Category: Supply Chain Resumes

How Many Jobs Should You List

Experienced professionals often struggle with deciding how many of their jobs to list and how much detail to provide for each. This can be a tough decision. On a two page resume, you won’t have enough room to write in detail about everything.

Experienced professionals often struggle with deciding how many of their jobs to list and how much detail to provide for each.  This can be a tough decision.  On a two page resume, you won’t have enough room to write in detail about everything.

You should provide at least the last ten years in detail.  Hiring managers will be much more interested in your recent experience, so you want to prioritize this.  You can summarize your experience further back if you don’t go into detail.  For example, you could include a line like:

Progressed from entry level production supervision to materials management, including roles as production controller and logistics manager.

This line would take the reader from the start of your career up to the place on the resume where the detail starts, a materials management position.  In this example, the progression is fairly typically, starting in production and shifting over to materials through a serious of positions.  Most materials professionals will recognize this career path and won’t need additional information.

If you have been with a single company for more than 10 years, you should show the entire progression with them.  Stability with a single company is a very positive sign on a resume.  It shows the person was successful through the progression of promotions.  List the full progression, since it demonstrates a strong pattern of success.  For positions a long time ago, you can summarize the experience by listing the jobs, for example:

  • Logistics Manager December 1992 to July 2000
  • Production Controller August 1988 to December 1992
  • Shipping Supervisor March 1985 to August 1988
  • Production Supervisor June 1980 to March 1985

This shows the progression without any detail, just the titles and dates.  From this point forward, the resume would show the detail of the materials management experience.  You could even consolidate the summary further:

Held production supervision, production control and logistics management positions from June 1980 to July 2000.

This is a short summary providing enough information for a hiring manager to understand how you got to the materials role.

Job seekers who return to school in the middle of their careers have a different challenge.  Getting a degree can transform a career, allowing a person to switch paths completely.  In this case, the experience prior to completing the degree may be irrelevant.  For example, consider a person who worked in hourly production roles and completed an IT degree.  The person upon graduation takes a job as a network administrator and moves along an IT career path from that point forward.  In this case, there’s little benefit to the experience prior to completing the degree, and it can probably be omitted, especially if it is more than ten years ago.

For older workers, there is a lot of concern about age discrimination.  Listing every job back to start of a career will help ensure hiring managers know exactly how old you are.  There’s no reason to highlight this.  List the last 15 to 20 years, giving significant detail to the last 10.

The main reason you want to omit or summarize your experience from more than 10 years ago is it allows you to focus on the last 10 years in much greater detail.  Your recent accomplishments are your biggest selling points, and you want to focus on them.

Supply Chain Risk Reduction

As you write your resume and prepare to interview, you will want show how you contributed to your past employers. Focusing on ways you have cut costs is a good start. Reducing lead times and improving quality are also good to emphasize. These are only starting points for supply chain professionals. Managing risk can be the most important aspect of a supply chain role.

Supply chain professionals face numerous challenges.  Sourcing provides some of the most complex obstacles a company will face.  Sourcing professionals need to find ways to source high quality products, materials and services at low prices with short lead times and no supply interruptions.  All of this must be done in a global economy constantly changing.  As a supply chain professional, how you maximize the performance of the supply chain is important, but equally important is minimizing risk.

As you write your resume and prepare to interview, you will want show how you contributed to your past employers.  Focusing on ways you have cut costs is a good start.  Reducing lead times and improving quality are also good to emphasize.  These are only starting points for supply chain professionals.  Managing risk can be the most important aspect of a supply chain role.

There are risks in every strategy and tactic a company adopts.  Some risks are small.  Supply chain risks are often huge.  For example, construction firms who utilized Chinese drywall over the last decade face tremendous liabilities as the material has been found contain chemicals that make houses unlivable.  Entire subdivisions are being abandoned.  There are numerous examples of companies harmed by poor quality materials from suppliers.  These risks are significant, but are only the tip of the iceberg.

When sourcing globally, companies face risks from every direction.  Currency fluctuations can turn the lowest cost supplier into the highest cost option.  Political disputes and striking workers can shut down companies and key transportation routes.  Energy price changes can drive up or down transportation costs.  Every year, natural disasters, from hurricanes to earthquakes, hit different parts of the world.  The more widely spread your supply chain, the more likely you will be affected.

Managing all of these risks is challenging.  Risk management was a key theme in one of the supply chain management sessions at the APICS Conference in Toronto I attended.  The speaker talked about ways to build in alternatives and options into a supply chain.  Developing secondary suppliers and alternate delivery strategies can be essential if your company wants to survive a major supply disruption.

