Resumes written in third person creep me out. Here's why.

Resumes are not like other kinds of business writing and there are few hard-and-fast rules. The goal is always to tell your story in a way that gets people interested in you, and sometimes it’s the little things that will shift how they perceive you.

I've reviewed tens of thousands of resumes in my career as a recruiter, and I’ve seen all kinds of styles, from designs that were so minimal, I had zero idea what the person actually did, to resumes that were built with complicated layouts, confusing photos and charts that we readers were expected to decipher.

But there is one kind of resume choice that has always been a pet peeve... resumes written in third person.

Using third person in resumes feels creepy to me.


Third-person is when you talk about someone like an observer, like reporters do.

Chris launches new products and leads with a unique perspective” or “Mr. Johnson oversees and mentors the digital sales team” are third person.

The third-person perspective is great for writing an article or a report, but it’s not for a resume.

It’s rare for someone to use third person throughout their whole resume, but intentionally or not, it pops up into summaries and current job descriptions more often than I’d ever expect.


Why does it creep me out?


Because I’m a fanatic about the power of a resume
to influence how users experience and interact with it.

Your resume’s whole purpose is for you to introduce yourself to people making hiring decisions. It’s your career marketing document, your first impression, and their first glimpse into who you are.

It’s your story and readers expect that you wrote it yourself or at least that the language and narrative is from you.

And it’s illogical, or even a little deceptive, to use the third person to write about yourself... because you are not separate from the story on your resume.

When your resume or LinkedIn sounds like it was written about you, but not by you, we lose the sense of you as the real human being behind the resume or profile.

 

Your resume is your story about you so tell it in the first person.


It feels weird to review a resume describing "Chris" and "Mr. Johnson" in the third-person, because third person is the voice used by reporters, narrators and fiction writers. It works for them because it allows them to remain separate from the story, a step removed, speaking as an observer.

But your resume isn’t a magazine, news article or corporate bio. And you’re not an observer.

That’s why it feels weird to read a resume written in the third person.

Because there is no sense of you on the page.


Readers want to feel the human behind the resume.


Selecting candidates can be challenging,
and to do it, reviewers want to know more about you, the actual human being that the resume represents, along with the facts and skillsets.

Third-person  perspective feels like you aren't even in the room and it misses the chance to grow a human connection.

 




How pronouns are used (and not used) in resumes.


Traditionally, resumes are stripped of pronouns
because it's repetitive having all those sentences starting with “I” over and over. And even one-letter words take up valuable real estate on the document.

So in resume style, instead of writing out the full sentence the way you would talk, e.g., “I oversee operations as the head the new Widget division,” you cut out the pronouns and connectors to abbreviate the sentence to “Oversee operations of new Widget division.”

Then when you write "Oversee operations of a new Widget division" you are speaking in the first person, talking about yourself.

When we drop the pronouns, we rely on the verb form (oversee) to tell us if something is in first, second or third person. o the inferred pronoun is "I" in the sentence. 



Different pronouns need different forms of verbs.


When I say, “I write resumes," I’m speaking in the first person. But if someone is writing about me, they would say "Leslie writes resumes,” which is third person.

And if I said “I writes resumes,” you would instantly know that’s the wrong verb form for first person. You don't have to think about it to know it feels off, right?




Refresher the three different voices or perspectives:

First person (I, me, we) is from one’s own perspective.
First person is how we talk naturally. (“I write resumes”).

Second person (you) is speaking directly to someone else as “you.”
Second person is perfect for you to use in cover notes as you talk to the reader but not in resumes. (“You write the book.”)

Third person (he, she, it, they) is speaking from an impersonal outside observer's perspective.
Third person is how news stories are written, using names and “he/she/it/they.” (“The team worked well together.”)


 

Don't rely on the verb structure of the job posting.


Job postings and job descriptions are often written in second and third person
but never first person.

They are describing their ideal candidate so the posting might say “our ideal candidate speaks Mandarin" or "loves accounting" or "manages teams." This is third person.

And then what happens is that job seekers just parrot the words "speaks Mandarin" or "loves accounting" or "manages teams" on their resume, and now it feels a little weird because that's a third-person verb form in a first-person resume.

So make sure you’ve got the proper first-person “speak Mandarin” or “love accounting” and “manage teams” voice.

 

If you work with a resume writer, your resume still needs to sound like you wrote it.


In competitive markets, you may need some professional help to craft the right story to tell and handle the production aspects for your resume.

But if you get help, it’s up to you to make sure that the result is written in first person and sounds like you. 

It has to feel like you wrote it in your authentic first-person voice and in your words.


 

The best resume for you will feel like you on the page.


When you present your background, show us who you are
. Give a personal first-person statement of what you’ve done and what you can do, and to offer some sense of what you want to do next.

No need to make it complicated or overly formal.

Just write it from you -- the human being -- in natural language, using the first-person verbs that go with "I, me and my" pronouns (but drop the pronouns) and tell it like a streamlined story we can understand.

Then your resume will be doing its job by building a picture of you in the readers's minds and nothing will feel off or mysteriously creepy. 

 

p.s. This is some nitpicky stuff, right? That's because hiring choices are often made using small considerations that can tip the scale, and the process is looking for ways to eliminate candidates, not to include them. Being nitpicky with your resume and LinkedIn is a good thing. 

 

 

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