5 Potent Action Verbs to Power Up Your Resume Today!

Just the boost you need! (Jirsak/iStockphoto.com)

When you present your resume, it's not about telling an employer who you are. It's about telling them what you can do for them.

In other words, you can tell an employer that you're ambitious and personable. Or you can show them!

Your accomplishments are your place to shine. Demonstrate what you've done for your current or past employers (or in your school projects, for that matter), and you help an employer visualize that you can provide similar results for them. A track record of success sells your ability to do more great things in the future. And the verbs you choose to illustrate your accomplishments have both overt and implicit meaning. They paint a picture of not just what you did, but how you did it – and often, that matters just as much.

Ready to power up your resume? Here are five potent action verbs you can start using today!

Verb: GENERATE
Definition: To bring into existence; cause to be; produce.
Why It's Potent: Demonstrates that you have the ability to build, create, or produce something. You don't just sit at your desk gathering dust, you get results. Implies positive action and activity.
Real-World Resume Example: "Generated $3M+ in annual sales through effective development and execution of marketing strategies."

Verb: INFLUENCE
Definition: To exercise influence on; affect; sway: to influence a person. To move or impel (a person) to some action.
Why It's Potent: People don't usually do things differently than they've historically done things just because you ask them nicely. Especially if you're not their boss. By influencing your boss, coworker, stakeholder, or anyone else to try a new approach, you've shown that you can change the status quo by getting other peoples' buy-in. Not an easy task, especially when you're asking for their time or money.
Real-World Resume Example: "Influenced clients to adopt new fashion home product line generating $1.2M in 2016 and projected to grow over 400% in 2017."

Verb: DEVELOP
Definition: To bring out the capabilities or possibilities of; bring to a more advanced or effective state.
Why It's Potent: This refers to developing people, by the way. If you're a leader, your ability to develop your staff if one of your key responsibilities. By helping others become the best they can be, you're building bench strength, enhancing employee engagement, and creating opportunities for the company's best and brightest.
Real-World Resume Example: "Developed high performing Team Lead into Director through coaching and mentoring."

Verb: COLLABORATE (OR PARTNER)
Definition: To work, one with another; cooperate.
Why It's Potent: Employers want people who can work well with others. Often that's essential in order to get things done. Showing a proclivity to partner up on projects provides tangible evidence that you believe in teamwork.
Real-World Resume Example: "Collaborated with industry partners to innovate products for market placement."

Verb: TRANSFORM
Definition: To change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphose; to change in condition, nature, or character; convert.
Why It's Potent: Transformation is powerful stuff. You're seriously modifying the status quo for the better. Implies that you're a change agent.
Real-World Resume Example: "Transformed business into profitable operation within one year. Reduced expenses through operational efficiencies, renegotiated key vendor contracts, and reduced customer write-offs and outstanding credit."

(Definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com)

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

No Degree? 11 Winning Strategies To Help You Compete In The Job Search

You've got this. / iStockphoto.com (YiorgosGR)

You're browsing the job boards and you come across a position that's a great fit in every way. The company advertising the job has a great reputation, the role's responsibilities are right in your wheelhouse, and it's just a couple minutes drive from your house.

Then you see the following line in the job description:

"Requires a Bachelor's degree for consideration."

Despite the fact that you've had a successful career to date, have progressed forward in your line of work with multiple promotions, you never finished college.

It happens. Life takes unexpected turns, and sometimes earning a degree becomes less of a priority than earning a living, caring for a sick parent, or raising a child. Next thing you know, the years have slipped by, and school hasn't been a priority any more.

In addition, it's also not unusual for an individual to enter a company at the bottom of the ladder – for example, starting in a retail position working the sales floor and earning a promotion into a management role. However, even their own employer may be hiring their new managers straight out of college (upon completion of their degree) for the company's management training program – in other words, if it weren't for their track record inside the company, they wouldn't even be considered if they were applying for the job they now hold.

Many companies value a college degree for their newly hired employees. There are several reasons for this:

• Essential foundation of knowledge. Especially in technical fields. Think about a mechanical engineer, for example, and the intensive study they would have undertaken. An auto manufacturer would prefer not to have to teach their newly hired engineer how to - well, be an engineer, and the required fundamental science and math skills. Or consider retail management jobs; employers may want business graduates who have taken accounting, finance, marketing, and operations classes so they can better understand how to manage their store's P&L.
   

• Demonstrated discipline. A degree shows you had the diligence to complete four (or more) years of rigorous study. True, I know some people who partied their way through college, but employers don't really ask about that in the interview so long as the candidate has a respectable grade point average and a completed degree.
   

