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:
- If you must write out a task, ask yourself, “What did this result in?”
- Who was involved, what happened, why did it happen, how did it happen and what was your role in this activity?
- If the above steps don’t work, ask yourself, “So what?” What is so special about this activity?
- Looking at your job, what have been your major accomplishments?
- 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?
