Recruiter's Resume Advice: Show Me the Money!

You'll hear it straight from a recruiter's mouth in this video, "Show me the money on your resume!"

Peggy McKee is an established recruiter who's looked at tons of resumes. She knows what catches her eye and what makes her want to invest her time in a potential job candidate. MONEY!

It sometimes takes guts to put dollar signs and percentages on your resume to show exactly how good you are. Many of us are reluctant to brag or even matter-of-fact-ly take full credit for what we achieved.

If you're feeling the least bit shy about writing bold (and honest) achievements, watch this video. Peggy will give you the confidence to sell yourself without hesitation.



Don't have time to watch the video? Here’s the transcript:

Advice for a Great Resume: Show Me the Money
As a recruiter who spends a lot of time reading resumes, I appreciate the great resume tips that Susan Ireland dispenses every day, and I recommend her wholeheartedly to any job seeker. After all, you can’t get much better advice than from the woman who actually “wrote the book” on resumes, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume.

And also as a recruiter, I’d like to share one of the things that gets my attention when I’m going through that stack: That’s a resume that clearly shows me the money.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that your resume should clearly show the benefit of hiring you, in terms of how you can either make money or save money for a company. The way you do that is by describing your accomplishments within your job history in terms of numbers, dollars, or percentages. That can be done for just about any job:

• You made money by bringing in new business or new customers.
• You saved money by coming in on time and under budget, reducing turnover, improving accuracy rates, improving safety, or changing suppliers.
• You saved time (which saves money) by increasing efficiency rates.

What you’re doing is showing that hiring manager hard evidence for why it will benefit him to hire you. What’s more impressive: that you’re a top sales rep, or that you ranked #2 out of 30? That you are proficient in corporate tax law or that you saved your company $40,000 last year? That you are great at management or that you reduced turnover rates by 25%?

See? You’re painting a detailed picture of what you can bring to the table. What you’ve done for another company, you can do for him.

I can guarantee you that not everyone has thought about this to that extent, but the ones who do are almost guaranteed to stand out from the crowd.

Thank you, Peggy, for this great video, made specially for The Job Lounge.

Here are some ways you can get help creating a strong resume filled with "show me the money" achievements:

• Hire a professional resume writer on Susan Ireland's Resume Team.
• Create your resume using Susan Ireland's Ready-Made Resumes.
• Read my book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume.
• Follow my free online resume advice: 10 Steps to Create a Resume.
• Browse 90 Great Resume Examples