Your resume is a key marketing tool and your sales brochure.  It “sells” you in the employment marketplace.

To make your resume as strong a sales tool as possible, it should be what we call "Accomplishment-Based,"showing how you achieve results. . . . . That means that you write not only what you did but how it turned out.  You show on paper what you did, meaning the duty or task your performed, and what you achieved, i.e., what you accomplished.  This is the best technique you can use to:
    (1) Show how you have added value for previous employers and
    (2) Prove your claim that you can benefit a future organization.
It is a potent technique that showcases strengths and provides proof for your claims of abilities and competence.

How to write Accomplishments Statements
For each position you have held, determine what you actually accomplished.  For each bullet point you list under a position, state a duty you performed.  After you list the duty, do the following:

Step 1
    Ask:  What action did you take and what was the result?
                What was the outcome for your company?
                        For instance, what was achieved in savings, revenues, problems solved,
                        efficiencies, increased productivity or profit, or improvement of some kind, etc.?
                 What was the outcome for you?
                         Personal outcomes can include increases in responsibility, promotion, awards.
                 Quantify and qualify your results to the extent possible.  Not every result can 
                         be quantified, but they can be qualified.
Step 2 
    List:    Each of the duties you performed, followed by the outcome or result you achieved by
                performing that duty.  Do this for each position shown on your resume.
Step 3
    Select: For each resume you send, select those duties + accomplishments that are relevant to
                the position for which you are applying.

Here are some examples of Accomplishment Statements
    ●  Provided financial analysis of operating costs, which resulted in reducing insurance costs $75,000 and in a refund of approximately $30,000

    ●  Streamlined customer complaint reporting system, increasing accuracy and timeliness, and reducing labor costs (add the $ savings if you know it).

    ●  Nominated for Chairman’s Award for work done on ______________________ .

How-To-Formula for developing Accomplishment Statements
And here's a method to help you craft an Accomplishment Statement:  
(1)  Start by listing a duty that you performed in a job you held.  Write it down.
(2)  At the end of the phrase listing the duty, write the words:  "resulting in ___________."
(3)  Ask yourself what did the company, customer,, my department, I, etc. get as a result of my performing that duty or task.  Below are two examples:

            Duty performed                       “Resulting in”                  Outcome or result
Step 1: Re-engineered reporting systems, resulting in  . . . . .. . . . .. . reduction of  timelines by 50%

Step 2:  Re-engineered reporting system,  reducing . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..timelines by 50%.

        Use the words “resulting in” to connect the duty with the result.
        Then change the words resulting in to a more accurate verb.  Above "resulting in" became
         "reducing."

Using this method, you can turn a resume, which simply lists duties you have performed, into a results-oriented, accomplishments-based resume that gets employers' attention!
For additional information on marketing yourself and your capabilities, please refer to the many articles found under the Articles tabs of the AJC–Career Strategy website.
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