Presenting your accomplishments in your resume represents a case where it’s OK, indeed desirable, to give away the end of the story first. Tell the Result (R) of your Action (A) first so it catches the employer’s attention. Then, ideally, describe the Situation (S), Problem (P), or Challenge (C) that your Action addressed. Quantify wherever possible.
Note in these examples from diverse resumes that, because of resume space limitations and employers’ preference for conciseness, the Situation, Problem, or Challenge is not always described:
- Produced sales growth from $50K in backlog to more than $31 million in backlog in three years by building high-performance, multifunctional/multi-discipline, sales team comprising professionals from multiple departments.
- Deflected 50 percent increase in electricity costs by designing/installing power factor correction systems.
- Reduced water usage by 80 percent by developing new cooling water temperature control system.
- Led national expansion of single-serve potato chip product — building US volume +33% — by utilizing US volume projections, international test market demands, and available capacity.
- Increased revenue by recruiting, training, and organizing efficient contract staff capable of faster processing time that optimized sales representatives’ performance.
- Began employment as fax runner whose superiors recognized exemplary professional skills and unsurpassed work ethic; promoted to administrative assistant, and promoted again to senior administrative assistant within a year.
- Achieved 36 percent rating increase in customer survey scores by creating and implementing two new staff training programs that heightened levels of guest satisfaction.
- Increased sales revenue by 15 million in one year by assembling dynamic marketing team, coaching team members, and implementing highly effective marketing strategy.
- Reduced unnecessary book purchases by developing Excel spreadsheet book inventory.
- Raised $250K in one evening by coordinating 85 volunteers for school auction/dinner and through sales of 800 silent and 40 live-auction items.
- Facilitated 55 percent increase in customer satisfaction and 50 percent increase in employee job satisfaction by flattening hierarchy from 10 functional areas to just two, guiding employees to redefine their jobs, creating efficient work processes, eliminating redundancies, and eradicating paperwork in organization formerly unresponsive to clients as well as inefficient, bureaucratic, and apathetic.
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.
