How do you format your achievements section for readability and impact?

Action verbs are a great way to put life into your document. Some of my faves? -Accelerated -Boosted -Challenged -Masterminded -Revamped -Stabilized Action verbs and verb phrases help turn your career history into a story.

There are so many great action verbs that you can use. Some of my favorites include: Spearheaded Jumpstarted Elevated Lifted Strengthened Slashed Boosted

As Muhammad Ali use to say "It isn't bragging, if you can back it up!" Adding those proof metrics takes what could be construed as a brag into a believible value add. #KeepRockingLinkedIn! Kevin On a Mission to Eliminate Organizational & Personal Blanding?

Using numbers and percentages in your resume draws the eye's attention. So, when you want to help your accomplishments stand out, use them when you can. Take this sentence, for example: "Grew sales and pipeline in the first year." Now read this one: "Transformed the company’s premier direct sales approach into a robust, partner-first model. Grew pipeline 78% in Y1 and 255% in Y2, with Y3 forecasted at 323%, resulting in unrivaled bookings attainment YoY and increasing market share..." See the difference? You generate more interest with eye-grabbing numbers and percentages.

When compiling numbers to use in your resume, consider larger spans of time. For example, how much revenue growth, profitability, headcount, savings, etc. did you support from the start to the end of a specific role? If you've been in that role for several years, the number may be quite significant and can better show the overall impact and value you brought to that organization.

Numbers catch the reader's eye, so estimate results and show how you have delivered impact in your previous roles. This gives the reader context so that they can better envision how you can immediately step in and add value.

There are lots of great ways to highlight a skill set. One of the easiest is a simple keyword list after your Career Summary. Create two or three columns and add three keywords each in those columns. It's an easy way to list your most important keywords.

We use something similar called the CAR method: Challenge, Action, Results. - What was the Challenge? - What Action did you take to resolve or change it? - What were the Results? This method helps detail your story and breathe life into it.

Start your bullet points with a unique Action Verb that puts you in the power seat, then tell them what you did, succinctly, that no one else could do (that's the real definition of an achievement) and end it in a solid proof metric. When someone scans you resume (and they do before they decide to read it or not) what they will see is Action & Proof all they way through your resume. Before they even read deeper, they have already decided that you make things happen and can prove it. Half the battle has been won. Put the psychology of how and what makes people devour your content to your best use. #KeepRockingLinkedIn! Kevin On a Mission to Eliminate Organizational & Personal Blanding?

Some of my executive clients will have 6+ bullet points in a role (especially if they've been in a role for a long period of time). In that case, I will classify the bullet points and show them under headers. Examples include: Demonstrated Sales Growth Fortune 500 Customer Service Trusted Relationship Building

Have another set of eyes review your documents. They will be able to see what you might have missed. It's normal to stare at your document for so long that you don't see the typo staring back at you. If it's an actual word spellcheck won't catch it ("manger" vs. "manager"). Ask a friend or colleague (or two!) to review it.

Absolutely agree with Erin Kennedy. A few qualified eyes can identify issues that we can't see, as we've become to close to the content. Part of the success of making the extra eyes work for you is to focus them on finding mistakes as apposed to challenging them to make your resume better. When bringing others in, isn't practical, I like to use a Text Reader so that I can hear what I've written. Separating our content processing from the visual, which has a tendency to allow us to read between the lines, can really give us a new perspective. You can even, pause, adjust and replay that bit back, to get a little closer to perfection. #KeepRockingLinkedIn! Kevin On a Mission to Eliminate Organizational & Personal Blanding?

A strong way to write accomplishments is ARTA. Achieved x Result by Taking x Action. As always quantify and use verbs aligned with the target role.

These sections can grow cumbersome over time as our achievements and experiences increase. It is good to triage the items to suit what entries best fit out current professional goals. This also will help us be succinct in what is added and not overwhelm the reader.