About: Who Are You? vs. Who Am I? – Part II

This post deals with the writing of the About section for this blog, which basically features my resume info.

While Part I focused on “Who Are You?” which dealt with writing CVs/resumes for others, this part is centered on “Who Am I?”

Jill of All Trades, But Lacking a Purpose

As I mentioned earlier, I found myself in a situation where I had to whip up a CV in less than half an hour, and obviously, did what every other person would do – I took one of the premade templates and just copied/pasted a bunch of data into it. (Like I said, more about how and why I found myself in this situation in another post.)

Evidently, this document broke all the rules of proper CV writing but nevertheless completed its mission. (Again – wtf, HR people?)

I also mentioned that this whole “CV-ncident” wouldn’t be as shocking as it was if I weren’t a person who had spent many years writing CVs and resumes (technically – résumés – but I’ll stick to the simplified spelling version) as one of my standard professional services – with over a 90% success rate.

But here’s the thing – I had never actually written my own CV/resume until a few days ago.

Several years ago, while my resume writing was hitting its peak, admired by the sheer power of the resumes I compiled, I thought to myself – I should get myself one of these little babies!

But how do you reconcile the roles of a (then) director, entrepreneur, teacher, translator, mentor, and others, decide what’s important, and shove everything into two pages?

It’s easier to see the speck in someone else’s eye than the log in your own. Meaning, it was easier for me to discern what is important among a random set of information from a random person than to pick among key points from my personal experience I felt strongly attached to.

First, I tried with one have-it-all document that visually looked nice but contained a hot mess of contradicting information, struggling for its supremacy in the eyes of the reader.

When I realized that the Jill-of-All-Trades approach would not work, I tried creating a dozen CVs, each tailored to a specific role, but each felt more lacking than the previous one.

A few more futile attempts, and eventually, I decided I’d cross that bridge when I got to it, secretly hoping that would never happen.

You Have Your Strengths – Use Them!

I’ve said it a hundred times if I’ve said it once – I love what I do more than anything in the whole world!

A few years ago, when I made the switch from teaching to coaching, I couldn’t have even imagined how PREXcoaching® would change my life for the better.

It’s not about the change that’s happening on the outside – it’s about what’s happening on the inside.

And so, this little “CV-incident” not only rekindled the old desire to make a proper CV/resume for myself, but it also lit a light bulb as to why I never managed to draft a decent one earlier.

I didn’t have a purpose. I just had a bunch of info that I couldn’t stuff into any meaningful layout because – there was no purpose. I just wanted to have the document, but that’s not a why, that’s just a wish.

Now, I had the why – and now, I had the Purpose.

Obviously, the purpose wasn’t to fill in a random required upload field on a tender, or to have a document that would land me a job.

I needed a document that would showcase not only who I am, what I do, and how I do it, but also explain why. A document that would tell my personal story, as I am not really a fan of social media, and people like to know who they’re working with.

So that was Step One – all checked off and settled.

Next – the Content. Like I said in the previous post, if you want to stand out, you cannot drown in the herd. Meaning, if I wanted to tell my story, sections like Experience, Education, or Skills simply wouldn’t cut it. That’s pretty much everyone else’s story. Mine is different.

Without false modesty, I am a darn strong storyteller, and when I put my heart into it – I weave remarkable stories. That’s my strength – why not use it? And since I like stories in general, why not do exactly that – tell a story?

Every good story has an eye-catching, thought-provoking, and engaging title and/or subtitle. It’s not a prerequisite – it’s a must. And since I love sharp hooks, I decided to do just that – hook my readers with the subtitle.

In this context, my name is the title, and changing that would be overkill for the purpose, which I always tend to avoid, if at all possible.

Translated to standard CV language, a subtitle would be your professional title, like a software developer, marketing analyst, or talent recruiter. Since I left the rigid realm of “standard CV language”, I turned my subtitle into a powerful hook, embracing the title:

About – [the title =] Biljana Radanović – The Why Behind the Who & The How

That was inviting, story-like, and, well – on point with both the purpose and the content.

