Once upon a time, it seemed that we could just write a resume nicely, and polish the intro statement into a work of art. Craft each job description so finely that they were as short as possible, while still conveying our work history in eloquent prose.
Then, having finished this masterpiece, we were armed with the perfect document to wow employers across the spectrum of roles that interested you and land your dream job — however, that’s all going to be pointless if you don’t get called for an interview.
Many millennial wonder as to why it is so hard for them to score an interview, let alone land themselves a good paying job. Apparently, there is one big thing that can irk recruiters during the application process: namedropping your place of employment, without explaining what you did there.
“Titles are great, but we want to understand what was the project you owned, what was the scope of a project, and what did you accomplish,” — Celeste Joy Diaz, the recruiting manager at Amazon
Technically, lack of explanation is one of the biggest mistakes that applicants make in their résumés. Simply stating in your résumé that you worked at Google, Astro, or some other name-brand company is impressive, but it doesn’t really communicate what you did with that opportunity.
Without any measurements of success, the file is lacking proof of skill.
So, expand upon what you did in that job that brought value — whether that’s an amount of revenue you produced, projects you led, or how you excelled in your monthly goals.
Bonus point: including the numbers that back up your success is key. Be as specific as possible. Write, “Helped grow revenue by 500% to $1 million in 12 month period by doing X” instead of “Helped grow revenue”.
Employers need numbers to be able to fully evaluate the scope of your bandwidth, as metrics help them determine if an applicant is capable of leading a team, managing clients, or growing the business. Let them understand the scope of impact, instead of just stating your job titles.