As you write your resume, include examples of your contributions to managing supply chain risk.  Often this will take the form of developing additional suppliers.  Doubling your supplier base could be an expensive proposition, but it could also be much less costly than a major supply disruption.  Your experience with balancing these priorities and the solutions you delivered can help set you apart from other supply chain professionals.  Some people just show up.  They do the minimal to get by.  This usually involves shortcutting to the solution.  Showing how you took a more difficult path but set the company up for success no matter what happens is much more valuable.

Risk management is a good topic for a resume, but it may be more suitable for interviewing.  On a resume, you need to brief.  You may only have a couple lines to devote to each accomplishment.  Managing risk can be a complex process not easily condensed.  For this reason, your best risk management accomplishment might not help on your resume.  Once you get into an interview, though, you will have the opportunity explain what you did more fully and dive into complex accomplishments.

Supply Chain Resume Review

The resume and cover letter I read this morning contained a number of mistakes I routinely see. The candidate is a supply chain professional from one of the biggest and best known manufacturing companies.

The resume and cover letter I read this morning contained a number of mistakes I routinely see.  The candidate is a supply chain professional from one of the biggest and best known manufacturing companies.

The cover letter was long, a full page, but it had very little substance.  The bulk of the cover letter was content straight from the resume.  In fact, there is nothing in the cover letter that isn’t also in the resume.  In addition to the substance of the cover, there was a lot of hype.  For example, the sentence below is taken from the middle of the cover letter:

I am an interpersonally-skilled team leader with a rapid advancement history and a unique blend of analytical and communication skills.

This sentence will do little to impress a hiring manager.  The rapid advancement history is a plus, but the rest of the sentence is just hype.  Even worse, the value of the characteristics isn’t clear.  I doubt a hiring manager has ever said they need a person that is an “interpersonally-skill team leader” and has “unique blend of analytical and communication skills.” The hiring manager is focused on finding someone that can achieve specific results.  Nothing in the cover letter references specific results and accomplishments.

This omission is emphasized in the resume.  The resume starts with a Professional Summary.  The first line is “Results-driven Logistics & Planning Manager with global supply chain management…”  How can a person be results-driven, but fail to list a single accomplishment?  It doesn’t make a good impression.

Another problem with resume and cover letter relates to the career progression of the job seeker.  This individual spent more than ten years with his last employer.  Then, more than six months ago, he stopped working there.  There is no explanation why.  There are many candidates who have been laid off due to a downsizing or facility closure.  Despite this, a hiring manager is unlikely to assume the candidate way laid off.  It is more likely the hiring manager will assume the candidate was fired.

If the job seeker was fired, this isn’t a deal breaker.  He was with the same company for more than ten years and received a couple of promotions in the process.  Most companies will look past a termination, if the candidate can explain why the problems leading to the termination won’t occur in the future.

Recommendations:

  • A Short and Concise Cover Letter:  The cover letter needs to be cut down to under 100 words.  At more than 300 words, it isn’t going to get read.
  • Include Accomplishments in the Cover Letter:  The cover letter needs to have some substance.  Adding a couple of  accomplishments demonstrating past successes can make a very good impression.
  • Add Accomplishments to the Resume:  In a 10+ year career, with a couple of promotions, the job seeker must have done something right.  Include a few accomplishments on the resume.
  • Explain the Gap in Employment:  The job seeker has been out of work for six months with no explanation why they left their last position.  Including a statement in the cover letter why the job seeker is unemployed can answer what is likely to be the top question by a hiring manager.

Newly published in 2010:  Get the best book for Manufacturing Resumes

Resume Writing for Manufacturing Careers - Front Cover

Supply Chain Career Trends

I added a number of supply chain career trends to the Palladian website this week. The job market has slowed, but some skills have held up better than others. The trends are taken from Indeed.com’s job trends, and track the number of job postings that include a specific keyword or phrase.

The job market has slowed, but some skills have held up better than others.  You can see trends in the job market using Indeed.com’s job trends and track the number of job postings that include a specific keyword or phrase.

One of the graphs I created lists major supply chain functions.  The graph shows distribution is much more common than the other terms, but logistics careers are holding up much better in this downturn. There are also graphs showing trends in job titles, terminology, technology, process improvement terms and professional certifications.

When you write your resume, include the keywords for your field.  Many companies use automated systems to do the first resume screen.  If you don’t have the keyword on your resume, it may never get read.

