In my role as a career coach, I deal with dozens of people every week who are entering job search mode. Generally their job has been made redundant and they now find themselves 'between jobs'and looking to find their next great role.
The process of starting job search usually involves updating or creating a contemporary resume as the requisite base collateral to undertake search. If you have a great resume, you have an effective cornerstone for all aspects of job search including networking, LinkedIn profiles and interviewing to name a few.
The one key ingredient that is often missing from resumes are quantifiable achievements.
Achievements represent factual information that succinctly outlines the contributions made - and therefore skills possessed - by the individual. In around 40% of the resumes I see, either resumes are totally devoid of achievements or have them hidden among a long list of responsibilities. Very often the achievement is too 'wordy' thereby presenting the reader with too much information to read in too little time (based on most resume readers only spending 15-30 seconds skimming the resume at first perusal). Think about responsibilities as 'what you did in the job'and achievements as specific examples of'how well you did your job'.
As I work with clients to develop their resume, I usually challenge them to come up with 3-5 achievements that they can include under each of their more recent roles. This is often a difficult task. Why? Are our memories that bad? No, but the dynamic of corporate lifeis such that wefinish one thing and move onto the next. There's little time for rumination or self-congratulations. Some clients actually verbalise that they 'don't have any achievements'. One of my learned coaching colleagues often challenges this by saying, 'So there's nothing you are proud of in this role?' This is a rhetorical statement of course, as we have all contributed in specific ways in our jobs, however, we often can't immediately recollect what these achievements are...
I once worked with a gentleman who drove a forklift in a warehouse. He was convinced that in his lowly role (his view) he had no achievements and that he came to work, did what he needed to do and went home. As I challenged him on this view, we ultimately came up with several achievements one of which related to his ensuring the warehouse he worked in being completely injury-free during his tenure, or more specifically, 'Ensured the cleanliness and orderliness of the warehouse thereby resulting in zero lost time injuries or other safety incidents.'
So how do you excavate such achievements from the deep recesses of your brain? Well, it takes some effort, but of course it's worth it if our resume allows usto attend more interviews and potentially land that great job.
I suggest the following when trying to identify achievements:
- Think about any specific recognition you've received and what it was for. Not just any recognition, but something significant (e.g. Employee of the quarter; Directors' Award and the like).
- Refer to old emails and find those that congratulate you for something special or where performance for a specific task has been lauded.
- If you've kept old copies of performance reviews, see what positive comments have been made by your manager and others.
- Speak to ex-managers or other key stakeholders. It's amazing how often they recall things we have forgotten, probably because they monitor and evaluate our contributions on a regular basis both formally and informally.
- Use various prompts as you think about each of your recent roles. Did you save money? Sign a big account? Develop a new procedure? Participate on a successful project team? Selected to take on a new responsibility?
- Italsohelps to think about your objectives or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you were accountable for during this period as well. For example, you mayhave smashed one or more measures out of the park...That's an achievement!
Jot down what you recall of each achievement and then write it out so that it has sufficient information for the reader to grasp what it is you've done and the result of same. The result is key. Try to quantify this by using $, % or #'s. Not only does this give some scope or scale to the achievement, but it also draws the readers eye in when they are skimming over your resume.
Keep the achievement statement to less than 2 or 2.5 lines, otherwise it becomes a paragraph and less likely to be read by the beleaguered resume reader (who may have another 10, 50 or 100 resumes to review).
Here are some examples of strongachievement statements:
Developed an automated inventory management system for 5 job sites that saved $100K.
Selected by executive management to lead a customer experience project team that ultimately resulted in customer satisfaction scores improving from 2.5 to 4.4 in a 12 months period.
Promoted to manager following the successful closure of the organisations largest account that was over 50% greater in value than the next largest account.
You get the idea!
So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking and start to develop your achievement statements as the foundation for an effective job search! You may also want to start a process whereby you review your resume once or twice a year and add achievements while they are fresh in your mind. Good luck!
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I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, 'Fired to Hired, The Guide to Effective Job Search for the Over 40s' is available now on Amazon, BooktopiaandFishpond among others. If you've lost your job or are in a job you don't like and are aged over 40, this book is for you. It's an easy-to-read, no-nonsense and practical approach to 21st century job search for the mature worker.
In the meantime, feel free to review some of my other posts (below) or to visit my website www.thecareermedic.com
Other posts by Paul:
