Hiring authorities of reputable companies usually have loads of resumes and CVs to review. As a result, they don't want to waste their time reading the documents that they know don't display the skills and qualifications required for the company. This makes the job of the candidates tougher when they sit down to write their resume and cover letter. They have to know exactly what the employer is looking for and they should show it in the application documents. In other words, if a hiring manager can see that you didn't work on your resume it is likely it will never get fully read at all. If you didn't care much. why should a hiring manager?
Resume Accomplishments, Not Responsibilities
If your resume or CV has good formatting and design and contains only relevant information it still may not be enough to grant you an interview let alone employment. The problem with most resumes is that they fail to demonstrate what you have accomplished during your professional career. Most job seekers choose the easier way listing generic job responsibilities for their positions (often copy-pasting from different online resources) instead of focusing on achievements. There is a great difference between what you did at your previous workplaces and what you have accomplished. And the hiring authorities can see this difference very quickly. HR managers are looking for workers who already achieve specific results. Moreover, if you have over 10 years of experience with no achievements it might be a bad sign for the hiring authorities.
Obviously, different kinds of jobs would assume different accomplishments. But the question remains: what sort of accomplishments HR managers want to see on my resume? The best way to present your accomplishments is through reportable numbers. Using specific numbers will help you focus on the results rather tasks, which will be highly appreciated by most company representatives. As we have already mentioned, the kind of numbers will be different depending on where you worked. For example, if you worked as a department manager you could mention how successful the operation of the department was (in specifics of course). If you supervised a number of employees it may be a good start to demonstrate your responsibility. Most of the companies are involved in sales and if your previous jobs have any relation to that your most valuable accomplishments could be the percentage of increased sales. You would probably agree that "selling products to customers" and "increased sales by 34%" sound very differently.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Our team has prepared the list of questions you should ask yourself, which should help you identify your accomplishments.
- Did you contribute to the sales increase, revenue growth, customer satisfaction growth? How?
- Did you do anything that has resulted in efficiency or productivity increase?
- Did you expand the customer database?
- Did you initiate any new ideas or processes that helped the company somehow?
- Were you entrusted to work with a budget (what amount?)?
These are only general questions that could be asked to most job seekers. However, job hunters have to be flexible and specific in terms of their professional experience and accomplishments. Check this article on how you can turn your responsibilities into accomplishments.
