Resume Writing: Define Your Accomplishments

I am working with wonderful client who is looking for a new position preferably inside his current company.  He hasn’t had to write a resume in eight years and has found out that much has changed in the world of resume writing.  He also has a lot more competition than he would have had in 2005.

The major area where this client and others have stumbled is defining their contribution(s) to the organization. When I ask them to specifically let me know their accomplishments, they usually send me a laundry list of their tasks.  This may shed some light on what they do on a day-to-day basis, but it does not showcase any of their successes and everyone has had some type of success on the job.  This is what I ask them:

1. If you must write out a task, ask yourself, “What did this result in?”
2. Who was involved, what happened, why did it happen, how did it happen and what was your role in this activity?
3. If the above steps don’t work, ask yourself, “So what?” What is so special about this activity?
4. Looking at your job, what have been your major accomplishments?
5. Pull out or think back on past performance appraisals and look for your accomplishments.

Today’s job seeker is competing with many others and first-rate positions are very hard to come by.  A well written resume that can answer the question, “Can this employee do a similar, excellent job for us?” is the first step to getting in the door for an interview.  Why take a chance?