Does your Resume Spark Joy?

When was the last time you dug into your career closet to find and dust off your resume? Perhaps it went something like this: you hear about an exciting new job opportunity and decide to apply, excitement turns to dread realizing you haven’t touched your resume since crocs were stylish (if you are still wearing crocs, you are in denial), and you frantically add your job titles and key achievements from the last five years, cramming to fit within two pages. Off you send it. Regardless of whether you got a callback, I bet the process did not leave you feeling joyful about your resume.

I commonly see leaders who have traveled along their career journey from individual contributor to direct manager to a leadership role, amassing all kinds of skills and experiences, piling more and more onto their resume. This method often leaves you feeling overwhelmed and with a resume that is more of a laundry list rather than a well-curated story about the amazing things you can do.

Committing yourself to cleaning up your resume thoughtfully is an investment that will pay back exponentially. Let’s borrow from a popular cleaning approach to get in the right mindset.

The KonMari Method™ was designed by Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, and centers on tidying by category rather than a room-by-room or little by little approach. She is famous for inspiring people to toss out items that no longer spark joy.

“People around the world have been drawn to this philosophy not only due to its effectiveness but also because it places great importance on being mindful, introspective, and forward-looking,” her website states.

You can apply this same philosophy to your resume. Don’t keep adding job titles and key bullets with each new position. That’s a quick fix, room-by-room approach. Be mindful, introspective, and forward-looking. Invest the time to step back, zoom out to see your entire career, and unpack each new capability and suite of experiences. Be intentional about keeping what will serve you in the future, discarding old narratives, and crafting an impactful career story.

Here are five strategies to help you create a resume that will spark joy

1.     Focus on the job you want

A common mistake I see leaders make is having a resume for the job they have now, not the one they want. What is your ideal future? Once you know your destination, your entire resume should be focused on that goal. Up level to define and show applicable leadership, organizational, and domain area capabilities that will make you successful once you arrive. When you imagine your ideal future, you can clarify what you want and envision your best career.  The resume clean-up process represents a turning point – so seriously consider the goal you aspire to.

Look for common themes, emerging capabilities, and leadership growth. For example, if you are a servant leader who creates strong, high-performing teams, highlight your achievements and progressive growth through each experience and expanded scope. Start with the capabilities most in demand for your desired role.

For a resume to have impact, you also need to market yourself. Every aspect of what you put on your resume should support your value proposition. Take your experiences, skills, and capabilities, and position them in a manner to sell, reframing them to show how you can succeed in your next role.

2.     Discard items that no longer serve you

The first thing to toss is responsibility statements. They read like a job description, not a value proposition. Instead, focus on knowledge, skills, capabilities, and the results you can achieve.

Second, get rid of the unnecessary and no longer helpful baggage: personal photos, hobbies, address, reference to your Ph.D. thesis, internship accomplishments, and lengthy early career achievements.  

Follow the advice from Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately.” If you have resume items as old as this song, it’s time to scrub them off. Prioritize the last 5-10 years and things most relevant to your ideal future. Express gratitude for where you’ve been and what you’ve learned, and then let them go, turning your total energy and attention to creating your future.

3.     Define your unique branding

You need to differentiate yourself from every other XYZ leader. What makes you special? What do you bring that others may not? I encourage you to get specific.

I’ll give you an example. Are you that wonderful leader who loves making people feel special, always remembering birthdays, recognizing anniversaries and promotions, and throwing the baby or wedding shower? Does everyone look to you for planning a retirement celebration or team-building event? Just because you love doing it does not make it less valuable. This is a leadership skill that makes you stand out from other leaders. Here’s how you can articulate it: One of the ways I demonstrate inclusive leadership is by celebrating moments that matter. By making team members feel valued, I create a sense of belonging that fosters higher engagement, retention, and performance. Even better if you can add quantifiable data like the decline in turnover YoY or 20% increase in employee satisfaction survey results.

Try these ten reflection questions and activities to help you identify your unique branding.

1.     What are my top values, and how do they show up at work?

2.     How do I define my leadership style? What expectations do I have for my team members? What commitments do I make to my team?

3.     As a leader, what do I want to be known for? What do I not want to be known for?

4.     What strengths are consistently called out in my performance discussions and other feedback?

5.     What do others seek me out for specifically? What skills do I have that set me apart?

6.     What do others thank me for? How do I provide value to others?

7.     Ask at least three different people that know me well to list three words to describe me.

8.     What approach, strategies, and tactics do I employ that enable great results?

9.     How does my perspective differ from that of others? What approach do I bring to solving complex problems?

10.  How do I keep up on technical, industry, or business developments and trends?

Look for themes and emerging capabilities. I had a client who had an ah-ha moment when she realized that assuming ownership was a key strength. It is a core part of her leadership approach, but she had assumed that this was a common trait for every leader. Once she saw it as a core capability, she was able to align several key achievements that demonstrated how she assumes ownership and the business impact it created.

4.     Tell your career story.

You want to ensure the reader can quickly see how you got to where you are today and where you are headed. You want them to see your progression and your desired role as the logical next step.

Use one or more of these tips to help communicate your career story:

·       Combine similar positions at the same company.

·       Summarize early career roles that are relevant but not recent.

·       Show increasing scope in terms of size of direct team and organization, budget, and global/enterprise scale.

·       Connect the dots between job transitions.

Here is my own example of summarizing my early career spanning twelve years and three job roles.

Initially hired as Supply Chain Manager, responsible for site operational performance of Oregon Distribution Center and management of direct staff of 4 front line managers, 1 administrative assistant, and total operation of ~75 employees across 2 shifts and 4 facilities. Oversaw annual operating budget of ~$5M. Promoted to IT Operations Manager role to drive business operations, strategic planning, organizational development, and facilitate leadership team for organization of ~600 global employees. Within 4 years, selected to manage CIO-level initiatives for strategic workforce programs and annual leadership summit consisting of ~6500 global employees.

5.      Design a complementary LinkedIn profile

If you are an active job seeker or looking for a new role internally in your current company, you will need a great resume. If you are a passive candidate (not actively looking but open to opportunities), LinkedIn is how you will get discovered by recruiters. It’s critical to have both a resume and a LinkedIn profile. They should be consistent, meaning it sounds like the same person but not copied exactly. LinkedIn is more informal with the opportunity to expand on your authentic brand, capabilities, and passions.

For networking and establishing an industry presence, LinkedIn is a gold mine. LinkedIn boasts that they are “the world's largest professional network with more than 830 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.” That’s a whole lot of new connections!

As your career grows, so does your resume. Make sure it fully represents the value and impact you create. As you go through assessing and upleveling your resume, you are gaining clarity of what you want, what you value, and what others value in you. This is empowering. When you see your career story coming to light, what you’ve achieved, and your future potential - you are building confidence. Confidence that will carry you through an interview and fuel your career growth.