Pet Peeve – Is responsible for hiding in your resume or LinkedIn profile?

One of the most common phrases in resumes is “responsible for.”

Reading through LinkedIn profiles and resumes sent by people who want to hire me to improve their resume, responsible for is the phrase most repeated.

Leave out responsible for

It doesn’t add value. When you use it, it sounds like a job description.

Tell me what value you provided. Most homegrown resumes sprinkle this dinosaur phrase, “responsible for” throughout the resume.

You miss the point of the resume

The point is to tell the story. Explain your value. Engage the reader to understand how you will add value to their organization.

Identify your successes:

• Cost Reduction – Successfully restructured Asia sourcing office to focus on quality assurance while delivering over $900K in annual cost savings without disruption to China supply chain.
• Geographic Supplier Diversification – Reduced reliance on southern China from over 70% to less than 50% of imports by diversifying supplier base beyond traditional Shenzhen-DongGuan-Guangzhou axis to incorporate coastal and northern China, Vietnam, and India.
• Cultural Diversity – Drove and led development of high-performing, diverse teams, which included assistants, producers, interns, and managers. Actively recruited, hired, coached, mentored, and led 250+ talented employees.
• Multi-Disciplinary Strategy  – Established and continued team approach to Diabetic Preventative Care with other specialties to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to overall diabetic care.
• Achieved $2.8 million forecasted sales lift and $85,000 incentive to company, for early delivery of additional payment method while increasing sales by $1.55 million in multiple other projects.
• Created brand architecture for 1,000+ products and repositioned brands to realize 15% increase in revenue. Implemented “good, better, best” tiered product marketing and pricing strategy. Redesigned product catalog, and consumer friendly product packaging, and in-store displays. Received industry award.

You won’t find responsible for in any resume I write

However you structure your resume or write your LinkedIn profile, stay away from boring job description phrases and tell your story.

Are you ready to get your job search on track? Learn how here.