Article 2: Using storytelling to land your dream job

In my last LinkedIn article, Landing your dream job with my secret ingredient, I intentionally spilled the beans with my secret ingredient to your next great job: Stories.   

Now “stories” may sound kind of benign and not a legitimate secret ingredient, but there is nothing benign about crafting and sharing stories about yourself that will make you stand out from the crowd. 

The tricky part is pulling out the right stories that recruiters and hiring managers are interested in hearing, and then in presenting your stories in an attractive manner so your value-add leaps off your resume and during interviews.

These fine points become even more relevant when you learn that recruiters spend, on average, six seconds on an individual’s resume. Surprising, isn’t it?

Even TheLadder’s’ researchers who performed the eye-tracking study were surprised by the six-second rule. They found that when resumes were poorly laid out and were too wordy, recruiters’ eyes failed to track that which would allow the applicant stand out – and get the call for an interview.

When recruiters have to struggle to find information, they moved onto the next candidate.  And I really don’t blame them.  They don’t have time to figure out if you are a good candidate to interview by hunting and pecking through your resume.  You are a professional, and professionals are expected to know how to present themselves effectively, written and in-person.

This means that if you hide your stories deep in your resume by using the too-many-words-on-a-page methodology, the recruiter will most likely move onto the next person’s resume, and in under six seconds. 

Recruiters also review online profiles such as LinkedIn. If the layout is too busy, they spend more time on the profile picture than the information on the page. Not exactly where you want their eyes to be during your six seconds!

What this all means is that even if you have the best stories to share, you’ll still need to be careful on how you share them. 

My next article will introduce my methodology on using stories to help you stand out for the amazing person you truly are. From there, we’ll start drilling down into each of the four phases through my weekly blog.