All the recruiters and employers are interested in the value that you are going to bring and that value can only be showcased through your achievements. This is why we always recommend the resume should be achievement-driven and accordingly your resume format should be optimized. Because if you had done something great, then that reflects your ability to think out of the box and you can always replicate that in your new organization. To be very honest, nobody will be excited if you are doing what is expected out of you. So, you need to showcase something which you were not expected to do, or you had exceeded the expectations.
In this blog, we will explain the 4-step process for your resume format of crafting your accomplishments for your resume. First, you should write down all your accomplishments, both professional and personal, and then follow this format, to articulate each one of them in 2-3 lines.
Resume Format Step 1 – Objective
The first step is to start with the WHY? You need to ask these questions such as, why did you do the project, what was the rationale of the project, what was the need for the project?
Introspect and find the exact idea behind doing the project or any assignment even for your failed projects.
Subscribe for the latest videos on a variety of careers, study abroad, interview, resume, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/VikingsCareerStrategists
Resume Format Step 2 – Your role and Timeline of the project
You could be a leader, team member, or representative for your projects, so you need to specify this, as this will create a huge impact on the person reading your resume. Let’s say you were leading a project, so you can always sell your leadership experience and challenges faced while leading teams.
Secondly, the timeline is also very crucial because that shows the intensity of the project. For example, if you have successfully executed a long-term project (3 months or more), then it will make a strong statement regarding your skillset and abilities. This doesn’t mean that short term projects are not relevant. You can always mention that as well, if you have created a substantial impact based on your current position, even in a few days or weeks.
Resume Format Step 3 – Result or Impact
People love results and numbers, so give them what they want. You should be precise and logical while explaining your results through numbers. This could go either way. If you have done well, but couldn’t express or expressed it incorrectly, then you will be in a tough spot. So, be it any number or result, you should be ready with a logical explanation.
For any project, result or impact matters the most. The ideal way to showcase this is with the help of numbers, so always quantify them, even in case of leadership or cultural transformation projects. Now, your projects could fall in any of these categories:
- Revenue Growth – This is the backbone of any business, so you all will agree, how important it is to showcase your contribution in this area, as this will have the maximum impact. Connect your projects in this category, where all you have directly impacted the revenues at any level in the organization. It could be at a process level, business unit, geography, or at the firm level. This will reflect your ability to bring in new business or renewing the existing one for the firm.
- Cost Saving – There could be projects where you have improved or automated an existing process, and eventually saved manpower or cost for your company. The projects will mainly be through the business operations and automation domain. Most of the organizations are trying to follow the lean culture, so this will be very impactful.
- Leadership/Training/Cultural transformation – This one is critical because it’s difficult to reach a number in this category. So, you can show the business impact in this scenario. For example, if you were involved in any company or process level training program, cultural transformation or employee morale, retention, or could be anything related to people and values. In that case, you will have to assess the objective of the program and how it impacted the audience. Your training program could actually impact your team’s productivity or quality. So bring it down to the last level and try to do some logical calculations, to reach a potential benefit in terms of numbers.
- Client Enhancement – We all work for clients, so needless to mention that this is the most critical of all. Review all your assignments where you have impacted your client’s revenues, or saved time, cost, etc. or any other improvement worth mentioning. This will help you to establish your customer-first approach, which most of the organizations love to hear.
Resume Format Step 4 – Key Learnings
Anything without learning is not a great sign for the long term. Your ability to find and extract key learnings in whatever you do shows your vision for the future. This means you are going to build strong and repeatable processes in the future as well and secondly you are aware of what you have executed.
From all your projects, extract 1-2 key learnings and mention them at the end. This will reflect your thoughtfulness. For example, you could learn or hone conflict management, negotiation skills, etc., from a team task or from any project, where you were actually involved in a lot of discussions. The idea is to be analytical and thoughtful.
If you will follow these 4 steps, then everything will be at the top of your mind and you will feel extremely confident and composed in any future interview.
Awards/Accolades – Do mention this as well, if you have received any specific award for any project.
Examples:
Let’s look at a few examples:
“Cost Saving – Led a team of 10 associates as a part of a lean automation project for 3 months, which led to the savings of 4 full-time employees and received a gold award from my company.”
“Revenue Growth – Led a market expansion plan for our new product (XYZ product) for 6 months, and we made $1 million (revenue) in the new geography.”
Stay tuned for our next blog and feel free to comment.
We hope this is going to be helpful to write your achievements, as that’s the most important part of your resume. For more guidance, feel free to connect with us and provide your feedback as well, so that we can also improve in the future.
