How to Show Impact Instead of Tasks on Resumes

I've hired hundreds of candidates because of one simple thing: How they showcase their experience and accolades. Most resumes and LinkedIn profiles list skills. Good ones give numbers that prove success. Great ones tell high-impact stories. Here's what hiring teams actually look for, based on reviewing 5000+ resumes and profiles: 🚫 Don't write: "Led team projects." ✅ Instead, write: "Led 5-person team to deliver <Name> project under $X budget, reducing timeline by Y%." 🚫 Don't write: "Improved processes." ✅ Instead write: "Automated X key workflows to <Goal>, saving Y person-hours per year and reducing errors by Z%." 🚫 Don't write: "Managed stakeholders to roll out new API." ✅ Instead, write: "Rolled out new API to solve <Problem> while aligning stakeholders from X departments, resulting in Y% adoption in the first month." The pattern is simple: Action + Numbers + Impact = Winner If you can measure your impact, your value as a candidate dramatically increases. Remember: Anyone can list skills. Only you can tell your story.

I've reviewed hundreds of resumes over the past year, and one of the biggest mistakes I see is that people don't showcase their impact enough. Too many resumes list responsibilities instead of results. Hiring managers and recruiters want to see how you contributed to the business, not just what you were assigned to do. For example, instead of: "Managed sales pipeline tracking in CRM" Try: "Optimized CRM pipeline tracking, improving forecasting accuracy by 20% and reducing deal slippage by 15%" The second bullet point highlights measurable impact, clarifying why your work mattered while giving enough context into what you did. When updating your resume, ask yourself: - Did I save the company time or money? - Did I improve a process? By how much? - Did I drive revenue or reduce costs? - What metrics can I use to prove my impact? If you're applying for a job, take the time to showcase the results of your work.

Working on your resume and want to show your impact? Here are two things to remember: 1. Impact is almost never related to keywords in the *job description.* Impact comes from turning around or resolving a business problem. These business problems rarely show up in job descriptions. 2. To show impact, your *accomplishment* needs to be put in the context of the business problem it solved. That is, impact = "<a problem existed>, so <I did a thing>, and <business benefits resulted>." Your resume must show impact for the hiring manager to bring you in for an interview. For example (based on a story from a client I worked with): * Brattle had long struggled to quantify analyst performance, limiting business success. I developed an accurate algorithm and internal tool that supported analyst decisions, gave managers clear tracking, and became a competitive differentiator - accelerating sales cycles and removing a key barrier to growth. This bullet: • Sets the context of a meaningful problem ("failure to quantify analyst performance") and why it was worth solving. • Shows the business outcome ("decision support" and that it created a competitive differentiator leading to faster sales). • Implies mastery of many key product management skills - discovery, prioritization, working with developers, etc. Review your resume's bullet points. Is it clear what business problem your accomplishments address? Is it clear why the result was meaningful? (I don't mean, "Could someone 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴?" I mean is it explicitly clear, no guessing required?) Are your bullet points showing your impact? Or are they simply saying, in effect, "I did my job." --- (Yes, I know it's long, and it has no metric - but it's still 10x more likely to get my client an interview than his previous bullet point - because it shows his impact. Here's the original: "Developed improvement processes around data quality of risk analytics, resulting in greater confidence in the attribution platform and reducing the team’s manual efforts by ~20 hours per month." Nothing about competitive differentiation or accelerated sales. Nothing about a long-term struggle to come to grips with this analysis. Just a useless metric that may or may not represent a meaningful change.)

Let’s talk about why your resume isn’t landing interviews. It’s not because you’re not qualified. And it’s definitely not because you’re too old, too pivot-y, or too nontraditional. 👉 It’s because your resume is describing you instead of positioning you. Big difference. You’re listing tasks.... But recruiters are scanning for tangible evidence of your actions. And if you don’t show it fast, they move on. That’s why I teach every client to write their resume through the lens of SSIP™ — The 4 things every recruiter is scanning for in ~10 seconds: (outside of job titles, company names, month/year of work history) - Scope – What did you own? A team? Budget? Process? Region? - Scale – How big was it? $5M/year? 4 markets? 100+ hires? - Impact – What changed because of you? (Time saved, quality improved?) - Proposition – What’s your edge, and how does it connect to what they need? Let me show you what I mean: ❌ “Worked on monthly reporting” ✅ “Owned monthly reporting for 8 global offices, cutting turnaround time from 5 days to 2” ❌ “Helped with system migration” ✅ “Coordinated data migration of 10K+ records into Salesforce with <1% error rate” ❌ “Supported training sessions” ✅ “Delivered onboarding for 120+ new hires, boosting first-month retention by 22%” ❌ “Assisted with customer support” ✅ “Resolved 200+ client escalations/month, improving CSAT scores by 19% over 6 months” See the difference? You went from “I helped” to “I made it happen.” That’s the shift. And if you’re thinking: “But I don’t have metrics…” — YES. YOU. DO. If you did it better, faster, longer, for more people, with fewer issues, you have metrics. You don’t need to be a data analyst to quantify your impact. You just need to tell the truth with clarity. So here’s your challenge today: ✍️ Pull up your resume. 🔍 Look at your top 5 bullets. Ask yourself: → So what? → How much? → What changed? → Why me? If you can’t answer, it’s time to rewrite it. ✅ Save this post. 📥 Drop ONE bullet in the comments if you want free feedback. 📎 And if you’re still stuck, I’ll help you fix it. You already have the receipts. Let’s make sure your resume shows them. ___________________________________ Hi, I’m Erica Rivera, CPCC, CPRW. 👋 Voice-finder. Story-shaper. Career strategist. I’m a millennial who was raised to believe that if you just worked hard enough, your results would speak for themselves. They didn’t. So I stopped waiting to be discovered — and started learning how to own my voice and tell my story in a way that lands. Now I teach high-achieving professionals how to do the same. I help you untangle the career story you were handed — and rewrite it in a way that aligns with your values, your vision, and your next chapter. Know thy SSIP™. Find your P.A.T.H. Forward. Because the right story changes everything.