Resume Examples From Global Sourcing Professionals

Six accomplishments taken from the resumes of global sourcing professionals, along with an assessment of the effectiveness of the accomplishment in selling the candidate’s potential.

Most resumes look alike, with little to differentiate between them.  Job candidates list their past responsibilities and skills. When a company hires a global sourcing professional, all the qualified candidates will have similar backgrounds, having had the same responsibilities and skills.  To stand out, a resume should have specific accomplishments demonstrating the past performance of the job candidate.  The accomplishments provide the sizzle that can get a hiring manager excited.

Below are six accomplishments taken from the resumes of global sourcing professionals. After each example is an assessment of the effectiveness of the accomplishment in selling the candidate’s potential.

Increased profits by an average of 32% after researching and identifying opportunities for volume purchasing with several suppliers, including reviewing fast-moving items and negotiating per-order agreements.

Assessment: This accomplishment is good, but could be better.  Increasing profits by 32% sounds like a good accomplishment, but it isn’t specific enough.  A little more detail regarding the profit margin, total sales and resulting profits would make the accomplishment clearer.  The candidate does a good job of showing how the results were achieved with the description of negotiating volume purchase agreements.

Cut on-hand inventory by 30%, eliminated $50K in costs, and improved cash flow by reducing quantity purchasing and maintaining quantity pricing of packaging materials.

Assessment: This accomplishment provides very specific results.  It is weak on details of how the results were achieved.  Reducing inventories is easy.  What is difficult is reducing inventories while maintaining or improving customer service levels at the same time.  This example does not address the competing priority of customer service, or show how inventories were reduced.

15 years consistently maximizing corporate performance, driving growth, generating revenues, capturing market share, improving profits, and enhancing value in domestic and international markets in the sourcing and procurement industry.

Assessment: In isolation, this sounds good.  Unfortunately, general statements like this are so common that they are often disregarded by hiring managers.  Accomplishments need to be specific and detailed to have the greatest impact.  This accomplishment, despite being very boastful, will do little to differentiate the candidate.

Pioneered a vendor management program incorporating proper vendor administration.  This program enabled accurate measurement of supplier performance, resulting in sustainable cost savings over life of supplier relationships.

Assessment: This accomplishment is ok.  Developing a vendor management program could be a great experience.  The problem with the accomplishment is it doesn’t detail the scope of the program and it doesn’t give any direct results.  The program may have been tested with one small vendor and discontinued or it could have revamped tens of billions of dollars of purchasing.

Implemented change of steel grade for forgings creating $350,000 savings in steel surcharges.

Assessment: This is a good accomplishment.  It shows a specific result.  The activity that led to the result is also clear.  The element that is missing is the role of the candidate in delivering this result.  Did an engineer identify a cheaper material and the buyer just followed the spec?  Or, did the buyer identify the opportunity and take it to engineering and operations for approval?  The first situation isn’t really an accomplishment, while the second could be very impressive.

Consistently ranked in the top quarter of branch offices in Productivity and Cost Per Load.

Assessment: This accomplishment is not very specific, but is still good.  The element  that is noteworthy is the ranking.  Showing a performance measure relative to similar operations can help demonstrate the quality of the performance.

Soft Skills in Global Sourcing Roles

Technical expertise is critical to landing a global sourcing position, but the most successful candidates will demonstrate combination of technical expertise and soft skills.

Technical expertise is critical to landing a global sourcing position. The challenges in sourcing roles require skill and experience to be successful.  These challenges constantly change with new economic and international opportunities and pitfalls.  In this environment, as critical as technical skills are to global sourcing, professional more than just technical skills to be successful.  Roles in global sourcing require a balance of technical expertise and soft skills.

Soft skills form the foundation of a person’s career, driving the ability to apply technical expertise.  The most critical soft skills include:

  • Communications Skills
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Teamwork
  • Work Ethic/Attitude
  • Organization Skills
  • Flexibility
  • Problem Solving Skills

All of these attributes play a significant role in every career.  In global sourcing, soft skills are critically important.  Sourcing touches almost every functional area of a company, and requires coordinating and supporting these functional areas.  Sourcing also requires extensive interaction with people and organizations outside of the company.

Making the soft skills requirements even more important, global sourcing professionals need to work with international suppliers.  Navigating differences in communication styles and cultural values can be especially challenging.

