“Describe Yourself In A Tweet” How To Write A 140 Character Resume (With Examples)

The next time you apply for a job, you might be asked to condense your resume to 140 characters, which is the length of a Tweet.

Hiring managers want to hear what you bring to the table in as concise of a manner as possible, and this is one way they often do that. It can be challenging to shrink your qualifications down to just a few sentences, so we’ve put together some tips on how to write a 140-character resume.

Key Takeaways

• It’s often easiest to start by writing a longer summary and then cut it down to 140 characters.

• Even if you aren’t asked for a 140-character resume on a job application, t’s a good idea to have one ready to use on platforms like LinkedIn or as an elevator pitch.

• Hiring managers want to know the highlights of what makes you a great candidate as well as why you’d fit well with their organization.

How to Make the Perfect 140-Character Resume

So it’s obvious that there are benefits — but how do you go about actually putting your 140-character bio together?

In short — which is the name of the game today — you should start big, then go small.

It can be tough trying to fit your entire life and work experience into such a short amount of space right off the bat, but it gets easier to decide what’s most important to mention once you list all your skills and experiences out first.

Here are a few more things you should consider when putting together your 140-character biography:

• Start big, then cut. Write down whatever seems relevant to you, and then remove every piece that sounds like it might be irrelevant to your story. Think about what parts of your life make you different and exciting as an employment prospect.

• Get your main points. This process should help you cut your bio down to 2-5 main points, max.

• Start summarizing. If you find there’s nothing else you can cut but that you’re still over the 140 character limit, that’s when you start summarizing. You don’t need to give every detail in a context like this — just stick to the basics.

When thinking about writing a Tweet like this, refer back to your resume’s summary statement or objective. It’s’ usually a short but sweet sentence or two that describes who you are, why you are perfect for the job, and what your career goals are.

Expand out from your career summary or career objective section of your resume and answer the question, “What am I writing in this section that I want to get across to employers the most?” Write out the question using your resume to guide you.

When writing down why you are the best candidate, be blunt. Don’t use wordy language. Doing this step will help cut down on unnecessary characters.

Writing a Tweet about yourself is like making a very abbreviated elevator speech. You want to get the main points across, but you also want to be interesting enough that people remember you. With that in mind, think about something that sets you apart.

You can be creative when writing your Tweet. Think about your hobbies, your volunteer experiences, and what makes you unique — what makes you that quirky job candidate hiring managers will remember.

You’ll only have space to write about 2-5 major points about yourself, so you’re going to want to make them count. Here is how we would suggest breaking planning those points out:

• Your specialty

• Your history

• Fun fact

• Why you would make a good fit (optional)

When writing your Tweet, remember that you can use short-hand. You can use short sentences, a few words, hashtags — anything that you feel best describes your social media style and personality as well as your potential as an employee.

How to Describe Yourself in 140 Characters

There are many ways that you can describe yourself in a Tweet. You could go for a more formal route and write 1-3 short sentences about yourself or you can make a mix of single words and short phrases.

You can make your Tweet rhyme or even make it funny — whatever you believe best reflects you as a person. You may notice if you search for other Tweet examples that people may include their LinkedIn URL or other short links.

For the non-link content, though, the key is to start with the essential points you want to get across. Then, distill that information into a very brief resume.

Let’s say there are five main things a person feels are important to get across in their profile:

• They’re a computer programmer based in San Francisco.

• They’re looking for a job.

• They have about a year of work experience, mostly in the startup sector.

• They’re comfortable with a few programming languages — Java, SQL, CSS, Python.

• They’re obsessed with comic books.

