Brainstorm Resume Accomplishments

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Brainstorm Resume Accomplishments

Coming up with accomplishments isn't always easy, but if you fail to include successes, the chances your resume will not get read is extremely high. To avoid being overlooked for positions that you qualify for, it is mandatory that you carefully review your professional experience and pinpoint times you had measured success.

To help you start brainstorming, below is a set of questions you can answer in order to identify your achievements. The achievements are split into three categories: initiative, team player, and customer service.

Initiative Achievements

• Describe a time you come up with a new idea to fix an old problem. Examples include fixing a computer, management, or people issue.
• Think about a time when you outperformed your peers. What was the task? What did you do differently that put you over the top?
• Describe a time when you secured a huge savings and / or a significant increase in business. What steps did you take? Did your results break company records?
• Recall a time you received an email or a letter where a customer / client / manager recognized your efforts.

Team Player Achievements

• Think about the times you either went in early or stayed late. Was it for a project? If so, what was the result of the project?
• Recall a time you volunteered for a task no one else wanted to take on. What was the final outcome of the task?
• What was the last "big" idea you shared at a departmental meeting?
• Describe what your peers would say about your work ethic. What accomplishments do you think they are most impressed by?

Customer Service Achievements

• Think back to the last three or six months and pinpoint the customer service activities you're most proud of. For example, did you retain a customer who was going to take her business to a competitor? Or did you deliver a high-impact presentation during a client consultation that garnered a multi-million dollar contract?
• Do customers repeatedly ask that you assist them as opposed to your colleagues?
• Do you have a strong customer referral base? If so, what is it about your work style that encourages clients to refer their friends?

Take your time with the above evaluation. There's no need to rush through your self-assessment. Your first thought may not be the best or the only example of what you have achieved throughout your career. So it is best to think of more than one achievement for each aforementioned question.

If you finish the exercise in less than a half an hour, it could mean you did not put enough time and effort into your responses. So go back and revisit each question. Don't squander your job interview opportunities. Especially in this economy when interviews are hard to come by. Give yourself every advantage by creating a resume that works for you.

Certified in all three areas of the job search-Certified Interview Coach (CIC), Job & Career Transition Coach (JCTC), and Nationally Certified Resume Writer (NCRW)-Linda Matias is qualified to assist you in your career transition, whether it be a complete career makeover, interview preparation, or resume assistance. She is the author of two books - 201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions and How to Say It: Job Interviews. Both can be found at Amazon.com or your local bookstore. Visit her website at http://www.procoverletterservice.com/.

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Drawing Attention to Your Accomplishments: What Your Resume Says About You

Focusing on your experience, your background and your accomplishments is what's known as a functional resume. Chronological resumes list all of your employers in the order of the date that you worked for them, typically with the oldest employer at the bottom of the resume. Functional resumes are great for people who are looking to make a career change, people with multiple positions with different industries, people with gaps in their employment and those just starting out on their career. However, as always, I have to warn you that recruiter and hiring people really don't like functional style resumes. They feel you may be "hiding" something.

You can combine both resume types to give yourself a well-rounded appearance to potential employers, plus hiring managers love to see a list of previous experience, especially when it's for a position of authority. Providing work history is an excellent way to showcase how your accomplishments have translated to actual success in the work place.

Start by writing a list of the skills that you used at your previous jobs. List them one by one so that you cover a wide range of tasks on your resume. Depending on the position you're applying for, modify your skills to directly reflect those of the position that you're applying for. Don't embellish, instead focus on what you've accomplished and how it will allow you to succeed at your new position.

Use bullet points to provide a concise and accurate depiction of your responsibilities and where you used your skills. List our your accomplishments and try to use numbers to demonstrate an actual value. You can say something like, you promoted better paper management and turned your office into a green office, reducing the waste and lowering cost for trash maintenance by a third. Or that you increased sales in your office by 15% over a 5 year period.

Show your employer in the bullet section of your accomplishments. You want to be able to match your accomplishments with a tangible company, so make sure to list the companies where you worked. Your accomplishments only mean so much if they can be backed up. Listing your companies, or contacts you may have done a project for, will help highlight your accomplishments.

