The biggest issue I see when reviewing resumes is content that is heavy on what your jobs were and not what you did. Demonstrating your ability to positively impact an organization is your biggest selling point (aside from an employee referral).
So we don’t want to see your job description copied onto your profile or resume. Because while you were “responsible for” something, that statement tells us nothing about how well you did in the position. You could have sucked for all we know.
Don’t get me wrong – you need a short statement that talks about the scope of your responsibility, but it needs to be brief. Then you really need to focus on your performance.
We want to see HOW YOU IMPROVED the project, team or organization while you were in the position. That IMPACT you had is where we learn how much of a contributor you can be.
Do you “lead up?” Meaning, are you a strategic performer that is always looking for ways to improve the organization at levels about yourself?
How did you improve individual or team performance? Quantify it with numbers, dollar amounts and/or percentages.
Do you have the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to excel at the position for which we are considering you? Share examples of when you demonstrated it.
The crazy part about this? These items should all be on your performance evaluations. Put the appropriate effort into them, keep copies and your career transition will be much less stressful because you won’t have to build a resume from scratch.