How to Make a Minor Accomplishment into a Major Resume Success

One key to writing a winning resume is listing your accomplishments in such a way that the hiring manager simply has to talk to you (at which point you wow him with your stunning interview). In order to do this, you need to write in a way that enhances the perception of what you've done. No, I'm not saying you should lie. In fact, I'd say that you should never lie as it's likely you'll be caught. But you can write down your accomplishments in the best light possible to get you the interview you want.

On page 28 of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success (a book I liked very much), the author details this principle in action with the following story:

My twenty-one-year-old brother, Erik, worked summers at Blockbuster Video where, predictably, none of the mostly teenaged employees followed company rules. In a fit of productivity my brother rearranged the displays to be in line with the standards sent from company headquarters. At the same time, store sales increased 10 percent. So (as the family resume writer) I wrote on his resume, "Assumed responsibility for in-store marketing and increased sales 10 percent."

She goes on to say that her brother left this in his resume, was prepared to and ultimately supported it in interviews (see my link above -- I told you to practice interviewing, then you'd be smooth when you explain accomplishments like this), and got a job at an investment bank.

Now he could have written something like this:

"Did what I was told to do."

But how many resume reviewers would get excited by that? Virtually none, if any. But "Assumed responsibility for in-store marketing and increased sales 10 percent" is a winner. It shows initiative, leadership, and the ability to generate results -- something most employers are looking for.

Both "Did what I was told to do" and "Assumed responsibility for in-store marketing and increased sales 10 percent" are accurate and tell what happened. Both are true. The only difference is one is compelling and sheds good light on the interviewee, while the other will put your resume in the slush pile.

So do some creative writing lessons and apply them to your resume. Make it sparkle with accomplishments that force recruiters to ask you for an interview. Then, practice your interview, wow them, and move your career up the next rung towards your goals.

Comments

[Luke]

Similarly, one can state a more tangible accomplishment, but omit some context. For instance, I once managed a computer sales department in a college bookstore. On my resume I stated "sales increased 300% during my tenure!" What I didn't add was that this was right at the beginning of Apple's Macintosh boom and I was riding a nation-wide wave of computers entering college life.

I was happy to be upfront about that in interviews though, and when it came up it never seemed remotely like a confession but rather an interesting facet of the experience.

[plonkee]

This is excellent advice. Just because it wasn't that much work, doesn't mean it isn't significant. In this case the fact that he took it on himself when other people couldn't be bothered is quite important.

[TV Girl]

This is great advice, but I've never been able to figure out how to make such statements on my resume because the effects of my job aren't quantifiable. If you work in sales, you can measure how much the sales went up or down, but what if your job is creative? The effects of my job are more on quality than quantity, so how do I state that in a measurable way on a resume? Anyone have any thoughts?

[FMF]

TV Girl --

What sort of job do you have?

[Matt B.]

This is very very true. I had a buddy who sought guidance on how to make his resume more impressive. He had worked throughout college as a busboy which in it of itself doesn't seem like a very impressive resume builder. However there are certain skills that you can obtain from working such a job and you need to emphasize them. He was promoted to head busboy and was in charge of managing the other busboys. That is definitely something to make known and I helped him word it well enough to at least get his foot in the door for some interviews.

[Robin]

It's interesting because although you say to not lie, there are many different forms of presenting the truth. There's slanting, embellishing and highlighting.

Moreover, one of your guests suggested an alternate form of lying, "lying by omission."

It's intriguing that many hiring managers are extremely suspect of ALL resumes. They believe every resume contains lies, that they show no vulnerabilities. Even the most honest resumes have been second guessed.

Now if employers ever one day decide to test for actual job competence, the lying would stop. However, the truth is many employers have no idea what they're looking for and what it takes to do a job. So we have these coping techniques like the use of numbers to make it all seem real -- thanks!