How to Make an Impact with your Resume

Some job descriptions can be overwhelming for job seekers, especially when employers include a range of highly specific interpersonal and professional qualities they are looking for. It’s easy for those on the job hunt to get discouraged. However, by reading between the lines, applicants can tailor their resumes to highlight what employers really want.

The Bottom Line

Elaborate job descriptions aside, employers are almost always looking for one of three things:

1. The applicant will MAKE the company money

2. The applicant will SAVE the company money

3. The applicant will positively AFFECT the company’s bottom line.

Interpersonal skills, leadership, and qualifications are all important, but when writing a resume, the secret to showing that you will be a benefit to the company lies in one fundamental word: impact.

Writing An Impact-Focused Resume

When writing resumes, many applicants make the same mistake: they describe their past achievements without showing the reader how these previous successes will translate to their performance in a new job. By highlighting the concrete impact you had in your previous positions, you will create a resume that focuses not on your past responsibilities, but on your potential to positively impact your future company.

The Secret Formula

A variety of sentence constructions can help your resume be more dynamic, but your bullet points should generally follow a simple formula: “Achieved X by doing Y as measured by Z.”

For example, take these two job descriptions:

1. Reached out to donors through a fundraising campaign.
2. Spear-headed a multi-platform outreach campaign that increased fundraising by 40%

The first sentence is specific to the candidate’s previous job, and is merely a description of the candidate’s responsibilities. The second sentence proves a quantifiable positive impact as a direct result of the candidate’s efforts. Whenever possible, include quantifiable measures of your impact to highlight the positive influence of your work. This way, potential employers will not only get a feel for your previous experience, but will be able to assess your value in the past and your potential for the future.

Is your resume ready to make an impact? Visit the Madison Approach Staffing job board to get started today! Visit the Job Board now.

5 Tips for Writing a Winning Resume

The average time a recruiter spends looking at your resume is 6 seconds. That’s a short amount of time grab someone’s attention. Is your resume up to the challenge? Here are 5 tips for getting your resume past the 6-second mark.

 

1.  Format

Make the hiring manager’s job easier. If you’re not looking for a career in graphic design, then anything that makes reading or deciphering your resume extra work will mean more attention on the formatting, and less on your work experience.

• Use a clean font in a size 9 to 12, black ink on white paper with wide margins.
• You can play around with bolding your name or a company name and making the font a little larger, but stay way from overdoing the underlines, italics and bolding.
• Use clear headings.
• Use bullet points to call attention to important points.

2.  State What You Did, and WHY It Was Important, Not What You Were Hired To Do

About the worst thing you can do is cut and paste the job description from when you were hired into your resume.

• State your accomplishments from the job, not just what you did.
• Quantify your accomplishments. Use numbers, percentages, or projects that were able to move forward because of you.
• Highlight achievements that tell the story of you as an employee.

3.  Target your Resume

If you are applying to jobs in multiple fields, it’s a good idea to have a resume for each. Whether you are going into sales or marketing or retail, make sure to have highlighted relevant experience. You can do this by using your headings to clarify ‘Marketing Experience’ or by including skills and interests from outside of work that cater to a specific industry.

4.  Use the Top of the Page Wisely

It used to be that the top of every resume had a paragraph on objectives. Trash it. Instead, write a Career Summary – this gives you a few lines to tell a story, highlight accomplishments that didn’t fit anywhere else or outline a skill set you know the hiring manager is looking for

5.  Watch your Buzzwords

The hiring manager that is reading your resume has already read a stack just like it. Stay away from vague, descriptive words and try using instead quantifiable, action words.

Overused Words

• Go-getter
• Synergy
• Results-driven
• Team player
• Best of breed
• Strategic thinker
• Detail-oriented

Fresh Words

• Achieved
• Improved
• Trained
• Managed
• Created
• Influenced
• Increased/Decreased

Now that you have the fundamentals down, pull out that red pen and start editing. Don’t be afraid to ask friends and coworkers for help – a fresh set of eyes might be just what you need to get your resume to the top of the stack.

Do you have any resume writing tips we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments section!