You have six seconds to catch a recruiter’s or hiring manager’s attention.
In those six seconds, they determine how well your experience and skill set align with what they are looking for.
In other words, does your resume align with the job posting?
To convince them that you are the best candidate for the job you need to write compelling bullet points.
The format of a compelling bullet point
First, let’s talk about how the format of a strong bullet point. In my years of helping clients write resumes, powerful bullet points follow one of two formats:
- Power word (action verb) → action/task → results
- Results → action/task
Let’s look at some examples using the first format:
Power word (action verb) → Action/task → Results
Developed user flows and user personas for 20+ projects, improving user engagement by 10%
Conducted user research with over 50 focus groups, analyzed and presented data-driven results for stakeholders, improved user engagement in over 10 products
Let’s look at some examples of using the second format:
Improved user engagement by 10% by developing user flows and user personas for over 20+ projects
Increased user engagement for 10 different products by conducting user research with over 50 focus groups, analyzed and presented data-driven results for stakeholders
The secret to compelling bullet points
The key to writing compelling bullet points is to write them as accomplishments instead of responsibilities.
You want the recruiter or hiring manager to see the impact you’ve made in your previous positions. Translating your responsibilities to accomplishments shows them your value.
To help understand this difference, let’s look at two examples.
- Designed images for company’s social media pages.
- Contributed to 14% social media growth by designing engaging social media posts.
Read them out loud. You can even feel the difference. The second one engages you. That is what we want recruiters and hiring managers to feel when they glance at your resume.
To write compelling bullet points you need to include the difference you made in completing responsibilities or projects. Share the results on your resume.
Yet, it’s often difficult to come up with results for everything you’ve done.
I’ll show you how to come up with results, but first let’s grasp the significance of including results.
The over-the-top value of sharing results
If you can capture and share results, you are far ahead of the hundreds of other job applicants. This is where many resumes fail.
Converting your responsibilities to accomplishments not only attracts the attention of recruiters and hiring managers but also helps you understand the difference you make and the value you bring to the table.
But there are additional advantages.
By understanding the difference you make and the value you bring, you also build your own confidence as a career changer. You now have stories to share about your accomplishments. Stories to share not only on your resume, but also in your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, your online portfolio, and in your interviews.
It’s a win-win!
Spend time converting your responsibilities into accomplishments. This concept has the most impact on how recruiters and hiring managers see you as they review your resume.
Converting responsibilities to accomplishments
Here are two different ways to convert your responsibilities into accomplishments.
1. Add ‘so that’
Add ‘so that’ at the end of your responsibility.
Let’s walk through an example:
Responsibility: Designed social media ads
Add ‘so that’:
Designed social media ads ‘so that’ we had an attractive presence on social media
Continue to add ‘so that’ till you get to a measurable result:
Designed social media ads ‘so that’ we had an attractive presence on social media ‘so that’ more people would see our ads ‘so that’ our sales would increase
At this point, we already have several options for quantifying the results.
‘More people would see our ads’ — This could translate into an increase in the number of ad impressions, or more followers, or …
‘Sales would increase’ — Sales increased by 10%.
So often the issue is not that we can’t come up with results, but how do we quantify those results?
You can do rough estimates if needed. Just have an idea of how you came up with that number.
For example, if I was on a team with ten other individuals for five years and in the first two years five of them were replaced, that’s 50 percent turnover. If after improving processes team morale increased and nobody left for the next three years — that’s a 50 percent improvement. The result would be a decrease in team turnover by 50 percent.
2. Ask these questions
Another way to translate responsibilities into accomplishments is to ask the following questions:
Why does doing this task matter?
What would’ve happened if you had not done this task?
What happened after doing this task?
Whether you use #1 or #2 above, or a combination, be aware that results may be found further downstream. It may be that what you did, combined with what other people or departments did, ended up in more sales, more followers, etc. Even if your task didn’t have a direct effect on sales, it contributed to an increase in sales. That is a result you can include.
Continue to work through these two ideas above till you come up with a result.
Examples of words to use that share results are: increased, decreased, improved, reduced, minimized, maximized, etc.
Providing context with numbers
Use numbers whenever you can in your bullet point.
If you mention working with a team — how many people? If you mention performing user interviews — how many? You don’t need exact numbers. For example, you can say ‘Conducted over 50 user interviews…’
There are so many items that can be quantified, whether it’s in straight numbers or percentages or dollars. Here are just a few items you can quantify: sales, followers, people, features, users, customers, time-savings, cost-savings, reduced errors, processes, etc.