Truth 43. Strong résumés focus on accomplishments, not responsibilities

Whether you want to advance your professional career, apply for a new job, or build your own business, getting your assets down in writing is critical. There are various kinds of résumés—a consultant may need a “functional” skills-based résumé, for example, and a scientist a detailed curriculum vitae, or CV—but each should be framed to target your goal and audience.

The principle also applies to the newer social media résumé, which can incorporate video, photos, podcasts, and blogs. We’ll focus on traditional résumés, but you can adapt the ideas to other formats if they’re better suited to your industry and highlight your strengths more appropriately.

A résumé’s goal is to get the interview so that you can sell yourself to the interviewer. This suggests that unless you’re a physicist or professor, keep it to one or two pages maximum.

Recruiters and staffing people are on the receiving end of a lot of bad thinking. These tips are based on their suffering:

Don’t fool with the standard format—Stick to reverse chronological order and keep it simple. (And yes, employers still want to know what you were doing if time gaps are evident.)

Use Microsoft Word or another standard word processing program—Consider creating a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of your résumé so that it retains your formatting during e-mailing.

Don’t let typos sneak in.

Don’t clutter the layout—Your résumé should be clean and easy for the 30-second capture, so don’t vary fonts and sizes.

Don’t use abbreviations that are not searchable or common outside your industry, such as “a.m.” for accounts management.

Use keywords—Many recruiting firms and large employers digitize incoming résumés, so make them searchable and build in keywords that make your skills clear. To find good keywords, scour the recruiting ad, scan trade magazines, and check the Web sites of relevant companies and professional associations.

What should be at the top of your résumé? Recruiters differ about whether stating an objective works or not, but it should never be fluff. Cut out phrases such as, “I’m looking for a job that…” or “My objective in seeking this position is….”

Beginning with a brief profile—an elevator speech in print—that says who you are and what your greatest strengths are is a powerful way to open. You’ll note that the examples here lean heavily on industry-specific jargon. Yes, we’ve advised you to stay away from jargon, but résumés are an exception to this rule. Recruiters and employers want to determine quickly how well your credentials line up with their needs, meaning you probably need to use your industry’s buzzwords.

Here’s an example of an opening profile:

Energetic sales and marketing executive with 16+ years of successful experience in strategic planning, implementation, and leadership of multimillion-dollar marketing initiatives with profit and loss responsibility. Proven ability to analyze markets, target areas of highest return, and develop strategies to attain organizational goals.

And a different example:

Young, profit-oriented advertising professional with 8+ years of solid experience and a successful track record. Well-organized, self-starting team player with excellent communication skills and ability to stimulate increased productivity.

When you create the right opening profile, it tells you what content to focus on in the rest of the résumé. It also tells the reviewer how to read the rest of the résumé, setting him or her up to take the slant you want.

Stress your accomplishments—Employers aren’t interested in a laundry list of your former jobs and tasks—they want to know what you’ve accomplished. So translate your job responsibilities into achievements and quantify your accomplishments. This is worth a great deal of thought.

Rather than saying, “I redesigned a warehouse,” say, “Transformed a disorganized, inefficient warehouse into an efficient operation by totally redesigning the layout, saving an estimated annual $50,000 in recovered stock.”

Use strong, meaningful words such as managed, conducted, coordinated, directed, and supervised. “I handled marketing issues” is less impressive than “I coordinated marketing campaigns.”

“I entered information into a database” sends a completely different image of you than “I coordinated customer databases and upgrades.”

Here’s a sample list of accomplishments from a marketing executive:

Exceeded forecast net income by 14% in first 12 months

Grew an industrial account base from zero into a segment producing more than $16 million in sales revenue in the first 12 months

Developed a formal sales program identifying objectives and strategies, deployment of resources, qualification guidelines, sales incentive programs, and support plans

Using bullets—They work beautifully for documents like résumés, but don’t overdo. Who wants to read two pages of bulleted information? Use them to make separate points, or list examples, but create the generalizations that tie them together and make them meaningful.

Should you include—“References available upon request?” No, because it’s taken for granted. Should you list your hobbies or sports achievements on your résumé? Maybe. If you had been captain of the college hockey team, that might give you a conversation starter. But if you had headed a partisan political club, it might not be a good idea. Should you cite honors and awards? Memberships? Yes, if they relate to the position you’re seeking.

How about charitable ventures, community activities, and the like? Sure, but call them “Community Service” rather than “Volunteer Activities.” If you’ve written articles or books, given speeches or presentations, or taught courses in the field you’re applying for, by all means indicate them on your résumé.

Think future—The good part: When you get the résumé right, the phone rings—and even better, you’re prepared to answer it. Hammering out your personal statement helps you know who you are and how to present yourself with clout.