Resume Skills Tier Method
Many times a single statement cannot adequately describe or encompass your resume skill, experience, or accomplishment. Often a single accomplishment involved more than one skill or led to more accomplishments. What can you do?
Years ago I developed the Resume Skills Tier Method of resume writing in order to demonstrate additional skills and include subsequent skill statements from one event or achievement. This method will not work for every job seeker, can take more space, and this type of writing might take you a bit more time and thinking at first, yet can produce an impressive resume.
This method retains the expected resume standards yet can make a resume more inclusive, interesting. and readable. I have sent resumes using this method to HR and employer hiring decision makers for feedback and received positive responses. Most of them did not notice what was different about the resume yet all of them stated the resumes seemed more readable.
Numerous professional resume writers, recruiters, and job seekers have also given me positive feedback stating that after improving resumes using this method they or their clients landed interviews.
The Resume Skills Tier Method creates related statements with one or two bullet points that make your resume reader friendly and can cause an employer to slow down and read your resume versus quickly scanning. This can give you the edge you need.
The Resume Skills Tier Method presents your skills and accomplishments in primary, secondary, and sometimes even tertiary statements and skills. The secondary and tertiary statements will support, relate to, or be a result of the primary event or action.
How to Use Phil Baker’s Resume Skills Tier Method
1) Choose a primary skill ideally based on the relevancy to the employer’s job posting. You can choose from the main transitional skills the employer is seeking such as communication skills.
Then review your related accomplishments and create a statement using a Resume Dictionary power word that describes the skill.
2) The secondary and tertiary skills can also be chosen based on the employer’s job posting or job description or include skills you believe are relevant. These statements will follow and relate to the primary skill statement.
The following examples lead to secondary and tertiary skills with accomplishment statements.
Example1:
Primary Skill: Analytical Skills
Primary Skill Statement: Analyzed 12 months of customer feedback and determined what vocabulary needed to be rearranged or replaced in phone support scripts.
Secondary Skill: Creative Skills
Secondary Skill Statement: Wrote new phone support scripts that decreased phone time by more than 51% in the first six months saving an estimated $280,000 in labor costs.
Tertiary Skill: Communication Skills
Tertiary Skill Statement: Trained phone support employees and new recruits with new scripts which reduced training time from 2 weeks to 3 days.
How this would look on a resume:
Analyzed 12 months of customer feedback and determined what vocabulary needed to be rearranged or replaced in phone support scripts.
- Wrote new phone support scripts that decreased phone time by more than 51% in the first six months saving an estimated $280,000 in labor costs.
- Trained phone support employees and new recruits with new scripts that reduced training time from 2 weeks to 3 days.
Example 2:
Primary Skill: Management Skills
Primary Skill Statement: Managed 18 sales people selling veterinarian consulting and products in the smallest US territory producing 17% more sales revenue than any other market.
Secondary Skill: Attention to Detail
Secondary Skill Statement: While traveling with sales people discovered that 61% of clients could be serviced by our territory website by listening to their needs which reduced sales personnel travel expenses by more than $138,000 annually.
Tertiary Skill: Profit Oriented Thinking
Tertiary Skill Statement: Investigated and added 151 products to our territory website increasing revenue by 141% annually.
How this would look on a resume:
Managed 18 sales people selling veterinarian consulting and products in the smallest US territory producing 17% more sales revenue than any other market:
- While traveling with sales people discovered that 61% of clients could be serviced by our territory website by listening to their needs which reduced sales personnel travel expenses by more than $138,000 annually.
- Investigated and added 151 products to our territory website increasing revenue by 141% annually.
Example 3:
Primary Skill: Clerical Skills
Primary Skill Statement: Maintained busy medical company office and organized and updated more than 7,675 patient files in the first three months.
Secondary Skill: Attention to Detail
Secondary Skill Statement: Review of files illuminated $26,047. in billings that had not been submitted to HMO and recovered every penny.
Tertiary Skill: Profit Oriented Thinking
Tertiary Skill Statement: Modified patient appointment scheduling reducing x-ray technician time from four to two days per week trimming costs by 50%.
How this would look on a resume:
Maintained busy medical company office and organized and updated more than 7,675 patient files in the first three months:
- Review of files illuminated $26,047. in billings that had not been submitted to HMO and recovered every penny.
- Modified patient appointment scheduling reducing x-ray technician labor expenses from four to three days per week trimming costs by 50%.
Multiple Statements Supporting One Skill
The two or three statements can also support one skill. This can be important when several accomplishments derived from one event.
Example 1:
Skill: Team Skills
Primary Statement: Created a 30 question survey for 72 employees to select 12 team members for a 12 month project.
Secondary Statement: Based on findings formed team and developed a plan of motivation that resulted in project completed under budget and 3 weeks ahead of schedule.
Tertiary Statement: Received employee of the year award based on voting from upper management and all plant employees.
How this would look on a resume:
Created a 30 question survey for 72 employees to select 12 team members for a 12 month project:
- Based on findings formed team and developed a plan of motivation that resulted in project completed under budget and 3 weeks ahead of schedule.
- Received employee of the year award based on voting from upper management and all plant employees.
Example 2:
Skill: Management Skills
Primary Statement: Scheduled half hour listening meetings once per month with each employee allowing him or her to say anything no holds barred which reduced employee turnover by 21% annually.
Secondary Statement: Based on feedback, developed a new flexible work schedule, goal based motivational program, and employee transportation assistance that increased company productivity by 9.7% annually.
How this would look on a resume:
Scheduled half hour listening meetings once per month with each employee allowing him or her to say anything no holds barred which reduced employee turnover by 21% annually.
- Based on feedback, developed a new flexible work schedule, goal based motivational program, and employee transportation assistance that increased company productivity by 9.7% annually.
Example 3:
Skill: Creative Skills
Primary Statement: Created 7 paintings that attributed to the award of a full college scholarship.
Secondary Statement: College art project resulted in a significant contribution of 12 works at the 2009 New York Celebration art exhibit
How this would look on a resume:
Created 7 paintings that attributed to the award of a full college scholarship.
- College art project resulted in a significant contribution of 12 works at the 2009 New York Celebration art exhibit
The Resume Skills Tier Method allows you to expand on a single accomplishment, achievement, or event while demonstrating one or more skills in two or three statements. Focus on the fact that you are writing about one event. You can also create your two or three statements first and then incorporate a power word into the statement.
Phil Baker
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