In this 4-week blog series, I will break down each component of writing a marketing resume to provide practical tips on how to catch the employer’s attention, create interest in your abilities, and increase your chances for an interview.  This week, Part Two, discusses how to create a highlighted accomplishments section to strengthen your Summary Statement that you created previously.

RESUME WRITING BLOG SERIES

Part Two: Selected Accomplishments

In a marketplace that is highly competitive, an employer will be looking for people who can use their abilities to make money, save money or improve productivity.  If your resume does not represent you as clearly understanding that you are hired to impact the bottom line, it will not generate interviews for you.

After the Summary Statement that we discussed in Part One of the Resume Blog Series, you will be highlighting your key achievements and experiences that will catch the employer’s attention.  An employer is looking for your past performance to predict your future ability.  If you have examples of how you have achieved success for other companies, there is a good chance you will be able to do it again for their company. 

How do you define your selected accomplishments?

Think of a process that you initiated to speed up productivity, or a project that you were involved with.  Maybe you were given a reward at work for your hard work, or you were chosen to be a leader of something.  Perhaps you are involved with extracurricular activities at work, like the health and safety team, etc.

For example: If you are in a sales role, your accomplishment might be that you were named the number 1 sales rep in your territory after only 2 years of employment.

Start with your most recent position and write down as many accomplishments or contributions that you can think of.  No achievement is insignificant!  Repeat this for all of your positions listed on your resume, and once you’ve created a strong list, you can narrow it down to the ones that are specific to the job posting or position title that you are trying to achieve (approximately 5-7 bulleted examples).

Here are some questions you can use as guidelines to uncover your accomplishments:
• Did you initiate or complete a particularly challenging project?
• Were you in charge of budget management for a certain project or department?
• Did you receive recognition from a client, boss or colleague that you were particularly proud of?
• Were you chosen to work on a special committee or project due to your work ethic, personality, or experience?
• Did you come up with a solution to a problem that increased revenues, saved the company money, or saved the company time?
• Are you the person in your company that people go to for a specific expertise in knowledge or experience that you possess?

Once you’ve tailored your list, it’s important to quantify and support these accomplishments as much as possible.

In order to quantify, you will be thinking about:
• How many people were impacted by the project you were involved with/initiated?
• How much money you were responsible for?
• How large of a group/committee did you support?
• How many new clients did you reach through your efforts?
• How much money did you save the company through your efforts?

In order to support, you will be thinking about how each accomplishment:
• impacted the company, your team, your manager
• benefitted the company’s financial situation, quality of product, reputation
• supported overall organizational goals or mission

Example 1:
• Effectively managed event budgets

Example 2:
• Consistently administered and balanced program budgets of up to $30,000 for over 100 events annually

Which statement of accomplishment is more convincing or impressive to you?  This section is a place where you can demonstrate realistic and measurable examples of achievements you have that will set you apart from other people applying for the position.  Be specific, detailed and display what you have to offer!

Here are some great websites that offer more accomplishment-rich examples:
https://www.livecareer.com/quintessential/accomplishment-resume-samples
https://jobmob.co.il/blog/resume-achievement-writing-ideas-expressions/
http://textycafe.com/resume-accomplishments-examples/

In the next blog of this Resume Writing Series, Part Three, we’ll discuss the Employment History section of your resume. 

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“Be so good, they can’t ignore you!”  ~ Steve Martin