So the Super Bowl is coming up, right? What should you take to the party? Something easy. Something that doesn’t require a stove. How about Buffalo Chicken Dip?!
What is the first thing you do after you make that decision? You Google it. And what you find are literally 2,030,000 results for Buffalo Chicken Dip. How are you going to filter through all of those choices? Feeling a little overwhelmed, you just start clicking to find some basic ingredients and instructions.
Instead, you find pictures, endless blogs about tailgates of the past, hot sauce comparisons, chicken shredding techniques. Scrolling. A chart recommending cream cheese to Scoville unit ratios, the virtues of an elusive brand of tortilla chips. Scrolling. Pop-up ads. Scrolling. Pictures of ingredients without measurements. Scrolling. Nutritional information, LOL! Finally, you get to the ingredients and a list of detailed instructions starting with authoritative verbs like blend and heat.
What a relief it was to get to the basics. What a thrill to have clear, neat lists and action statements in a clutter free environment even though they were hard to find. The ingredients look familiar. Check! You totally forgot that canned chicken was a thing. Score! This is your recipe.
A recruiter comes to a career fair knowing that they could easily speak with 100+ students in 4 hours. They shake hands and take notes. Then they have to wait for the applications to come in, and then they have to read them all. Only there isn’t time to read every word. They have to scan to find key words and skills at a quick glance to narrow the field. In the stack of applications, they are seeking gems, so brevity and readability are everything. Being concise and direct with your marketable skills and the actions you took in your experiences is key. Icons are trendy but disruptive to a reader. Photos and images are forbidden. Paragraphs tuck valuable information away while bullet points starting with action verbs feature skills in a desirable way. Bottom line, lose the fluff.
So what if your roommate gets away with just bringing the chips. You now have winning recipes for a tasty dip and resume success!
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