It’s fine to describe the responsibilities you had at previous jobs on your resume, but talking about your duties is not nearly as powerful as talking about the specifics of what you actually accomplished in those roles. Doing that can give your resume a serious boost.
Photo by Kokoroe EdTech.
Actions speak louder than words, especially on a resume. Nelson Wang, the founder of CEO Lifestyle and the VP of Partnerships at Toptal, explains at Quora:
That’s great that you worked in sales, but how much did you actually sell?
- Example #1: My role was to focus on generating sales with clients
- Example #2: I was the #1 salesperson on my team and I generated over $4.5M in revenue and 110 per cent Year over Year growth.
- Verdict: #2 outshines #1. Hands down.
If you’re having a hard time describing your results and framing your strengths, use this formula recommended by Google. Basically, your feats should flow like this, “I accomplished X, relative to Y, by doing Z.” The more specific you can be when describing how awesome you are the better.
Nelson Wang’s answer to “How do I build a strong resume?” [Quora]
Comments
One response to “Strengthen Your Resume By Keeping The Focus On Results”
I’ve seen this advice several times and I had two issues with it: First, it only helps a small percentage of the population. For every “#1”, “top” or “best” in any given team, there are several other people that are, by principle, not, no matter how good they are. Second, it applies only to a rather small category of jobs with quantifiable results. A designer, architect, sandwich hand, cleaner, teacher or doctor cannot say things like that.
Hi pilgrim, I agree it’s not easy for some professions to frame their resume along these lines but it can be done. For teachers, for example, analysis of things like NAPLAN and Year 12 results can provide powerful evidence of how good a teacher really is. Thank you letters from students and parents, press clips mentioning or quoting the teacher, award citations and so on can also be powerful, although there are obviously limits on how much can fit in a resume (this is where a brag book for interviews is handy). All the best, Anon