What Kind of Picture Does Your Resume Paint of You?

What kind of professional picture will your resume paint of you? Were you the type who showed up every day and waited for orders? Were you a profit center for your company or an expense? If you saw something that needed to be taken care of, did you take charge or did you just figure someone else would?

How you answer those and other questions will make all the difference when it comes to the kind of resume you put together. Whether you've been an administrative assistant or a package handler, at the same company or at several companies, how you did the job is more important than what you did every day.

In today's impossibly competitive job market, it's critical that your resume show a picture of someone who took charge; someone who didn't wait for orders; someone who helped his coworkers, who moved that misplaced item on the warehouse shelf to where it belonged, even though nobody told her to do so. It's also critical that you demonstrate that you truly earned your pay every day. That means more than just not hiding in the rest room reading a magazine when there was work to do. It means being the kind of worker who looks for things that need doing during slow periods, whether or not it's your job. It means asking for extra training to increase your value to your employer. It means volunteering to take on that drudge task your supervisor has to do now, so that she can do some other job she might have been putting off.

Not everybody can or wants to do this. Some of you reading this are going to shrug this advice off and find excuses why you can't adjust your thinking. But when you see your coworkers being promoted instead of you, when you see others moving on to better-paying jobs while you're still stuck where you are, maybe a look in the mirror would be a good idea, instead of finding excuses.

What does this have to do with resumes? Just this: Your resume needs to show that you had IMPACT on whatever company you worked for. You need to demonstrate that you left each job you took on better than it was when you took it. You need to show that you saved money, saved time, reduced expenses, improved productivity. When your resume shows these accomplishments, it will come to life.

And when your resume shows a progression of increasing responsibilities from one position to the next, it shows what used to be called a "results-oriented" person. Those are the kinds of qualities recruiters and employers are looking for. They don't want the individual who simply showed up every day and typed letters, answered the phone and greeted visitors. They want someone who solved problems, who created documents that helped the sales force make deals, who presented a positive company face to visitors.

Paint that picture, and your resume will stand out. And when you're up against 300 to 400 other candidates for the same job, you need every advantage possible. Make sure your resume paints the right picture of you.