Humanize Your Resume

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Humanize Your Resume

A Four-Week Virtual Course
From Human Workplace
Week One: What is a Human-Voiced Resume?

www.humanworkplace.com
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
Humanize Your Resume

Week One
This is Lesson One in Humanize Your Resume!
Welcome to the four-week virtual course Humanize Your
Resume! This course is designed for people who want to
get rid of the traditional, boring corporate or
institutional language in their resume and add a human
voice to bring more personality across to the reader.
Were glad you joined us!
Our CEO, Liz Ryan, was a Fortune 500 corporate Human
Resources executive. Liz was SVP of HR for a technology company called U.S. Robotics. Liz head
thousands of resumes.
Why do all the resumes sound alike? she wondered. We cant tell one-job-seeker from
another with this awful resume style. Everyone sounds like a zombie or a robot.
Liz invented the Human-Voiced Resume to give job-seekers a new way to write a resume. A
Human-Voiced Resume looks like a resume one or two pages of blue or black ink on white
paper, a job-seekers name at the top, contact information after that, a Summary and then a
description of the job-seekers career history and education.
Yet a Human-Voiced Resume is very different from a traditional resume. On the next page is a
table that illustrates the principal similarities and differences between a traditional resume and
a Human-Voiced Resume.
Comparison: Traditional Resume and Human-Voiced Resume

Resume Element
Traditional
Resume
Human-Voiced Resume
Length
Tone
One or two pages

Formal
and
professional
Mostly
sentence
fragments
One or two pages

Friendly and conversational
Grammar
Target audience
Storytelling
Individuality
Jargon
Mix of sentence fragments (in your bulleted

Dragon-Slaying Stories, only) and complete
sentences.
Lots of people no Customized for each recipient your hiring
particular reader in manager in each job opportunity you go after
mind
None
A Human-Voiced Resume is a storytelling
document. The most important story is the big
one your career story. Your HVR also tells
short Dragon-Slaying Stories about times
when you saved the day at work
Little or none
Your HVR showcases whats different about
you!
A traditional resume A Human-Voiced Resume doesnt use any
uses business jargon business jargon. Its written the same way you
like Resultswould talk to a friend if you and s/he were
Oriented
speaking together.
Professional and
Motivated SelfStarter
What are your thoughts and ideas writing your own Human-Voiced Resume? Write them
here:
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How will you convert your traditional resume into a friendly, high-mojo Human-Voiced
Resume? Thats what we will talk about today, and that is the process you will follow in this
four-week virtual course!
Humanize Your Resume Roadmap

How will you move forward to Humanize Your Resume during this four-week program? Here
are the topics we will cover in each of our four lessons:
Lesson One: Your Resume Summary

Lesson Two: Your Dragon-Slaying Stories
Lesson Three: Your Career Story and Corners
Lesson Four: Putting Your HVR Together
Your HVR Summary

We will begin this program by talking about your Human-Voiced Resume Summary, because
your Summary is a very important part of your Human-Voiced Resume. Your Summary makes
it clear to your hiring manager, or anyone reading your HVR, exactly what youre looking to do
next in your career path.
Your Summary brands you as a person who knows where s/he is and where s/hes going. Your
human voice will come across strongly in your Human-Voiced Resume Summary. In order to
write a strong and powerful HVR Summary, you must know what career direction you want to
follow.
Not sure about your career direction? Thats okay! You can write as
many versions of your Human-Voiced Resume as you want.
If you arent sure whether you want to go into Marketing
Communications, Public Relations or Not-for-Profit Fundraising, for
instance, you can write a separate Human-Voiced Resume for each
sub-direction in your job search. We call these sub-directions prongs.
The biggest difference between each of the three versions of your Human-Voiced Resume in
the example we just shared will be the Summary at the top of each version of your HVR!
In one version, youll brand yourself a Marketing Communications person. In the second version
of your HVR, youll call yourself a Public Relations person. In the third version, youll label
yourself a Not-for-profit Fundraising person.
You are one person, but theres more than one side to you! Each of your Human-Voiced
Resumes will emphasize a different side or facet of your talents.
What are your ideas about your career direction and possible sub-directions or prongs for
your job search? Write them here.
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What goes into my Resume Summary?
The Summary in your Human-Voiced Resume is the first thing most readers will focus on. It
will be two to four sentences long, and it will use complete sentences rather than sentence
fragments like Multi-skilled Business Professional with excellent teamwork skills. That is
boilerplate resume language.
No one knows what it means exactly, and there is no human warmth or spark coming through
that terse language. You will put a human voice in your resume, instead!
On the next page are three examples of Human-Voiced Resume Summaries. Do these sample
Summaries give you any ideas for your own Human-Voiced Resume Summary?
Human-Voiced Resume Summary Examples

