How HR Cracked Life’s Formula for Success

I know, I know—this headline is going to elicit groans from all of the memories of having to deal with an HR department when getting hired, promoted, or let go.  I get the stigma associated with HR.  But in my research and identifying the keys to success in life, I was looking for analogies that could best explain how it worked.  When doing so, the first one that came to mind was the résumé: so much so that I created a Life Résumé Template in the Downloads section of the site.  So, how does this talent assessment process work, and why does it match life’s process toward success so well?  Let’s take a look.

The Key HR Processes and Components of the Résumé

The two most common mechanisms for the first part (not counting the application form itself) are the résumé and the cover letter.  The résumé provides a summarized history of your work experience, while the cover letter provides the ability for you to make your case as to why you think that you are the best fit for the role.

Résumés have evolved over decades to become as efficient and effective as possible at proving your qualifications.  While the modern form is analyzed by algorithms to assess and filter people out initially, we’re going to focus on the version through the lens of a human.  What’s interesting about the résumé is that it evolved in a way using the same principles/components that success and meaning in life happen to follow (since your résumé is a summary of your career growth, it makes sense):

• Goal/Objective: While some résumés leave these off since the goal is to get the job, a good objective that’s in line with the organization’s need for the role can help show that you are a good match.  For example, someone who is interested in the role, the field, and the industry would be a better fit than someone who is just looking for any job and doesn’t care that much about the company.  In life, the goal or objective is the improved state you’re working toward.
• Experience: The biggest insight from the résumé is that you basically have to list everything you’ve done—all the experience you’ve had—that has led you to be ready for this exact moment.  This insight is so much more profound that people give it credit for being: your growth occurs through experience, and if you want to succeed in what matters in life, you have to focus on the experiences that are going to foster your growth in those areas.  There is no other way.  You can’t just sit around for 20 years waiting for money to come or your kids to graduate or whatever to finally be ready to do what you really want to do in life.  You have to be gaining experiences that will bring you closer and closer to the next opportunity as well as the long-term future you’re looking for.
• Skills: This section of the résumé lists your capabilities as a result of that experience.  These demonstrate that you have acquired the means necessary to do the job you’re applying for and show that you can hit the ground running.  In life, for you to achieve your biggest goals, you’re going to have to acquire a whole slew of skills.  For example, if you want to be a businessperson, you’ll have to work on accounting and finance, customer service, people management, oral and written communication, and many more skills.
• Education: While all knowledge is gained through experience, there is risk involved in all real-world experience.  You can learn more about business by running one, but you can also lose a lot of money.  You can learn about wars by fighting in them, but you could die quickly without proper training.  Education is the ability to have the experience of thinking and learning about a topic without actually having to partake in the risk.  Yes, it might not be as valuable, but it is much, much safer, faster, and easier to accomplish (especially at scale with many students) than real-world experience.
• Awards and Accomplishments: Similar to skills, this section gives you the opportunity to prove that you have been successful in the past.  You might have a lot of experience but haven’t pushed yourself and so haven’t grown as much, so the awards and accomplishments act as proof of outcomes.  Note that your work history/experience will also have bullets showing what you’ve done and what outcomes you have delivered as well.  In life, your long-term goals do benefit from milestones, awards, and accomplishments along the way.  They help keep you motivated and prove to others that you are a good candidate for the next opportunity you’re pursuing.
• Associations – Support makes you better.  Being part of prestigious groups can both show your credibility and suggest that you have had the support in their development and so bring a certain set of preferred ways of thinking and behaving.  An example is certification, which both proves that you can do it but also that you know the vernacular and programs that the certification program uses.  In life, finding people with similar interests and people who can support you can accelerate and multiply your growth.

There are other possible components, but you get the point.  In life, the point is growth toward a better future state, which will keep you happy, healthy, and thriving.  You have desired goals/outcomes, and you have experiences that you undertake to achieve that growth and those outcomes.  Your beliefs—bolstered through the evidence of your success like accomplishments—carry you through when times get tough.  You get support when needed to get further than you could alone.  And, given everything that you are and everything that has happened to you to date, you make deliberate choices as to how to proceed.  These are the elements to feeling that your life has meaning, direction, and purpose, and that’s why résumés have them: those same elements show that you have direction and purpose in your career and that you are ready for this next experience/opportunity.

So the résumé is a great example of how HR had figured out the key components of success in a new employee, and the cover letter gives that person a shot to make their case verbally as to how much they want the role and believe that the role and company are right for them.  The interview tests to make sure that they have the skills, competencies, and fit necessary for the organization’s needs, and then there is a whole onboarding process in place to help support their transition into the organization and the position.

Development works similarly: managers work with HR and leadership to identify the next role in the career path, look at the additional skills and experiences you need to move into it successfully, and then match the projects and assignments to the development opportunities of the employees.  This ensures that the employee is continually growing and developing into the employee that the organization will need in the future at higher levels of the organization.  Ideally, the employee will stay, contribute, and develop until he or she identifies a new role, field, or industry to explore that can only be done at a different company or as an entrepreneur.  That’s the goal of HR, and that’s why they’ve cracked the code on human recruitment and development.

You should take these learnings and apply them to your life.  No, you don’t have to create a “Life Résumé” if you think that’s hokey, but you can identify the goals you have, the experience you need to get there, the experience you’ve had already that shows progress, the accomplishments so far that have shown that you have the potential, and the support you might be able to secure to foster your development.  Life is more about moving forward than it is about anything else, and the only way you can do that is if you have the right direction and a sense of how to proceed along the path you’re putting yourself on.  Do that correctly, and you’ll not only be on your way but you’ll feel like you have direction and purpose, and that might be the best part since it might just fill a hole that you perceive in your life.