I've reviewed thousands of resumes. And there's one mistake I see 90% of the time: People describe what they did, not what they achieved. Here's the truth: Companies don't care about your job duties. Turn your job duties into achievements with Teal's Resume Builder → https://lnkd.in/g9KM_UHw They care about the impact you made. 💥 Think about it from their perspective: → They don't need to know you 'managed social media accounts' → They need to know you 'increased engagement by 45% and generated 200+ qualified leads' → They don't care that you 'handled customer service inquiries' → They care that you 'resolved 95% of issues on first contact, improving satisfaction scores by 30%' The difference? OUTCOMES over ACTIVITIES. Here's my formula for turning boring job duties into compelling achievements: 1️⃣ Start with a success verb Instead of 'responsible for' or 'duties included,' use power verbs like: • Accelerated • Generated • Transformed • Streamlined • Launched 2️⃣ Add the what (noun) Be specific about what you impacted: • Revenue • Processes • Team performance • Customer satisfaction • Product launches 3️⃣ Include the metric Numbers make it real: • Percentages • Dollar amounts • Time saved • Team sizes • Volume handled 4️⃣ Show the outcome Connect it to business impact: • '...resulting in $2M additional revenue' • '...reducing processing time by 3 days' • '...enabling team to take on 25% more projects' Can't think of metrics? Ask yourself: 💰 Did I make or save the company money? ⏱️ Did I speed up any processes? 📈 Did I improve anything measurable? 👥 Did I train or influence others? 🎯 Did I solve any major problems? Every role has measurable impact. Even if you think yours doesn't. Real examples from Teal users: Before: 'Managed inventory for retail store' After: 'Optimized inventory management system, reducing stock-outs by 40% and saving $50K annually in carrying costs' Before: 'Taught English to high school students' After: 'Elevated student performance through innovative teaching methods, achieving 92% pass rate (vs. 78% district average)' Before: 'Worked on marketing campaigns' After: 'Spearheaded 5 integrated marketing campaigns that generated 3,000+ MQLs and contributed to $1.2M in pipeline' Remember: Your resume isn't a job description. It's a sales document. And what you're selling is your ability to drive results. 🚀 Whether you're crafting bullets for your resume, preparing for interviews, or making the case for a promotion—always lead with impact. Because at the end of the day, companies don't pay for activities. They pay for outcomes. Turn your job duties into powerful achievements with Teal's AI-powered Resume Builder → https://lnkd.in/g9KM_UHw #ResumeTips #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #ResumeWriting #JobHunt #CareerDevelopment #LinkedIn #PersonalBranding ♻️ Reshare to help someone make their next job move. 🔔 Follow me for more job search & resume tips.

I’ve reviewed 500+ applications as a recruiter at Amazon, Microsoft, and TikTok. This is the kind of resume that gets rejected in 3 seconds. I'll break down why such resumes fail to create an impact and how you can avoid such mistakes. Problem 1: Too much, too soon Two degrees, 15+ courses, and 30+ tools listed - all in the top half. Recruiters don’t need a tech stack dump upfront. Instead: ➡️ Start with a skills summary tied to impact-driven achievements. ➡️ Highlight tools you’ve mastered, not dabbled in. Problem 2: Responsibilities ≠ results Worked with IT to maintain PC and network health. Okay... but how did it matter? Reduced downtime? Saved costs? Improved performance by X%? Instead: ➡️ Write impact-focused bullets — e.g., “Reduced network downtime by 35% through system upgrades.” Problem 3: Irrelevant experience Amazon Prime Shopper role at Whole Foods is listed in detail. Unless applying for retail or logistics, this distracts. Instead: ➡️ Group unrelated roles under a single “Other Experience” section. ➡️ Focus on transferable skills like teamwork, deadlines, or inventory handling — but keep it brief. Problem 4: Projects without purpose Projects sound impressive but lack outcomes. E.g., “Built an AI model to detect human emotion.” Questions recruiters ask: What accuracy did it achieve? Was it deployed? How did it solve a problem? Instead: ➡️ Add metrics — e.g., “Improved emotion detection accuracy by 20% and reduced processing time by 15%.” Here’s the hard truth: Most resumes don’t fail because candidates lack skills. They fail because they fail to communicate impact. If you're not receiving calls from recruiters despite applying to 100s of jobs, it could be due to your resume. Repost this if you found value. P.S. Follow me if you are an Indian job seeker in the U.S. I share insights on job search, interview prep, and more.