What is the best way for someone to format his resume, if he has had lots of "responsibilities" but few "achievements"?
I am currently 27 years old. I have never had trouble abiding by the "one page" rule, in part because my resume entries are mainly long paragraphs of responsibilities. I executed these tasks superbly (if I may say so), but I have few quantifiable achievements.
My most recent position was as a front-line manager. I can make this fit reasonably well into the "responsibility paragraph / achievement bullet" format. It may not be great, but it's passable.
Prior to that entry, it becomes much more difficult to format my resume in the specified manner. My second most recent employment was as an IT-heavy paralegal, and before that are my college internships. The entries for these positions are ALL responsibilities. I am proud of the work I performed in these roles, but can't find much that is distinct enough to be an "achievement" bullet.
Because I am finding it so hard to fit the official MT format, I am tempted to just make the whole resume bulleted lists. That method doesn't look much prettier. But part of me thinks it's better to make a common formatting mistake, rather do it the uncommon way and fail at it.
Rather than confuse everyone with vagueness, I have copied below the two entries that perplex me. I removed the details about my employers. I also broke the text blocks into individual sentences. Am I right to combine these entries into long paragraphs, or turn them into a bulleted list?
09/2006 – 05/2008. Litigation Support Clerk. ABC Law Firm LLP, Philadelphia PA.
Managed invoice approval process for a department total of almost $1,000,000 per year.
Designed itemized database and entered several years’ worth of invoices, to be used in Request for Proposal process.
Administered RfP process including historical cost analysis, expense projections, and the solicitation over 200 vendors.
Designed, built, and maintained MS Access databases containing details thousands of pieces of evidentiary material.
Coordinated the exchange of physical media both inside and outside the firm, while maintaining chain of custody.
Conducted quality checks of large amounts of data transferred within the network environment.
Administered full-text databases for use by attorneys, including the creation of complex SQL queries.
Provided PC setup and basic application support for paralegals and attorneys.
05/2006 – 07/2006. Planning Intern. XYZ Engineering Firm, Anytown NJ.
Performed initial review of site plans and other data on behalf of a team of professional land use planners.
Confirmed completeness of applications that had been submitted, and identified any discrepancies.
Summarized engineering reports and traffic surveys for further review by local officials.
Drafted correspondence for planners to submit to local planning and zoning boards.
Contributed to reports on Master Plan, Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), Transfer of Development Rights, and redevelopment projects.
Created visual exhibits to be used in reports and to be presented at public meetings.
Held same position at same firm during the summer of 2005.
address how your efforts made others more productive
I think in supporting roles such as these, you want to address how your efforts made others more productive.
Most of the responsibility statements look like they could be turned into accomplishments by thinking about the benefit each employer derived from your work. For example, the invoice database must have saved somebody a lot of time in preparing new RfPs. Did that enable them to bring in more work for the firm because each request took less time to prepare? Similarly, did the evidence database save time or make it easier for the attorneys to locate pieces of evidence that were vital to their cases?
Ask yourself the same kind of question for each responsibility. If the work you did produced measurable results in somebody else's performance, I believe you can rightly claim the accomplishment.
That's my two cents' worth.
Steve I
DiSC 7114
Thanks, Steve. I had a
Thanks, Steve.
I had a similar thought late Wednesday evening. Instead of "responsibilities / achievements", I separated each entry into "general responsibilities / highlighted responsibilities". Here's the revised edition:
09/2006 – 05/2008. Litigation Support Clerk. ABC Law Firm LLP, Philadelphia PA.
Managed invoice approval process for a department with expenses approaching $1 million per year. Administered “request for proposal” with bids from over 200 vendors. Developed database system to detail physical assets and to maintain chain of custody. Handled PC setup and application support for attorneys and paralegals.
• Directly entered data for several years of itemized invoices, to be used in RfP process.
• Designed, coded, and maintained MS Access databases containing detailed information regarding evidentiary material.
• Configured full-text databases for large litigation cases, including the creation of complex SQL queries.
05/2006 – 07/2006. Planning Intern. XYZ Engineering Firm, Anytown NJ.
Provided administrative support for a staff of professional land use planners. Verified completeness of construction applications and performed initial site plan reviews. Summarized engineering reports for further analysis. Drafted correspondence for submission to local planning and zoning boards.
• Contributed text to Master Plan, Council on Affordable Housing, Transfer of Development Rights, and redevelopment projects.
• Created visual exhibits for inclusion in official reports and for presentation at public meetings.
• Held same position during the summer of 2005, and was asked to return during the summer of 2006.
I hope this helps any other young people who find themselves in the same predicament.
"I executed these tasks
"I executed these tasks superbly (if I may say so), but I have few quantifiable achievements."
How do you know you did them superbly if you don't have any quantifiable achievements?
If you have responsibilities in the paragraph and more reponsibilities in the bullets, you are just setting up the recruiter to wonder what is the difference. If nothing sets them apart, nothing will set you apart either.
The goal of the paragraph is to say what you did (which anyone who ever had the same position could claim) and the goal of the bullets is to say what benefits the company derived from having you in that position and how you went about getting those results.
Just to pick one at random: "Designed, built, and maintained MS Access databases containing details thousands of pieces of evidentiary material." What did you do with that responsibility that your boss was glad to have you in that position and not someone else?
I had something a bit more
I had something a bit more specific in mind. Here's an example:
From your original statement "Designed itemized database and entered several years’ worth of invoices, to be used in Request for Proposal process." I envisioned something like "Designed and implemented database including x years’ worth of invoice data, reducing the time required to prepare a Request for Proposal from y hours to z hours.
It may require some digging and asking others for input to get the specifics, but they don't need to know it's for your resume. These kind of bullets also add value to your performance reviews.
Steve I
DiSC 7114
Thanks for starting this
Thanks for starting this thread; I have a similar issue. This just highlights the importance of career documentation so that we can capture the quantifiable results.