What Have You Accomplished?

Do you understand the framework for an effective resume? In order to “get into the game,” you need to have a clean looking resume, which is the first step in getting your resume selected for ‘further examination.’ What the hire manager or anyone reading your resume will focus on next is your accomplishments or bullet points. How you write them can make the difference between your resume being picked or discarded at this level. 

The issues you develop for this section can take a lot of forms and I don’t have a strong preference. All I can say for sure is that they all need to be well written with no typographical errors. While they should be in some kind of order of importance, moving from most important to least important, they also should be of interest to your reader and effective in “selling you” into the jobs you find of interest. Using job posting is a good way to help you create an effective resume. It will help you write targeted bullet points, which aren’t job descriptions. They are accomplishments.

Look at job postings and if you think the posting is a good fit, see whether or not your resume is selling to the key ‘must haves’ outlined in the position descriptions. Underline the key words in each position description and try to find these same key words in your resume. If you can’t do it, reread your resume to determine if you have left out experiences that you felt where not as important or if you are just using the wrong language to describe what you have done. Words are important.

Go at this idea over and over again, especially when you are applying for specific jobs. Sometimes the unique language of an industry should be used, and other times a more general wording is more appropriate. Having resumes for different purposes is a good idea. If you feel you must know what resume you sent for a particular job, save your letter and the resume you sent on your hard drive. These days, storage is cheap.

Read your accomplishments to someone else and find out if they understand each one. If you find them restating what you just said, consider changing the language to make it read better. In resumes, less is always more. And, simple is best.

I had a discussion with a client about the job title of a position he was considering. The title was a little less than he wanted it to be. I suggested what he might accomplish in this new job would be of greater interest to a potential employer when he next changed jobs than his title. And so it is.

You get paid for what you finish. Measure your deeds and make them easy to repeat by those who might present your credentials. If you do, you will have accomplished a lot.

Regards, Matt