Do You Create Employer Value?

Do You Create Employer Value?

education
Get Paid to Share Your Expertise

Help shape the future of business through market research studies.

See Research Studies

Do You Create Employer Value? Or do you just take up space?

Employers today have problems that need solutions. That’s why they hire staff, because their problems require too much manpower or specialized knowledge for the hiring manager to solve on their own.

What kinds of problems you ask?

Problems reaching sales goals, or expanded sales forecasts; problems lowering costs; problems increasing production; and a whole host of other problems ranging from labor, tax and technology problems, to problems getting goods & services to market or making a great idea into a better mousetrap –- those kinds of problems.

Candidates who clearly demonstrate how they can help solve employer problems, and create value, are aggressively recruited. Candidates who don’t demonstrate a track record of solving specific problems end up with a long job search, and are either unemployed or underemployed.

One problem is that most candidates write for themselves, not for their audience. Most resumes I see are autobiographies describing what someone has led or managed. The number of people you managed, or the projects you participated in might be a source of your own personal pride. Bu, these seldom create value for your potential employer.

This isn’t just a resume issue, because it extends onto the interview stage, as well. It’s a self-image issue. Do you babysit people and projects, or do you create results?

I seldom see resumes that clearly state the candidate:

  • beat their sales goals by 40% for the past 5 years (or team sales goals)
  • cut costs by 25% by instituting new procedures
  • increased revenues by 30%, by implementing a new sales channel, inventing a new widget, or creating a new marketing campaign
  • improved profits by 20% by instituting cost containment controls, exploiting tax loopholes, or eliminating production waste

For Technology types, I see all the time that they invented a new product so profound, that it changed the molecular structure of the world as we know it … but rarely do I see an estimate of how much value that product added to their employer.

When I revise resumes and advise clients I pull these value creation experiences out of their memory banks. Nearly everyone has these examples, unless you just weren’t trying. Since I’m an optimist, I believe that everyone tries to do a good job, at least in the beginning (even in Government.) I just find that job seekers often have a skewed view of what’s important to a hiring manager.

And it’s interesting….the more people a job seeker has hired during their career, the more they seem to write a personal biography, rather than a relevant track record of solving problems and creating value.

When I ask these same managers about what sorts of things impress them about a resume from a candidate they just HAD to hire – I’ll almost always hear that the candidate has experience solving relevant problems, and that they’ve got a great track record (of creating value). These same highly talented people, who have hired many people during their career, are usually incredible problem solvers, with many examples to offer. But the lure of writing a personal autobiography is just too great.

Do you create value? How does your resume demonstrate this?

…Or do you just take up space?

Phil Rosenberg
About the Author
Phil Rosenberg

This article was contributed by Phil Rosenberg.  Phil is President of ReCareered, helping great people break through the challenges of modern job searches. Phil managed the Chicago suburban Financial and Technology consulting practices for recruiting industry leader, Robert Half International.

Similar Articles

Show more