For many job seekers, writing a resume can often feel like a difficult or awkward exercise in professional self-reflection. Though they say that “hindsight is 20/20,” why is it that visualizing one’s professional past can appear so hazy? Well, depending on the length of your career and/or tenure in your roles, you are often digging through the layers of many years of experience in order to surface the gems that should appear on your resume. Since writing a resume is not something that you do often, your excavation tools may not be as sharp as needed for the task. In this case, your digging tools are the questions that will help you uncover the achievement stories that will effectively position you for your target audience.

In a previous post, I wrote about how to adopt a journalistic approach to help you build context in your resume. Here I want to share three specific questions that will help you select rich achievement content for your resume and help you drill down to why it matters.

3 Questions to Transform Your Resume

1. What are you most proud of [in this role]?

Not knowing where to start is a key challenge for clients when updating their resumes, especially for those with longer careers. Finding the right jump-off point can be difficult, so I find that one of the best places to start conversations is to ask clients about major points of pride within a given role. In most cases, their voices change, they smile, their eyes light up and they recount a great story about how they made a big difference in their role and how it impacted others. Accomplishments that hold an element of pride are important because of their value or meaning  for us -- often for reasons that go far beyond the achievement itself.

Interrogative Value: Achievements that make you proud often do so because: A) you had to overcome a significant challenge; and/or B) you pushed yourself to new levels of performance you were unaware you could attain. These stories not only reveal elements of your character but can also reveal your values. Having stories like these on your resume can uncover key inflection points in your career where you demonstrated the ability to operate at the next level. These accomplishments are also invaluable for interview situations where you can use them as core stories upon which you can build your career platform.

This question is also very useful for getting your juices flowing in thinking about how else you have made an impact in a specific role or even across your career. Pay attention to what this question sparks for you as it may reveal some rich data both for your resume and for building your professional brand.

2. Why did you get involved?

Knowing your “whys” is critical to being able to demonstrate the importance of and/or justification for your actions. As the father of a smart and inquisitive 7-year old girl, I’ve had to seriously step up my “why game,” as a matter of survival. This training has also had its advantages for assisting resume clients reveal key aspects of their stories that provide context for their achievements. Without context, your accomplishments are at best, less impressive, and at worst, unintelligible.  

Interrogative Value: Identifying your reason for your involvement in an achievement can reveal critical internal and external situational factors that can really set your story apart. On the internal side, you may have identified a challenge, caught an error, or even originated an idea/process/product, etc., that led to the ultimate achievement. Earning your company $5M sounds great, but it’s far more impressive if the new product feature you dreamed up was the critical factor. 

Regarding external factors, you may be seen as the SME (Subject Matter Expert) in your company, and therefore the “go-to person” in a specific domain. In other cases, you were selected by senior management to lead a project or asked to go put out a fire. Essentially, you don’t always choose your achievements, sometimes your achievements choose you. In either case, internal and external involvement factors in achievements are often overlooked by clients and they can make a huge difference in the impact of their stories.

3. So what? 

Though this question may seem borderline insensitive or even rude to ask a client, I was glad to learn through an email exchange with a colleague and brilliant resume writer I respect (Virginia Franco), that she also uses this question to help her clients go beneath the surface, and drill down to why what they did matters. In order for your target audience to grasp the benefit of your achievements, it’s your job to connect the dots. 

Interrogative Value: Whether examining your existing resume bullet points or sketching the outlines of possible achievement stories, using the annoying incisiveness of, “so what,” as a litmus test that will drive you to the root benefit of your achievements. At the core, your achievements should connect as closely as possible (within the scope of your role) to the key business drivers of your company. This is especially important if you are an executive or aspiring to be one. Demonstrating this link not only shows your understanding of the bigger picture but also your ability to contribute to it. Landing a job or advancing your career is heavily dependent upon how you position yourself and your achievements. If you can consistently draw the connection between your accomplishments and solving company pain points or advancing company goals, you are in great shape for career advancement. Asking yourself, “so what?” can help you get there.

Though simple, these three questions can help you uncover crucial information about yourself and your achievements that will go a long way in helping you create a compelling career platform.

If you would like to discuss how you can better illustrate achievements on your resume, I’d love to support you! BOOK NOW for a free resume consultation.

niiato@avenircareers.com | Call/text 917-740-3048