If does not matter if you are applying to an entry level position with nothing more than summer work experience, or if you want to grow up from junior to senior, or even if you aspire to be “the big boss” of an organization. Remember that your qualifications will simply serve as the baseline for the position, and most of the applicants will have the same or similar skills as you have. And recruiters usually receive hundreds of cv, so your story have to stand out, not only in design and expertize, but also in the way to tell your story. So let’s treat your resume as “the hero’s journey“.

In narratology, most tales have the same common template: a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.

That is what your resume must show about you. Talk about your past challenges to try to convince your recruiter that you are the hero that they need to accomplish new challenges.

Obviously, you cannot write a novel in your cv, you should keep it as short as possible, but try to follow this scheme when you describe what have you done in the previous jobs, volunteer positions or side projects that can describe what kind of person you are:

  1. Departure: Explain the challenge and why you took it.
  2. Initiation: Which difficulties you found in your way and how you solved them.
  3. Return: What you got and what skills you developed.

We all love stories, but be careful when it comes to make them more spectacular. It is important to highlight your accomplishments, but nobody likes braggarts, liars or deceivers. Be honest when you failed (we all fail eventually), recruiters appreciates people who is able to learn from their mistakes. Heroes also fail in the middle of their stories, but finally they recover from their bounds and achieve the best results. That’s what your resume should tell about you.

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