Rethinking the Resume

While there are many different ways to layout your resume, there is still the standards that most people include. When writing a resume, most job seekers tends to have listed near the top, some sort of section explaining the goals they would like to accomplish in their new job. This usually tends to include a job title and some beautiful words about the desire to do our best and excel in all areas. But if everyone is pretty much doing that, and every has lofty goals set, does this section really say much to stand out from the pack?

Instead of listing your goal, try listing some accomplishments. Keep it short as usual, but make that opening section really jump out by having a line or two that sums up major accomplishments in your career so far. You'll be able to expand on this more in later parts of your resume, but for this initial section - use it to be a real attention grabber.

Another blogger who looked at this issue recently, shared the story of what made them change this section. They actually received a comment back from a company CEO in reference to this "Goal" section, stating: “Every single resume I have, every candidate we interview, tells me over and over again how passionate they are or creative or goal-orientated or anything else. I don’t care about that. I care about what you’ve actually accomplished. What have you done?”

If you can grab their attention at the very start, it will separate you from the others in the stack of resumes, and will probably get the rest of your resume read. More and more, employers are looking for what you have done in the past, as a gauge of what they can expect you will do in the future. Everyone has goals and desires, but unless you have some kind of concrete history to back it up and add to the legitimacy of being able to achieve those goals, then it is just a bunch of nice sounding words.

So, think back, and find one or two of the most attention grabbing accomplishments you have in your career, and start it off strong with them. Even if you are right out of school, everyone has something they have accomplished that is interesting or important enough to highlight at this point. The goal is to stand out from the pack, to say something that immediately makes them desire to know more about you; and to show you have the goods to back up the words. Give it a try.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Education Jobsite blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.