The one thing I include on resumes that no one else does

I review hundreds of resumes from retail leaders every year and there's one thing that I almost always include on resumes, and yet I've never seen anyone else do it - as far as I can recall.

Before we get into it, let's remember that resumes these days are all about achievements. Recruiters want to know what you did, but they also want to know HOW WELL YOU DID IT. That means achievements.

It's not enough to just say you were a store manager for Target and you were responsible for this, that, and all those other things (all of which you can often leave out). Recruiters want to see what success you had. Did your work have a positive influence on the store, district, region, or company? Did you improve things? What was your impact?

I like that word "impact" because to me it really sums up what you want to show. You don't just want to list results - you want to show your impact.

So how do we define impact? It's the difference between what things were like when you started (or before your arrival) and how much you improved them. Example:

Having 2% inventory shrink isn't necessarily an achievement by itself. If the store's shrink was 1% before you arrived, then it's clearly not an achievement at all. But if it was 4% before you arrived, then yes, that's a damn good achievement.

So let's circle back now to the purpose of this post. What do I regularly include on resumes that I never see on others?

• A brief description of the circumstances you faced when you started that particular job or took over that specific location/territory.

Why is that important?

Because it shows the reader the obstacles you had in front of you. It paints a picture of what you were up against. That way they can put your achievements into context.

Again, 2% shrink doesn't tell the reader much on its own, since they don't know whether shrink was better or worse before you arrived (not to mention that 2% shrink may be considered low in some companies and high in others - another reason that numbers by themselves don't always mean much).

As I said, I don't believe I've ever seen this type of information on other resumes, and I regularly include it on the ones I write. (Far too often the resumes I review are focused on long lists of skills and massive paragraphs describing duties and responsibilities, both of which tend to say almost the same thing.)

Just something to think about.

Best of luck, and stay well.