Does your resume project you as an achiever?

In today’s competitive job market, where qualifications and work experience of a candidate are often on par, it is achievements that make a candidate stand out from the rest. The importance of packaging your resume right, so as to project yourself as a result oriented candidate, cannot therefore be underestimated. Here are three quick ways to turn your resume around - from that of a normal candidate to one who is achievement oriented.

 Convert work responsibilities to achievements:
 One of the smartest ways to do this is to make use of power verbs, even when you talk about work responsibilities, thus converting them into achievements. What I mean by power words and how these make a difference is demonstrated below:

 Before : Responsible for sales in North region.

After: Spearheaded sales of entire North region.

See how changing the word “responsible for” to an action verb “spearheaded” makes so much difference to the image conveyed. If a resume only details responsibilities, it is merely telling the recruiter what you were supposed to do – and not what you actually did.

 Make sure your daily responsibilities are delineated with powerful action words as:

led, initiated, spearheaded, controlled, accelerated, attained, conceptualized, conducted, devised, directed, drafted, executed, enhanced, established, ensured etc.

These words effectively portray you as a person in action, thus leaving a positive impact. When you talk about how your work achieved something rather than was just something you handled, you project yourself as a candidate who takes initiative and responsibility at work, rather than one who simply does what has to be done

Delineate how well you discharged responsibilities
It is important for you to give the recruiter a sense of how well you handled your job...

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