Ever since I was a little kid, I was a storyteller. Instead of playing with my toys, I would sit on the carpet in my bedroom and tell stories about my dolls and stuffed animals. I wrote and illustrated little chapter books, made up songs about monkeys that fell from the sky like a new form of weather, and had a secret alter ego that went on adventures when I had to do boring things like go to the doctor’s office. When I outgrew my dolls and monkeys and alter ego, I began to read constantly and started to keep a journal so I could tell stories about my days. As an adult (????), storytelling is a skill that continues to come in handy in unexpected ways. When I realized that applications, resume writing, and cover letters are all types of storytelling, they began to come naturally to me.

So, before you start writing your resume (or application essay, or cover letter), remember that first, it’s a story, and second:

• Reality is the medium for a story, but not the craft. No good story is an exact retelling of an event. There is a reason that memoirs are more popular than autobiographies. Rather than telling all the dates and facts of their life, a writer uses their experiences as a kind of medium, which they then mold into a story, just as a sculptor molds a pot from a block of clay. Writers and artists of any kind are not passive receptacles of experience: they use their experiences to craft something original.

• Storytellers edit heavily. To expand upon my first point, a good storyteller eliminates the irrelevant information. Imagine that one friend who always has something funny and witty to say about their day when you get meals together. If they are a good storyteller, they likely aren’t going to get sidetracked talking about how they had the best omelette at Frary, especially if the point of the story was the run-in they had in the dining hall with the one person they wanted to avoid (unless, of course, that person stole their omelette).

• A good story follows an arc. While real life is messy and erratic and sometimes mundane, a good story follows an arc (yes, your 6th grade English teacher was right). This means that there is a beginning, a middle (usually a problem, discovery, or change), and an ending.

So how does this all apply to job applications, resumes, and cover letters?

First of all, let’s get one thing clear: I am definitely not encouraging anyone to lie or exaggerate on their resume! Storytelling is my way of looking at a vital part of an application process: tailoring. The material for your resume/application/cover letter are your work and school related experiences. Your job is to turn this material into a story about how your experiences so far led you to this moment: applying to the position you want.

To craft this story, you’re going to have to edit out the unnecessary parts. For example, when I applied for a biology research fellowship, I did not extensively talk about my experiences working for newspapers. However, there is an argument for including experiences that might not seem so similar on the surface. If you can successfully make the case that the skills you learned from these experiences will be valuable in the job you want, you’re good to go (This could be in the little blurb under the job heading, or in your cover letter). For example, in my fellowship application, I did briefly talk about my time as editor in chief and as a journalism instructor, and emphasized that these experiences helped teach me to lead and make executive decisions.

After all, that is what your story is about. It’s a story of skill building. Hopefully, it has a happy ending! (read: you get the job you were hoping for)