Jeremy Johnson has a follow-up guest blog post this week with great tips on why a third-person resume is not a good idea.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
You can also follow him on Twitter at jsquaredkc
The Jimmy Resume
If you were a fan of Seinfeld, have bought some of the show’s seasons on DVD or just enjoy watching episodes in syndication, you’ll know doubt remember one particular episode called “The Jimmy.”
I love that episode. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a guy named…..you guessed it, Jimmy. What’s so special about Jimmy that he deserves an episode named after him? Well, Jimmy talks about himself a lot – in the third person.
“These? These are Jimmy’s training shoes.” “Jimmy couldn’t jump at all before he got these. Jimmy……was like you.”
Hilarious.
“You know, Jimmy is pretty sweet on you.” “Oh yeah, Jimmy’s been watching you. You’re just Jimmy’s type.”
As funny as Jimmy’s third-person dialogue is, one place where it’s absolutely no joke is in your job hunt.
There are few things I hate worse, as a recruiter, than third-person resumes. They drive me nuts.
I’m not exactly sure what the thought process is behind this approach or why people think this is a good idea, but I see it enough to issue this warning: don’t do it.
Maybe people feel it sounds more formal, more professional or maybe just more like an official presentation of one person to another. But, from my side of the job-hunting fence (the resume reviewing side), it feels more like someone puffed up with self-importance who’s delegating this activity to their underling staff:
“Yeah, Sally, I need you to pick up my dry cleaning, get me a vente quad-shot skinny caramel macchiato, move my 2 o’clock to 2:30……oh, and write my resume telling people how awesome I am.”
That’s what a third-person resume really sounds like to its audience. And it’s not necessary. It actually takes emphasis off of your qualifications and puts undue emphasis the delivery. When I start to read a resume, and the initial summary immediately goes into third-person mode, I roll my eyes and groan. I’ve already gotten a negative impression of this candidate, and I’m already starting to lose interest. If the qualifications are spot-on, I may re-engage, but I’m more likely to quickly glance at the rest of it to see if anything relevant catches my eye; but, I’m mentally already starting to move on.
That’s why I call this “The Jimmy” resume. What makes the Seinfeld episode funny is the fact that no one actually talks like that, and it’s so bizarre that it’s humorous. On your resume, you’re not shooting for bizarre. You’re shooting for relevant and professional. If you slide over into the land of bizarre, you’re only hurting yourself and increasing your chances of getting overlooked.
It goes to the gut impression of what kind of person you are. Your audience is thinking, “What kind of person talks about themselves in the third-person?”
So, don’t be like Jimmy: “Well, look who’s here. That’s the guy who sidelined Jimmy. That’s the guy who took the bread out of Jimmy’s mouth!”
In a sit-com, it’s pretty darn funny. On a resume, not so much.