• "Raising the bar." Some employers use a college degree as a minimum screening criteria even for jobs in which the degree doesn't matter, in order to get what is perceived to be a more "promotable" individual. By this reasoning, if somebody wants to become the Vice President of Sales, there won't be any education roadblocks, and they will set a positive example for the other employees as a "highly qualified" individual. It also makes it easier to say "no" to people who don't have a degree, reducing the number of resumes to review. A corollary is the perception that having a degree is a predictor of success, because all the company's current top managers have degrees.
   

• It's easier to compare candidates. Publications such as U.S. News and World Report publish annual rankings of the best colleges. I've seen hiring managers make sweeping determinations about the relative quality of job applicants based the schools attended. By this reasoning, a graduate of Duke (#8) must be a better candidate than a graduate of UCLA (#24), right? It's much easier to quantify a hiring decision, whereas it's a more difficult comparison point for an individual who didn't graduate college - without that valuable school ranking as a metric, the degree-less candidate doesn't rank. 
   

• It's always been done that way. Don't underestimate the power of corporate inertia. Many managers fall back on this reason, or, "it's our policy," in order to avoid the heartburn associated with making an exception or - even worse - being accountable for accommodating an exception that flopped.

While the hiring process may not always be fair, take heart. Your goal is to position yourself as a great candidate whom an employer should take a chance on, so irresistible that a potential employer is willing to take chance on you regardless of the fact that you never finished college.

Here are eleven strategies for positioning yourself for a job when you don't have a degree.

1. Really, really, REALLY show off your skills. All through the process, employers are going to be questioning your ability to do the job. Your strongest selling point will be your applied skills. Be prepared to explain in excruciating detail - both in your resume and in interviews - your foundation of work, and how you've gone about your work. It needs to be glaringly obvious to an employer that you've done this job before, and stepping into this role will be both quick and easy, with minimal learning curve.
    

2. Get your resume in tip-top shape. You need to make the best possible impression right from go. There's no wiggle room here, since you're already at a disadvantage. It needs to look good - really good. Make sure it's loaded with accomplishments and experiences which reflect the fact you're a proven professional and a low-risk hire.
   
   By the way, if you did attend college but dropped out, make sure to include your studies in the resume - something like "Studies toward a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration." This serves two purposes; first, it shows that you were accepted to a degree-granting program, which is an accomplishment in itself and, second, employers' Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS's - the databases they use to store resumes and post jobs) rank resumes according to how closely they match the job description, and the ATS might look for specific words pertaining to the degree. And put your education after your work experience, so it's not the first thing an employer sees.
    

3. Read the posted job description carefully; you still need to be qualified for the job. Your technical skills and/or past experience need to be rock solid in order to be a candidate for a job - otherwise you're wasting everybody's time, including your own. Do you meet ALL the criteria, other than the degree ? If so, you've passed the first test. And look specifically at the stated degree requirements. If it says something to the effect of "Four year degree preferred, equivalent experience required," this means the employer is willing to look past the lack of a diploma but all things being equal, the process may break in favor of the candidate who graduated college.
    

4. Apply to the job online. Yes, even if the job says the degree is absolute, apply. Make sure your resume is top-shelf. Look for the employers' keywords, terminology, and requirements, and make sure you're tweaking your resume to include these. And include a title on the resume matching the job's title. Better keyword match = higher ranking. And while it's not a sure thing that your resume will make the cut, one thing is absolutely certain: If you don't apply, you have a 0% chance of getting the job. Just apply.
    

5. Work your network. You may need an advocate to sing your praises. Leverage referrals to network the hell out of yourself, and to build positive buzz. Let's say you know somebody who works at the company you're targeting, in the group most likely to hire you. A well-placed word from that individual to the hiring manager may convince him or her to schedule an interview, regardless of the degree requirement.
    

6. Practice interviewing. Again, you're at a comparative disadvantage. So be ready to "wow" the interview team. Be dynamic, be engaging, be prepared. Have success stories so far up your sleeve you're going to need another shirt. Wow the hell out of the interview team.
    

7. Have your story ready as to why you didn't finish college - and own it. Whatever the reason, employers will want to see that you are accountable for yourself. Interviewers may ask what happened. Even if they don't, it's often best for you to get in front of it, tell your story, and frame the situation. This can often be a fantastic opportunity to really sell yourself - how bad was your life situation, and what were you able to achieve in spite of this adversity?
    

8. Be strategic about where you apply. Some companies, such as Google, don't care if their software programmers have diplomas. For many companies, it's about finding the best talent, and the degree simply isn't a factor.
    

9. Know when to walk away. You will never be able to convince everybody that you can do the job. Some employers simply won't budge, and that is their right. But close out the situation cordially, be gracious, and live to see another day; your resume may once again surface in front of another hiring manager who's willing to go to bat on your behalf.
    