Use action verbs at the beginning of your accomplishments. Saying things like, "demonstrated" a strong desire to train new employees, is better than saying "trained staff." Elaborate on your accomplishments, it's all right to use descriptive words here. In fact, the HR manager may appreciate your ability to be descriptive.

Complete a short job history below the accomplishment section of your resume. This will help employers get a good idea of your work history. Make sure to include the name of the employer, your job title, the dates you worked for the employer and the location of the job. Write this list in reverse chronological order.

It's time to get those accomplishments out there and find the job that you've always wanted!

Erin Kennedy, CMRW, CPRW, BS/HR, is a Certified Professional & Executive Resume Writer/Career Consultant and President of Professional Resume Services, Inc. She is a nationally published writer and contributor of 12 best-selling career books. She has achieved international recognition following yearly nominations and wins of the prestigious T.O.R.I. (Toast of the Resume Industry) Award. Erin has written thousands of resumes for executives and professionals.

As a proud member of CDI, NRWA, PARW, and AORCP, Erin also sits on CDI's Credentialing Committee for new certification candidates and serves as a Mentor for CDI's Member Mentoring Committee. She also is a featured blogger on several well-known career sites. Reuse of this article is encouraged but must include a link to http://exclusive-executive-resumes.com/.

Want to know more about Erin Kennedy, CPRW? Read her LinkedIn profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/erinkennedycprw

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Uncovering Accomplishments and Success Stories for Your Administrator Resume

In order to create an effective resume for a school administrator position, it is important for you to uncover your relevant accomplishments and success stories. But you have to remember that it is vital for you to avoid telling half truths and exaggerations because a lot of hiring managers and recruiters can easily tell when resumes have been pumped up with embellishments. Their hiring expertise makes them proficient in determining the superfluities in your resume.

Administrators fill a key education position and so recruiters naturally try to filter out the inappropriate applicants so they can find the 'cream of the crop' which allows them to have a better group of aspiring school administrators. But the question here is how can you successfully translate your skills and experience into a list of comprehensive achievements for your resume so that you can be included in that elite group of candidates?

After you have determined the amount of information and the range of work experiences that need to be included in your resume, you will have to translate your list of work experiences into a summary of your achievements and skills that will be apt for your resume. An excellent achievement list based on your accomplishments and success stories from your previous positions is a great way to demonstrate how you were able to impact the schools you previously worked for. More often than not, administration applicants spend too much time on perfecting the context of their accomplishments instead of on refining the significant effect their accomplishments and personal achievements had on their employers and students. To help uncover your accomplishments and personal success stories, take the time to answer the following questions below:

Have you initiated and established new management systems for your organization?Have you founded any school programs that helped to improve the school you previously belong to?Do you have a specialized expertise in school management and administration?Can your track record speak for your accomplishments and qualifications to obtain a position as a school administrator?Did you pursue advanced education to keep up with the current changes in school administration?Have you participated in seminars, training, or other workshops related to your job position to enhance your knowledge and skills?

This set of questions can help guide you in uncovering your accomplishments and success stories so that you can improve your resume when applying for a job as an administrator. This will enhance your chances of obtaining the administrator position you are vying for.

You must remember that writing an effective resume can take considerable time and if you only give it a couple of hours of your time, it will easily reflect in the quality of your work. Evaluate your qualifications based on your accomplishments and personal achievements and then refine them to match the qualifications being sought by the school. Along with your expertise and work history, you can increase your chances of getting the position you are applying for when you successfully uncover your accomplishments.

Candace Davies, Owner of A+ Resumes for Teachers is a Global Career Management Professional dedicated to assisting educators worldwide leverage their strengths, accomplishments, and unique selling points to capture their dream career. Her team has successfully assisted 3500+ education professionals by transforming their talents into concise documents that secure numerous interviews.

Please visit her at http://resumes-for-teachers.com/ or send an email to candoco@telus.net

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Accomplishments On The Resume Sell The Goods!

One of the most difficult sections of a resume for many people to write may be in drafting their accomplishments. It's way to easy too write a laundry list of responsibilities, the title of the job and the name and address of the employer and call it a day.

Guess what? The prospective employer will take one look at your easily written resume, will not take the time or the effort to try to find out what you're selling and move it to the bottom of the stack never to be seen again.

