2. DON’T LIST DUTIES . . .
August 14, 2013
Typed 120 wpm
Filed reports
Ordered office
supplies
Candidate A: Candidate B: Candidate C:
Typed 120 wpm
Filed reports
Ordered office
supplies
Typed 120 wpm
Filed reports
Ordered office
supplies
If you were the hiring manager, how would you make your pick?
3. What if candidate B rewrote his/her resume to read this way:?
August 14, 2013
DON’T LIST DUTIES . . .
ACCURATE: Completed typing of a critical 3000 word document, error
free, in under 30 minutes which enabled our company meet an important
bid deadline.
CONSCIENTIOUS: Obtained an average accuracy rate of 98% on our
filing system for the last four years.
PROACTIVE: Had less than 2% of our office supplies showing an “out of
stock” flag for the last three years.
Now, if you are the hiring manager, which candidate looks “best”?
Editor's Notes
I have noticed that quite a few job seekers only list “duties” on their resume and also on their Linkedin profile.
A few years ago, when jobs were plentiful and there were not many job seekers, that may have worked okay. Today, things are quite different. Competition for jobs is tough and you need a way to help employers determine who may be the best fit for their job opening.
When two applicants list the duties they performed at their last jobs, how is an employer to know which candidate is the “best” or most qualified?
If you were the hiring manager, and these were skills that you were concerned about, which candidate would you bring in for an interview?
I have often been in a situation where I had many resumes in a stack and they all met the “requirements” for the job. I had to resort to stupid things like “margins too narrow”, “font size odd or small”, “too many words”, “not enough white space”, etc. in order to reject some resumes in order to get down to three or four to bring in for an interview.
If you listed the accomplishments, related to your target job and the job you are applying for, the reviewer will have an easy job to decide which candidate to interview, and possibly hire, to help solve their problems.
Things like this will make your resume more powerful, and memorable, than a list of ho-hum duties.
The addition of “handles”, which are words used by you, or other people, to uniquely describe you may make you even more memorable. David Rawles covers many helpful hints like this in his book “Finding A Job God’s Way” and in his CareerSolutions Workshops. If you’re serious about finding a job, David’s workshops provide everything you need to know to shorten your job search. By the way, you need to attend more than just a few one hour, or one day seminars to be effective.
Now what can you do? Look at your resume, and Linkedin profile, are there any “duties” listed there that you can rework into powerful accomplishment statements?
I know what you are going to say, something like, “but I don’t HAVE any impressive accomplishments.” Okay, a lot of that may not be your fault. Many supervisors are too busy finding fault with workers and not letting them know what their individual contributions mean on a day-to-day basis. That is another presentation that I’m working on; we need to fix that. Anyway, check your old performance appraisals, ask your friends what they would say about you, etc. Your contribution is in there somewhere, you just need to dig it out.
Look for things you did that saved the company money, time, improved quality, improved processes, or made it better for others to do their jobs.
