Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Humanize Your Resume Lesson One PDF
Humanize Your Resume Lesson One PDF
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, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
Traditional
Resume
Human-Voiced Resume
Length
Tone
Grammar
Target audience
Storytelling
Individuality
Jargon
What are your thoughts and ideas writing your own Human-Voiced Resume? Write them
here:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
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!
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.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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?
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
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!
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
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
Your thoughts
GREAT JOB!
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
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:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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!
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
10
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!
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
11
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?
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
12
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.
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
13
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.
Humanize Your Resume, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014
14
What are your thoughts and ideas about Melissas Human-Voiced Resume?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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, A 4-week virtual course from Human Workplace www.humanworkplace.com
Not for transmission or duplication Copyright Human Workplace 2014