When I teach classes on writing resumes, sometimes, to get a laugh out of the audience, I adopt a 'Ben Stein' tone (ala "Ferris Bueller's Day Off) to provide a dramatic example of how boring people's resumes can be: "I did this, and I did that, and that's that."
Yuck!
No one wants to read a dry boring resume and try to figure out the person behind the piece of paper. Which is all the more reason why you need to integrate a proactive, dynamic voice to this document!
The real key behind adding energy behind the words is to look for active voice words to start your accomplishment statements (under your employment experience). Starting off sentences with words like, "Engineered", "Conducted", "Transformed", "Spearheaded" or "Boosted" add that extra 'oomph' in your accomplishments. You can successfully frame your accomplishments around job duties, but tell the prospective employer what you did, how you did it and what the end result was to your previous employer.
Being grounded in how the work you did and results you obtained fit into the overall organizational impact. This shows your leadership and vision, and speaks directly to how you are able to grasp the big picture and deliver valuable outcomes to employers in terms that they understand.
Most for-profit companies want to know how you can make money, save money or save time. Non-profit organizations want to know how you can expand services, reach more people, expand fundraising streams and impact the constituency they serve. Conversely, government agencies focus on regulation, compliance and driving projects.
Your goal is to get at the root of what your target company is looking for, frame what you did in active voice terms, and build the VALUE of what you've accomplished.
This alone is of great value to employers, and demonstrates how much of an active asset you are to the prospective employer!
Showing posts with label accomplishments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accomplishments. Show all posts
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Résumés Are Not Obituaries
One of the most common mistakes I see in résumés is that the person has provided essentially a laundry list of what they did in a job.
Boooorrrrring!!
This might be suitable for European-style curriculum vitae and highly technical résumés which thrive on miniscule details, but American-style résumés have turned the corner from the mundane daily job tasks. They have become a valuable tool and key place to illustrate value to a prospective employer.
If there was ever a time for proverbial chest-thumping, this would be it. You HAVE to toot your horn, as you are the only person who is the 100% devoted advocate for yourself. No one else is ever going to do this for you, and you can’t assume that an interviewer is going to know all fabulous things that you’ve done unless you tell them!
How to put this into writing? Think ACTION (what did I do) and RESULT (how did it impact the employer’s bottom line or corporate objectives).
Here’s an example:
BEFORE:
• Assist with multi-state payroll processing bi-weekly
• Update employee changes for 15 company codes using ADP
• Prepare payroll reports for services auditors bi-weekly
• Assist human resources with open enrollment selection
AFTER:
Managed all aspects of payroll cycles, delivering accurate and timely payroll management for 150-900+ employees in a variety of corporate settings, including input of payroll data, human resources and benefit information, garnishments, expense reports, 401k elections, life/medical/flexible spending, direct deposits, employee bond purchases and workers compensation reporting. Within first week of employment, identified and corrected employee healthcare payments to pre-tax (instead of after-tax) deductions.
One of the things that came out of the client interview in this case were some of the actionable items that the person did. With the rephrasing, we created a better picture of what they did in terms of delivering a significant impact to the company.
See your résumé as a critical tool as to how employers perceive your value. They want to know what you did in your previous job and how you helped a previous company’s bottom line as a way to evaluate what you might be able to do for them.
By showcasing what you accomplished in an action-and-result format, you are creating a dynamic document rather than creating a static recitation of what your job entailed. Don't let your old résumé become your obituary!
Boooorrrrring!!
This might be suitable for European-style curriculum vitae and highly technical résumés which thrive on miniscule details, but American-style résumés have turned the corner from the mundane daily job tasks. They have become a valuable tool and key place to illustrate value to a prospective employer.
If there was ever a time for proverbial chest-thumping, this would be it. You HAVE to toot your horn, as you are the only person who is the 100% devoted advocate for yourself. No one else is ever going to do this for you, and you can’t assume that an interviewer is going to know all fabulous things that you’ve done unless you tell them!
How to put this into writing? Think ACTION (what did I do) and RESULT (how did it impact the employer’s bottom line or corporate objectives).
Here’s an example:
BEFORE:
• Assist with multi-state payroll processing bi-weekly
• Update employee changes for 15 company codes using ADP
• Prepare payroll reports for services auditors bi-weekly
• Assist human resources with open enrollment selection
AFTER:
Managed all aspects of payroll cycles, delivering accurate and timely payroll management for 150-900+ employees in a variety of corporate settings, including input of payroll data, human resources and benefit information, garnishments, expense reports, 401k elections, life/medical/flexible spending, direct deposits, employee bond purchases and workers compensation reporting. Within first week of employment, identified and corrected employee healthcare payments to pre-tax (instead of after-tax) deductions.
One of the things that came out of the client interview in this case were some of the actionable items that the person did. With the rephrasing, we created a better picture of what they did in terms of delivering a significant impact to the company.
See your résumé as a critical tool as to how employers perceive your value. They want to know what you did in your previous job and how you helped a previous company’s bottom line as a way to evaluate what you might be able to do for them.
By showcasing what you accomplished in an action-and-result format, you are creating a dynamic document rather than creating a static recitation of what your job entailed. Don't let your old résumé become your obituary!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Biggest Failure of Job Applicants: Not Mentioning Their Accomplishments
In a recent survey, many professional résumé writers cited the failure to outline the quantification of job applicant accomplishments as the number one problem with the résumés that they see.
Instead of providing a list of job duties, it is now necessary to show your value to prospective employers by providing specific examples of your top-line achievements. Think in terms of actions and then results of the successful projects that you've completed or been involved with in a team setting.
Look at this way: Employers want to know what your value proposition is as a prospective employee. What is it that makes you stand out over all the other similarly qualified applicants? And more importantly, they use this information to asseess what you are going to do for them.
It boils down to three simple things: Employers want to know if you made a company money, saved them money or saved them time. Or, if you are in the non-profit sector, that usually translates into have you increased program services, made more people aware, or broadened your fundraising base?
The key is to always show the value in the work that you've done. You should always keep a list of your accomplishments- a running tab, so to speak. And for those positions that are retroactive, going over previous performance reviews are a good source to find out the top-line achievements that make you stand out from an employer's standpoint.
If you position yourself as someone who is capable of having a significant positive impact on a company's bottom line, you've just made yourself stand head and shoulders over the competition, which will likely get you noticed and into an interview.
Instead of providing a list of job duties, it is now necessary to show your value to prospective employers by providing specific examples of your top-line achievements. Think in terms of actions and then results of the successful projects that you've completed or been involved with in a team setting.
Look at this way: Employers want to know what your value proposition is as a prospective employee. What is it that makes you stand out over all the other similarly qualified applicants? And more importantly, they use this information to asseess what you are going to do for them.
It boils down to three simple things: Employers want to know if you made a company money, saved them money or saved them time. Or, if you are in the non-profit sector, that usually translates into have you increased program services, made more people aware, or broadened your fundraising base?
The key is to always show the value in the work that you've done. You should always keep a list of your accomplishments- a running tab, so to speak. And for those positions that are retroactive, going over previous performance reviews are a good source to find out the top-line achievements that make you stand out from an employer's standpoint.
If you position yourself as someone who is capable of having a significant positive impact on a company's bottom line, you've just made yourself stand head and shoulders over the competition, which will likely get you noticed and into an interview.
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