Writing a resume that achieves the WOW factor when it lands on the reader’s desk will require you to showcase your accomplishments. If successful, you will earn an interview.
The document must show your value and make you stand out. That is why you must find your success stories when writing a resume. The best way to set yourself apart from the competition is to highlight your relevant accomplishments from past professional positions.
Some of these accomplishments may quickly spring to mind—such as boosting sales by 20%, eliminating employee absenteeism, or organizing a company-wide retreat. Dig deep, and I am sure you will discover additional job achievements to list in your resume.
How to Uncover Relevant Accomplishments When Writing Resumes
The key to unlocking hidden career accomplishments is asking questions you may or may not hear in an interview. Address issues in-depth and think hard about how you as a professional have performed during each specific past role. Start by looking at your duties and responsibilities.
How did you perform your regular duties? Did you ever go above and beyond? Were you reliable? Did others depend on you for answers and results? Did you institute any changes or improvements to your department or specific operations? Pinpointing everything you did for your past companies is essential in marketing yourself for your next employer.
Next, assess your leadership. Did you take the lead on any special projects or tasks? Did you present the findings to management or your team? Did you hire, train or mentor any employees? If so, what were the results?
Though these achievements do not have any numbers or statistics attached, they are still triumphs you must showcase. They show your leadership, presentation, and training skills, which are all in high demand.
When writing resumes, you need to pinpoint your quantifiable results if you are in a position that leads to these statistics.
For instance, if you increase sales by a certain percentage, you need to know that figure as it will make the accomplishment stand out and be all the more impressive for potential employers.
Writing Resumes to Get Results – Potential Quantifiable Achievements May Include
• Did you increase sales, and if so, by how much?
• Did you decrease expenditures? If so, by what dollar amount or percentage of the budget?
• Did you assume new responsibilities that were not part of your job?
• Did you receive any individual awards or recognition from your company or peers?
• Did you introduce any new or more effective techniques or methods? If so, describe them and the definite increase in productivity or sales they resulted in.
• Were you able to mentor new employees or colleagues? Did these individuals succeed in their positions or move up the company ladder?
• Have you pioneered and implemented any methods, projects, or systems? What were the results?
And the list goes on. The key is to analyze all aspects of your job responsibilities and discover what makes you different from (and better than) the other candidates. Assess what you have achieved daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Ask yourself how your past performance and track record have improved the company.
Even though you may not be looking for a new job right away, it is a good idea to keep track of all your work-related accomplishments, no matter how big or small you think they are, as they could be significant to someone else.
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