I have found that for most of us, writing a resume with impact is is a challenge.  A resume that truly reflects well on an individual is one of the most difficult challenges for my clients.

More often than not, resumes are the first part of the sorting process for most employers.  A well written and to the point resume is a huge asset in your career search.

Your Resume—Stand Above The Crowd

As a personal business coach most of my clients have a resume.  It gives a very detailed chronological summary of who they have worked for, the positions they have held and the length of time.  The focus is to produce a chronological history that forces the potential employer to guess at what you truly accomplished.

The way to stand above the crowd and increase your odds of moving beyond the first cut it to recast your resume to make it accomplishments oriented.  If you think about it, where you have been is important.  But what really matters is what you have accomplished.

Resume—Accomplishments By Category

After you have settled on an objective at the beginning of your resume the next thing you must do is present some related accomplishments.  For example, if your objective is to “Be part of a growing financial organization and contribute my expertise in marketing, management and sales support” then you must have some accomplishments that relate to that objective.

Your categories for objectives would be:

• Marketing
• Management
• Support

Under each category make sure to list at least 2 accomplishments and no more than 4.

Resume—How You Word Your Accomplishments

Once you have come up with your accomplishments it is important to use action verbs to start each accomplishment.  For example:  “Reduced marketing expense while increasing positive exposure for financial products in a large financial services company.

The word ‘reduced’ shows that you are a person of action and accomplishment.  Notice that I didn’t name the company where I reduced marketing expense.  That is on purpose.  We’ll reveal that on page 2 of the resume.

The goal is to have this part of your resume along with the objective be on the first page.  You want to catch your prospective employer’s attention right away.

Resume—Career History

After your accomplishments your next category is Career History.  All you do here is list the years, position and company.  For example:

1996-2000    Assistant Controller  XYZ Corporation

2000-2007    Controller ABC Corporation

After this list your education in the same format as your work experience.

At the end, let them know that references are available upon request.  I have a suggestion here.  Have your references ready in advance and written.  If you have trouble getting people to write references ask them if you can write it and then have them edit it and sign off on it.  You will be pleased at how this speeds up the process.