The well written resume is a selling tool. It's not about you but rather should highlight what you can do for the employer. The employer has a problem and needs someone who can solve it. Telling the employer what he wants to know is the difference between earning you an interview or getting no answer at all.

An accomplishment, carefully written, makes you unique from all other candidates for the position. If you think about it, not only are you telling how well you carry out the job but also what kind of person you are.

There are many factors to consider when looking at a list of accomplishments. How long did you hold the job compared with the accomplishments listed? How do the accomplishments mesh with the size of the company? Did you identify and initiate the resolution of challenges? What obstacles did you overcome?

If you are a HR Director, one of your responsibilities might be: "Conduct and maintain a company-wide safety program."

Now the hiring official has the following questions: Conduct what? Did they maintain or add to existing safety program? And the big question: what results did they achieve?

Recruiters want answers; they don't have time ask questions. They want to know how well you performed this function, if they have questions, you don't get the interview. The assumption is if you don't say it you didn't do it. If your resume doesn't do a proper selling job it's your problem not theirs.

Let's rewrite the responsibility function as an accomplishment:

"Developed and initiated company-wide safety awareness program that, in the first year, reduced work related accidents by 31%, reduced lost time be 28% and saved over $105,000 in workers compensation costs."

Now you are someone they want to talk to. At the face-to-face interview they may have other questions about the nut-and-bolts of what you did and how you did it. You're telling them about results. It clearly demonstrates the benefit of hiring you and that you have a proven ability to do the job.

Recruiters want facts as they relate to the key challenges of the job. Everything else that may require them to guess, or spend time connecting the dots will not get you the interview.

If your resume is not generating you an acceptable level of interviews take a critical look at what you are saying. Are you telling the reader what you did rather than the all important results?

As a marketing device, your resume has a big load to carry. It's selling a product and that's you. If you clearly list results that favorably compare to the employer's needs your chance of being invited in for an interview go way up. And isn't that what selling is all about?

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5 Keys to Resume Bullet Bliss: Resume Accomplishments Versus Duties

The Difference Between Resume Accomplishments and Duties

On your resume, for each position you've held in the last 10 years or so, you'll need to include two key components: The description of your duties as well as your accomplishments. These two components are really quite different, and they serve completely different functions. Duties tell what you did; accomplishments tell why what you did was useful, valuable, and important.

Job Duties
Your job duties are, quite literally, the work that you do every day. Think about the work you do; now distill it down to 3 or 4 sentences. Paint an accurate picture of the work you do that propels your manager, your division, or your company to rousing success.

Sample job duties for an administrative assistant might include:

* Answered a 10-line phone system.
* Supported Chief Executive Officer by organizing paper and electronic files
* Maintained accurate travel records and receipts for 13-person division.

Job Accomplishments
Accomplishments differ radically from duties. Your accomplishments are the specific successes you've demonstrated within your job duties (or sometimes outside of them!). These show how you succeeded within your role and rose to its challenges. Unlike the duties you've specified for each role you've had, the accomplishments tell the "so what?" about your job. They answer the question: "So what happened as a result of your work?" Usually, the answers to these questions involve some kind of metric, either numeric or evaluative, demonstrating how you improved or changed a system for the better. These accomplishments become the bullets that show why you're the most qualified to support the hiring manager's goals and needs-starting the moment you are hired.Sample job accomplishments for the same administrative assistant could include:

* Enabled 100% access to key data for traveling executives by renaming and recategorizing 2400 pieces of online data into related folders and cataloging each in an online database system made accessible to entire department.
* Earned 98.8% achievement of goals on every annual evaluation for 5 consecutive years.
* Consistently and accurately produced 15 daily reports in Excel and Microsoft Project to improve team ability to visualize project statuses.

5 Keys to Identifying Resume Accomplishments
If you're struggling to figure out what power the accomplishment bullets on your resume, ask yourself the following 5 questions:

1. What was your hardest project? What made it difficult?
2. What did you do that made it successful?
3. How did your work on some project help you or someone else do their job better?
4. Of which project are you most proud? Why are you proud of it?
5. How does your job differ in reality from the human resources job description you were handed when you started the position?

By answering these questions specifically, you'll choose the best parts of your career history that hiring managers and recruiters want to know about you. You'll demonstrate that you have a terrific track record-and you'll show how you can hit the ground running on your first day of work.

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