WII.FM Part 3: How to write bullet points for your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile

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Hi?everyone,

Welcome to the final installment of WIIFM! This is Part 3 of 3, and today we dive into the nitty gritty about how to write effective bullet points for your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile.

?WARNING: This message is long and very useful.?

Before I get into the details, let’s review the highlights from the previous two emails in this series. (You can read Parts 1 and 2 here).

JOB SEARCH MINDSET SHIFT

You are the entrepreneur of your career. You are the product and you are selling the product to target customers who are hiring managers and recruiters.?

Every good entrepreneur is tuned into WIIFM - “What’s In It for Me," and markets their product to speak to their target customers’ problems, wants, and needs.?Because people buy solutions, not products.?

As the job seeker, you must be tuned into WIIFM - who are the hiring managers and what do they want? What are their problems, wants, and needs, and how can you tailor your personal brand to speak to them? Last week’s email covered this in detail.?

??If you recall, we also talked about sharing the benefits of hiring you, instead of simply listing the features of your background. Show your experience through stories, rather than just talking about your skills.?

So let’s talk about how to find those stories and turn them into bullet points.?

STEP 1: FIND YOUR KEYWORDS

This step is crucial for your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t found your keywords yet, do this first.

1. Find 3-5 job listings that interest you. These can be aspirational jobs, something you would like to get in the future. You aren’t necessarily applying to these jobs, you’re just using the listing to pull out keywords and key phrases. Look for job descriptions with lots of content.?
2. Copy + paste the job descriptions into a new document. Highlight the keywords and key phrases from each job description. Look for words that describe the skills they’re looking for, the type of work you will be doing, and the type of person they are looking to hire.?
3. Copy + paste your highlights into a new document. You will see patterns emerge, such as “technical skills,” “teamwork/collaboration,” “communication,” etc… Organize your keywords and key phrases into these categories.?It’s okay if the phrases sound similar, now you have options to play with. Sometimes when you are working on a resume, cover letter, AND LinkedIn profile, you end up saying the same thing twice and you’ll be glad for an extensive list of phrases to pull from.?
4. Use online tools. There are several online resources to help you get a quick list of top keywords. Try the keyword tools from Resume Worded, SkillSyncer, or Jobscan.?WARNING: These tools can help, but they do not replace the copy + paste steps I mentioned above - you will get more valuable and in-depth information if you manually read the job descriptions and assemble your own keyword list.?

STEP 2: FIND YOUR STORIES

Now that you have your keywords and you know what your target customers want, find stories from your past experience that illustrate the keywords from the job descriptions. Think about your tasks, responsibilities, and outcomes from the last 10 years.

??Remember, you don’t have to be paid in order to have “experience.” Time spent in school or working as a volunteer absolutely qualifies as experience.?

Find stories that illustrate your keywords:

1. Successes, impact, when you made a difference
2. Issues you recognized and addressed
3. Opportunities you recognized and acted on?
4. Disasters you helped avoid or quickly clean up?
5. Problems you solved
6. Processes you improved
7. Situations when you reduced something: expenses/waste
8. Situations when you improved something: profits/workplace/morale
9. Times when you failed and the lessons you learned?
10. Other skills desirable by your target employers - what does the job require?

STEP 3: WRITE SAR STORIES

Alright, you’ve got your stories that illustrate your keywords, now it’s time to turn them into SAR stories. SAR stands for “Situation, Action, Result” and it’s an effective and efficient way to write your bullet points. (Incidentally, it’s also a great way to answer open-ended job interview questions like: “Tell me about …” “What do you do when …” “Give me an example of …”)

The SAR Method for Storytelling

1. SAR Method: Answer each point below using 1-2 sentences for each answer.Situation: Describe the situation you were in, the problem you needed to solve, and the challenge to overcome.Action: What did you do and how did you do it??Results: What were the outcomes and the impact (on the company/you)?
2. You should have a total of 3-6 sentences for each SAR story. This is a good start! We’re going to make it shorter soon. First, it’s time to find quantifiable measures.?

STEP 4: FIND QUANTIFIABLE MEASURES?

Quantifiable measures are numbers, percentages, metrics, data, or anything that will quantify and support your results.?

??Numbers are an important addition to your stories because they help illustrate your points. They measure your impact. They show, instead of tell, how you are an effective employee. Most of all, they help a hiring manager easily understand how you can help them if they hire you.?

How to Find Quantifiable Measures

1. Look at your SAR stories, especially the “results.”
2. Then, ask how many, how much, how long, how often?How many people did you manage, how much money did you make, how long did the project run, how often did you present to groups??If you saved money or time, that is an important quantifiable measure.
3. An estimate or range is okay, it doesn’t have to be precise.
4. You can get quantifiable measures out of nearly any job, even if your job is entirely soft skills and not easy to measure.?For example, say you were a mentor to at-risk teenagers. You can talk about how many teenagers you helped, how many hours you spent mentoring, or you can just roll it into the organization’s quantifiable measures … “Helping TeenagersToday reach 1,000 students per year.”?
5. If you are struggling to find quantifiable measures, read this helpful article about finding quantifiable measures.
6. Use ChatGPT for help too. Choose a SAR story and type in this prompt:“Please help me find quantifiable measures for bullet points for my resume based on the following story: [copy + paste your SAR story].”??

STEP 5: WRITE YOUR BULLET POINTS?

You made it! Now you’re ready to write effective bullet points for your resume, cover letters, and LinkedIn profile.?

SRA Stories?

Get your SAR stories and flip the order a bit. Now think of them as SRA stories: Situation, RESULT, Action. Take your SAR stories and rewrite them as SRA stories, adding quantifiable measures where you can.?

??Another way to think about your SRA stories:?

1. “I helped _____ achieve _____ by doing _____”
2. “Helped [situation] achieve [results] by doing [action].”

Make SRA Stories Shorter?

Now take your SRA stories and make them even shorter. BULLET POINTS PRO TIP: Drop the “Situation” and only focus on the “Results” and “Action.”?

REMINDER: Bullet points are short, impactful statements?

1. Aim for two sentences (three sentences if they’re short).
2. Start with a great action word. Find 400+ action words here, and more useful action words here.
3. Include keywords and key phrases whenever possible. You want your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile dripping in keywords.?
4. Do not include a “first” or “third” person, there is no person at all.?NO: “I was promoted to manager.” YES: “Promoted to manager.”??

Let’s look at examples. Let’s say you ran the social media accounts for a small business. Here are different ways you can handle those bullet points, from “Bad” to “Best”

1. BAD: “Handled the company’s social media accounts by posting content and interacting with followers.”?
2. GOOD: “Grew three social media accounts by posting regular content and interacting with 1,000+ followers.”
3. BETTER: “Revived three social media campaigns, boosting followers 200% and user engagement 400%.”
4. BEST: “Increased social media followers by 200% using viral marketing campaigns that boosted sales by 50%.” (This one is the best because it starts with the RESULT and includes keywords.)

???And that’s it! That’s how you write effective bullet points for your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile. You’ve just been handed the ultimate guide to refining your brand and attracting hiring managers and recruiters.?

Whew! This has been quite a journey and I’m proud of you for making it all the way through. This email is a doozy, so be sure you bookmark it and the other two emails in the series. And if you have any questions about writing bullet points for your brand, make a free 15-minute appointment, and let’s talk about it.?

To your success,

- Emily