Resume Writing Tips

Posted by Sean Harry

A good resume is one of the most important tools you will use in your job search. A good resume will get you in the door so you can ace the interview and negotiate for a higher salary. A good resume is important, but its not the ONLY tool you need. . . but we’ll talk more about that next time. Today’s post will give you some resume tips and some resume writing examples to help you create a winning resume.

The place to start your resume is by focusing on accomplishment statements. These are brief, quantified results you have had in your previous job(s). Accomplishment statements (we refer to them as CARS) will help you stand out in a crowd. By focusing on your accomplishments rather than your job description, you will show a potential employer what you could do for them based upon your previous experiences. By focusing on accomplishments, rather than job description, you will PROVE that you are the best candidate. At the very least, by focusing on accomplishment statements you will entice a potential employer to say, “Hmmm. I need to talk to this person!” And isn’t that the real goal of your resume — to get an interview? (Say, “yes.”)

Here are a couple of accomplishment statement resume examples. The first statement is from the opriginal resume. The second is a re-working of that statement utilizing the CARS approach and focusing on quantifiable results.

Original statement: Ordered parts and managed inventory to control costs and increase revenue.

Revised statement: Prevented high risk of shortage and negotiated $98K in cost avoidance through a large purchase of a critical part. Mitigated holding costs by arranging that inventory be held at a distributor without additional price increase.

Original statement: Drove business as the Project Manager for three high-end server products (XX Multi Processor, IPXX Multi Processor, and XX Dual Processor). Improved credibility with customers which lead to an agreement of using a non-renewable expense fee based technical support model to justify beyond-standard support of financial burden for customers.

Revised statement: Negotiated with OEM customer to pay a non-renewable expense agreement (rather than a long term contract), allowing customer to launch products successfully and avoiding a loss of $20M+ to the company while maintaining a relationship that led to repeat business on the next project.

You can see that the second example packs more punch in about the same amount of space.  Giving specific examples, backed by quantified results gives the resume more weight.  Think of it this way, if everyone else applying for the job simply re-iterates the job description except for you, then you win! You win because you are showing results while everyone else is simply re-stating what the employer already knows . . . the job description.

For more on writing CARS statements and other free resume advice,  be sure to check out the video on the Careers 2.0 website – http://careeradvice4u.com/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=113

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Category : Career Advice / Resume Advice

2 Responses to “Resume Writing Tips”


Andrew Beach October 16, 2009

Great content once again Sean. You know it’s interesting, as sales people we assume that the audience we are writing to is interested in our CARS statements. Alternately the old adages hold true, we ought to have the philosophy that telling is not selling, and that being interested is much better than being interesting. Resumes are great for detailing a 2-dimensional representation of your accomplishments so you can better describe to people (verbally, in a 3-dimensional way) briefly, and then ask a mountain of questions that will lead to a desired end result from the hiring manager (ie the definition of sales). Many times job seekers believe that the resume should stand on it’s own and be a precursor to talking with someone whom they believe actually read & internalized all the great content in the resume (uh, how many resumes do hiring managers read in their lifetimes?). In reality, truth is, resumes belong in a file in human resources after you already have the hiring manager ready to buy your services. p.s. We have convinced the noodle to present at the next brkfstclb meeting on the why you-why you now emails he’s successfully used to open doors more directly. Keep up the good work Sean, can’t wait for your next post.