To be successful in a global sourcing role, an individual needs to be able to apply their technical expertise with their soft skills to reach the desired outcome.  Communicating effectively, by phone, in written correspondence, one-on-one in person and before groups will affect the success of a sourcing professional.  Additionally, being cognizant of culture issues can make or break a vendor relationship.  Adapting to changing market conditions and solving problems are constant challenges and require an individual flexible enough to stay in front of the marketplace.

As you prepare your resume and get ready to interview, include how your soft skills have helped you succeed in the past.  For example, you may write on your resume how you developed a sourcing plan for a new product rollout, and this plan required coordinating sourcing activities in a number of countries.  The technical requirements of such a project could be substantial.  Within the presentation, a little information on soft skills required to pull off this project can help.  Mentioning the communications requirements, the relationship building with new suppliers, the organization and time management challenges and the ability to execute this project so that it supports the efforts of other functional areas are all topics that will help with the overall presentation.

As you move forward in your career search, remember to include your soft skills in your presentation.  A good balance of soft skills and technical expertise can help set you apart.

Resume Writing for Sourcing Careers

Resume writing for supply chain professionals, particularly in sourcing careers, requires addressing specific challenges and goals that are important to the target employer. By highlighting these topics in your resume, you can standout from your competition.

Resume writing for supply chain professionals, particularly in sourcing careers, requires addressing specific challenges and goals that are important to the target employer.  By highlighting these topics in your resume, you can standout from your competition.

Sourcing careers manage the identification of suppliers, the purchasing of materials, and the logistics of purchased materials and components. In our modern global economy, sourcing provides the foundation of many companies. More than any other function, sourcing can change the financial condition and competitiveness of a company quickly.

A number of companies have capitalized on their sourcing expertise to build powerful competitive advantages over their competition. Wal-mart and Dell are both known for the efficiency of their supply chain operations. Slight improvements to the sourcing function can dramatically affect the bottom line performance of a company.

The significance of sourcing roles to the success of an organization makes finding exceptional talent in the sourcing field a critical component of a company’s success. During the hiring process, most companies will have specific goals and expectations for the position. To be successful, a job seeker needs to demonstrate an ability to make an impact on these specific goals.

Many job seekers find it difficult to identify the goals of the company and the hiring manager. You may be able to research and determine the priorities, but often this won’t be possible. Instead, you need to address the major challenges that are most likely to be priorities based on the industry and company.

There are a number challenges that are likely to be important within the materials field, including:

  • Vendor Identification

  • Vendor Qualification

  • Quality Monitoring

  • Legal and Contract Concerns

  • Transportation

  • Customs

  • Scheduling

  • Inventory

  • Supply Interruptions

  • Issues With Political or Economic Instability

This is a partial list but can give you a starting point for marketing your background. On your resume, you should mention a variety to challenges and goals. It is important to include more than just a list of keywords. Provide details of your experience and accomplishments for each area of expertise. You may choose to emphasize a selection of skills, but try to mention most of them in your resume.

One way to highlight your sourcing skills it to start your resume with an executive summary.  The executive summary should include two or three of your most significant accomplishments. This will draw attention to your strongest skills and accomplishments, highlighting a few key elements of your experience. You can then work the remaining elements you want to mention into your resume under your work experience section.

If you show significant experience in the sourcing arena, and mention the key topics that a hiring manager is seeking, you are likely to get a phone screen. You do not need to guess the top priority of the hiring manager and emphasize this in your executive summary.  As long as you mention the topic and show significant sourcing expertise, you should generate sufficient interest to motivate the hiring manager to want to learn more.  If you do not focus on a topic critical to the hiring manager, the phone screen will usually explore this topic in detail.

The list of competencies above omits one very common topic. In fact, it is by far the most common topic of accomplishment, and a critical element you need to cover in your resume. The omitted element is your experience with reducing costs. Reducing raw material and transportation costs are one of the biggest opportunities most companies have. Cost reductions through better sourcing can offer the best ROI. An investment of time and some travel costs for a sourcing professional can often yield millions of dollars in savings.

There’s an important reason why I omitted cost reductions from the list above. The reduction of cost is the result of an activity. It is not the core activity. For example, picture a sourcing professional that includes this accomplishment on his resume: “reduced the purchasing costs of a key raw material by $3 million.” This is a good accomplishment but doesn’t say anything about how the individual achieved this result. Another candidate, with a similar background, lists the same accomplishment, but with additional key details: “Identified two dozen new potential vendors for a key raw material. Assessed and qualified three to be suppliers. Negotiated international contracts with two of these sources, resulting in $2 million in savings from lower purchase costs and $1 million in transportation savings.”

