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5 likes. That's what my résumé-style posts used to get.
Bullet points. Achievements. "Proud to announce." The whole performance. Mostly liked by people who already knew me, because nobody else had a reason to stop.
Then I posted something I almost didn't, the actual story of getting fired, not the polished "career pivot" version. No bullet points. Just what happened, in the order it happened.
Strangers shared it. People who'd never heard of me.
Sound familiar? You've probably felt the same gap. The posts that took the least effort to write are usually the ones that do the most work.
Here's what I actually swear by now, instead of the résumé format: write the sentence you'd say out loud to a friend at a casual setting, not the sentence you'd put on a slide.
If it sounds like an announcement, it reads like an announcement.
Nobody forwards an announcement.
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3 things I traded the résumé format for:
One moment instead of a full timeline. A résumé tries to cover everything. A story picks one Tuesday and stays there.
A stumble instead of a win. "Proud to announce" invites nothing. "I got it wrong for two years first" invites everyone.
It feels risky. That's exactly why it works. A résumé post is safe because nobody can disagree with a bullet point. A real moment is risky because someone might actually react to it. Risk is the point.
2 rewrites worth studying:
Weak: "Proud to announce I've been promoted to Head of Growth."
Strong: "18 months ago my manager told me I wasn't ready for this role. Today I started it."
Weak: "Excited to share some exciting news about our latest milestone."
Strong: "We almost missed payroll in March. This month we hired our 10th person."
1 question for you:
Look at your last 5 posts. How many read like a résumé, and how many read like something you'd actually say out loud?
Stephen
P.S. The résumé version of my firing story got 5 likes. The real one got shared by strangers. Same facts. Different sentence.
