My Critical First Steps in Building a Resume: List Accomplishments, Key Success Factors

Summary:
Identifying my accomplishments and key success factors gave me the foundation I needed to clarify my job search objective, develop a resume, prepare for interviews and eventually find the right job for me.

The Eight-step Process I Followed

1. Listed my functional experiences on the job as well in volunteering.
   
   
2. Identified three to five over-arching, key success factors which helped me succeed in the accomplishments I listed as functional experiences in step one.
   
   
3. Defined briefly what these key success factors meant to me in terms of the individual skills and personal qualities I used to build the accomplishments I listed in step one.
   
   
4. Selected three to five individual skills/personal qualities from the list in step three which most closely apply to the accomplishments I listed in step one.
   
   
5. Ranked these five skills/qualities I posses according to how strong they are in me, how useful they've been to me and how enjoyable they've been to me.
   
   
6. Matched my key success factors I identified in step two with the five skills/qualities I ranked in step five according to strength.
   
   
7. Cited two specific examples of functional experience I listed in step one to illustrate those key success factors/skills/qualities
   
   
8. Chose the best functional experience example of the two in each case.
   
   

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The Eight-step Process I Followed

Here's the process I followed almost 10 years ago in identifying my key accomplishments as a potential employee. I was then vice president of corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company and had decided I needed to move on to a different company, a different job and a new stage in my career.

I used the following eight steps to examine my work experience, review my accomplishments and identify my key success factors -- an essential, initial exercise before I developed my resume and charted a path to my next career position.

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1. Listed my functional experiences on the job as well in volunteering.
   
   I documented all the relevant experience I had gained during my 27 years in business communications. I wanted to be specific about each experience in terms of what I did, when I did it, how I did it and the results I achieved. I took into account my experience through education, training and volunteering as well as my work record.
   
   Here are just 10 of the examples from my functional experience list:
   
   
   • "Between 1976 and 1983, as director of communications, combined all the corporate communication functions of Wisconsin Dairies into one department, staffed by professionals with corporate communication training, so senior management people could more easily establish and carry out communication policies and plans."
     
     
   • "Between 1972 and 1992, geared communication department for winning 150 awards for excellence."
     
     
   • "Between 1977 and 1989, developed and continually monitored/evaluated a unique milk acquisition/growth strategy, based on research, for a three-state area under which 14 out of 15 mergers retained at least 80 percent of the milk involved."
     
     
   • "Between 1978 and 1991, implemented a comprehensive program to educate dairy farmers about how to produce quality milk, resulting in a 40 percent increase in milk quality."
     
     
   • "Between 1989 and 1992, gained consensus about updating the design and colors of corporate logo and completed full conversion."
     
     
   • "Between 1984 and 1986, responded to more than 300 questions from dairy farmers by telephone, reducing the number of field calls by 25 percent."
     
     
   • "Between 1979 and 1994, established and managed a volunteer program which doubled young farmer involvement throughout the organization."
     
     
   • "Between 1979 and 1994, trained 16 college students, four high school work-study students as well as 12 communication staff people under my own management-evaluation-training system."
     
     
   • "During 1992, administered communication audit and helped top management use the results to establish a direction and strategy for driving communication, training and development programs during the next several years."
     
     
   • "Between 1992 and 1994, directed the strategic planning and visioning process for senior management, which resulted in implementation of a new framework for making key decisions."
     
     
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2. Identified three to five over-arching, key success factors which helped me succeed in the accomplishments I listed as functional experiences in step one.
   
   After reflecting on my accomplishments in the workplace, I realized they all revolved around these five key success factors:
   
   
   • Consensus Building
     
   • Leading
     
   • Planning and Creating
     
   • Developing People
     
   • Implementing
   
   
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3. Defined briefly what these key success factors meant to me in terms of the individual skills and personal qualities I used to build the accomplishments I listed in step one.
   
   Here's how I defined each of my key success factors:
   
   
   • Consensus Building - Ability to help people work toward a common goal by gaining, building and maintaining consensus. That requires skills in communicating and selling ideas. A consensus builder needs these qualities: intuition, understanding, conceptualization, creativity.
     
     
   • Leading - Ability to harness synergy. That requires skills in coordinating, coaching, teambuilding and delegating. A leader needs these qualities: responsiveness, caring, patience, educator, results driven.
     
     
   • Planning and Creating - Ability to identify issues and create and communicate a vision so those issues can be addressed. That requires skills in research, issue identification, cost/benefit analysis and training. A planner and creator needs these qualities: curiosity, holistic, strategic, synthesizer.
     
     
   • Developing People - Ability to tap skills and talents of individuals. That requires skills in recognizing talent, identifying skills, matching people with jobs and training. A developer of people needs these qualities: intuition, perception, educator, caring.
     
     
   • Implementing - Ability to help people walk the talk. That requires skills in problem solving, translating theory into real life situations and evaluating results. An implementer needs these qualities: accountability, detail orientation, results driven.
     
     
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4. Selected three to five individual skills/personal qualities from the list in step three which most closely apply to the accomplishments I listed in step one.
   
