Posted By Amanda Collins on September 10, 2009

I’ve been writing résumés since 1996, and at that point they were little more than prettified job applications with little or no focus on differentiating the client. They were a series of lists saying what you did at each job. And they all started with objectives. In essence, they were about applicants.

Today, résumés are no longer past-oriented; they are very much targeted to the reader and future-oriented. Far from the days of lists, the best résumés today highlight your value proposition and accomplishments you’ve had across your career to paint a picture to the reader and let them know how you can make their business better. The driving factor behind résumés is WIIFM: what’s in it for me? – meaning what’s in it for the employer.

If your résumé starts with an objective, doesn’t have a summary / profile, and you’re not sure what accomplishments really are, you’re likely not hitting the right note with HR managers and recruiters. Remember that you need to market yourself as the expert, the one candidate they cannot afford to pass up. If you do that, you’ll likely see a turnaround in your responses to your job-search efforts.

Category: Resumes
Tags: accomplishments, Job Search, resume