A resume summary is the first thing recruiters see. Include metric-based strengths with clear, quantifiable results in your professional summary section to lure them in.
Strengths can include hard or soft skills and experiences. For example, if you boosted employee retention or surpassed sales goals, share them on your resume!
1. Highlight Your Successes
Accomplishments are key elements to showcase in a resume that shows you are a great candidate. They are more important than listing your daily responsibilities and can be quantified with numbers, percentages or dollar amounts to prove your effectiveness.
Rather than describing your work experience chronologically, focus on your top professional accomplishments at each company. You can also for resume examples on the internet that highlight your success.
Highlighting your key achievements at the beginning of each work experience section makes for an impactful resume. It also gives the hiring manager an idea of what you have accomplished in your career. It will help them know you’re a high achiever who can make an immediate difference in their business.
2. List Your Key Responsibilities
Instead of listing daily job duties, please describe how your actions have helped companies achieve their goals. Hiring managers want to know your value to their company. Including quantifiable metrics like revenue increases, cost savings, number of clients gained, or projects completed ahead of schedule can make you stand out from the competition.
For each experience on your resume, start with the most recent one and then move backwards. List a few key responsibilities under each position, and then use the Action and Result sections of the STAR method to describe your impact on the company.
3. Highlight Your Achievements
When hiring managers look at your resume, they want to see a clear picture of the value you can bring to their company. While listing key responsibilities in a work experience section gives them a glimpse into your day-to-day duties, listing accomplishments makes it easy for them to understand how you add to the bottom line. Accomplishments show you can deliver concrete results, such as saving money or time, increasing sales revenue, or attracting a certain number of clients.
To highlight your accomplishments in the most impactful way possible, consider using a PAR formula — Problem-Action-Result — to structure your bullet points. Using this approach can also help you avoid common errors such as typos.
4. Focus on Your Core Competencies
Creating a section on your resume that lists core competencies is a way for you to differentiate yourself from other candidates. It also makes it easier for hiring managers to quickly find the skills they are looking for and see if you meet their expectations.
Your core competencies can include leadership, teamwork, or even your approach to problem-solving. Employers want to know how you will handle any challenges they might face at work, and listing these abilities shows that you are a well-rounded professional.
5. Highlight Your Personality
A resume is a document that needs to be written in a way that best represents you as an individual. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, you can highlight personal accomplishments and volunteer experience that reflect your personality while also being relevant to the job.
For example, if you have leadership skills, describing how you lead a team could be a good way to showcase this. Similarly, if you’re competitive, mentioning this in your summary shows that you’ll push hard to surpass goals. However, avoid using personal details like your religious beliefs or political leanings in a professional context. This may be off-putting to hiring managers.