10. Consider re-enrolling in college. Yes, going back to college as a working adult is a pain - it involves juggling a lot of priorities. But doing so can rally some empathy in your favor, and it gives you a current academic credential to include on your resume. Some employers are suitably satisfied if they see that you're dedicated to filling this gap in your work history. I've seen this happen.
     

11. Never lie about having a degree. Not once, not ever. You will get found out, I guarantee it. And it will haunt you. When I was a recruiter, I ran into several situations where candidates who interviewed for a job indicated that they had completed their diploma - but really hadn't. Once we ran the background check and we found information contradicting the job seeker's claims, it killed their chances. The really sad part of this story is that often the degree wasn't really a firm requirement for the position. But candidates who lied about their education left us with serious doubts about their honesty, and we had no choice but to eliminate them from consideration.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

The Ziggy-Zaggy Path To The C-Suite

Even a road with lots of twists and turns can get you where you want to go (iStockphoto.com / wakr10)

Careers just don't play out the same way they used to. These days, it's kind of a ziggy-zaggy path to the top.

In the not-too-distant past, when you started a new job at a company, you had one eventual goal – you wanted to be running the place. After a few jumps up the ladder, you'd be in the executive suite, next in line for the throne of CEO.

Make no mistake - upward mobility is still the dream. And it's perpetuated extensively by business schools everywhere. Then again, when you're dropping more than $200,000 for an MBA, you're hoping for the big payoff that a top job in a company can provide.

(By the way, I'm not kidding about the cost of an MBA; check out the estimated costs for one year of tuition, housing, and living expenses for business school Harvard University. These are the university's own projections – I recommend checking this out on an empty stomach.)

It's true that if you get an MBA, or another high-value advanced degree from a reputable school you'll probably see a substantial bump in pay from what you were earning before going back to school. But the ladder upward from your first job out of the program is likely going to be a more challenging climb.

There are several reasons for this, but chief among these is that companies are getting flatter In other words, many organizations are removing layers of management to (primarily) reduce cost and (secondary) increase collaboration by eliminating layers of unnecessary middle management.

Some companies take egalitarianism to an extreme. I once worked at a company that eliminated vast swathes of the organization. They tried to increase collaboration, eliminate layers, and reduce cost by removing cubicles and offices altogether, and placed the greatly reduced (and less stratified) workforce at the equivalent of park benches and picnic tables. I sat across from a Vice President, an HR Manager, and a Compliance Specialist. I can't speak to the effectiveness of this approach in terms of the impact on productivity, but it certainly sent the message that everybody was being watched and treated equally, and that rank was of less concern than getting the job done. There were a lot of unhappy people, but this company wasn't exactly trying to be recognized as "Employer of the Year," either.

The aforementioned company isn't alone. As companies try to squeeze more and more out each dollar, they continue to reduce layers and positions in the name of efficiency. The net result is fewer rungs in the ladder, with a heck of a lot more people competing to climb each step.

How do you stay engaged and challenged, and continue to grow and develop? The answer, increasingly, is diagonal or horizontal movement. In other words, if the path above you is blocked, move over and take another route.

In other words, cross-train.

For example, let's say you've been an accountant for the past several years, and the next natural step up for you would be to become a controller, but the person in that job is not going anywhere.

Why not slide over into financial analysis? Or go into corporate analytics? Or try some other role which would allow you to flex your mental muscles and apply your skill set. There are five major benefits to making such a cross-functional, lateral move.

1) Expanding Your Toolbox. By trying something different but related, you're giving yourself more skills. And perhaps, by obtaining a broader perspective, you're making yourself a little bit more prepared for that next level up. For example, in human resources the folks who tend to move up are not the specialists, but the individuals who have touched recruitment, employee relations, training, and more.

2) Taking On New Challenges. Doing the same job for too long can get dull. By putting yourself into a new role, you're forcing your brain to solve different problems. It can increase your engagement and sense of fulfillment.

3) Increasing Your Marketability. By proving yourself in a new field or area, you can be opening up a whole new set of career possibilities - both inside and outside your current employer. Your boss isn't planning on retiring for a while? Maybe the fellow in the other group is planning on a career change in the near future. Or perhaps listing that new set of skills on your resume invites calls from recruiters about new opportunities.

4) Demonstrating Your Strategic Agility. By showing your employer that you are able to succeed in not just one, but two different lines of work, you're able to demonstrate that you can handle bigger, better, and newer challenges. Perhaps your company is looking for somebody to lead a new venture, and they need an individual who has demonstrated an ability to take on new tasks and make them successful. A cross-functional assignment may put you in prime position for such a promotion.

5) Even Lateral Moves Can Be A Step Up. I've seen it happen many times - somebody is given a new role, and it's not necessarily a full promotion, but to make the move more enticing, the company offers more money and/or an increase in title. Even half-steps forward can be rewarded.

Just remember: The straight road isn't the only one that can take you to your destination.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.