The Psychology of Resume Writing - 4 Strategies to Craft a Powerful Story

Saying that there is an abundance of resume writing tips out there would be an understatement. Just search ‘writing a resume’ on Google and a barrage of options will appear, providing you with readymade templates, coaches-for-hire and more. We now have Chat GPT and various vertical AI tools such as Rezi and Kickresume that can help structure your resume any way you wish. You spend 10 minutes browsing through all these and you end up with the feeling that the whole damn job can be outsourced. Cruise control. What fun!

But hold on. Did you get a memo saying that they have now started giving free lunches in this world? No, right? Then believe me when I say this — the internet cannot write your resume for you.

The right tips, coaches and tools can in fact be very helpful in giving your resume the fine polish. But they are good as long as they are used as enablers. If you view them as substitutes for the hard work that goes into laying down the foundation and giving that personal touch, you will almost always end up with a ‘me too’ resume that struggles to differentiate itself in the eyes of the recruiter.

I’ve evaluated around 500 resumes in my career. Perhaps more. And one thing I’ve come to firmly believe is that the most remarkable resumes are the ones that possess a distinct voice and tell a unique story. Hardly a wonder, because when you’re writing a resume, you’re actually telling a very personal story.

Amidst this process of crafting your unique story, you’re likely to encounter several psychological traps. Why? Well, primarily because resume writing might look like a technical exercise on the surface, but it is actually an emotional one. Subjects have been known to lose themselves inside black holes of nostalgia and reminiscence as they recount their past experiences. Others have reported an overwhelming feeling of pride when they press the ‘Save as PDF’ button :)

It is absolutely important that we understand these psychological traps, and use the right strategies to counter them effectively. The job market is more competitive now than it has ever been in the last 10 years. Isn’t it absolutely imperative that you ensure your resume is the best it can be?

In this article, I’ll discuss the most common psychological traps that individuals face when creating their resumes, explore why these traps arise, and provide actionable strategies to overcome them. The end outcome is a set of 4 winning strategies that can help one keep the biases and emotions at bay, and craft the most powerful version of their career story.

Let’s go!

Strategy #1 — Less Is More

While writing a resume, the mind tricks you into believing that if you write more, it will appear like you have accomplished more. There’s also the pain that one feels in ‘deleting’ an accomplishment from the list. It feels like the equivalent of your mother forcing you to throw away one of your medals for the sake of reducing clutter in the house!

But this typically works the other way round. No one likes to read cluttered verbose resumes, especially if they get a lot of inbounds. Also, an overly lengthy resume does not speak well of your ability to summarize. Like a mentor once told me a decade ago — “If you can’t summarize your career story in one page, you’re doing it wrong”.

Here is the best way to tackle this

1. List down all your accomplishments till date in the descending order of importance
2. Ensure each bullet point is as ‘tight’ as possible. Feel free to use AI tools for this as long as the essence of the content comes from you. Iterate a few times until you hit the right spot.
3. Draw a cut-off line at a reasonable length, preferably the one page mark

Remember, brevity is the hallmark of powerful resumes.

Strategy #2— Focus on The Evaluator. Forget The Self

It’s easy to lose sight of the recruiter’s perspective while writing a resume. It is an emotional and egoistic endeavor in which we often tend to get carried away. The most common manifestation of this happens in the way we give a higher weightage to achievements that mean more to us, rather than those that the evaluator might like more. I know you are really proud of your contributions as the Events Head of your college festival, but ask yourself if it really matters today, and for this role. If not, then it has to go, irrespective of how many all-nighters you pulled back in the day!

The other manifestation of this happens in the way we tend to showcase excessive effort or personal attachment to projects. Emotional sounding resumes are a turn off. It just does not matter how many pitches you had to make before you were able to secure the funding. What matters more is whether you were able to secure funding, and how much.

The way to tackle this is to do what consumer companies do when they launch new services — Think User Backwards. Place yourself in the shoes of the evaluator and don’t lose sight of the role at hand. Focus on objectively describing your accomplishments and the value you delivered.

Another acid test I often use is to ask my coachees to imagine themselves in a boardroom, reading their resume out loud. It is one of the easiest ways of filtering out the ‘cringe’

Strategy #3 — Praise Yourself Without Praising Yourself

While a resume is a self promotional document by design, it is crucial to strike the right balance. We often tend to get carried away while trying to highlight our achievements. Overuse of words like ‘single-handedly’ to aggrandize your role does nothing but make you sound desperate. Adding a separate section called ‘Skills’ that lists all your skills will do nothing to boost your perception. When was the last time you were really impressed by a person who said “Hey! You know what? I am really skilled at A, B and C”

The trick is to present your accomplishments and abilities objectively while allowing the evaluator to draw their own positive conclusions about your suitability for the role. Here are a few approaches that can help:

1. Speak through real life examples. For instance, rather than simply stating, “Skilled in project management,” you can highlight a specific project you successfully managed, mentioning the scope, challenges, and outcomes achieved
2. Instead of merely describing your responsibilities, focus on the value you added and be as quantitative as possible. Describe how your actions positively impacted overall business objectives and use numbers of percentages.
3. If you have received any accolades, awards, or recognition for your work, mention them in a modest and factual manner

This is a subtle art and only comes with practice. Junior professionals might get a pass on this one, but it is an absolute must for senior professionalṣ

Strategy #4 — Act Your Age

Suppose you have decided to leave your company after a 6 year stint. It is now time to make a resume. You feel rusty. The last time you made a resume was when you applied to your current company, and you were only 4 years into your career at that point. The easiest starting point seems to be the folder that contains that resume. You open up the file wondering what yo might find, but it actually looks fairly neat and clean. You heave a sigh of relief. You update the old points with new ones, add a couple of new sections, and voila!, you now have a brand new resume and it’s good to go.

Except that you don’t. Why? Because you just dressed a 10 year old kid in the clothes of a 4 year old. And it is super awkward.

Just like it is important for us to act our age, it is also important for our resume format to be commensurate with our career stage. The most common violation of this that I have seen is individuals continuing to use their B school templates even when they have grown way more senior.

The best way to tackle this is to make sure that you refer to role appropriate formats on resume platforms such as Hloom, Zety and Novoresume . If you like a template that’s for sale, just buy it. Another important thumb rule to remember — the more senior you grow, the higher your emphasis should be on conveying a coherent story that flows smoothly, rather than aggregating facts and figures.

In conclusion...

Crafting a compelling resume is an art that requires understanding the psychology behind effective communication. By embracing brevity, evaluator-centric thinking, humility, and adaptability to your career stage, you can elevate your resume to be its best version, and give yourself the best chance to stand out among the competition. Remember, your resume is a powerful tool that tells your career story, so make it count.