Go On...Brag A Little - It's OK

The biggest problem we run in to with clients is their inability to want to market themselves, brag about themselves or speak positively about their own achievements. I guess in the world we live in we are just so critical of ourselves – constantly pushing ourselves that we forget all the great things we’ve achieved in our career. Well this is one instance where it is more than OK to pat yourself on the back. Go ahead, you deserve it! Here are a few tips to flush out your accomplishments and contributions on your resume. 1. Think about what you are MOST proud of in your career. What is the one major accomplishment over the span of your career that you are the most proud of? Make sure you include that in your resume and especially on your career summary. Now add that to a separate list called My Personal Brand. I’ll share at the end what to do with that. 2. Plagued by the duties and responsibilities lists that often overtake a resume? Just like one of those green vines you can’t seem to get rid of – it just starts growing and before you know it, it’s taken over everything in sight. When you are looking at a long list of duties ask yourself for each what was my major challenge when performing this duty? What action did I take to address that challenge? What happened when I addressed it? This is often referred to as a challenge, action, and result format. Take the information you just discovered from asking those questions and make that your NEW bullet point. See where we’re going so far? You have some great accomplishments already and here you were having a hard time coming up with something. Contrary to popular belief it is NOT all about the numbers. Yes, it does help to have those peppered in the resume and cover letter somewhere but every bullet point does not have to have a number. Contributions are just as effective and valuable. 3. List what you feel are your three biggest strengths and weaknesses. Once you have your list think about how you demonstrated each of your three biggest strengths in each position you held, then incorporate those into your resume. I had you list the strengths so you would have it in writing and know exactly what to avoid writing on your resume and exactly what your personal brand is not. 4. What makes you unique? How can you do your job better than everyone else around you? What unique value do you offer an employer that no one else can? Take the answers to these questions incorporate into your career summary and professional experience sections and list on a separate sheet with the information from questions one and three. Now, I want you to take all the answers to these questions and see what the common factors are, what value you bring, and what makes you stand out in the crowd. Voila! You have your personal brand, your achievements, and your contributions all pre-packaged and ready to be inserted into your resume. I tried to oversimplify and break down the process as easily as I could because truth be told more people get hung up on the numbers and that one word ‘accomplishments’ then anything else. My goal was to show you that accomplishments are not always about numbers. Of course, numbers are important and when you have them use them but showing the VALUE you can bring to an organization and what sets you apart will certainly score you the home run in the end.