An Introverts Guide to Resume Self-Promotion

An Introverts Guide to Resume Self-PromotionAn Introverts Guide to Resume Self-PromotionHow to get over your humbleness and bring on the brag.Consider the meek They may in fact be set to inherit the earth, but its not easy for them to portray that birthright in their resumes.Toward that noble end, Susan Cucuzza, an Executive Coach with Live Forward LLC, sits humble introverts down, one on one, and asks them to think about their career accomplishments. The responses shes received Well, I cant think of too many. Ive just done my job. I just did what they asked me to. Do you have a tough time getting over shyness when it comes time to play up your accomplishments? To give you a bracing shot in the arm, we talked to executive coaches and resume writers to discover the tricks they use to turn wallflowers into prom queens and kings.Interview yourselfRachael Davies Hayes, a CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer), gets plenty of humble people who come to her with a list of job duties and tell her they havent accomplished much, she said.She said the key to getting them to open up is to ask good questions that serve as effective lead-ins. Once the information starts flowing, then she can polish it up for that billboard flair, Davies Hayes said.Here are the questions shes had good luck with. Interview yourself and write down your answers while brainstorming your resumeDescribe one of the hardest days youve ever had at work. It could be that you were crushed under the workload or everything that could possibly go wrong did. How bad was it, and how did you get through it?When you look back on your career, what are you proudest of?How would your co-workers describe you? Why?Once my clients start to think about these things, their selling points begin to pour out, Davies Hayes said.Tell your storyFor her part, after Cucuzza challenges introverts to think about the results of their work, they become amazed at how many accomplishments they have, she said. She then works with them to translate those accomplishments so that their resumes arent merely reiterations of job descriptions, but truly the results they achieved in their careers.How do you meld description with achievement in this way? Armed with raw bragging material from your self-interview, you can begin to use your resume to tell your story.Steve Savage, a technical project manager who speaks, writes, and blogs on what he calls Geeky Jobs, said he thinks of a good resume as being like a novel or a movie. Heres how he advises his tech-pro clients to set it upExecutive Summary This introduces the main character of this story - thats you - and presents, in succinct form, our heros skills.Work History This is what Savage refers to as the backstory. Details flesh out the character and tell of his/her conquests, such as awards and relevant achievements - particularly quantifiable ones. Brag about the dragons youve slain.Approaching a resume as a storytelling exercise serves introverts well, S avage said, since its a creative exercise that plays to their rich inner lives. Its also good practice for improving communication, he said. They develop elevator pitches. They develop ideas of how to talk about themselves, he said. Armed with that knowledge - and with seeing a resume differently - theyre more confident in the job search.