Students Of Success

In the midst of hundreds, if not thousands, of résumés
recruiters and employers receive for any given position, your
résumé needs to stand out from the crowd. You must make the
Hiring Manager want to read your résumé more thoroughly than
just the rudimentary 10-20 seconds the vast majority of your
competition will warrant. The way to do this is by designing an
accomplishment driven résumé.

What makes a résumé that is focused on achievements so
effective? Most job seekers tend to list their responsibilities
of their past and current positions. While this may be
important, it should not necessarily be the focus of your
document. The higher level the position you are seeking, the
more crucial the accomplishment aspect of your résumé. You need
to provide proof of the results you were able to achieve with
the implication that you can bring the same, if not better,
results to your future employer.

Say for instance, you are a CPA. Your current résumé states
things such as “Control accounting activities”, and “Invest and
manage cash activities”. What does that really say about your
abilities? How does that differentiate you from all of the other
CPAs out there applying for the same job as you? It doesn’t. You
need to show the potential employers what you can bring to their
organization. Now is the time to brag. How have you improved a
company’s bottom line? Have you spearheaded any projects that
resulted in increased revenue, company savings, or employee
morale? That’s the kind of information that Hiring Managers seek
out amongst the résumé clutter.

Your résumé is your own personal sales pitch. Keywords are an
integral part of that pitch. While you are describing your
accomplishments, be sure to use powerful keywords to signify the
importance and magnitude of those feats. It is not the time to
be modest. Use strong action verbs that really drive home what
you’re trying to say. Use industry terms, where appropriate, if
you are seeking a job similar to your current position. The
company will understand this terminology and be relieved to know
that you are competent enough to comprehend them as well.

Another significant part of an accomplishment driven résumé is
the format. Do not clump your achievements and responsibilities
together. You can write an overview of your responsibilities in
a paragraph and then highlight your accomplishments with
bullets. You don’t want to have everything in a paragraph, and
likewise, not everything in a bullet format. You must draw the
reader’s eye to the important parts that you really want to
sell. If everything looks the same, nothing will stand out.

Using these techniques, you are on your way to writing an
accomplishment driven, extremely effective résumé. Your
potential employers will not only see what you have achieved in
the past, but what you could offer them in the future.