The achievement resume is also a marvelous way to throw attention onto your strengths while de-emphasizing a weak or complicated employment history. Using this version I’ve created dynamite resumes or many a client whose career history was a mess.
Saying less is more effective than saying a lot, and that’s what the achievement resume is all about: brevity and punch! With a few strong accomplishments, an achievement resume can generate more questions and interest than pages of details. This type of resume works well for sales professionals, top-level executives, and those who want to keep the spotlight on just a few successes from their whole career.
Don’t think that a one-page resume makes you look like a lightweight. On the contrary, a heavyweight professional can make a strong impression with just a few carefully chosen lines of print.
The key question to ask yourself when writing your achievement statements for this type of resume is “How does the potential employer define success for the position I’m seeking?” Let the four or five achievement statements in the body of your resume answer that all important question. When you’ve done that, you’ve snagged employers into calling you for an interview to talk about how your new job would impact their bottom line.
Terms of Employment
Bottom line means different things to different folks. In for-profit organizations, the bottom line is measured by revenue, savings, and profit. In nonprofit organizations, the bottom line may be program effectiveness, enrollment, or budget growth. The key to writing effective achievement statements on your resume is to understand reader’s bottom line.
An achievement resume looks like a functional resume except that it doesn’t have skill headings (in other words, you aren’t going to categorize your skills) in the body of the resume. Instead it just lists five or six strong, relevant achievements under a main heading such as Professional Accomplishments or Selected Achievements. Look through your old performance evaluations to find references to relevant achievements and quotable quotes for your resume. A scan of these resumes will tell you that the job seeker in each case is a winner in his or her field. That’s the beauty of this format!
Bonus Check
Use the following template as a springboard to launch your one-of-a kind achievement resume. You can do that by answering only the questions that fit your situation, brain- storming on your own to come up with dynamite statements, and being creative with the layout so that it reflects your personality.
The Perfect One-Pager
Anthony Wright, whose resume follows, had an achievement-packed, 20-year career in management, which he distilled down to one page using an achievement format. This concise format did two things for him:
- It allowed him to state his relevant experience in just five bullet-point statements.
- It downplayed his career in the military and government by listing his work history near the end of the resume.
You’ll also note that because he had so few statements on the page, he was able to write some pretty hefty ones, sometimes taking three lines each.
Bonus Check
A confident resume (and a good achievement resume definitely overflows with confidence) places you in an excellent position to negotiate your salary.
