Hi there, I’m Emily! 👋 Welcome to Hired Humanities, a biweekly newsletter devoted to helping humanities students build careers on their own terms.
What a rollercoaster the past few days have been. Halfway through election week I didn't feel like I could muster enough energy to write a newsletter; most of my bandwidth was dedicated to refreshing the vote count and moving house. As such, we're going to have a (relatively) shorter issue this time around.
Resumes. In my humble opinion, they are just behind cover letters as the least fun thing to write. Between formatting and producing the actual content, they usually take up a good chunk of time and energy to put together. On top of that, a 2018 eye-tracking study run by Ladders Inc. revealed that recruiters spend only 7.4 seconds scanning a single resume.
Yup. Only 7.4 seconds.
Every word on a resume counts. You have so little time to make an impact, it's integral to keep things as edited and to-the-point as possible. In short, you can't write a resume like an academic.
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
Trust me, I love writing like an academic. I love piling on adverbial phrases and placing my brilliant insight right at the end of a long, suspenseful sentence. And I know it is hard to get out of that mode. But it’s important to know your audience. Hiring managers and recruiters are reading your job for one reason: to evaluate whether your skills and experience align well enough with the role to move you on to the next phase of interviewing. Obscuring your accomplishments with a bunch of excess clauses— no matter how beautifully written— isn't going to make their job easier, and it certainly isn't going to help you get an interview.
With that, we're going to focus on the foundation of any resume: the bullet point. Below are my tips for writing short, impactful bullet points that convey meaning in every word.
Active verbs are key
To my fellow Classicists: has the ablative absolute influenced your writing too? I don't know about you, but when I was working on the first iteration of my post-academic resume, I kept starting my bullet points with what amounted to temporal clauses. Case in point:
While maintaining a full graduate course load, organized one of the University of Chicago's oldest student-run workshops
Can you see how this emphasizes the circumstances rather than the actual experience? Not only is it difficult to parse, but it's also undercutting what I'm really trying to highlight: the fact that I headed up a storied workshop.
I've found that the easiest way to combat wordiness is to start each bullet point with a strong, active verb. Let's scratch that adverbial phrase from the example above. Now we have:
Organized one of the University of Chicago's oldest student-run workshops
See how much better the same bullet point reads if it starts with a verb?
Less is more
Since space is at a premium on resumes, it's often tempting to compress related skills or accomplishments into one bullet point. Here's an old resume item from my social media marketing internship:
Updated social media channels daily, including authoring copy, designing graphics, and interacting with other users
I can go on for awhile about what I don't like about this particular bullet point, but the overarching issue is how much I'm cramming into it. Writing copy, designing graphics, and responding to comments? That's a lot of information to gloss over if you're quickly scanning a resume, and it doesn't really say much about what I really accomplished in the role.
To avoid packing your bullet points, ask yourself what specifically you're trying to convey. Is your experience leading brand messaging strategy? Or is it your graphic design prowess?
Once you've identified your subject, focus the bullet point on that subject alone. Let's take a stab at breaking the example above into several single-topic points:
Developed and executed social media strategy that doubled daily views on Pinterest
Designed original marketing collateral using Canva and Adobe InDesign
Engaged directly with Twitter users on a daily basis, boosting followers by 10% in less than a month
Sticking to one topic at a time allows you dig in and truly highlight your relevant accomplishments. It’ll also help you fill up your resume space with great line items if you’re struggling for content, which is an added bonus.
Build a case with data
Numbers can tell a whole story in just a few characters. Let's take a look at an example using my workshop experience:
Managed a strict annual budget with an eye to reducing overall expenditures
This doesn't say much other than I was responsible for the finance of the organization. It's not bad per se, but it doesn't do much for me at the same time.
Now let's rework the same bullet point with some data:
Managed a strict annual budget, cutting expenditures by an average of 7% per academic quarter
Attaching a number here concretizes the accomplishment I'm trying to highlight. Instead of saying that I was trying to reduce expenditures, I actually show that I did when I include that datapoint.
One thing to keep in mind is that numbers can work against you. If the data you have isn't impressive (for example: your workshop budget was only $100 a semester), don't feel obligated to include it.
Edit, edit, edit
It's worth repeating that editing is the key to making sure your bullet points are easily legible and impactful. Even after you think you're done, read over what you've written and ask yourself the following:
Is each word necessary in this bullet point?
Would someone be able to scan this bullet point and get the gist of it quickly?
Would someone who isn't a subject matter expert be able to understand this bullet point?
If your bullet point doesn’t meet any of these criteria, it’s time to break out the red pen.
Revisit the job description
When you're preparing your resume to apply to a particular job, it's a good idea keep the job description at hand so you can revisit it throughout the editing process.
Why? That post is chock full of content that you can leverage when polishing up your bullet points. It may run contrary to our academic nature, but mirroring key words and phrases from the job description can give you a leg up if your resume is run through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Just don't go overboard on pulling content verbatim!
Trust your gut
And finally, I'd be remiss not to include a reminder to trust your instincts, especially if you ask for help with editing your resume.
Resume writing is one of those things that people have strong opinions about. I've received a ton of conflicting advice when soliciting help, and my tips here may even conflict with pointers you've already heard. You can drive yourself crazy trying to incorporate every suggestion into your own resume, but ultimately there are only two parties whose opinions matter: yours and the hiring team's.
A parting note
Thanks for tuning in this week! Please don't hesitate to drop a line if you have questions or feedback. And, if you think someone else in your life would love to receive this newsletter in their inbox, feel free to spread the word.
See you in a couple of weeks,
Emily
Reading List
A few of my favorite links
👟 If you're struggling to vary your resume language, check out The Muse's list of 185 action verbs.
🎓 Though geared towards Anthropologists, this article outlining careers in UX research for recent grads is chock full of great insights for any humanities student looking to break into a new industry.
🎉 So. Much. Joy.