout. He'd practice telling it like a quick two minute story, setup, conflict, result. First interview after that he got an offer. Said the hiring manager literally told him "finally someone who can explain what they actually did.