When an HR person, recruiter or hiring manager views your resume (or your LinkedIn profile), what is it that gets their attention and makes them want to contact you for an interview. The first thing is your skills – the ones that address the key strategic needs listed in the job description. The other is your achievements – the ones that provide proof of the value you’ve brought to your previous employers. Also, when you describe your achievements, it helps to briefly explain how you achieved each one so the accomplishment is more believable and credible.

For example, suppose I were applying for a job as a Director of Training and the top 4 strategic needs in the job description from my point of view were:

1) Increase training revenue
2) Develop effective online training
3) Create training that increases client productivity on the job
4) Acquire and train new business partners to deliver our training.

Here are the bullets to address these 4 needs. Notice that each bullet not only says what you did but it also states the related value. Also, it provides scope information, such as how many people you managed, how many sq. ft. of property you managed, etc. Scope information helps HR staff, recruiters and hiring managers determine if you are a good fit based on the scope requirements of their job.

1. Increased training revenue from $1.2 Million to $3.5 Million in less than a year by increasing sales to increasing customers and selling more seats to new customers.
2. Developed 5 interactive online training programs for our software that allowed us to reduce training staff from 5 to 2, saving $240,000 in salary per year.
3. Created interactive, case study oriented training programs that made learning easy and fun and helped students to be immediately productive back on the job.
4. Acquired 25 new training business partners in one year that raised $650,000 in training revenue.

Remember, achievements are what SELL you to employers and they also get you more interviews. The example achievements I listed above are called measurable accomplishments, since they involve increasing or saving money. You can also use a 2 line compelling accomplishment or an award you won as an achievement.

For an award, you might have: Won Citigroup the Customer Service of the Year Award taking 23% more calls per day than any other customer service representative.

For a testimonial, you might have: The VP of Training at Computer Associates said, “Larry has done more to enhance our training program and increase training revenue than anyone we’ve ever had.” Notice that this testimonial is very compelling and not just something fluffy such as “Larry was a great Director of Training.”

I hope you find this helpful in improving your resume so you get more interviews.

Larry LaBelle
Training Tamer Inc.
www.trainingtamer.com

Go to www.TADPGS.com, click on the “Looking for People” tab, then view “Veterans Solutions” to see more for information on our Veterans Solutions for Employers. Please join our LinkedIn group, Veterans Hiring Solutions for Veterans and Companies at http://linkd.in/Sg346w. If you have specific questions about hiring veterans or the incentives for doing so, contact me at [email protected].