Ask yourself these questions before writing your resume

The biggest challenge my clients have when writing their resumes is deciding what to add and what to leave out. Asking yourself these questions will help you put together a resume that will fuel your achievements throughout your career.

General questions about the company you currently work for and previous companies

  • What is the company’s main line of business?
  • What is your annual income? Has that income increased during your employment with the company?
  • What markets or customers does the company serve/supplie/support?
  • Is the company local, regional, national or international?

General questions about your current and past position?

  • What is the scope of your responsibility; specifically, the day-to-day business functions for which you are responsible?
  • Do you have any responsibility for managing people, projects, roles, organizations, revenue, benefits, or anything else?
  • Have there been any particular challenges related to your position? How did you solve them?
  • Where did you rise from one position to another? How quickly? Based on something in particular?
  • Do you have a budget or some other type of financial responsibility?
  • What other departments or organizations do you work with as a routine part of your job?

Questions about how to increase the income of the company or department

  • Did company or department revenue increase during your tenure? If so, by what percentage?
  • Would you say the increase was average, above average, or phenomenal?
  • Did it help impact (directly or indirectly) that increase? How?
  • Did the market share increase? How much? Are you directly or indirectly responsible or do you contribute in any way?

Questions about saving the company or department money

  • Did you have access to the expense numbers? How much was it?
  • Did you suggest any way to reduce costs in your team, department, unit, branch or company? What was the results?
  • What were the numbers or percentages before and after the savings?
  • Were the savings significant compared to the total budget? Please provide actual dollar values.
  • Did the savings give you or the company a competitive advantage? If so, how and what was the end result?

Questions about saving company or department time and improving productivity and efficiency

  • Was there a reduction in the workforce while you were there, or did you find yourself managing work previously done by more than one person? What did the company save in time and money as a result of this change?
  • Can you tell the hiring manager about tasks that used to take a lot more time and what you did to streamline the process, function or activity? What was the percentage (%) of improvement and were the savings sustainable over time?
  • What part did you have in reducing the time to complete these tasks?
  • Did you regularly meet all your deadlines?

Questions about your overall performance and qualifications:

  • What are you most proud of?
  • Why did the supervisors congratulate you?
  • What do your performance reviews say?
  • What are you known for?
  • What do you do that others can’t or won’t do?
  • What area would suffer if you were not at work for a week?
  • What did you do that saved the company money or time?
  • How did it contribute to the final result?
  • Were you the first, the best, or the most effective in a particular role or organization?

Your resume must answer the questions above. It should not be a recitation of your daily duties, but rather a marketing tool that shows how you are the ideal candidate. Hiring managers want to see you not only performing, but exceeding their expectations.

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