Career History – Job Descriptions
So under each job title like I’ve described in the previous chapter, you need to tell the reader about the job. And you need to accomplish two things: you need to tell the reader what your responsibilities were at each job, and more importantly, you need to tell the reader what you accomplished at each job.
I like to do this using a mixture of normal paragraphs and bulleted lists.
Use a paragraph to describe what you did at the job. I’m talking here about describing your duties, general scope of work, who you reported to, who reported to you, etc. Generally, in simple paragraph form, take 2-3 or even 7 sentences to give us the over-all job description.
Below that, in bulleted list format, give us 2-3, or even 5-6 key points or accomplishments from that job.
I love this split paragraph/bullet list format because it organizes things for the eye, and it makes your accomplishments stand out. If you just write the whole thing as one big paragraph with your duties mixed in with your accomplishments, then nothing stands out. By the same token, a lot of people just make everything a bullet item in a list. But if everything is a bulleted list, then nothing stands out that way either!
Divide things up using the paragraph to describe the job, and using the bullets to highlight key points or accomplishments. This makes for a logical, efficient organization of the information.
So, start writing a paragraph that describes what you did for each job. Under that paragraph, add a few bulleted items to highlight what you achieved.
A rule of thumb in resume writing is to “show, don’t tell!” Telling me what you did at each job is not as impressive as showing me what you were able to accomplish. Remember, in this reverse chronology of your career history, hopefully each successive job will show you taking on more responsibilities and getting bigger, better results. In other words, you should be describing the growth trajectory of your career.
Again, let the text be normal size (11-12pt. font) with no bolding or underlining.
It’s ok to be dry with the job descriptions. They’re just the facts, ma’am. But be sure to include things that make you look like you’ve got plenty of impressive responsibilities. Include just duties you have that, while boring and mundane, combine to show you do a heck of a lot at your job. You want to seem like you can handle anything.
And as for the bulleted accomplishments, tangible numbers are great. Saying you won this award or managed this number of people is fine. But including real numbers, like x number dollars in sales, or x% increase, or x type of improvement… that’s the best. And this holds true for all professionals, not just people in sales. If you can show you achieved things, and you can put a solid, tangible descriptor on that achievement, then you’re more likely to impress the hiring manager.
Your first few jobs might look something like this:
A word here about word tense. Let’s keep it simple: if you’re currently employed at a job, then use the present tense: “Manage a sales territory encompassing…” But if the job is in the past, then use the past tense: “Managed a sales territory encompassing…”
So if you are currently employed, then ONLY that job description should be in the present tense. If the job was in the past, then use the past tense. And you’ll notice this holds true for the bulleted accomplishments at well. If it was an accomplishment, then it happened in the past. Use the past tense.