These could be the same accomplishment, but the second presentation is much more specific and makes a much stronger impact. If the hiring manager is focused on identifying new sources, assessing potential sources or reducing transportation costs, this accomplishment should peak their interest.

Show what you did with the results you achieved. When we assessed resumes in our resume benchmarking survey, we found nearly half of the resumes didn’t list any accomplishments. Many of the resumes that did list accomplishments, only included cost savings numbers – accomplishments similar to the first example provided above. If you give a detailed presentation of what you did, how you did it and what the results were, your resume will standout for the vast majority of your competition and your chances of landing an interview will be much higher.

Need specific resume writing advice tailored to Supply Chain Careers?  Get our book, Resume Writing for Manufacturing Careers.  It is packed with examples and advice of production management, scheduling, purchasing, logistics and transportation.

Resume of a Generalist

Many job seekers highlight the breadth of experiences and skills they possess. A diverse background offers multiple perspectives on problems and strategies, and can be valuable to an employer. Despite the benefits of wide range of skills, focusing your sales pitch on your diverse background can be a mistake.

Many job seekers highlight the breadth of experiences and skills they possess. A diverse background offers multiple perspectives on problems and strategies, and can be valuable to an employer.

Despite the benefits of wide range of skills, focusing your sales pitch on your diverse background can be a mistake.

The problem with this approach lies in how different experiences are presented. You should emphasize the elements of your background that directly related to the position, showing your strongest skills and abilities prominently.

When a person highlights a wide range of skills and experiences, it becomes very difficult to assess which elements are strongest. When a large number of skills are put on equal footing, a hiring manager will often conclude the job seeker is average at each skill. Average will not get someone excited to hire you.

You need to show how you are exceptional. The initial focus of your resume should be on the aspects of the job you are seeking. You need to demonstrate how you will be success in the core functions of the job.  This targeted approach will make a strong impression and give you the opportunity interview.  Early in the hiring process, companies typically have dozens if not hundreds of candidates to consider and need to screen a large percentage.  Focusing on the core skills of a position and screening out candidates without exceptional experience with these skills is a common approach.

As you progress through the hiring process, the diversity of your experiences can then help you get hired.  A breadth of experiences is a benefit to an employer.  This background can be the deciding factor when a company is comparing to equally qualified candidates.  The additional experiences you possess can be the selling point that gives you an edge to get hired.

Let’s look at an example – this candidate is Vice President of Supply Chain for a manufacturing firm. The company is looking for someone that can lead their supply chain function and is most concerned with reducing costs through better vendor management with Asian suppliers.

The candidate has five years of experience sourcing in Asia, ten years of supply chain management, 5 years as a manufacturing manager and 3 years as a quality engineer.

General Presentation: Successful supply chain executive with experience managing purchasing, logistics and scheduling. Excellent manufacturing management track record, with significant quality engineering experience.

Focused Approached: Successful supply chain executive, specializing in purchasing and vendor management of off-shore suppliers, with extensive experience sourcing in Asia. Experienced with logistics, scheduling, manufacturing management and quality engineering, allowing effective anticipation of problems from vendors that will affect downstream customers.

The difference between these two presentations is small. Most resumes I read are similar to the general presentation. All of the skills and experiences are put on equal footing and none standout as a result. This presentation requires the hiring manager to connect the dots and recognize the value of the different experiences.

The second presentation positions the candidate much clearer.  It is targeted to show the supply chain experience, and more specifically, the experience sourcing in Asia.  The addition experiences are still presented, but are placed in a secondary, supporting context to the supply chain and sourcing experience.

 

Newly published in 2010:  Get the best book for Manufacturing Resumes

Resume Writing for Manufacturing Careers - Front Cover

Prioritizing Information on Your Resume

I reviewed a resume of a supply chain professional that failed to prioritize the content of their resume. The result was a confusing resume that didn’t create a solid picture of the job seeker.

The problem was not the content. The content was fine. It was the order and presentation of the information that hurt the effectiveness of the resume.

The basic structure looked like this:

Executive Summary: Supply Chain Executive with a strong track record of improving operations and providing leadership. Proven discipline for managing multiple departments and organizations with in excess of 150 employees.

