The Two Words that Damage the Effectiveness of Your Resume

Watch out! The two words below could hinder the success of your resume. Every applicant wants to be considered as someone who is both successful and capable of yielding the promised results. However, the applicants think that using these two words in their resumes, specifically in the career summaries section will help them, but it’s, in fact, the exact opposite according to many experts in the industry.

What are the two words that could cause such problems? They are results and success. Many people fail to grasp the fact that everyone thinks of themselves as capable of producing results and are successful. In reality, that is not the case. By using these two words on your resume to describe yourself, all you have accomplished is look like every other applicant or job seeker who is looking for employment. This is the exact opposite result your resume claims to provide you, and it needs to be address right away if you want to differentiate from others who are applying for the same positions as you.

Provide Evidence of Your Contributions

Instead of providing your resume with unclear choices, focus on validation. Think about ways of how you can explain all the information you provide to the hiring manager. You could do this by giving straightforward statements about your accomplishments. Originality and uniqueness will certainly make your resume stand out amidst a hundred others. Your resume must be crafted in a way that it gets you an interview and by showing the hiring manager why you are the right fit and the best candidate for the job you will certainly stand out from the rest of the applications. This way you are conveying why you are successful and what results you can produce instead of telling them that you are successful without further explanation.

Reflect on Your Past Successes

When you are tempted to use the two words that are detrimental to your resume, i.e., results or success, think in detail about what you have achieved at your former company or current company and the results that you have been able to deliver. Every time you would like to use the words results-oriented or results-driven, try validating the statements with outcomes, facts, and figures in its place. For instance:

If you were a project manager, ask yourself: how much, how many and what were the results?Think of the activities helped your previous employer cut costs, increase sales, meet quotas and goals and generate the targeted or more revenue? Then think, by how much? If you were a team leader, ask yourself the following questions: for how long? By how much? Always include facts and especially figures to validate your statements wherever possible. Be precise.

By building your resume with specific statements and answering how many and how much with facts and figures, you will be able to prove to your potential employer both the results and the success you could contribute. In addition, you will look apart from every other applicant – you will look successful, confident, accomplished and results-driven – and will have established all of the above without mentioning any of it!