How to Find Hidden Accomplishments; It's Like an Easter Egg Hunt
I really didn't grow up doing the Easter egg hunt thing, but my wife did. And, every year, she dresses up our children in their "Sunday Best" for church. Later in the day, their outfits become a "Sunday Mess" after they finish rummaging through dirt and grass to find colorful plastic eggs in the backyard. They peek behind trees and bushes, and get on their knees to look under the bench. It is clear that their motto is, “It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.”
My son and daughter don’t mind as they know that the plastic eggs are really containers of joy filled with chocolate and candy. Once they've gathered enough eggs to fill their baskets, they get to open the eggs and eat what’s inside. For the kids, it's like finding gold!
Similarly, when working on your resume, you need to dig through the archives of your career to find hidden gems - accomplishments.
Whether you believe it or not, you can find quantifiable or measurable accomplishments to include in your resume. You need to in order to further distinguish yourself from other job candidates vying for the same job you are targeting. To find accomplishments, you just have to do a little research and view your career from a different perspective.
I remember working with a client who was adamant that he had no measurable accomplishments. After asking him a few questions, I soon found out that he remained employed with a company who had downsized their workforce. Many of his colleagues were let go, but the company found value in keeping him.
The fact that he was selected to remain on-board was an accomplishment in itself, but now he was doing the jobs of 2 other people with the help of new technology which the company implemented. It was clear that he saved the company money. So we added the salaries of the others who were let go and calculated that he had saved the company a little over $100K because he was now doing the jobs of 2 people.
Add the fact that he learned how to use the new technology quickly, and now he had 2 accomplishments - one which was quantifiable and the other which wasn’t, but was equally impressive nonetheless as it showed his ability to adapt.
As a job seeker, you need to walk through your career history and do this kind of brainstorming in order to find accomplishments. It's about looking at your career from different perspectives. Where some areas seem to lead to nowhere, other paths may prove fruitful – follow them.
Digging for accomplishments may not be as fun as digging for colorful plastic eggs with candy inside, but in the end, the satisfaction of having a high-impact resume is worth the effort.