Resume value statements? What are those? Warning: These days, this isn’t your parent’s resume…

One of the biggest problems that continues to exist with resumes today is when people get the bright idea of copying and pasting their job descriptions underneath an employment record.

When an employer reads job duties lined out like a laundry list, their eyes start to roll into the back of their head.

An appropriate reaction.

Laundry lists don’t tell stories.

And stories are what employers look for when reading a resume.

Shift your thinking to understand that every employer reviewing a resume is trying to find out what you did for previous companies as a way to guess what you might be able to do for them.

So by listing a bunch of tasks, you aren’t saying anything interesting.

Mainly, you aren’t answering the potential employer’s “so what?” which discusses the end result of your doing those tasks.

By providing a story that encompasses a Challenge – Action – Result formula that demonstrates what the problem was, how did you solve the problem, and how the company benefited, now your resume value statements are cooking.

Try to think like an employer.  Reading resumes that go on and on about tasks don’t help you fill your staffing need.  It doesn’t say anything at all about how you performed. As in, not one iota.

But resume value statements that tell stories about how a candidate helped benefit an employer creates VALUE.

And employers are always on the hunt for valuable employees who contribute more than just the minimum tasks required.

So the next time you are writing or updating your resume, revise the bullets under each employment record to be resume value statements that tell stories about the different contributions and how they helped an employer.

You’ll definitely attract positive attention to your application as a result.