Entrepreneurial Human Resources Manager
I was an Office Manager who gradually morphed into an HR person in my last job. I love
recruiting, training and communicating with employees about pay, benefits and anything else
thats on their minds. My passion is working among smart people toward an exciting goal,
keeping my employer in compliance with HR regulations and making sure everyone is having
fun!
Customer Service Problem-Solver

I am a Customer Service agent with experience solving tricky client problems for individual and
business accounts. Im ready to move on from my telephone company position and help a
consumer products firm set up and grow its Customer Service operation and keep its customers
happy.
Technical Product Manager

I started my career as a Design Engineer and have been managing successful product launches
since 2006. Of my 26 new-product launches, all have been released on time and under budget.
My six new products launched in 2014 generated over $14 million in revenues. Im looking for a
great opportunity with a technology firm whose ability to launch products successfully is a key
to its success.
What are your thoughts about these three Human-Voiced Resume Summaries? What ideas
can these three Summaries give you? Write them here.
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How to compose your own Human-Voiced Resume Summary

How will you compose your own Human-Voiced Resume Summary?
You will begin by creating a brand that will begin your Human-Voiced Resume Summary. Your
brand can be the title of the job youre pursuing. If you have already seen a job ad for the job
youre going after, you can use that title at the top of your Human-Voiced Resume Summary.
What if I havent held that exact job title before? Can I still brand myself that way on my
Human-Voiced Resume Summary?
Yes! You can brand yourself using a job title you havent held in a past job before, as long as you
are qualified for the job.
What title(s) will you choose for your Human-Voiced Resume Summary branding? Write your
ideas here.
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In our examples on Page Six, our three job-seekers chose the brands Entrepreneurial Human
Resources Manager, Customer Service Problem-Solver and Technical Product Manager. You will
choose the branding you like best for your own Human-Voiced Resume Summary.
Of course, you can have many versions of your Human-Voiced Resume, and you can choose a
different brand for each version!
After youve chosen the branding for your HVR, you will write the first sentence of your
Summary. You can begin that sentence with the word I if you like, as all three of our jobseekers have done in our Page Six HVR Summary examples. You dont have to start your
Summary with the word I, but you can if you want to!
Your first sentence will explain what you do for a living. Thats very important. Hiring managers
and other readers of your Human-Voiced Resume must be able to figure out in a few seconds
what you intend to do, functionally, in your next job. It could be Mechanical Engineering. It
could be Housekeeping. Whatever you intend to do must be crystal clear in your first sentence!
You can use the first sentence of your Human-Voiced Resume Summary to explain what you
do and HOW you do it, or what you do for a living and WHY you do it. Here is one HOW
example and one WHY example:
HOW example of a Human-Voiced Resume initial sentence:
Im a Graphic Designer who combines illustration and digital effects to create powerful images
for print, web and mobile applications.
This sentence begins the HVR Summary for a graphic designer. This graphic designer doesnt tell
us why s/he does what s/he does, and thats fine. He or she tells us how s/he works, instead.
This graphic designer doesnt sound exactly like every graphic designer in the world. He or she
is a unique person, just as you are!
WHY example of a Human-Voiced Resume initial sentence:
I was in Accounting for four years before I fell in love with Sales and became a Regional Account
Manager for a national tax and audit firm.
Now we know WHY this Regional Account Manager does what s/he does. He or she fell into
Sales and loves it. What a compelling story!
In our three HVR Summary examples on Page Six, have our three job-seekers chosen a HOW
sentence for their HVR Summary opening sentence, a WHY example, or a combination of HOW
and WHY? What do you think? Write your ideas in the table below.
HVR Summary Example
HOW or WHY opening

sentence?
Your thoughts
Example One: Entrepreneurial

HR Manager
Example Two: Customer
Service Problem-Solver
Example Three: Technical
Product Manager
GREAT JOB!
Write your own opening sentence for your Human-Voiced Resume Summary below. Dont
censor yourself! You can always revise your opening sentence later. Tell us WHAT you intend to
do in your next job and either HOW you do it, WHY you do it or a combination of HOW and
WHY:
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Hurrah!
Now you have the first sentence of your HVR Summary on paper, and a brand (like Technical
Product Manager or Entrepreneurial HR Manager) at the top of your Summary. This is great
progress! Next you will complete your HVR Summary by writing one, two or three more
complete sentences about the work you do.
We want to know whats different about you,
compared to everyone else who might be
interested in the same job opportunities you are
interested in.
You can tell us about recent jobs youve held
and why you liked them and thrived in them.
You can tell us what youre looking for in your
next job.
If you arent sure how to continue writing your
HVR Summary, sit down with a friend and ask
him or her what he or she thinks about you as a
working person. Our friends often know us
better than we know ourselves!
Review the three HVR Summary examples on Page Six. Each of these three job-seekers has
chosen a slightly different way to brand him- or herself in his or her HVR Summary. You will
choose the way that works best for you. The key is to start putting words on paper. You can
always revise your HVR Summary later and undoubtedly, you will!
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I need ideas for my HVR Summary!

