Your Career: It’s All About Results

“Never mistake activity for achievement.” –John Wooden

This quote by John Wooden is great to keep in mind when talking about your career. Experience is great, education and training is usually required and always useful, industry knowledge helps, but in the end it’s all about the results. When you’re talking to a prospective employer, the main question they’re asking themselves (and probably you) is “did you deliver results before, and can you do it again for me?” People are hired based on prior success, and an assumption they can make a repeat performance.

When talking and thinking about work, it’s easy to get caught up in “time spent” as a measure. In school I remember one student whipping out their project an hour before class, I’d slaved over mine for days. Theirs was better, everyone loved it. So unfair, right? I had worked longer and harder. A lesso
I learned quickly was that there are no points for time or effort, only for the end result.

This same lesson translates to the workplace. While most employers recognize years on the job, and some reward (openly or otherwise) hours spent in the office, in the long run results count. If a great product is developed, a problem solved, or a sale closed, the years of tenure or “face time” doesn’t matter nearly as much as the end result. Success is what people remember, and what pushes the company forward. I know some workplaces aren’t like this…but most people want to work somewhere that they can see the result of their efforts.

This is a difficult reality to face, especially when you have a lot of experience. We often think that experience itself is a reason we should be hired or kept on a team, but really it just means that you have the background and knowledge to get results. When you’re sharing your strong experience with a prospective employer, describe the successes that experience helped you achieve. Show why having the experience matters and helps you get the results they need. Experience is a tool to help you achieve something, just like training, education, industry knowledge, or anything else you may bring to the table.

When editing your resume, keep this concept of “results delivered” top of mind. Read your resume with that filter – what can you change to highlight the results you’ve produced in previous positions? Prospective employers are interested in what you can do for them, and that is best shown by what you’ve done before. A results-oriented resume with specific outcomes, backed up by years of experience, education, professional development and a strong portfolio of work (however you show that) helps you show that you can deliver when it counts.

This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included. ©2011 Kristen Harris, Portfolio Creative, LLC.