Rock Your Résumé with One Easy Edit

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These days we are relying on technology to apply for jobs and even interview. To stand out in the marketplace, whether using a job-posting site, a professional recruiter, or even LinkedIn, a good old-school résumé can come to the rescue.

You may not need to totally rewrite your résumé, but as you look to refresh and update yours, please consider this essential wording advice.

Use strong action verbs to describe what you achieved and accomplished rather than simply to list your job responsibilities. Remember, specifics sell.

Before: Responsible for calling on accounts and growing business in a three-state territory

After: Increased a $3.5 million territory to a $11 million territory, surpassing our five-year sales goal

Strong action verbs suitable for résumés include these examples:
Oversaw
Organized
Increased
Surpassed
Grew
Led
Supervised
Bolstered
Created
Developed
Recruited
Restructured
Refocused

To update your resume, contact Mandi@MandiStanley.com. We offer two résumé packages:
Rock Your Résumé REFRESH
Rock Your Résumé REWRITE

Prefer Performance to Chronology in Your Résumé

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Ditch the chronological résumé.

Scratch the traditional format of simply listing your educational background and previously held jobs.

Rather, use your résumé to highlight your specific accomplishments at the top. Word them in such a way as to be meaningful to the employer. Use strong action verbs to describe what you achieved rather than simply listing your job responsibilities. Remember, specifics sell. Your accomplishments must translate to their organization; they should be able to see you doing the same good work for them.

Consider this order as you draft your next résumé:
First, list your preferred name and all of your contact information at the top.
Next, use the heading Career Accomplishments for your performance highlights in a bulleted list.

Note these examples:
– Increased a $3.5 million territory to a $11 million territory, surpassing our five-year sales goal
– Grew market share 43 percent between July-December 2019
– Recruited 110 new all-school accounts during the last calendar year (2021)

Use the heading Career Track to list your previous positions and jobs and related experience.
Use the heading Skills to highlight the strengths you know will be relevant to the organization.
Use the key words in their job listing.
For the last heading, use Education, and list your schools and degrees and special certifications.

To update your resume, contact Mandi@MandiStanley.com. We offer two résumé packages:
– Rock Your Résumé REFRESH
– Rock Your Résumé REWRITE

Do I Really Need a Résumé Cover Letter?

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Why do we even have to write cover letters? If we’re posting online, is it even necessary? Aren’t we just repeating what is already listed on the résumé?

Answer: Not if you’re using it correctly.

I get it. Cover letters can be tricky. For those of you who struggle with what to include, think of your cover letter as an opportunity to tell one story. Pick a bullet point from your résumé that deserves more in-depth discussion, and use your cover letter to tell the story of how you solved the problem, came in under budget, completed a project ahead of schedule, or increased market

share by a specific percentage.

In other words, let your personality shine in your cover letter. It’s your chance to share your success story.

Include these components:

A subject line proposing to fulfill a need for the employer

A direct opening sentence citing the open position and your source of information

Your understanding of the employer’s need

A story exemplifying how your skills can contribute

A request for an interview

To update your resume, contact Mandi@MandiStanley.com. We offer two résumé packages:

Rock Your Résumé REFRESH

Rock Your Résumé REWRITE

sticky notes

Sticky Notes to the Rescue

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Currently I’m facilitating an eight-week Business Writing Specialty Certificate Course for the CAPstone program through IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals).

During Week Four’s session on weeding out wasted words, one of the participants sent
me this sticky note reminder she now uses as she composes and edits her emails. Sticky
notes to the rescue!

What about you? Do you have sticky notes pasted prominently around your work area?
Please take a photo and share it with us here. We all need reminders—and I can’t wait to
see some of the notes you write to yourself.

 

To customize a keynote or professional development session that will have your audience laughing and learning, contact Mandi Stanley.

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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Advice for Graduates: How To Address an Envelope

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Following last week’s post regarding RSVPs, a number of parents responded with a request to address “addressing” envelopes. Graduates are mailing graduation announcements and invitations and thank-you notes, so I hope you’ll find this practical advice helpful.

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How to Be a Better Writer

How to Be a Better Writer: Use a Particular Pair of Scissors

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Want to learn how to be a better writer? Use a particular pair of scissors

Truman Capote:

“I believe more in scissors than I do the pencil.”

 

Recently I drew inspiration from a few tips listed in an old newspaper column—because they stepped on my toes. One tip was: “Challenge every word.”

 

When I read that one, I instantly was reminded of a writing lesson learned the hard way. Twenty years ago, I was presenting a Grammar-for-Grownups workshop in Portland, Maine. A man approached me at the first break and said, “Mrs. Stanley, do you realize you’ve said the word particular seven times already this morning?” 

 

Apparently, he had been counting. 

 

He explained, “The word particular is what we consider to be a wasted word in the English language because it adds no value or meaning or clarification to any sentence.” I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to his observation. It was 20 years ago and much earlier in my career. (I was much younger, period.) So, I smiled and simply said, “Thank you for sharing.” I didn’t know what else to say in the moment. But, when I had a chance to process our conversation after the class, I realized he was correct. I had a habit of saying:

 

On this particular page

In this particular example

On this particular slide

For this particular exercise

 

I DID say particular too much. He made me painfully aware of it, so as a result of our conversation, I have purged that particular word from my presentations and my writing. He taught me to challenge the word particular.

 

Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works with business leaders who want to boost their professional image by becoming better speakers and writers through interactive high-content keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, technical writing seminars, and fun proofreading classes. 

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Prefer Performance to Chronology in Your Résumé

It’s Interview Time: What’s the One Detail Most Interviewees Forget?

Wacky Word of the Week: Purge this Particular Word

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What If My Name Already Ends With An “S”?

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This is a popular topic this time of year, so thank you to everyone who wrote in asking some version of this question: How do I make my family’s last name plural on greeting cards? Read more

How Do I Make My Family’s Last Name Plural on Greeting Cards?

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Grammar Grappler #30: Combine Together the Following Ingredients

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Following graduation from Mississippi State University, I moved back to my hometown and worked that summer and fall at my hometown newspaper. One of the most fun projects I contributed to during that time was the Thanksgiving recipe publication. Read more