You may have noticed that writing your HVR Summary is a creative writing exercise. It isnt like
traditional, formal business writing. Thats okay! You are an awesome writer. You only need to
get out of the box called standard business writing.
Here are some ideas for ways to complete your HVR Summary. Of course, you wont use all
these ideas. Your Summary will be two to four sentences long. This is a menu of items to
choose in writing your HVR Summary!
Write a sentence about why you love your career path.

Write a sentence about the coolest project youve ever worked on or your proudest
accomplishment on your current or most recent job.
Write about why you chose the field you chose.
Write about what you most love to do in your job.
Write about the kind of job youre looking for.
Write about what youre passionate about at work.
Use the lines below to write freely about these ideas. You dont have to use everything you
write (or anything you write, for that matter) in your final HVR Summary, but when you write
about yourself on the lines below youll start to get your ideas flowing. Thats important!
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Great job! To wrap up Lesson One, on the next two pages you will find Melissas Human-Voiced
Resume. Can you use Melissas resume as a model to get you thinking about your own
Human-Voiced Resume?
Melissas Human-Voiced Resume is on the next two pages!
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Melissa James
Brighton, Colorado (303) 867-5309 melissa.jillian.james@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajillianjames
Public Relations Manager
Since I started covering business stories for my campus newspaper, Ive been a zealot for
business storytelling and its power in shaping audience behavior. As a PR Manager Ive gotten
my employers covered by CNN, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune. Im in search of my next
Public Relations challenge with a consumer products firm looking to grow.
Career History
Angry Chocolates, Elmhurst, Illinois
2009 2013
Public Relations Manager
I was recruited to Angry from Jujube, the PR agency where Id been their account executive for
four years. I got Angry its first national press and an interview on the NPR radio show Fresh
Air, and created Angrys first PR strategy and media outreach campaign. Now that Angry has
become a division of Mighty Big Chocolate Im on to my next adventure.
Jujube Public Relations, Chicago, Illinois

Account Executive
2005 2009
Jujube was formed when Goliath Pizza spun off its in-house PR and marketing group. From 2005
when I joined Jujube to 2009 when I left, we grew from $1.8M in annual billings to $25M and
became one of Chicagos most well-known firms. I left to join my favorite clients team at Angry
Chocolates.
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Page Two
Massive Uncreative Industries, Chicago, Illinois
Marketing Coordinator, 2006 2009
I joined Massive straight from college and got a tremendous education in marketing there. I put
together the Massive trade show program, worked on fifty different promotion campaigns and
built our first email newsletter database and calendar.
My proudest accomplishment at Massive was a collaboration with Human Resources to develop
a grass-roots employee and customer referral program that brought us 47 new employees in
one year. We cut our divisions $1M recruiting budget in half and got the highest newemployee-satisfaction ratings in the companys history.
Education
Northeast-western Illinois University
B.A. Communications, 2006
I was the Business Reporter for the Northeast-western weekly newspaper, The Scourge. I won
a journalism award in my junior year and was a Resident Advisor to freshmen in my senior year.
Interests
Im an amateur jazz pianist. I play with a combo at the Limerick Tavern on Friday nights. I enjoy
playing Frisbee Golf and doing agility trials with my spaniel, Igor.
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What are your thoughts and ideas about Melissas Human-Voiced Resume?
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Brilliant! You have completed Lesson One!
At Human Workplace
we are reinventing
work for people.
Thank you for being part of
the movement!
www.humanworkplace.com

Humanize Your Resume

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Humanize Your Resume

Week One: What is a Human-Voiced Resume?

Humanize Your Resume

Comparison: Traditional Resume and Human-Voiced Resume

One or two pages

One or two pages

Mix of sentence fragments (in your bulleted

Humanize Your Resume Roadmap

Lesson One: Your Resume Summary

Your HVR Summary

Human-Voiced Resume Summary Examples

Customer Service Problem-Solver

Technical Product Manager

How to compose your own Human-Voiced Resume Summary

HOW or WHY opening

Example One: Entrepreneurial

I need ideas for my HVR Summary!

Write a sentence about why you love your career path.

Melissas Human-Voiced Resume is on the next two pages!

Jujube Public Relations, Chicago, Illinois

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