In past blog posts, I have emphasized the need to describe, not job duties (which anyone in your position could perform), not merely skills (which anyone can acquire), but accomplishments. Hiring managers want to know what you did with your skills and how you approached your duties to benefit the companies you worked for in the past.
Yet, job hunters uniformly have difficulty with describing their accomplishments. The reasons are varied:
- They believe everything they do, even if it falls way beyond their job description, is all “part of the job.”
- Even if they are proud of their work, they have not received any recognition for their accomplishments at their current job and are convinced a future employer will also consider their accomplishments not worth mentioning.
- They believe accomplishments must include numbers like “increased sales to $1 million and ranked 3 out of 40 salespeople in customer satisfaction.” They do not realize that accomplishments can include coming up with new ideas, researching products and services, easing a boss’s workload, and many other items that cannot easily be measured.
- They worked as part of a team and are reluctant to claim any of the team’s achievements as their own.
If you recognize any of these attitudes as your own, contact me today. We will partner in giving you a resume that accurately describes the value you bring to a future employer.