Why is writing a resume so hard for someone with a nontraditional career background?

Myth: Consultants never write resumes.

As a consultant, resumes are still unnatural, but they come with a lot less pressure. They usually only focus on one facet of my experience.

And it doesn’t feel like my whole life depends on success.

Us recording Episode 1 of HR Peep Show in the Very Professional Studio in Krista's very cold basement.

My career hasn’t followed a straight line and I've learned to do a lot of different stuff.

The winding path that got me here makes resumes uncomfortable.

How do you draw a through line from 

bilingual educational publishing → fitness → EA++ to a VC → operational generalist at early-stage startups → PeopleOps consultant?

And tell the whole story in bullet form?

The headings really mess up the narrative flow.

Last week I wrote a resume for a project that I’m very excited about. Something I’d been writing content to attract since long before the opportunity even existed. 

I’d been “acting as if” I already had the role for a year.

Until one day, The One slid into my DMs like Prince Charming with a shoe.

I showed up to the scoping call with the swagger of someone whose life doesn’t depend on success.

Sparks flew. 

And then Prince Charming said, “Can you send me your resume?” like it was no big deal.

My heart sank. 

What about my website?

What about my LinkedIn?

What about my blog?

What about the podcast I started with Krista and AnnE last year?

What about my active presence in HR industry groups?

Isn’t it easy enough to learn what I do without a boring resume?

But updating my resume was different this time.

Rather than answering each bullet in a JD with a bullet of my own experience, I was telling the story of my life and how it brought me here. 

All of my varied experiences came together. Even the things that I usually leave off my resume were relevant. 

The seven years I spent in fitness.

The social media following I built for my dog.

My witty payroll one-liners.

My social media yapping and all the free advice on industry groups.

It all felt like pieces of one coherent story.

Many people who land in the HR world have similar stories. 

We never planned to be here, but somewhere along the way, we saw an opportunity to make our colleagues’ lives better and somehow that became our job. And now here we are. 

In our latest episode of HR Peep Show, AnnE, Krista, and I talk about our paths into HR and what we’re doing now that we’re here. Give it a listen at the link in the comments. 

Listen here