. Everything is better with music: https://youtu.be/mpW3C_k0WMY?si=VTy2kbYFqG-fK6EB

I don't pretend to be a Resume Expert, but I worked over 22 years as a cs agent, team manager, and COO with much recruiting and keeping things simple, I’ll say, if there is 1 thing you have to have in your application, this is:

SHOWCASE YOUR BEST ACHIEVEMENTS

After a recruiter checks that an application is a general fit ( the application is for the right job post/role) the 1 thing he needs to see is who can bring the best value to the team.

And to prove YOU are the one, you need to explain your best achievements, not just say them This means, more or less:

• What is it you did
• Contextualize the issue- where your solution later came in
• Explain how you did it
• Show the RESULTS, what did it improve, Bring Numbers/Data to back it up

As obvious as this may seem, I’m amazed to see the number of candidates that don't do it. Instead, they make these 2 mistakes:

• They simply state their past roles, as if the only concern was to show a general fit…
• Or, at best, many only mention some of their best achievements but THEY DON'T EXPLAIN them.

Let’s see this through some examples:

-Only stating past roles doesn't need any examples. Quickest landing to the Bin:)

-Only mentioning the best achievements without explaining them:

❌ Ex 1 “ Thanks to my friendliness and proactiveness, I contributed to a sales increase of 50% during the course of my work period” ⏩Even if the candidate attaches a graph showing such sales increase, nothing proves it was due to his proactiveness or friendliness. Cheap talk. The candidate needs to explain a concrete action he took that increased sales.

❌ Ex 2 “During my 6 years at X company I succeeded in maintaining a customer feedback score of 4.5” ( If I had been given $1 for every time I read this…) ⏩ For this kind of measurable achievement, data proof is indispensable. Without it, again, it’s cheap talk.

❌ Ex 3 “I implemented a new system through which the company improved shipping delays during the pandemic. This resulted in better customer retention at a time when customers were very upset due to the many issues raised by Covid. ⏩ A little better than the previous 2 examples but still no explanation of what exactly was done to reach the alleged results.

Some examples of achievements duly explained.

✅ Ex 1 I drove UK-bound sales back to pre-pandemic levels after a steep drop resulting from Covid’s shipping costs and products getting stuck at UK Customs after Brexit

At the peak of the pandemic, the UK had withdrawn from the European Union, entailing many legal issues and uncertainty as to the applicable norms for exports and imports. UK customs kept the company’s merchandise for weeks causing a steep drop in UK and even Europe bound sales.

After 3 months of unfruitful solutions, I turned around the situation by suggesting and actively participating in:

• Obtaining a UK IMPORT LICENSE. The new legal status allowed our products to be handled with just a 4 day maximum delay.

• I canceled all traditional and slow shipping options available until then and implemented 2 new solutions: A UK shipping company economy option through which we paid for any applicable customs duties and later billed our customers in comfortable installments and a DHL Express option whereby the customers directly paid for customs fees in exchange of a 30% discount on their next orders plus VIP cust service handling.

• Thanks to these measures plus a thorough explanation of the situation to our customers, our sales to the UK went back to pre-pandemic levels within 3 weeks of implementation. Our customer feedback also reflected recognition of our very solution-driven focus. See graph from our Shopify store and a few examples of our customer feedback from inner communication software: DATA Links

✅ Ex 2 I Opened New Markets in Latam, Africa, and Asia

The company’s products being very premium and expensive, these markets were almost completely left out. There was no affordable shipping option to those regions and many interested people from those countries complained.

• I solved this by developing a partnership with the traveler app, Grabr that connects travelers with locals to bring them products from developed countries. With the IT team, I added the feature as an API within our Community page and a matching scheme for our customers or non-customers travelers and interested buyers from those regions. I also presented this as a social activity.

• The results in sales to Latam as an example, went from under $200 per month until implementation in July 2018 to $2700 4 months later. While the figures remain slim in the total market share, the move allowed the company to increase its social responsibility image. This reflected through customer reviews and known retail magazines such as The Independent Retailer and The Boss Magazine. See Shopify sales page for Latam sales, a few reviews from company’s website, and media clips: DATA

I hope you can sense that the only way for a recruiter to make a reasonable choice is by comparing different values and the N1 value is what you accomplished in the past that can be useful in the new role.If you only state your achievements without explaining how you attained them your recruiter will not see your value.

To showcase Data backing up your achievement claims, it pays to keep them as you come up with them along the way. It’s VERY IMPACTFUL.

There are other very important things to include in a successful application but nothing is worth much without demonstrating your best accomplishments.

Hope this helps some out there👍👍

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