In Resume, Describe How You've Added Value


This post is reprinted from our sister blog, A Storied Career. In writing about performing beyond one’s job description, Patty Azzarello is making a point about job growth:
As soon as you start doing the job, what the job needs to be evolves as the business grows and as the world changes. If you do your job as written for too long a period of time, you will become out of date. You will begin to lose relevance to the business. You will not be adding enough value.
valueadded.jpg You will also not have any accomplishment stories to tell your next employer if all you do is what’s in the job description. Job descriptions contain only qualifications, duties, and responsibilities. Stunningly, many job-seekers use their job description as a starting point for their resumes (and it’s always completely obvious when an applicant has done so). Thus, their resumes are filled with duties and responsibilities, which are of minimal interest to employers compared with accomplishments and results. Azzarello packs her post with lists of questions an employee could ask himself or herself to see if he or she is adding value. Most of those same questions could be used as prompts for developing accomplishment stories for resumes, cover letters, and interviews. A sampling:

What business outcomes does my work drive?

  • How does my work impact profit?

What has changed?

Most of the bullet points in Azzerello’s post could serve as a superb template for developing accomplishment stories. I highly recommend it. Azzerello concludes “It’s dangerous to rely on your job description to tell you want to do or to wait for your management to tune your job along the way.” It’s not only dangerous in your current job but dangerous for future opportunities.