Do Not Waste Your Prime Real Estate
In Commercial Real Estate the answer to the age old question of the three most important things is: location, location, location. You can say the same thing about your resume. As such you do not want to waste the top of your resume; which includes your Career Highlights.
Your Career Highlights Are Just That Highlights!
Career Highlights are those accomplishments that speak to recruiters and hiring managers and say: I did this for them and I can do comparable for YOU! Career Highlights are not about you; rather they are about what you can do for your new employer. They are about the reader!
As with your entire resume your career highlights are a sales process that must convey to the reader:
- Why they would be foolish not to talk to you.
- Why they must read your entire resume.
- Why they cannot disregard you for the position.
- The highlights of what you have accomplished in your career thus far.
- What the new employer can expect of you after you have been hired.
All of this communication is accomplished by the use of Situation, Action, and Results statements. Think of Julius Caesar when you construct this section. Caesar was never shy or reluctant to boast about his accomplishments.
He encapsulated that perfectly when he said Veni, Vidi, Vici! I came, I saw, I conquered. That is exactly what you must tell your recruiter and hiring manager. Ideally there should be three to six of these conquering statements with no more than two from a single employment experience.
Follow the Advice of Marshall Goldsmith
A couple of years ago Marshall Goldsmith, he is a career coach to high-level executives, wrote the book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. In his book Goldsmith says that as your career progresses your skills must progress as well. The skills that got you noticed are not the same skills that you will need to succeed in your new position.
Your ability to be recognized in the subsequent position and the skills you will use are not be the skills you will need as you continue to move up. Understanding the requirements at the lower levels is critical; but you are no longer the one performing those tasks; you are now managing the performers.
Throughout your career you must evolve or you cannot move forward. When you are writing your career highlights remember that you are an evolving being and that your highlights must show that as your career progressed.
Your highlights must reflect your growth. You should encompass and showcase the new skills you have acquired to demonstrate your understanding that your role has changed. Your early highlights will be in the capacity of the “doer”; your middle highlights should demonstrate your skills as a manager; and your later highlights should demonstrate your skills as a leader.
Making your highlights section speak to the reader is critical to getting that interview you desire.