Stuck on Resume Writing

by Brian Lathe
(Austin, TX)

I've tried to follow some of the advice you've got here on how to put a resume together, but I'm stuck on coming up with accomplishments. My old resume just listed my job responsibilities, but I guess that's not good enough anymore. Can you give me more help in how to get started with this?

I have about 7 years of sales experience, mostly in office equipment. I've worked for 3 different companie since I started working.

Brian -

I'm glad that you asked for help since you're struggling with this part of resume writing. Having strong accomplishments listed on your resume will help you immensely in your job search.

You mention 3 companies in 7 years, and a focus on selling office equipment. Hiring managers are going to want to know your track record. Have you hit your numbers consistently? Have you managed other people?

For each company, start listing the things you did. For example, if you closed a couple of big accounts, write that down. If you won some production awards, make a note of it. If you opened a door that no one else was able to get into, record it. Think about what you contributed that was not directly related to your sales activity. Did you serve on any committees to develop solutions to problems? Did you help build the sales forecast or plan? All of these things count.

When you work on this list, don't make value judgments...just write down the things you did. The list does not need to be fancy - or detailed at this point. Just get some thoughts down on paper. You should have at least 5-7 bullet points for each company.

Once you compile these thoughts, you can polish them. Add metrics where possible. For example, when talking about your sales results, provide specifics on how much you sold and what your quota was.

Keep in mind that you can mix specific sales results with other contributions you made as part of the sales team.

If you really get stuck, and want some help, Top-Sales-Jobs.com provides a Resume Critique service at a very reasonable rate. You can get details here.

Hope this helps!