Make Sure Your Employment History Is More Interesting Than History Class
Your employment history is where the Employers will spend the bulk of their time (if they get to it!). This is where you provide evidence to back up the bold claims you make about yourself and your capabilities in your career summary section, and where you prove you can do the job that your objective statement says you want.
You want to describe a mix of responsibilities and accomplishments in your job history section. The two most common mistakes are:
• Listing too much detail -- especially about mundane or negative things -- so that the "wow factor" items get lost.
• Not describing the results your day-to-day efforts achieved.
These 4 items will demonstrate that you can do the job:
• Hard skills required to do the job: technical skills, computer systems, software.
• Experience with those skills: responsibilities, depth and breadth of knowledge.
• Results: accomplishments, problem solving, highlights of your performance.
• Soft skills: communications, team work, management, leadership.
The solution is a two-step approach:
First, think of your resume as your "greatest hits," not your "complete anthology." You can be positive and honest without detailing every setback.
Second, for each item in your Job Experience, ask: "So what?" In other words, describe the benefit of what you did in terms of the impact it had on your department or the company. Was time or money saved? Did you get new customers or keep existing ones happy? And so on.
Asking "So what?" helps you tell a better story. The idea is to make your tasks into stories that show the results you have achieved, which speaks to what you can do for your next boss, department, and company. Here's an example:
• Before: "Created system for customer service representatives"
• Question: So what?
• After: "Created system in MS Access for customer service representatives, allowing calls to be completed faster and with fewer complaints. Worked closely with service reps to ensure usability."
One-Minute Makeover: Is there anything in your job experience section you're not proud of? Take it out or reword to focus on the positive. Then ask, "So what?" and add numbers whenever possible to put your successes into perspective.
By:Scott Shane Holt
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق