Resume Enhancement
CIPM USA will enhance the resume of any member free of charge!
Here are some tips that will help:
Before you can write a resume, you have to define the product. You are the product!
No one person on Earth has your specific experiences or background. How can you best
present yourself? Your first task is to take an inventory of your accomplishments. We are not talking about stating examples of how hard you worked, either - we are talking about your RESULTS! Think in terms of ACTION and RESULT.
Action
What did you do (not what steps you took to get it done or what techniques you employed).
These are the "glad you asked me" elements of your interview.
Result
What benefit came out of what you did for your employer?
Examples
Profit Increase
Cost Reduction
Increased Sales and Market
Enhanced Employee Performance
Improved Team Work
Better Employee/Employer Relations
Reduction in Time of Operations
Achievement of Technological Progress
Foreseeing A Need Or Problem Before It Became Obvious
Planning or Directing from Scratch
Implementing An Important Program
Improving Quality Control
Satisfied Disgruntled Customers
Generally, if any one or more of the following criteria are met, you have an accomplishment:
1. What you did achieved more results with the same expense or assets.
2. It made things easier.
3. It attained something worthwhile for the first time.
4. You resolved problems that had detrimental impact on earnings.
5. You contributed to the bottom line of the company in a direct way.
Your challenge is to make known your accomplishments in the most concise way possible so they can be quickly communicated by you and grasped by your reader.
Accomplishments
Accomplishments do not have to be something that are yours alone. Take appropriate credit for team efforts. No one will ask you to document your results, but you must feel comfortable discussing them with the interviewer. You never want to be in a situation where you feel you have to back off from an accomplishment during an interview. If you cannot defend it, do not list it. Rehearse positive approaches to discussing it.
Your reader is busy, aggravated and may have personal or other problems that are presenting a bad day when your resume arrives. Take this into consideration. Make it as easy as possible for the reader to find out your accomplishments. Make them concise. Make them clear. Make every word count!
Follow this rule and you will succeed:
1. Try to put the RESULT first. The reader's eyes scan left to right, so get those figures (sales increase, percent improvement in profit, etc.) on the left where they will capture the reader's attention. Which of the following looks stronger?
Redesigned unit for in-house fabrication, saving $150,000 per unit and improving unit for in-house fabrication.
Or
Saved $150,000 per unit and improved performance by redesigning
unit for in-house fabrication.
Examples of Accomplishments
Accounting and Finance
Cut effective tax rate 30 percent by forming off-shore corporation
Negotiated $10-million in disputed contracts
Reduced accounts receivable financing by 25 percent.
Up-dated technological advances saved $3-million
Administration and Management
Saved $100,000 by changing Employee Benefit Program
Eliminated need for $3-million planned by capital investment
Reduced personnel cost 12 percent by initiating cross training
Saved $300,000 by improving internal operations productivity
Reduced complaints from administrative errors by 50 percent
Engineering and Technical
Invented automated system for operating existing equipment
Increased production of one product by 100 percent
Reduced plant utilities cost by 20 percent
Reduced pump-down time by 30 percent
Saved $100,000 by elimination of spare compressor
Saved $1-million in penalties by solving scheduling delays
Cut 20,000 worker-hours from project schedule
Marketing and Sales
Developed new markets for waste material
Improved market research techniques
Created new market for new product line
Increased market share by 20 percent for existing product line
Instituted automated telephone marketing
Operations
Achieved 50 percent cost savings and improved quality by managing
Saved $100,000 by improving manpower utilization
Reduced personnel turnover by instituting new training program
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