When you're writing a resume, be sure to quantify your experiences. This allows the hiring manager who is reading your resume to get a clear picture of what you have done during your career so far.
Quantifying your experiences when writing a resume means detailing how many times you have completed a task. For example, the statement "filed annual forms to ensure compliance" is quite vague and doesn't accurately communicate the scope of your role. Be more specific by writing "filed 75 annual forms for six company departments." This shows that you have taken on significant responsibility within a company.
If you have saved or earned money for your organization, then you should use your resume to communicate just how much. When writing a resume, look out for bland statements like "found ways to cut costs to increase profitability." Replace this kind of statement with a more specific description, such as "implemented a new payroll system that saved $500,000 in personnel costs over the next five years."
Even if you haven't implemented any major changes to cut costs dramatically, there may still be elements of your job that can be made to seem more impressive through quantification. For example, it's easy to underplay the role you played as an administrative assistant by including a bland statement such as "answered phones" when writing a resume. Instead, describe how hard you worked by explaining how often you needed to answer the phone, using a statement like "received and routed around 500 calls every day."
Everything you write on your resume must be truthful, so avoid exaggerating. It's fine to estimate values that you don't know exactly, as long as you can explain your estimates to the hiring manager at an interview. If you make any claim when writing a resume regarding how much, how many or how often you performed a task, remember what you wrote and be able to back it up during an interview.
As always, tailor your resume to match the job for which you are applying. Recruiters in different industries will be interested in different experiences from your career. For example, if you are applying for a job in sales, draw attention to how many sales you made and how much revenue your sales brought in for the company. On the other hand, an employer who is looking for a new administrative assistant is likely to be more interested in how many people you organized and how many calls you handled on a daily basis.
The next time you are writing a resume, focus on answering the following questions: "How much?" "How many?" "How often?" Answering these questions can help you create a resume that contains the information recruiters are seeking.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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