The JobSync Blog
Turning Resume Duties into Accomplishments
February 1, 2012
At JobSync, we often stress the need to highlight achievements on your resume. Recruiters and hiring managers ultimately want to know not what duties you can perform for their companies but what you can achieve for them. And your resume is your first and possibly last chance to convey a record of accomplishments to potential employers.
Surprisingly, most resumes list only duties, and too many candidates feel infusing their resumes with certain buzzwords is all they need to dress things up a bit. Unless one works in sales, it’s sometimes difficult to quantify the impact one’s duties had on one’s company’s operations. Recently, the Dailymuse.com featured a helpful article on this subject. The piece included a useful list of questions to help one rethink one’s duties, and by answering those questions with as many possible facts and figures, you can start to transform your duties into achievements. These questions include:
• What did I do that was above and beyond my normal job duties?
• How did I stand out among other employees?
• Was I ever recognized by a supervisor for a job well done? When and why?
• Did I win any awards or accolades?
• What new processes did I implement to improve things?
• What problems did I solve?
• Did I ever consistently meet or exceed goals or quotas?
• Did I save the company money?
• What made me really great at my job?
After you answer each of these questions and supplement them with facts and figures, indicate on your resume the impact this had on your department and/or company.
For instance, say you are an engineering manager of a product line who implements the “Just in time” (JIT) production strategy for your company. JIT reduces in-process inventory and the cost of holding that inventory, so when highlighting your managerial responsibilities, you should add how much money you saved your company by incorporating JIT.
By turning your duties into achievements, you can help increase the chances that your next achievement will be getting that great-fitting job!
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