As the old say­ing goes, you can’t win a race in the first lap, but you can def­i­nite­ly lose one. The same is true with résumés: Even the great­est résumé won’t, on its own, cause you to hire some­one — but a rel­a­tive­ly poor résumé will almost always get tossed into the “no” pile. 

Fair or unfair, that’s the real­i­ty.

And also the prob­lem, because whom you decide (and, just as impor­tant, don’t decide) to inter­view helps deter­mine whom you hire — and as a result deter­mines the skills, tal­ent, and exper­tise of the peo­ple around you.

So if it all starts with a résumé, how do you define a “good” résumé? Or bet­ter yet, a “great” résumé?

Sci­ence can part­ly answer the ques­tion. In 2016, researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan con­duct­ed a study “sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly exam­in­ing the impres­sion man­age­ment (IM) con­tent of actu­al résumés and cov­er let­ters and empir­i­cal­ly test­ing the effect on appli­cant eval­u­a­tion.”

Or, in non-researcher-speak, tried to fig­ure out what does and does­n’t work when it comes to craft­ing a résumé that lands a job inter­view.

In gen­er­al terms, a lit­tle self-pro­mo­tion (think a few superla­tives like “excel­lent” and “out­stand­ing”) is good; a lot is not. So is a lit­tle ingra­ti­a­tion (think “I would love to be a part of such an awe­some team” or “I would love to con­tribute to such a worth­while mis­sion”); a lot is not. As with most things, mod­er­a­tion is key.

Help­ful, but only to a point. While what a can­di­date has done is inter­est­ing, what you care about most is what the per­son you hire can do.

And to deter­mine that, you also need a sto­ry.

Accord­ing to Bri­an Brandt, a cer­ti­fied pro­fes­sion­al résumé writer who spe­cial­izes in craft­ing résumés for peo­ple seek­ing finance, tech­nol­o­gy, logis­tics, biotech, and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal posi­tions, “A résumé should be built from the can­di­date’s jour­ney, but point­ed to his or her future. A résumé that scrolls the past is a doc­u­ment that elic­its the wrong kinds of ques­tions.” (More on that in a moment.) “The best résumés show the capac­i­ty to go where the can­di­date wants to go.”

Which, if you craft your job post­ings prop­er­ly, will align with what you need the employ­ee you hire to accom­plish. 

Accord­ing to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan research, what you ask for in a job post­ing is large­ly what you will get. Use lots of superla­tives in your job post­ings, and most can­di­dates will respond with lots of superla­tives. Talk a lot about mis­sion and pur­pose and cul­ture, and you’ll get plen­ty of ingra­ti­a­tion.

The bet­ter approach? Imag­ine you’re look­ing for a per­son who has accom­plished spe­cif­ic things; a great résumé — and great can­di­date — describes what the can­di­date has done, and tells a sto­ry that indi­cates their devel­op­ment and growth sup­ports what you need them to actu­al­ly do.

“The best résumés are nev­er just reflec­tions of accom­plish­ments and achieve­ments,” Bri­an says. “They’re well-curat­ed doc­u­ments that move the con­ver­sa­tion to sec­ond- and third- inter­view turf.” 

And that’s where the “ques­tions” issue comes into play. Some résumés spark the wrong kinds of ques­tions: “Does the can­di­date pos­sess the right attrib­ut­es?” “Does the can­di­date have the right expe­ri­ence?” “Does the can­di­date pos­sess the work eth­ic, inter­per­son­al skills, and cul­tur­al fit?” Those ques­tions indi­cate doubt.

The right ques­tions? “That’s amaz­ing; how did she do that?” “That was an inter­est­ing career move; I won­der why he shift­ed to a dif­fer­ent func­tion­al role?” “Most oper­a­tions man­agers did­n’t spend their col­lege sum­mers work­ing on archae­ol­o­gy digs; I won­der how that all ties togeth­er?”

Accord­ing to Bri­an, those are the kinds of sto­ries a great résumé tells.

Because they answer the ques­tions you most need answered — and will want to ask more about dur­ing job inter­views. Whether the can­di­date’s actu­al accom­plish­ments show they are capa­ble of achiev­ing what you need them to achieve. Whether the can­di­date dis­plays val­ues sim­i­lar to those your orga­ni­za­tion embraces.

Whether the can­di­date dis­plays the tan­gi­ble and less tan­gi­ble skills, attrib­ut­es, and qual­i­ties you need most.

A great résumé pro­vides the ini­tial answers; job inter­views pro­vide the deep­er, more sub­stan­tive answers.

So what should you look for in a résumé? Accord­ing to Bri­an, a great résumé tells a sto­ry that does­n’t make you ask whether the can­di­date might be able do the job. 

A great résumé leaves you want­i­ng to know not whether, but just how well, the can­di­date will do the job.