Most of my client engagements result in having to work on their résumé. Even though I exhort that their résumé is not a chronology of their jobs and past work, very few understand its import. I then tell them that their résumé must showcase their leadership stories that clearly show their ACCOMPLISHMENTS. When this statement puzzles them I quickly point out to them the difference between oft-used items in their résumés that further confound them:
- Experience
- Responsibilities
- Assignments
- Tasks
- Role
- Outcomes
- Initiatives
- Accomplishments
Although each résumé must showcase ALL of these factors, most do not focus on their Accomplishments that showcase their leadership. What makes it worse and does them a great disservice is that, not knowing how to differentiate among these factors, they lump them all together as bullets under Professional Experience in their résumés. In addition to their accomplishments, Initiatives that they carry out on their own outside their assigned responsibilities are equally useful in punching up their résumé message.
In this blog I am going to show an example of each of these categories of items to make it clear to its readers what is most important in making your résumé meaningful to its ultimate reader (hiring manager).
- Experience: The dictionary defines experience as a state, condition, or event that consciously affects one; that fact or process of being so affected. So, unless something you did in your past created that affect it is not worth mentioning in your résumé. Merely stating that you worked at some employer for 12 years does not constitute a meaningful experience.
- Responsibilities are what you control. It is a charge, trust, or duty. “I was responsible for the delivery of the first product that the team built.” Unless you were a part of that team you cannot take credit for creating that outcome, just because you delivered it!
- Assignment is something that you take charge of when your boss orders you to do something as a part of your job. “I was assigned the task of counting the number of missed milestones during the past three years.”
- Tasks are something that define what you are supposed to do or undertake as a piece of work allotted to you as a part of your duty or job. “I was given the task of creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) for this large project.” Often it stems from you job description and does not warrant any credit as a statement of Accomplishment.
- Role is like an actor’s part in a play. In your job you are assigned different roles depending on what is needed. “I played the role of a proposal writer during the initial phases on this project.”
- Outcomes are the end results of your work that is measurable in some way. “I delivered a 12% increase in productivity with this new tool.”
- Initiative is something that you took lead on or first action to make something better. In other words you became a change agent. “I initiated a new approach to the development process that improved the product delivery cycle times.”
- Accomplishments must tell not just the outcomes, but the leadership story that puts them in the context to showcase who you are. Most résumé narratives reflect what you do, but if you are able to tell your leadership story of how you did that feat, it becomes an accomplishment of your leadership capability. In a résumé this is the most important gem that one must focus on. “Despite a severe downturn, uncovered three new opportunities by digging deeper in customers’ challenges that resulted in a 15% increase in revenues and 25% in profitability. Won the year’s Top Salesperson Award.”
Each of the eight elements discussed in this blog deserve a place on your résumé. But, only the Accomplishments and Initiatives deserve bullets in your chronology. The rest of these elements need a mention, perhaps as a part of your title and the company description. So, the next time you update your résumé change the heading Work Experience to Accomplishments Chronology and see the difference it makes in how it reads by following these guidelines.
Good luck!