Does your resume project you as an achiever?
In today’s competitive job market, where qualifications and work experience of a candidate are often on par, it is achievements that make a candidate stand out from the rest. The importance of packaging your resume right, so as to project yourself as a result oriented candidate, cannot therefore be underestimated. Here are three quick ways to turn your resume around - from that of a normal candidate to one who is achievement oriented.
Convert work responsibilities to achievements:
One of the smartest ways to do this is to make use of power verbs, even when you talk about work responsibilities, thus converting them into achievements. What I mean by power words and how these make a difference is demonstrated below:
Before : Responsible for sales in North region.
After: Spearheaded sales of entire North region.
See how changing the word “responsible for” to an action verb “spearheaded” makes so much difference to the image conveyed. If a resume only details responsibilities, it is merely telling the recruiter what you were supposed to do – and not what you actually did.
Make sure your daily responsibilities are delineated with powerful action words as: led, initiated, spearheaded, controlled, accelerated, attained, conceptualized, conducted, devised, directed, drafted, executed, enhanced, established, ensured etc.
These words effectively portray you as a person in action, thus leaving a positive impact. When you talk about how your work achieved something rather than was just something you handled, you project yourself as a candidate who takes initiative and responsibility at work, rather than one who simply does what has to be done
Delineate how well you discharged responsibilities
It is important for you to give the recruiter a sense of how well you handled your job. To do this – again you need to use more than just ‘responsible for’ as delineated in the example below:
Before: Responsible for MIS interface in the company
After: Interfaced with MIS to develop technology enhancements to facilitate new markets and better serve existing client base.
In the first there is no clarity in the recruiter's mind as to how effectively you handled the responsibility. In the second the use of the word “interface” shows you as an action-oriented candidate. The addition of what you achieved by this interface shows the contributions you have made - and therefore in the recruiter’s mind the contributions you can be expected to make in the future.
Though we are pretty quick at putting together a basic resume with contact details, an objective, a synopsis, work experience, extra-curricular and other information. Where we most often get stuck is at the point where we need to talk about actual contributions we made.
Yet the key element of a powerful resume is the 'evidence' that you will live up to your value proposition – and this evidence lies in the vital stats, that is, quantifiable facts and figures or results obtained, that substantiate your earlier words as an achiever and a doer.
How to quantify your achievements
Whether you are in HR, editorial, technical, administration or marketing, you can always quantify results if you put thought to it. Here are some questions to help you look at your achievements - keeping numbers in mind...
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Shailja Shah Purohit heads content for Shine.com and has been a content writer for almost 10 years now. Her career articles also feature regularly in Shine Weekly - career supplement of Hindustan Times (India's major English daily. She also heads Shine Resume services
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