There’s almost always a way to reduce the length slightly, thereby saving a line and making your resume more concise. I often encourage my clients to make a game of finding a way to reduce the length of any bullets that have just one or two words on the last line. Make your bullets as concise as possible. Paragraphs bury information instead of making your key points stand out, and are less likely to be read. Remember, potential employers will only quickly skim your resume or profile to see if you make the initial cut. Anything more than three and you’ve greatly increased the risk that the bullet point won’t be read. Keep your bulleted text short and to-the-pointĪ one-line bullet is ideal. For example, one client wrote: “recognized by the CEO, in writing, for outstanding contributions…” When your accomplishments can’t be quantified using numbers, try to use terms like “commended by,” “well received,” “selected for,” “substantially increased,” etc. Did you reduce turnaround time by at least a quarter? How about by half? Put that estimate in your resume! As long as you can reasonably justify your claims in a conversation with a potential employer, you’ll be fine (only in certain unusual situations will you need to show a paper trail). If you think about it, however, you can usually estimate them. Sometimes you may not know what the numbers are. Clarifying the impressiveness of the accomplishment.Making the accomplishment seem more valid, as opposed to being something that you exaggerated for the purposes of your resume. Demonstrating that you care about the value you bring to your employer through the extra thought it took to quantify the accomplishment.For example, change “substantially improved turnaround time” to “improved turnaround time by 15%.” Other examples include “increased revenue from $10 million to $14 million,” or “quadrupled Twitter followers, from around 10,000 to over 40,000.” Quantifying your accomplishments with numbers helps by: Your bullets will be even more effective if you add numerical data that supports your claims. Saying “I did this, which resulted in that,” tells a mini-story and is more memorable and compelling than simply writing: “I did this” and leaving it at that. Making your bullets accomplishment-oriented enhances your resume relative to those who are just sharing responsibilities. You can stand out by sharing how well you executed those responsibilities. Look to take that extra, harder step seek to add the accomplishment, the “so what.” There’s a good chance that for any given job target (i.e., job description and organization type) you and your competition share similar responsibilities in your work history. Writing resume or LinkedIn profile bullet points that outline just your responsibilities is relatively easy. One of my clients, for example, an accountant, listed a bullet point that read: “Responsible for managing the monthly close.” After we discussed the impact she made through her management, we modified the text to read: “Managed the monthly close, reducing turnaround time by at least 30% while improving accuracy.” Do you feel the extra power that stems from including the accomplishment? When I first look at a client’s resume, I quite often see a list of bullet points that reflect only responsibilities.
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