It's All About Impact

"The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."

You will hear those words quite frequently if you watch The Dr. Phil Show, but they're just as true for résumé writing as they are for marital counseling. When he or she is reading your résumé, a recruiter or potential employer is searching for the way you behaved at your previous job. That reader wants your résumé to answer the key questions: Why did you get hired? Why did the company keep you? What impact did you have on your previous position?

It's important to realize just how important impact is to your job search. You could have rebuilt the Space Shuttle, or taken apart and reassembled a Sikorsky helicopter blindfolded, yet if your résumé is full of duties alone, it will never make it onto the hiring manager's desk.

To get noticed, your résumé must show the kind of accomplishments that had impact on your prior employers. As author, speaker, and executive coach Jay Block puts it: "A résumé without accomplishments is like a report card without marks."

Consider the following:

Janet Jobhunter has been pursuing a career in the aerospace industry as a mechanic. She has 20 years' experience assembling and disassembling helicopters and airplanes. Who wouldn't want someone with that kind of experience, right? She even tells the reader on her résumé:

* Assembled and disassembled helicopters and diagnosed and repaired jet engines for airplanes. Tightened bolts.

To her surprise, however, Janet gets no responses from her résumé. Nothing. Not even so much as a letter acknowledging receipt.

On the other hand, we have Patricia Professional. She's also done the same things Janet has, and for the same length of time. But Patricia's résumé says:

* Troubleshot recurring failures occurring in helicopter motors. Traced problem to inadequate wiring between pilot's controls and engine. Facilitated corrections, and established permanent fixes for manufacturing stage, which reduced failure rate to 0.

Based on their résumés, which of these two would you hire?

Hopefully, you'll think about this example when you're writing your résumé. Because a résumé is not a listing of job duties; a résumé is a commercial for you. And just like any other commercial, whether for soap, toothpaste, or shampoo, you need to show the employer the ways in which you've had an impact.

What are you waiting for?

Jack Mulcahy has written hundreds of resumes for people from all walks of life. Each resume he writes shows the unique selling proposition so necessary to market the job seeker. To learn more about Jack and how he can work to help your resume gain interviews, visit his website at http://www.resumesbyjack.com/.