How to Write an Achievement Oriented Resume

How to Write an Achievement Oriented Resume Accomplishments for Resumes How to Include AchievementsSeptember 23, 2019 By Mark Slack, CPRW Learning how to write an achievement-oriented resume will help you land mora interviews. Read our guide closely, and youll be well on your way to writing your own.Build My Resume NowMany people ansturm into trouble when writing the details of the work experience section on a resume. Commonly, the work experience section is made up of a bullet point list of duties and responsibilities relating to each work position. However, in order for your resume to stand out, the details of your work experience section should ideally start with a powerful action verb, as well as using numbers to quantify your accomplishments.1. Use Action VerbsWhen writing the work experience, always begin your bullet point details with strong resume words. A powerful action verb places you as an initiator of action, which leaves a positive impression on the reader. Rather than beginning a description with a passive-sounding description such as Worked on creative projects to teach children, it is better to start off using an action verb such as Designed and implemented a creative arts curriculum for elementary school children.Try to avoid starting off descriptions with Responsible for and instead, use action verbs such as managed, implemented, or developed. TipFor a complete list of action verbs (as in over 1,000 words) view the Longest Action Verb List In The Universe.2. The PAR MethodTheres a simple formula that any job seeker can follow to construct accomplishment-oriented bullet points. Its called the PAR Method, whichstands for problem, action, and results. When applied to your resume, the Par Method encourages you toProblemIdentify a responsibility or issue at workAction Discuss how you addressed the problemResults What welches the outcome of that actionWhile that may sound like a lot to fit into one bullet point,youll be surprised out how easy PAR can be implemented into your bullet points. Check out the examples belowDeveloped new filing and organizational practices, saving the company $3,000 per year in contracted labor expensesSuggested a new tactic to persuade canceling customers to stay with the company, resulting in a 5% decrease in cancellationsNotice that the problem, action, and result does bedrngnis always need to be placed in the same order. Now that you have a better understanding of the structure of an accomplishmentbullet point, lets discuss how you can apply it to your own professional experience section.3. Quantify Your AccomplishmentsEmployers want to see workers who can achieve solid results, and results are best stated in terms of reportable numbers. How many employees did you work with or oversee? By what percentage did you increase sales or efficiency? How much of a budget did you work with, with what font of results? Putting a number on your accomplishments is a sure way of conveying results and impress ing the hiring manager.Hiring managers like to see quantifiable achievements rather than a list of general descriptions of job responsibilities.By using numbers in detailing your work experience, you are demonstrating your focus as being results-oriented rather than task-oriented. For example, compare Responsible for selling products to customers at XYZ Store to Increased sales revenue by 30% in three months. Which one sounds better? By including a percentage as well as time spent, the potential employer has a measurable, defined idea of what you have accomplished, rather than just a general job responsibility that can already be assumed with the job title.In order to measure your accomplishments, try to obtain as much data as you can in regard to your previous work experience. It is never recommended to make up numbers, as hiring managers are experienced when it comes to scanning resumes and it could hurt you later on. You also do not need to quantify every single line in your work experience, but at least have a few per position on the work experience section.Below are some questions that may help to think of how to quantify achievements (broken down in terms of percentages, numbers, dollar amounts, and time)Questions to ask yourselfPercentagesDid you increase sales, market share, or customer satisfaction by a certain percentage? How?Did you increase efficiency or productivity by a certain percentage?Did you recruit, work with, or manage a certain number of employees or teams?How many customers did you serve on average? Did you increase the number of customers served? By how much?Did you implement new ideas, systems, or processes to the company? What was the impact?Dollar amountsDid you propose or work with a budget of a certain dollar amount?Did you increase sales or profitability by a certain dollar amount? How?TimeDid you decrease delivery or turnaround time on a project? How?Was one of your achievements completed within a tight deadline?Did you resolve a ny particular issues? How soon?All of these are examples where you can specifically quantify an achievement and translate your work experience into a results-oriented approach. In order to provide even more detail, consider also answering How? in regard to how you achieved the accomplishment.4. Resume achievement examples by industryFood Service WorkerMemorized restaurants wine stock and the meals they should accompany, leading to daily wine sales averaging $150, fully 20% higher than company averageWrite patrons food orders on slips, memorize orders, or enter orders into computers for transmittal to kitchen staff in a 110+seat restaurantAdministrative Assistant/Office WorkerDeveloped new filing and organizational practices, saving the company $3,000 per year in contracted labor expensesAnswered incoming calls (avg. 40/day) resolving issues with both customers and billing departmentNursingProvide direct quality