With thousands of resumes a recruiter receives a day for any position, it is important that your resume stands out. Your resume must make an impression on the Hiring Manager, making it interesting to read. You can do this by making sure that your resume is an accomplishment driven resume. A lot of job seekers indicate on their resume a list of their responsibilities from their previous and current jobs. Although this is important, one should remember that it should not always be the focus of your document. What your resume should focus on is your Achievements. If you are aspiring for a higher level position, it is more important to write down or list down your accomplishments related to the job you are applying for. You also need to show proof and results that you were able to achieve assuring the hiring manager that you can do the same for them, or make better results for them.
If you are a CPA, and your current resume has things like “Control accounting activities”, or “Invest and manage cash activities”. It does not really say anything about your abilities. It may be the same things the other CPA has written down on their resumes. What the employer or Hiring Manager should see and know are the things you can do for their organization. How you have become an asset with your previous employer, what you have achieved and accomplished. How you have handled a big project and made it a success. It is ok to brag about these things on your resume.
These are the kinds of information that your potential employer or the Hiring Manager should see, so your resume will stand out. You should remember that your resume advertising document, selling your skills. The important parts of your sales document are keywords. Use powerful keywords while describing your accomplishments it will show how important your qualities are. This is the time to set aside modesty. When appropriate, use industry terminology to show your knowledge. Using industry terms shows you are knowledgeable and competent enough to understand these terms, the employer will understand this term and they will be impressed. What you should remember to give importance to an accomplished driven resume is the format.
Separate achievements and responsibilities do not squeeze them together in one paragraph. It is advisable to write a summary of your responsibilities highlighting your accomplishments with bullets. Be creative do not put them all in a paragraph, use bullets. In doing this you attract the recruiter or employer on the important segments of your resume, it is important in order to sell your qualities and features. If it looks the same, and would just be like everyone else’s resume, it will not stand out.
Read our article on how to turn your responsibilities into accomplishments for more insight.
