Get The Job You Want: Describing Past Job Duties Effectively

One of the most time consuming sections to write when you're working on your resume can be the Work Experience , or Employment History section. No matter where you are in your career, whether just starting out, or a seasoned professional with many years experience, writing up the descriptions of each job you've had by listing and describing the job duties - can be a challenge.

It can be difficult from either point of view. Either you're trying to figure out how to fit everything important into the requisite one or two pages, or you're caught trying to make something impressive out of what seems to be too little to impress anyone. This dilemma never seems to get any easier as we progress in our careers, but the key is to prioritize your job duties, or responsibilities according to your career goal, or professional objective.

Often when we are asked about our job duties, or main responsibilities, the first things that come to mind are the things we did every day - the routine mundane items.

Unfortunately, these items rarely reflect the important responsibilities of the job, nor the skills we needed to acquire out te job effectively.

As well, listing the routine things first often leaves the key responsibilities and qualifications at the bottom of the list, not highlighted at or near the top.

Anyone who is familiar with that type of job will already know about the routine duties. They aren't interested in the routine things that they will assume you should be able to do, so they will most likely be interested in what else you bring to the table. They will want to see those skills highlighted.

Conversely, anyone who is unfamiliar will not know which are most important, so they may assume the key qualifications are listed first, and so overlook more important skills you possess. Again, you need to highlight the important things for them, too.

This could be a costly mistake, as most managers, or reviewers of resumes, spend as little as seven seconds looking over resumes. If they don't see what they are looking for in a candidate almost immediately, they discard that resume and go on to the next.

To help avoid this pitfall, start by writing down every job you have ever held. Then write down everything you have done in every one of these jobs - the responsibilities, or job duties. Don't worry too much about how you are describing the job duties, you can always edit that before it goes into the resume.

Leave some space between each job on the list, in case you remember something else to add as you work your way through your list.

Once you have written down everything you can remember about each job, take a look at the duties/responsibilities for each job. What skills did you have or did you learn to help you carry out these responsibilities?

Select the three key, or most important, responsibilities, and consider the skills you used in carrying them out. How do they relate to the career objective you wrote earlier?

Are there other responsibilities that better support the goals you have already identified? If so, consider replacing the responsibilities you had selected with these new responsibilities. Remember, these are the skills that will convince a prospective employer that you will be capable of carrying out your career objective.

Now that you have chosen the duties that will highlight the required skills, you are ready to begin your descriptions. Start each one with a powerful action word, or verb .

Words such as "managed", "developed", "trained", are stronger descriptors of the duties you carried out. In stead of writing "was responsible for the training of new staff," consider how much stronger it sounds to write "trained new staff in best practices and procedures..."

If you are seeking to move into a position as an assistant manager in a retail setting, it would be more advantageous to be able to write that you "trained and managed a team of fifteen volunteer canvassers" than to simply state that you were a "volunteer team leader".

This kind of description of past job duties and experiences shows a potential employer that you skills do in fact support your objective. All the subsequent descriptions of duties and responsibilities for each job should then support the first one or two on the list.

Though most often not applied to this area of the resume, the concept of prioritizing to support your goals should also be applied in the area where you discuss your achievements and qualifications.

It is every bit as important that these should be listed and highlighted in a way that supports your stated career objective. If you were applying for a job in sales, you might want to list your customer service skills ahead of your computer skills. Though both are important, listing them in this way is clearer for a potential employer to see and to evaluate your potential as an addition to their company.

Once you have prioritized, re-written, and shaped your descriptions of your job duties, it's time to look at your resume through the eyes of an employer. Cross-check again with the job description of the position for which you are applying. If no job description is available, try searching the position online to find out what other employers are looking for in this job. That will give you a pretty clear idea of what a potential employer is seeking in terms of skills and qualifications.

Do your skills and qualifications match up and have you presented them in such a way that anyone can clearly see that from your resume? It is your responsibility, as a job-seeker, to present yourself to your prospective employer in a clear and easy-to-grasp manner.

Employers are busy people who don't have a lot of time ot devote to reading the hundreds of resumes that pour in for each job that is advertised. The clearer you are, the more convincing you will be, and the more likely they will be to respond positively and affirmatively.

© 2010, Text by Imelleda, All rights reserved