The Fatal Resume Mistake You Won't Realize You're Making By Liz Ryan.

If you've spent time in the business world, you are probably brainwashed. Most of us are. We've been taught a lot of things that aren't true.
One of the big messages most of us have sucked down for years is the message "The boss knows more than you do." We grew up believing or at least going along with the idea that managers get to call the shots.
The message "The boss is more powerful than you are" shows up in the strangest ways. It comes out when people write their resumes. Most people understate and undervalue their own experiences.
Often it's because they don't think their former boss would approve of a self-confident retelling of their story. They write their resumes as though their boss were going to be editing and approving the finished product!
My colleagues and I at Human Workplace work with thousands of job-seekers. We teach workshops and coach people in person and over the phone. We help them write Human-Voiced Resumes to bring their talents across to people who don't know them.
We ask our clients about their past jobs, and they say things like "I don't think I can claim that project."
"Why not?" we ask. "Didn't you complete the project?"
"Yes," they say, "but it wasn't in my job description." People are reluctant to claim their magnificent professional accomplishments, even though they did the work and can tell you exactly how they did it!
Here are the three most common answers we hear to the question "Why are you reluctant to include that wonderful accomplishment in your resume?"

• I kind of snuck around my boss to get that done. He or she doesn't even know I did it.
• That was another department's work. We weren't even supposed to be involved.
• My boss wouldn't agree with my assessment of what I contributed to the company.

So what if you snuck around your boss, if you took on a project that was officially another department's work or if your boss wouldn't agree with your version of events? Who cares what your ex-boss thinks!?
Your manager at any past job has no power over you now. If you did something cool, claim it! Most of us write our resumes as though all of our old bosses were standing behind us, peering over our shoulders and evaluating the words we write on our resumes.
It's your resume. It's your career path. You get to tell the world what you've done, whether anybody else likes or agrees with your assessment, or not!
If you don't think a particular past manager would endorse your view of your job responsibilities or the contribution you made the company while you were there, don't include that manager on your reference list.
The HR department at your past employer will verify your job titles and dates of employment. You don't need all of your past managers to be reference-givers for you.
You get to describe your work experience the way it happened, not the way your ex-boss would allow you to describe your experience if he or she had anything to say about it.
Most people hurt themselves by being too modest. I don't want you to brag in your resume, but I want you to tell us how you came, saw and conquered!
Don't list the job duties for each past job you held, like this:

• Created reports for our two Vice Presidents
• Updated our newsletter database and archived past issues
• Organized and maintained 'drip' marketing messages

When you merely list tasks and duties, you're telling us "This is what the job description required."
Anybody in the job would have done the same things. We don't care what the job required. Tell us how you put your own stamp on the job, instead!

• I built the sales-by-product and sales-by-territory reports my VP used to allocate his marketing budget.
• I grew our subscriber list from 4,000 to 12,000 names in nine months.
• I created a drip-marketing program that increased sales eight percent during the year.

The first set of three resume bullets and the second set of bullets come from the same job-seeker, Trina.
When Trina first sat down to write her resume, she listed her tasks and duties on the job. That's the way she had always been taught to write her resume.
When we asked Trina questions about those tasks and duties, her answers made it clear that she had not only prepared reports for her VPs, but also designed and built them. She knew what the reports were used for, so we told her "Let's get that impact into your resume!"
Trina had grown her company's mailing list three times over, but she told us "I would hate to claim that. A lot of people in my company would say that I had nothing to do with the newsletter subscriptions increasing, but I know I did. I saw what kinds of content got subscribers to forward our newsletters, and it was those forwards that made our subscriber list grow so fast."
No one has anything to say about what goes into your resume except YOU.
Trina's bad old memories of being put down or pushed aside by her co-workers and her manager were still affecting her two years later when she began her resume-updating project. We told her to forget about those voices in her head. Those people have nothing to say about the way Trina describes her experiences now.
She was the one who lived through them, and she gets to tell her story however she likes! After sitting with her new Human-Voiced Resume for a few days, Trina finally felt comfortable telling her story her way.
"I did increase sales and I know that because before the drip marketing program started, our sales were eight percent lower," she said. "Nothing else changed in our sales or marketing, but our sales went up. Nobody wanted to give me the time or the tiny budget I needed to start that marketing automation process, but I got it done and it worked. I'm claiming it!"
You can claim your experiences, too. Not one of your old bosses or co-workers gets a vote about how you describe yourself in your resume, on your LinkedIn profile or in the job interviews you attend. It's your story to tell, however you like. Don't dim your flame for anyone in your present -- or in your past!

Questions and Answers

How can I learn how to claim my accomplishments in my resume the way Trina did?
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KINGSMITH.