I worked with a really talented guy who I thought would never leave the company we worked for … not because he didn’t want to leave … he did. I thought he would never leave because he sold himself so short in his resume, no one would hire him.
He didn’t want to overstate his qualifications, so instead he painted a picture to prospective employers that he wasn’t as good as he really was.
I encouraged him to use power words in his resume and to take ownership of his many successes.
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Instead of writing, “I helped edit magazine articles,” I encouraged him to write something like, “Managed the award-winning editorial content of Blank magazine, the flagship publication of XYZ Company, the largest widget company in the world.” Both statements were true, but the revised version captured the essence of his important contributions.
It’s also important to include quantifiable statements about the contributions you have made at various companies. Such statements could involve how your efforts:
- Increased sales or donations by XX dollars or percent.
- Resulted in significant cost savings due to improved processes.
- Trained XX number of employees in a new program, which resulted in a XX% increase in customer satisfaction, etc.
Power words and quantifiable statements about your contributions at former companies can help improve your job-application messaging.
Career Overview provides an excellent list of resume power words on its site. Professional-resume-example.com features examples for how to write strong quantifiable statements in your resume.
Sell yourself well … after all … it can help you Get a Job!
