Resumes: Accomplishment Statements, Part II
By Angela Loëb
In part I of “Resumes: Accomplishment Statements,” I explained why you should consider adding your value proposition to your resume. I also told you what accomplishment statements can be based on:
- How you impacted the bottom line (money) and/or productivity (time).
- Your awards, patents, publications, etc.
- Situations in which you exceeded your job description.
Today, I want to show you how to develop your accomplishment statements and where to integrate them into your resume.
To compose succinct statements that get your point across in an efficient manner so that you don’t take up too much room on the page, start with the SAR formula:
Situation
Action
Resume
Describe a situation in which you had to use your expertise, skills or unique value/aptitude to prove the point you’re making in your summary. When have you impacted money and/or time for your team, customers, company, etc.? What examples do you have of how you went outside the scope of your job? It might help you to look at your task descriptions to find material for this part, too.
Next, explain the actions you took during this situation, using past-tense action verbs. Try to use a variety. Starting almost every statement with “Managed this” and “Managed that” gets to be tiresome after a while, and it shows a lack of imagination. Mix it up with other appropriately matched words when you can, such as “Directed,” “Led,” “Facilitated,” etc.
Stumped on what action verbs to use on your resume? Check out these two online resources to get some ideas:
Boston College’s Online Career Center, has a pretty good list of resume action verbs at: http://www.bc.edu/offices/careers/skills/resumes/verbs.html
QuintCareers.com, which is one of my favorite resources for career-related articles, has one of the best action verb lists I’ve seen. Here’s the link to their list “by skills sets”:
http://www.quintcareers.com/action_skills.html
Okay, so now we come to the last part of the formula… and the main meat of the accomplishment statement. State the results. Write down what came out of the situation and your actions that show your value. I had previously mentioned using numbers at all possible. Absolutely, do it if you can. Numbers, percentage signs, currency symbols all jump off the page for the reader. They’re easy to spot, and they attract the eye. And even if you don’t have the numbers, there’s always impact so be sure to claim whatever you can. If there was a goal, even if you don’t state the specific goal, at least state that you met or exceeded the goal.
Now that you have some fabulous accomplishment statements, where do you put them?
I suggest you follow this rule when considering the layout of your resume in general:
- Tell in the summary section.
- Show throughout the resume.
I’ll break that down for you…
In the summary you will tell them about yourself, giving them a snapshot of the professional you are as of this moment in your career. (Naturally, you would tell them what they need to know as it pertains to the job you’re seeking.) You set the first impression there. This is not typically where you’ll put your accomplishment statements. However, you might have a special section under the summary where you will list them. More about that in a minute…
After you tell them about yourself in the summary, next you’ll show them how you did what you just told them about in the summary.
Tell, then show.
Imagine that your resume is a product brochure, and the top portion of your resume is the front cover of the brochure showing a word picture describing you, the product. You hook the reader’s interest there so that the reader will be compelled to “open” the brochure and learn more about this intriguing product.
Effective Placement of Accomplishment Statements
A moment ago, I mentioned setting up a special section of achievements under the summary, meaning it would be sandwiched between the summary statements and the work history. It could be given a header such as “Selected Achievements” or “Notable Accomplishments” or “Career Highlights.” Setting up a special section is usually advised when you want to bring out certain competencies that you have but haven’t demonstrated recently. So, this section appearing at the top of the resume helps to bring content from further down in the resume. That’s why the special section approach is also advised for a career-changing resume.
If you’re not trying to do anything fancy in your job search, meaning that you are looking for something pretty similar to what you’ve been doing in your current or previous role, then sprinkling accomplishment statements into the work history section is the way to go.
By now you should be able to distinguish the difference between a plain ole role description and an accomplishment statement. When you look at a statement that describes your role, it’s probably telling the reader stuff that anyone who’s qualified could step in to do and would be responsible for in the organization. An accomplishment statement, however, shows how you have made your mark on that role for the organization.
Alright, time to analyze your resume to see if you have accomplishment statements in there. If not, get to work adding some immediately. Make your resume stand out from the pack, and then go get ‘em tiger!