Based on that information, here are a few tweet examples:

“Describe Yourself In A Tweet” Examples

Now that you have seen how to breakdown facts and craft a great self-tweet, here are some more great examples that span multiple industries:

1. “Engagement specialist with 5 yrs experience. Scrabble enthusiast. Empowering communities through storytelling via social media platforms.” (137 characters)

2. “Book gossiper. Fulbright Alumna amp; published author #bookname. History Ph.D. candidate at UNCC seeking undiscovered ruins in Jerusalem.” (133 characters)

3. “Marine biologist from the University of Florida amp; avid Scottish kindrochit participant. Looking for the next greatest algal bloom to tackle.” (140 characters)

4. “Clarinet aficionado amp; teacher with 10 yrs experience. Unrepentant band geek. Can teach you to pick a good reed amp; play a high G.” (127 characters)

5. “Health policy activistamp; future physician assistant. Rookie food experimentalist. Seeking clinic experiences in rural community settings.” (137 characters)

6. “Tabletop game inventor. #Podcaststudioname co-founder amp; podcast creator since 2012. Seeking podcast production gigs post-graduation.” (132 characters)

7. “Pool professional with 10 yrs experience. New to Denver looking for the next best aquatic center to join. Weekend musician amp; songwriter.” (136 characters)

8. “SEO legend who believes in content magic. Customer-focused marketer bringing services to life. Currently growing businesses and tomatoes.”

9. “Problem-solver by nature, social media specialist by vocation. 5+ yrs exp. handling every aspect of digital marketing.”

10. “Sales expert who can sell water to a fish. Passionate, competitive, effective. Challenges are my forte.”

What’s the Point of Describing Yourself in a Tweet?

Shakespeare always said “brevity is the soul of wit,” right?

Wrong. He said it once. But everyone remembers it because it was smart and pithy, and because he was Shakespeare.

They hardly even remember the fact that Shakespeare probably didn’t write his own stuff or was a pseudonym for multiple different authors or something.

It turns out that there are lots of good reasons that you should be able to describe yourself in relatively few words:

• Easy elevator pitch.For one thing, it helps you speed up your elevator pitch. It gets easier to describe yourself quickly the more often you do it.

• Delivers your best qualities. It also helps you develop that pitch into something worthwhile. The smaller amount of space you have to work with, the more details about yourself you end up having to cut — until finally, you’re left with the most important details a hiring manager ought to know about you.

• Useful for multiple platforms. LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media websites are quickly becoming a way that people make connections and find jobs.

  All of these websites require personal bios, and these are tough to write effectively if you don’t have any practice at talking about yourself in a small amount of space.

What Type of Answers Do Employers Look for in “Describe Yourself In a Tweet”?

When they ask you to describe yourself in a Tweet, employers want to know what you feel are the most important takeaways of yourself as an applicant.

When describing yourself in 140 words or less, you won’t be able to say everything that you’d like — you’ll have to pick a few things that you believe speak the most about you as a person and employee and word it in a fun, creative way.

Employers want to know something about you that is interesting, that will make you a good fit for their company, and more than anything else, something that is true about you. Don’t change yourself just to write something more “interesting” for a Tweet. Write about what makes you, you.

Hiring managers and recruiters want to know about your accomplishments and qualifications. They’re equally interested in your career goals and dream job.

As a job seeker, don’t limit yourself to what you’ve always done for a job. Think about what you want from a new job, and briefly express why you’re the perfect person to hire.

140 Character Resume FAQs

1. What does 140 characters mean?

   140 characters means 140 individual letters, punctuation marks, and sometimes spaces. This usually ends up as about 20 to 50 words.

2. How do you introduce yourself in 140 characters?

   You introduce yourself in 140 characters by mentioning two to five of your best or most interesting qualities quickly. When asked to describe themselves in 140 characters, some people use other methods such as rhyme or unique word choices to add personality to their description.

   This can help round out their description of themselves and make it more memorable without using up precious character space.

3. How do I write about myself as a student?

   When you’re writing about yourself as a student, mention your educational and career goals as well as applicable extracurriculars. If you have had any internships, you can mention those too.

   All in all though, hiring managers want to hear about your qualifications just as much as they do your accomplishments, so focus on your soft skills and any technical skills you’ve been trained in already.

Final Thoughts

That’s all for this one! But keep one thing in mind:

You only have room to bring up 2-5 points about yourself, so the pressure is on for you to make sure that they’re as interesting as possible.

That is to say that people should know about your personal interests — they help you stand out — but if the first thing they see about you in a job-related setting is “loves Steven Universe,” then even the most diehard cartoon fan might think twice about you.

Just something to keep in mind, is all.

Best of luck Tweeting your 140-character resume!

Author

Ryan Morris

Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.