Imagine that you’ve unexpectedly lost your long-held job, and now you’re wondering what you’re going to do next. Your resume isn’t up-to-date if you even have one prepared. You’re not sure what to include, and amid this mess, you can’t really remember all of the details about what you’ve accomplished over the years.
Most people don’t keep track of their career accomplishments. The milestones might be easier to remember, but the quantifiable information is usually lacking, yet it’s the most important to present to potential employers.
Recently, a friend of mine found herself in a precarious career situation. She left her position of 10 years at one company for a supposedly better opportunity at another company that landed in her lap. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way she expected, and she found herself voluntarily leaving the new position, but without another prospect of a job waiting in the wings.
What to do?
As she struggled to pull together a resume, she realized there were elements about her career that she’d forgotten. She asked for my help, and as I asked questions about her experience, projects, and certifications, she wanted to kick herself for not documenting this information along the way.
So think about it for a second. Have you been keeping track of your accomplishments over the last week, the previous month? How about throughout your whole career?
If you’re not keeping track of what you do on your job or in your career and how well you do it, nobody else is going to do it for you. If that’s the case, what do you expect to put on your resume?
My friend developed her career for years at one organization but hadn’t kept track of her accomplishments. It took a lot of time and patience, but she finally remembered enough to make her resume robust and started looking for a new job.
You don’t have to be in this situation. Keep track of the accomplishments that you achieve. Keep track of projects and most definitely keep track of numbers. Hiring managers want to see numbers. Show them the money. Show them the statistics, percentages, and amounts. Quantifying your accomplishments is the most important thing you can show to a potential employer because you demonstrate your impact on the business. You’re showing someone exactly how you made a difference in the business with your work.
So what do I mean by quantifying? I’m talking numbers; percentages, time, money saved/earned, or growth. Perhaps you were working on a project where you saved thousands or millions of dollars. Or, you were granted $25k for a proposal you wrote. Let’s say you are a facilitator and trained over 20,000 people or if you completed a project early and under budget—all of these things you want to keep track of to put them in perspective for future employers.
Make sure to keep backup copies of these accomplishments and save the information in multiple places, like backing it up on your computer. This information is priceless, and you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re out of a job, need a resume fast, but don’t know what to put on it because you didn’t keep track of your career accomplishments.
Even better, use video and Pointe Profile® to present your quantified information! It’s great to put this stuff on your resume, but you can make it easier, more enjoyable, and even more shareable by creatively presenting the information in short videos.
Here’s a simple and easy process to follow:
- Create a question about one of your accomplishments. For example, “How have you positively affected revenue or reduced costs in your previous positions?” or “Have you ever offered an idea or plan that made your department or output measurably more efficient?”.
- Use the S.T.A.R. method (or something similar) to formulate your answer and record your answer on your phone. The recording should be less than 2 minutes. It’s easy and fun!
- Using your voice as a guide, create a presentation with PowerPoint®, Keynote®, Prezi, Powtoons, InVideo, or even a simple infographic to illustrate your achievements. Save the presentation as an MP4 video, and save it on your Google Drive, Dropbox, or something similar.
- Include the link in your resume!
You can see by this process that you could end up with several links for your accomplishments – that’s where Pointe Profile® comes in. Pointe Profile® organizes all of your content in one place that recruiters can access with a single link! Everything you want them to know can be one click away!
So please keep track of all the great things you do in your work and show us the numbers!
The world needs to know how awesome you are. Kris Dunn of HR Capitalist explains you should show off your “awesomeness in a cloak of humility.”
We agree!
If you want more information on using video as described in this post, we have a free ebook available to show you how to get started! Just fill out the form below, and we’ll send it to you. There’s also an inexpensive masterclass with step-by-step guides you can see here!
In 2023 Control Your Career. Don't Let Your Career Control You!
If you'd like a bird's-eye-view of an excellent, modern job search plan that includes leveraging video, we have a free ebook available to get you up to speed! Just fill out the form below, and we'll send it to you.
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