care to patients including daily monitoring, recording, and evaluating o f medical conditions of up to 20 patients per dayLed and mentored 10 newly licensed nurses in developing and achieving professional expertiseTeacherIncreased students scores in standardized tests by 24% in literacy and 35% in mathEducated an average of 18 students in grades 2 and 3, and received four Best Teacher AwardAccountingManage a $350,000 budget, with a reduction of costs totaling 15% over two yearsTrained and supervised 2 new employees, ensuring they maintain fastidious attention to detailInformation TechnologyConsolidated multiple ticketing systems, improving communication and ticket turnover rate by 7%Refined and improved existing documentation system, resulting in reduced labor costs totaling $15,000 annually via increased workplace efficiencyCustomer ServiceOperate POS cash register, handling 92 transactions on average daily, and count money in cash drawers to ensure the amount is correctAssist an average of 40 customers per day in finding or selecting items, and provide d recommendations that generated $8K in additional revenueResume Genius Resume BuilderWriting an achievement oriented resume is easy with our powerful and simple to use Resume Genius resume builder software. Our bullet points are well-written and can be easily modified to reflect your achievements. Just add numbers, and youre all doneOr, if youd like to write your resume yourself, get started with our free free resume templates. Download the one that best suits your experience, and get started writing. Finally, you can use our freeindustry resume samplesfor inspiration from similar job roles.

The 5Ps of Personal Networking

The 5Ps of Personal Networking Technology has opened many new channels in the way we communicate with each other. We snap, tweet, follow, friend, and post daily. Social media provides an easy way to connect with anyone in the world faster than ever before. At the same time, ansicht technological marvels have limited the oldest, fruchtwein cherished form of communication we all use to grow and nurture relationships meeting and speaking with each other in person.This raises three critical questions about the future of networking Does in-person communication matter anymore?Whats the fruchtwein impactful way to network?Should you connect with people virtually or from across a table?Ive had the opportunity to build relationships, learn from others, and network with people around the world during my 20-year career in various talent roles. Speaking at a variety of events and panels this year has revealed a huge appetite on the topic of networking for the purpose of exchanging human experien ces.How do you engage with your peers and mentors, and start learning from them? You may have hundreds of connections on LinkedIn, but how do you leverage them in a more structured way to maximize the purposeyoure seeking?Im happy to share a networking model I created, and continue to leverage in my career, called the 5Ps of Personal Networking. These 5Ps can help you create more structure in the way you network and help you discover your self-purpose, define your true passion, and develop your career, as you build your personal and professional networks.1. Personal PrioritiesIdentify your goals Before you begin networking, take some time to figure out what youre trying to accomplish by defining your personal and professional goals and writing down the outcomes you hope to achieve. This step is important because it helps identify the areas you want to grow in. A key parte of networking is to find the things you love the most in your life and intentionally build them into your caree r plan and find people who can help you along the way.How do you meet people and learn from them to help you realize and achieve your personal priorities? You must align yourself with the key areas of your priorities and connect with people from those areas. For example, if your priority is to lead a healthier life, think about who you know focused on fitness and connect with them to begin learning how you can improve your health and wellness.Its also a good idea to periodically review the outcomes you identified because your priorities may change in the future. Ask yourself if you still have a passion for the goals you set. This leads us to the next P in my model.2. Pursuit of PassionFindyour geniuses Pursuing your passions should bedrngnis be difficult. If you break down the components of passion into a formula, you get interest + engagement =passion. In other words, the things you love learning the most (interest), talking about every chance you get (engagement), and teaching ot hers about (engagement), is something you clearly have passion for. Try asking yourself these questionsIf I had to read 500 books on a topic without getting bored, what topic would you choose?What would I be willing to do for the next five years for free? If I had complete financial independence, how would I spend my time? Answering these questions forces you to think about what drives you the most. This is a critical part of understanding your true passions in your personal life and professional career.Try remembering past activities and experiences that motivated you and inspired you to take action like nothing else could. Once you figure this out, you can begin creating your professional development around it, which leads us to the third P in the model.Join the IBM Talent Network to keep in touch with IBM3. Professional DevelopmentBe a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all Professional development is all about learning from the domains you are most passionate about and from the people most important to you. This aligns with my personal motto learn, do, teach and learn again. In other words, never stop learning, never stop applying what you learn to your personal and profession lives, and never stop teaching others how