Resume Help – Highlight Your Accomplishments Without Sounding Like a Jerk

A lot of Tandem residents are spending the summer in their Davis apartments polishing their resumes. Job-hunters have to strike a careful balance. You want your CV to be an accurate accounting of your skills and accomplishments, but you don’t want to come off sounding like what columnist Carolyn Hax refers to as a “glass bowl” (rhymes with….). No one wants to hire or work with someone who is infatuated with themselves. So here are some tips from Lifehacker.com on how to impress without sounding like a boastful blowhard.

Track Your Successes

If someone were to ask you, “What did you do this month at work that you are most proud of?” would you be able to answer? Maybe not—it’s very easy to get stuck in the day-to-day grind of work and forget to take note of all the great things you do for the company.

So, make a plan for how you’re going to stay on top of them. While this won’t necessarily get your successes noticed, it will help you be more aware of them so you can know what to share with other people. 

Add Accomplishments to Your Meeting Agenda

Next time you meet with your boss, add an “Accomplishments” section to the meeting agenda. This might sound obvious, but it has been a powerful way for me to make sure I let my bosses know when something has gone extraordinarily well (without feeling like I am bombarding them with random cheers for myself).

I usually frame this in terms of progress on a major project and how it affects the organization overall, then I mention anything specifically that I did (my community-then-individual method of sharing good news). For example, “The new site launched successfully this week. Jessica and Mark were really helpful in ensuring the content was good to go, and we’re getting great feedback from our audience! To get extra eyes on our work, I was able to secure syndication partnership with ABC Magazine, which has brought in additional traffic.”

Volunteer Your Expertise

One of the best ways to establish your contribution as an employee is by helping your co-workers solve problems. So, when you notice an ongoing problem or challenge that’s related to something you’re good at, offer your services. Don’t just volunteer for anything, but offer to help in an area where you can demonstrate your excellence at a time when it’s clear your talent is needed.

Sound intriguing? Follow the link above for more great advice in the rest of the article.