Let us not forget that we are still in line with the original idea – and that was to create a resume-like document. Having those restraints in mind, it’s not really advisable to start the story with “once upon a time.”

What I did instead was to use traditional CV elements and make them a part of the narrative. Thus, Contact Details became How to Reach Me, Profile turned into What Drives Me, Education got reframed as Where It All Began, and so on.

Clearly, CV and story layouts differ greatly, most notably in terms of information order. Contact Details take a prominent part in CVs and resumes, whereas in this specific storytelling case, they assume the role of a CTA, or call to action, if you prefer – and come as a logical conclusion of the story, at the very end – If you like what you’ve read, get in touch.

Meaning, to get a good story, I had to adjust all the elements and put them into the right order.

It goes without saying that I, logically, went for a more privacy-conserving option like my personal FYI page instead of sharing all my personal details with the rest of the internet.

I also added a section called What Fuels Me, which translates back to Hobbies & Interests. I’m not a fan of this section in general, but I felt that it served as a nice testament to my personality, integrity, and credibility. Since creativity is the focal point of my work, it’s only logical to showcase where I draw my inspiration, insights, and conclusions from.

When I had all the subtitles and was satisfied with the story they were telling, I mindfully wrote each section, making sure I only used key details to paint the big picture I had in mind.

I also made sure that, even though the sections were standalone units, I still found a way to connect them not only logically, but also textually.

That concluded Step Two and marked the official transition to Step Three – the Design.

When it came to design, as seen from previous attempts, random templates and rigid forms are not a good match for me. My background stands out, my purpose is deliberate, and my mission is unique. You can’t really fit that into templates.

You can, however, make a design of your own that fits your purpose and content perfectly.

Luckily, about a year ago I learned to work with Affinity, so I knew immediately that I had the technical part all backed up.

Mind you, we are still on the physical document. With that in mind, and several “timeline” versions later, I had a clear idea of what I wanted: a black-and-white document spiced up with decent navy-blue elements. It’s professional but still has – color.

I opted for a contrast of key elements in terms of navy-blue and white, and I decided to visually mark the flow of the story.

First, I used several emojis like pointing fingers or flags to mark the next stop, but that seemed more like a pamphlet or a roadmap than a personal story. Eventually, I chose simple blue dots to imply the storyline.

When I finished, I felt something was missing, so I added a navy-blue square outline around each segment to make it stand out. What can I say, I like geometry.

As I was admiring my work – an amazing but totally obvious idea hit me: This is a story. It looks like a story. Why not add another level and turn it into an actual visual story?!

So, I rearranged all the dots to get – the hints of – the story! Or – a mini story in a story, whichever you prefer. If you take a closer look, the storyline dots start with “Who” in the header and lead to the word “Drives” in the first section, What Drives me. From that section, the storyline dots connect “create” with the word “All” from the next one. After that we have “history + built”, “milestone + mark”, and so on.

I have to admit, that was a really nice touch.

Of course, everything is wrapped up with the mentioned CTA, or How to Reach Me, which is a kind of a footer equivalent following the same design as the header.

Another tiny subtext detail that connects it all even further –the first section, What Drives Me, ends with my personal tagline Play, Create, Inspire, and the last section, How to Reach Me, is wrapped up with the said tagline, repeating the main sentiment of the story.

Totally proud of my achievement, I decided to use the same content to create the About page for this blog, with only minor changes in How to Reach Me. Instead of just using the link to my FYI page, I added social media contacts.

And that’s the whole story behind my storyline resume.

If you’d like to compare the paper and online version, or just see the original, you can download it at the About page, via the For Keeps button.

I hope it helps, or even perhaps inspires your own story!

Wrapping It Up

What’s your experience with writing CVs/resumes? Do you have your own exciting little story to share? Get in touch and let us know.

If you find this post useful, inspiring, or insightful, share it with your friends & family and spread the creativity!