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What People Are Saying

“Working with Cheryl last year was one of the best experiences in a long time of pursuing my professional development. She was able to help me define my visions, focus my efforts, and guide me towards an efficient and successful job search. Even though she has not worked in my field, she provided me with plenty of tailored resources and taught me how to use social media tools for professional networking and growth. Even after finding a new job I continue to work with her on my career development goals, because she thinks out of the box and gives advice that consistently brings me closer to the 5-year goal that she helped me formulate. Cheryl always appears to be one step ahead of your thought process and is extremely talented at asking the necessary questions so you can reach your own conclusions as to what seems best for you. She is motivating, supportive, optimistic yet realistic, and one of the most positive forces you can have on your side while trying to reach the next goal.”

Susanne Ebling


Cheryl has been a pleasure to work with and she gets results. I found a new position, in a tough economic environment, through LinkedIn using the strategies that Cheryl taught me. I was in the job market actively looking for over six months. I was not using social media before the pilot program with Cheryl and was having very limited success. Once I started using social media based under Cheryl's direction, my success rate improved dramatically and the number of interviews increased resulting in multiple job offers. I highly recommend Cheryl as a career coach.”

Dave Becker


“I had been struggling with the umptenth rewrite of my resume for weeks, unable to get it to speak out for me. Then a mutual friend recommended Cheryl. I didn't call her right away since I stubbornly insisted to myself that I could do it without help. Finally, I realized that I needed a new set of eyes and some new thinking. Cheryl's response knocked me over. In a few short days I had a powerful resume that is exactly what I was looking for as well as a cover letter that I can easily customize. Cheryl delivers!”

Richard Floyd


“Cheryl wrote my resume, and after weeks of sending out my old resume and getting no phone calls, as soon as I got the first draft I sent it to a few job listings and was 5 for 6 in return phone calls- yes 5 for 6!!!..after no responses in the first 2 weeks; Cheryl's work made that much of a difference!! I know anyone looking to move on from where they are working and needs that GREAT resume should contact Cheryl immediately.”

Darrin Bailey
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WHAT IF YOU´RE NOT THE PERFECT CANDIDATE? »

What If I Can’t Quantify My Accomplishments?

Many job seekers know that in order to write an effective resume, they need to focus on their accomplishments for the different positions that they have held. Numbers look impressive on the resume, and salespeople usually find it easy to quantify their results because their work is so numbers driven.

But what if you´re not a salesperson? How do you show that you made a real contribution to the bottom line of your organization?

Let´s start with what you can quantify:

Time or money saved. If you instituted a process improvement that saved time and made a procedure more efficient, you can estimate the amount of time saved by comparing the amount of time that the procedure initially required with the amount of time it took after you improved the process. This can be stated in units of time (i.e., hours, days, or weeks), or it can be stated as a percentage (i.e., time for monthly close was reduced by 40%). By the same token, you can quantify the amount of money you saved for your organization. For example, you might have saved $1 million by switching vendors and negotiating a better price. You can state the dollar amount or the percentage of money saved (i.e., decreased expenses by 60%).

New business for the company. Even if you are not in sales, you may still have contributed to the bottom line by referring new business. Again, you can estimate how much money you earned for the company. Or perhaps your work led to more sales. If you are in marketing, you may have created materials that were used by salespeople to increase sales. Quantify the sales that were generated after the marketing collateral you created was implemented.

Increase in customer satisfaction. You may have been in a position to directly impact customer satisfaction. If your company measures satisfaction through customer surveys and you know that there has been a significant improvement in the customer satisfaction scores as a result of your intervention, you can quantify that increase and write it as an accomplishment on your resume. For example, you could say, Boosted customer satisfaction scores by 30% in six months by instituting a process that resolved most problems with one call.

Staff retention rates. Instead of saying something generic like, Increased morale in the office, you could talk about the fact that you initiated programs that boosted staff retention rates. This is significant because it is very costly to replace staff. You can either mention the decrease in turnover or the increase in staff retention. Human resources should have data on staff turnover that you can use to compare what the turnover rate was before you came and what the turnover rate has been during your tenure.

But what if you have some accomplishments that are significant for someone in your field, but they just can´t be quantified? Should you omit them because they are not quantifiable?

The answer to the questions above is no. There are ways to show the importance of your accomplishments even if you cannot put a number to them.

Mention awards. Awards speak objectively about the importance of your achievements. But don´t simply list the awards. Include a short descriptive phrase explaining what the award was for. The names of many internal awards are only meaningful to people inside the organization. A brief explanation of the award and why you were given it can give the reader a better understanding of why that award is important.

Talk about the impact of your accomplishments to the organization. Many people when writing their resumes make the mistake of stating what they did without painting a picture for the reader of the results of their action. For example, you might have written a manual on standard operating procedures that was initially produced for your department, but after upper management saw the quality of it, they decided to implement the manual company-wide. Letting the reader know that upper management thought so highly of the manual that they started to use it throughout the entire company shows the impact of your work.

State that your work was recognized outside of your organization. If you presented the results of your work at a professional conference or you were quoted or highlighted in a periodical or professional journal, definitely mention that on your resume. It gives you added credibility in your field and positions you as an expert.

The bottom line is that those who are able to show their contributions to the organization are more likely to attract the attention of the hiring manager. Showing that you have made significant contributions in the past gives hiring managers good reason to believe that you are worth calling for an interview.

 

For a free resume critique email your resume to admin@calltocareer.com.