they can leverage the knowledge and experiences that are part of your life.An article from Harvard geschftsleben Review talks about the importance of having pre-defined, go-to networks. These networks, combined with my concept of the Domain Network, comprise the four types of individuals I count on in my life to help me learn and grow in both my personal and professional development.TheDomainNetwork These are individuals I followed early in my career to build my skills and learn from. They are experts in the career field you are in or want to join.TheProblem SolverNetwork This is a small group of aufgabe solvers who help you think about situations rationally, without allowing emotions to interfere with your logical actions.TheRechargeNetwork These are people you have a deep relationship with who you can open up to, share ideas by for honest feedback, and reach out to when you run out of creativity and need a recharge.The Big IdeaNetwork* Finally, this type of network is comprised of individuals who have very different ideas than you but can spark your creativity better than anyone else in your life. For example, if youre an artist, this network may consist of scientists who can give you a different perspective with full transparency.Once you identify the kinds of networks to grow, how do you go out and find these people to connect with? The next P will get you started.4. Positive Perspective Buildyourconfidenceandopenyour mind What are some ways you can lift your confidence and open your mind to prepare for learning from others? Take a leap and the net will appear In other words, you must be willing to be mentally open to allow deep connections with people to form, and once they do, go out and do it.Below are some tactics that have helped me throughout my life and professional careerDont forget tosmile Smiling makes you more open to speak with others, and more approachable for others to speak to you. This kind of body language immediately triggers our brains to create a perception of others.Always be preparedbyhavingshareable insights Its not always who you know, but who knows you. One way to leave a lasting impression with someone is to have a thought-provoking fact or data point that will be easily remembered the next day, making your interaction with the individual memorable as well.Escalator pitchvs.elevator pitch Elevator pitches are useful for introductions you make at networking events. Escalator speeches are much slower, more social, and requires you to leave time for some small talk. Make sure to ask people questions to learn more about their passions and career. They will be more open to share after you impressed them with your self-introductionConfidence and openness You should enter a ll networking situations with the understanding that everyone has something unique to teach or show you. Try building up the confidence to approach people, even if you never met them, keeping in the back of your mind that you have something valuable to offer them.Now that youre equipped with the confidence to approach new people to connect with, how do you ensure youll make a lasting engagement? This brings me to my final P of personal networking.5. Power of NowMake every opportunity a WOW experience Remember the last time your eyes lit up and you felt like you were on top of the world? I call this a WOW experience. To maximize the connections you make in life, you must have the confidence to be you, in the moment.My WOW experiences come from meditation, a tool I use to exercise my spirituality. Heres is a technique I use before important meetings and events that elevates my mind to the present, setting me up for a WOW experienceSit up straight and fix your eyes on an object in the room.Bring a big smile to your face (even if its fake) and think about a time you felt like shoutingWOWAsk yourself, what was the feeling and did your eyes light up from the experience?Slowly close your eyes, take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, make the soundaaahhhand repeat twice.Slowly open your eyes.This will help you be in the moment and feel inspired from a previous WOW moment. When youre in this state of mind, you are your most confident, which allows you to be open to sharing experiences and receiving knowledge from others.ConclusionNetworking is about giving, being a mentor, sharing your experiences, and being an objective ear to someone that is trying to do what you have already done well. In-person communication continues to be the most rewarding way to grow your network, personalize the experience, and exchange ideas and values. This is the true purpose of networking connecting with people to exchange human experiences.To be an effective networker, you must have a p lan and structure in place to help achieve your personal and professional goals. Try out these 5Ps of Personal Networking in your life and begin exchanging your human experiences with othersA version of this article originally appeared on the IBM Careers Blog. Fairygodboss is proud to partner with IBM. Find a job there today--Amber Grewal is the Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at IBM, with 20 years of experience in the art and science of talent attraction and management. She has served in several leadership roles in GE, Microsoft, SymantecandKPMG, where she led the transformation of talent acquisition in the digital era. At IBM, Amber oversees the strategic vision for talent acquisition and is responsible for building strong, consultative departmental functions, talent technology, sourcing and onboarding strategies, workforce demand, and employer branding in competitive and emerging markets globally. Amber also leads numerous activities supporting diversity, inclusion, a nd gender equality, and recently won a 2018 Industry Leader Award from the Professional Business Woman of California (PBWC) organization for her support for equality for women in the workplace.