Extensive professional skills and experience, including:

<listing of supply chain skills>

Work Experience

Most Recent Position – held for the last year
Operations Manager

  • Inventory Management Accomplishment

  • Sales Accomplishment

  • Sales Accomplishment

  • Inventory Management Accomplishment

  • Sales Accomplishment

  • Purchasing Accomplishment

Previous Position – held for 3 years
Sales Associate

  • Listing of sales responsibilities and one sales accomplishment


Military Service – 20 year career
Logistics Specialist

  • 7 accomplishments related to logistics and transportation

Education

After reading the executive summary, I expected a typical supply chain/logistics resume. The list of accomplishments under the most recent position started to confuse the issue. Sales and customer service activities were presented on equal footing with the logistics experience. The confusion built with the second position – a pure sales position. Looking at these two positions, the job seeker has split time between logistics and sales for one year out of the last four. It doesn’t present a strong logistics presentation. I could see some hiring managers hitting the delete key at that point.

Now, let’s look at the picture from a different perspective. The job seeker had 20 years of experience in logistics in the military. He tried a sales position for three years after leaving the military. He then moved back into logistics a year ago, managing operations for a wholesaler. In this capacity, due to his success in sales in the previous role, he managed some sales functions in addition to his primary responsibilities for operations and logistics.  In this description, the emphasis is on the twenty-one years of logistics work out of the last twenty-four.

To revise the resume this way, I would change the order of the content to emphasize the logistics experience like this:

Executive Summary: Supply Chain Executive with a strong track record of improving operations and providing leadership. Proven discipline for managing multiple departments and organizations with in excess of 150 employees.

  • Inventory Management Accomplishment from most recent position

  • Logistics Accomplishment from military career

  • Logistics Accomplishment from military career

Work Experience

Most Recent Position – held for the last year
Operations Manager

  • Inventory Management Accomplishment

  • Inventory Management Accomplishment

  • Purchasing Accomplishment

  • Very brief summary of sales accomplishments

Previous Position – held for 3 years
Sales Associate

  • Listing of sales responsibilities and one sales accomplishment

Military Service – 20 year career
Logistics Specialist

  • 5 accomplishments related to logistics and transportation


Skills

<Listing of supply chain skills>


Education

The change in structure is small, but increases the emphasis on logistics and supply chain experience. The sales experience is still listed; it is just deemphasized so that it doesn’t detract from the primary message.

Accomplishment Examples

I pulled four accomplishments from resumes I’ve received recently.

Example 1:  Director of Real Estate Acquisitions

Research and negotiate real estate acquisitions totaling approximately $#M per year.

This accomplishment clear, concise and specific. The role of the job seeker is also clear. What’s missing is something that quantifies whether this is figure is good. Did the job seeker meet expectations? Including the number of deals completed would help. It would also be good

Example 2:  Facilities/Engineering Manager

Champion use of Six Sigma/Lean tools to develop and implement strategic initiatives relative to managing facility construction and maintenance, capacity utilization.

Six Sigma and Lean are two skills that receive a lot of attention and are in demand. Implemented properly, they can have a huge impact on a company. A lot of job seekers try to work them into their resume, whether they are skilled are not.

In this accomplishment, the job seeker is saying they are a champion for using six sigma and lean tools. They do not say anything about whether they were successful in driving change or if the results of the change were significant.

Remember that many hiring mangers are going to be skeptical of anything you claim. Is this job seeker a six sigma expert? The education section of the resume lists training in six sigma, but no details of what the training was, and no listing of certifications. Did the job seeker sit through a 60 minute class on the basics of six sigma or spend weeks in classes? There were no specific projects listed that were completed, so the a hiring manager will probably assume the job seeker does not have much skill is this area.

Example 3:  Director Supply Chain

Exceeded all objectives for the fiscal year, including average AP days and freight as a percent of sales.

This accomplishment is clear and concise. The role is assumed from the title and the benefit to the company is also assumed. It isn’t very specific and it doesn’t say anything about how the job seeker achieved these results. Despite this, it actually a pretty good accomplishment. It shows the job seeker was successful in each area they were accountable for. A little more detail would improve it. The main thing this accomplishment will do is to prompt questions in an interview. In particular, what were the objectives and metrics that the job seeker was measured on and how did they achieve the results.

Example 4:  Division President

Increased company revenues from $#.# million in 200# to $##.# million in 200# by opening new locations, rebuilding sales teams, and improving operations; grew from ## locations to ## locations.

This is a good example of an accomplishment. The accomplishment is clear and concise. The result is specific, along with the time frame to achieve it. The method to achieve the result is also clear. As an added clarification, the job seeker included the number of locations at the start and end. Although I left out the figures, they clearly showed a significant increase in the number of locations and a growth in revenues per location (locations doubled and revenues quadrupled). This is the type of accomplishment that make me want to learn more about how this individual accomplished this.