   I had 17 individual skills and 19 personal qualities listed in step three. From those lists, I selected the following five:
   
   
   • Problem Solver
     
   • Creator
     
   • Teacher
     
   • Planner
     
   • Results-driven
     
   
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5. Ranked these five skills/qualities I posses according to how strong they are in me, how useful they've been to me and how enjoyable they've been to me.
   
   

   Here's how my rankings came out for each:

   
   
   

   According to Strength:
   
   

   • Creator
     
   • Planner
     
   • Teacher
     
   • Results-driven
     
   • Problem Solver
     
     

   According to Usefulness:
   
   

   • Creator
     
   • Problem Solver
     
   • Teacher
     
   • Planner
     
   • Results-driven
     
     

   According to Enjoyment:
   
   

   • Creator
     
   • Teacher
     
   • Planner
     
   • Results-driven
     
   • Problem Solver
     

   
   

   
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6. Matched my key success factors I identified in step two with the five skills/qualities I ranked in step five according to strength.
   
   My key success factors were:
   
   
   • Consensus Building
     
   • Leading
     
   • Planning and Creating
     
   • Developing People
     
   • Implementing
     
     
   My five skills/qualities according to strength were:
   
   
   • Creator
     
   • Planner
     
   • Teacher
     
   • Results-driven
     
   • Problem Solver
     
     
   Here's how my key success factors matched up with my skills/qualities according to strength:
   
   
   • Planning and Creating (Creator)
     
   • Implementing (Planner)
     
   • Developing People (Teacher)
     
   • Leading (Results-driven)
     
   • Consensus Building (Problem Solver)
     
     
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7. Cited two specific examples of functional experience I listed in step one to illustrate those key success factors/skills/qualities
   
   This was actually a test for reality -- to see if I had the concrete experience to back up my claim to each key success factor, skill or quality.
   
   
   • Planning and Creating (Creator)
     
     "Between 1977 and 1989, developed and continually monitored/evaluated a unique milk acquisition/growth strategy, based on research, for a three-state area under which 14 out of 15 mergers retained at least 80 percent of the milk involved."
     
     "Between 1984 and 1986, responded to more than 300 questions from dairy farmers by telephone, reducing the number of field calls by 25 percent."
     
     
   • Implementing (Planner)
     
     "During 1992, administered communication audit and helped top management use the results to establish a direction and strategy for driving communication, training and development programs during the next several years."
     
     "Between 1978 and 1991, implemented a comprehensive program to educate dairy farmers about how to produce quality milk, resulting in a 40 percent increase in milk quality."
     
     
   • Developing People (Teacher)
     
     "Between 1979 and 1994, established and managed a volunteer program which doubled young farmer involvement throughout the organization."
     
     "Between 1979 and 1994, trained 16 college students, four high school work-study students as well as 12 communication staff people under my own management-evaluation-training system."
     
     
   • Leading (Results-driven)
     
     "Between 1992 and 1994, directed the strategic planning and visioning process for senior management, which resulted in implementation of a new framework for making key decisions."
     
     "Between 1972 and 1992, geared communication department for winning 150 awards for excellence."
     
     
   • Consensus Building (Problem Solver)
     
     "Between 1989 and 1992, gained consensus about updating the design and colors of corporate logo and completed full conversion."
     
     "Between 1976 and 1983, as director of communications, combined all the corporate communication functions of Wisconsin Dairies into one department, staffed by professionals with corporate communication training, so senior management people could more easily establish and carry out communication policies and plans."
     
   
   
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8. Chose the best functional experience example of the two in each case.
   
   So, these are the five examples of my key success factors, skills and qualities that I finally selected:
   
   
   • Planning and Creating (Creator)
     
     "Between 1977 and 1989, developed and continually monitored/evaluated a unique milk acquisition/growth strategy, based on research, for a three-state area under which 14 out of 15 mergers retained at least 80 percent of the milk involved."
     
     
   • Implementing (Planner)
     
     "During 1992, administered communication audit and helped top management use the results to establish a direction and strategy for driving communication, training and development programs during the next several years."
     
     
   • Developing People (Teacher)
     
     "Between 1979 and 1994, established and managed a volunteer program which doubled young farmer involvement throughout the organization."
     
     
   • Leading (Results-driven)
     
     "Between 1992 and 1994, directed the strategic planning and visioning process for senior management, which resulted in implementation of a new framework for making key decisions."
     
     
   • Consensus Building (Problem Solver)
     
     "Between 1976 and 1983, as director of communications, combined all the corporate communication functions of Wisconsin Dairies into one department, staffed by professionals with corporate communication training, so senior management people could more easily establish and carry out communication policies and plans."
     
     

These are the key success factors, skills and qualities I used to clarify my job objective, highlight accomplishments in my resume, prepare for my job interviews and find the job that's right for me.

If I had to sum up what this exercise taught me, I'd say it identified me as a resource person for defining direction and managing change within an organization.

In other words, I now had a clue about how to develop my resume and what kind of job I needed. But that's the topic for my next article in this series: "How You Can Use Key Success Factors to Build Your Resume".

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