How to be creative when writing a resume

Are you stumbling when you are writing a resume? You want to be creative when writing a resume but you are clueless as to what you should do to improve your resume much less be creative.

Let me show you how to be more creative when writing a resume. You might think that the word creative doesn’t belong in your field. You are not a creative graphic designer or artist. You are an engineer, sales professional, or Chief Operating Officer. You don’t think of what you do as being creative so you find it hard to think about being creative with your resume.

How should you be creative when writing a resume?

When I define the process of writing a resume as creative, I am referring to the discovery process as well as the formatting of the resume. A creative resume to me means that you have injected some personality in writing your resume stories. What is a resume story? As a professional resume writer, I ask my clients to think hard about the stories they can tell that prove their value to the hiring manager. Anyone can play back a job description, but the art of a writing a resume with a creative flair is to capture that moment when you went beyond the job description and contributed to the companies success.

How does using cause and effect when writing a resume make a difference?

For example if you are a programmer analyst:

• Assessed and reconfigured the JD Edwards setup at declining Ohio site to accurately interpret and record inventory, ordering, purchasing, and profit and loss, resulting in positioning for successful sale of plant.

The cause and effect of this bullet defines the writing of the resume. You could just list off that you can accurately interpret and record inventory, ordering, purchasing, and profit and loss, but both the reconfiguring and the ultimate result of successfully positioning for the successful sale of the plant creates a better resume story.

How does writing a resume with specifics differentiate you?

• Key Account Management – Earned 65% of a new client’s $4.5 million expenditures for diagnostic medical equipment through demonstrating cost savings potential and illustrating the design capabilities fit their specifications, which unseated a national supplier.

Without the details, talking about having the ability to manage key accounts sounds boring but when you create the bullet above as you are writing a resume, the reader understands your value.

There are many other ways that you can be creative when writing a resume but these two examples should help you focus your resume.

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