Since most people write their own resume, it’s is something that can be improved upon immediately – no specialized knowledge necessary to make it better – you probably won’t get it perfect (that’s up to the experts ) but certainly you can give it a fighting chance of getting you an interview.
Step 1: SAR – Situation, Action, Result
Before you need to figure out what format is best, or anything else – know the SAR method of resume writing. Every text block on your resume describing skills or jobs, should be in the ‘Situation – Action – Result’ format. Situation – what was happening at the time? Action – what did you do? Result – what was the outcome (hopefully it was positive, increasing sales by 10%, winning recognition from superiors, or creating positive buzz around product X). The result is usually the hardest thing for people to get.
Why are results so hard for people to write?
We’re taught as a culture not to brag about ourselves – but a resume gives you license to brag, within truthful limits of course. Most people want to be modest about their accomplishments, but modesty will probably not get you the interview – indeed modesty is a form of lying – we’re withholding information about our accomplishments in order to fit in with a cultural norm. Win some, lose some – but everyone has at least a few wins under their belts, and a resume is no time to forget those!
Why are results so important on a resume?
Results answer the question every employer asks when reading resumes: what can this person do for me? Without results, they will be left to guess, and will probably underestimate your importance in the absence of any evidence otherwise. Your job writing your resume is to show them, through verifiable facts, just what a great impact you had on the company, and what benefit came from your work. Situation and Action are prerequisite information, the Results actually sells you to a potential employer.
Show don’t tell
You’ve head this a million times, and if you are anything like me it took quite some time for that to really sink in. The truth is that we are overwhelmed with information, and the reason why good resumes are hard to come by, is that good resumes are documents that help people deal with information. A good resume makes the information easy to digest by making it memorable, emotional and narrative. An SAR does not tell the person reading the resume that a person is excellent at multi-tasking, it gives a verifiable example of that. The person reading the resume is always wondering if the information there is true. “I am good at multi-tasking” is much harder to believe, and much harder to verify than “I juggled hiring decisions, paperwork, training and developing how-to booklets for new employees, resulting in a robust new hire program that cut employee turnover by 5% the first year implemented.” The example gives a narrative example, presents verfiable facts, and by stating an instance of a benefit of your personal work, you have made the potential employer feel reassured about your potential at their company.
