Resume Strategies: How to Entice Employers

Professional achievements and skills are two elements that must be included when developing your resume. Without them, you will only have a boring list of companies and job duties that you performed. This lack of strategy will not entice a potential employer to read your resume; not in this job market! To get noticed, you need to add value by highlighting your accomplishments throughout your document. In essence, your resume should be a marketing billboard that sells "you." Quantifiable results and results relating to the quality of your work need to be attached to job duties. When reviewing your resume, a potential employer will want to know how you have benefited a current or previous employer. Many of us do not realize how valued we really are to a company. For example, it is easy to add a quantifiable achievement to your resume if you are a top-producing salesperson who consistently exceeds monthly quotas by 25%; but what if you are an administrative clerk whose job responsibilities include updating a database, typing letters, or filing? What type of achievements can you find in these repetitive tasks? How can you find value in updating a database or filing? If you are this administrative clerk, you must concentrate on the quality of your tasks and the results of the quality you brought to your employer. As an administrative clerk, you may have created a better filing system for easier retrieval which in turn created greater productivity. Greater productivity was achieved because it took a shorter amount of time for you and the department to find needed files. Also, when compared to other clerks in the department, you might be the most accurate in inputting data into the database system, reducing costly errors for the company. The quality of your clerical duties are demonstrated by your ability to organize a better filing system and attention to detail when inputting data. It is not what you have done for an employer that is important, but how well you have performed the tasks that were assigned to you. Regardless of whether you are a vice president of a bank or a file clerk in an office, always include your achievements and talents in your resume. Do not forget to include awards, special projects you have successfully completed, or anything that you proposed and initiated that assisted in the company reaching its goals. A potential employer reviewing your resume will get a mental picture of who you are and what you can do for them. The time you spend on creating a top-quality resume will prove worthwhile when you get that interview you really want.