Focused résumé gets results

May 31, 2012|By Ramsey Penegar | CareerBuilder guest contributor

What seems more interesting: a laundry list of all the menial daily tasks and functions you performed at each and every job OR well-written, action statements illustrating the impact of your accomplishments?

For example, a receptionist or executive assistant résumé may state ”I answered the phones” OR “Monitored and managed more than 1,500 weekly telephone calls from customers, vendors, media, and contractors for 750 staff members for largest architectural firm in New Jersey.”

An example for a sales manager may be: ”Hired, managed, and trained sales representatives” OR ”Recruited, hired, managed, mentored, and motivated more than 120 sales representatives to develop customer service and sales skills resulting in more than $1.5 million in sales revenue.”

An interview-landing résumé doesn't just tell what you did or know how to do (task-oriented), it illustrates how well you did those things (accomplishment oriented). Recruitersand hiring managers want to know and see hardcore facts, figures, numbers. This type of information should be indicative of your entire career, not just job by job.

From your résumé, the hiring manager already has a general idea of the tasks and responsibilities involved in the jobs you have held. What he or she wants to know is how your skills and experience impacted the bottom line for the company. The recruiting manager wants to know what the job seeker has done to enhance operations, boost revenues, bolster profits, decrease operating costs, improve business processes, save time, increase productivity, and or advance technologies.

An accomplishment oriented résumé is what sells the reader on your personal and professional value. Rather than a laundry list of daily duties, functions, and job responsibilities, this type of résumé demonstrates, in writing, how your expertise in doing those tasks benefited the company.

An easy formula for this is AARQ (“Ark”):

• Action – What was the action you took or initiated to make a difference in results?
• Accomplishments & Results – What did your actions accomplish at the end of the project, year, etc?
• Quantify – Now incorporate the numbers and statistics into your story by quantifying the resulting impact on the company

Here’s an example from a recent client:

• What action did you take? Managed revenue budget.
• What was the result of this action? Exceeded revenue goals and increased revenue.
• Can you quantify the action or result? Managed $77 million revenue budget, exceeded revenue goals, increased revenue by 38%

You then take all of that and put it on your résumé as such:

• Managed $77 million revenue budget for third party marketing products, continually exceeded revenue goals, and steered 38% revenue growth.

It can be really easy to bolster your résumé by turning your tasks into bottom-line driven, powerful achievements that will catch the reader’s attention. A company is concerned with their bottom line so speak their language and illustrate your experience as it relates to them. Use your résumé as a tool to convey your value to the prospective employing company and expect more interviews in the future.