A powerful resume captures the attention of applicant trackers and HR managers alike. Including the right keywords from the job description, organizing it with bullet points and laying out what you've accomplished over the past several years are all steps toward a successful resume, but they might not give you the leg up you need. Although they're great to include, these things aren't necessarily what employers look for in a resume.
The most important aspect of your powerful resume is showing a company the potential return on investment it gets from hiring you. How much bang does the employer get for bucks spent on paying your salary, health insurance, catered weekly lunch and childcare? If you can prove that you're the best investment compared to the rest of the candidates, the job is yours.
Show how the company benefits from your presence by providing examples of proven results from the past. It's great that you spent five years managing a sales team of five people, but an employer wants to know what happened on your watch. A powerful resume includes the amount of revenue increased because of your sales team when you worked there. Other ways to affect an employer's bottom line include increasing efficiency, saving money and making money.
Take your past results and demonstrate how to solve a prospective employer's problem. Research the company to discover ways to improve cash flow, no matter what kind of position you have in front of you. As an example, suppose you apply for an administrative assistant job. Show that you can make the position more efficient by automating the ordering of office supplies, cutting down on paperwork and organizing work areas more efficiently.
The same goes for IT employees. Demonstrate how to improve the way workers access information through secure networks while using software that crunches the right performance indicators. If you recognize that a company's computers and software are out of date, that's a problem you need to solve on your powerful resume. Lay out a brief plan about why your past experience prepared you for the monumental task of replacing an old computer system.
An administrative assistant improves a company's bottom line by making the job waste less time. An IT person figures out how to run computers more efficiently. Both of these things cut expenses and increase profits, and that's where you find additional points to make on your powerful resume when you improve a firm's return on investment.
Add strong keywords to your resume that catch the attention of an HR manager. The word "results" literally leads into proven ways you helped employers in the past and how you can take your new employer to the next level. Use the word "proven" as a way start talking about your previous experiences and the way they prepared you for this next phase of your career. "Save" is an important word because you can save a business money by improving certain processes, decreasing expenses and limiting the time spent on projects.
A powerful resume sums up your ability to make the firm money. This catches anyone's attention because businesses are in it to earn profits. Show the boss the money, and the boss returns the favor.
Photo courtesy of website workshop at Flickr.com
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!