Coping with ATS - Resume Content

Something, not brought up, yet, in this series: 

  You Want My Social Security Number on a Job Application?
    Can Employers Request Sensitive or Confidential Information?
      By Susan M. Heathfield  Updated on August 4, 2019
You Want My Social Security Number on a Job Application? 

  Can Employers Ask for Your Social Security Number?
    When and When Not to Share Your SSN
      By Alison Doyle  Updated on September 21, 2021
Can Employers Ask for Your Social Security Number? 


Much more important than any 'window dressing' are words describing how valuable you can be to your 
Prospective Employer.

Accomplishment Stories (interesting to draw the reader in) ...
   What would you like to describe to an ideal future coworker, expert in your field?
   What learning experiences?
   What did you do to help someone or an organization or group you were a part of?
   What situation did you handle?
   What problem did you resolve?
   ...

These are worth saving and keeping handy. (I save mine in text files on my PC.)
I pasted the bullet items at the top and started writing the narrative below.

You would want to blend in some of the 'keywords' important to your area of work and to your future employer.

   Your stories can be interesting and attention grabbing!

   Bullet item list of duties can be boooring.

Converting your Bullet Items to interesting reading is not an simple task. Pick one of your accomplishment bullet items 
and describe it like you were making a presentation. Fill in some of the details. Describe the situation and what you did 
about it. Try to recall it and tell it like it was yesterday. When you feel you have exhausted that item, save and 
put it aside for a while and pick another bullet item to work on in the same fashion.

I have accumulated my narratives in separate text files for each employment situation. It is whatever organization 
approach works best for you. I have used the simplest tool, Notepad, to compose my stories.
Occasionally, I copy and paste this content into Word to do a spell-check then copy and paste the result back 
into Notepad.

As you build up your repertoire of stories, you will need to write some short simple versions for audiences who know 
nothing about your specialty as well as fully fleshed out longer versions for the experts in your field. The narratives you would use 
in first contacts (e.g.: elevator speech, cover letter, resume) should, probably, be the shorter, simplified 
versions for the broader audience.

A very useful form for your narratives could begin with the simplified explanation that leads into a more detailed 
description. (This way, some one in top management can get the general idea and an expert can continue on 
for the interesting details.)

These are the stories of your adventures and accomplishments meant to intrigue and interest your audience. You want to 
recapture the enthusiasm you felt while you were there.

After you have re-read your early drafts and, probably modified them some, show them to a friend or family member.
 Be careful not to get defensive. 
Listen. Take notes. Think about what they say. Later on, consider incorporating their feedback in your next revision.

Your repertoire of stories can be available to you for your conversations, interviews, resume, profiles or cover letters.

I have skimmed a few articles. I came away from them with a reinforced notion that personal stories are very important. 
Your narratives can describe how you achieved things rather than being a vague collection of keywords. No professional 
resume writer can write your stories. Even professional biographers must spend weeks and months listening to their 
subject tell their own stories that will ultimately make up the biography.

Maybe, the most important feature of a 'Narrative Resume' is that it tells your accomplishment stories to help prospective 
Employers visualize you, solving the problems that they have. This works because your stories go beyond the bullet item 
'talking points' and briefly describe how you have helped others in ways and in terms that your prospective employer 
recognizes.


Here is one of Liz Ryan's articles:

How To Tell Dragon-Slaying Stories In Your Resume  by Liz Ryan