Yesterday afternoon, as I was having lunch with my fiancee and a good friend of mine, the conversation quickly turned to the topic of the disastrous economy and how it has had such a profound effect on the ability to land a new job. My friend, who I’ll refer to as “John”, mentioned that he had recently had his resume professionally reviewed. Intrigued, I asked John about the feedback he received and while he didn’t really receive any detailed pointers (probably since the service was was free), his reviewer did remark that his resume was too focused on “doing” and not enough on “achieving“.

Although John didn’t pay for the advice he received, I think that tip was just as good as money in the bank and I’ll tell you why. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to review dozens of friends’ and colleagues’ resumes and I noticed the same recurring theme: the majority of them would tend to just regurgitate a list of tasks – their mundane, day-to-day responsibilities and nothing more. For the most part, there was no real meat and potatoes and the resumes simply weren’t compelling.

That’s where the distinction between doers and achievers comes into play.

Qualities of a doer

Solely focused on tasks
Anyone can perform tasks but only the special few deliver results. Look at your resume from a hiring manager’s standpoint and ask yourself if you’re honestly impressed with what you see.

Thinks “small picture”
Doers tend to think in the context of their immediate role and surroundings as opposed to the bigger picture. The fact that you file a TPS report every Wednesday afternoon is great, but how did that benefit the company you worked for?

Strives for mediocrity
You know this guy – the one who rarely engages in the office, watches the clock more than he works, and then zooms out of the building the second the clock strikes 5 PM. Nobody wants to hire the person who does just enough to get by – not in this economy!

Qualities of an achiever

Focuses on tasks and significant accomplishments
This is huge. Unlike the doer who either doesn’t have any accomplishments or just fails to realize them, the achiever has accomplished results and can list them confidently on her resume, in addition to her day-to-day responsibilities.

Thinks “big picture”
How much did you increase revenue by when you completed the integration of the new e-commerce platform? While hiring managers appreciate the fact that you’re diligent in completing your daily tasks, they practically salivate when you can demonstrate tangible results. Achievers know how their contributions have helped their company’s bottom line.

Strives for greatness
One of the most admirable qualities of the achiever is that he’s not content with mediocrity and instead, constantly strives for greatness. While the doer may be perfectly happy to email a proposal to a client without having proofread it for errors, the achiever isn’t satisfied until he knows for a fact that he’s left no stone unturned.

So what’s a careerist to do?

It would be pretty easy for me to sit here and tell you to just change your mindset to reflect that of an achiever, but until you actively make that decision for yourself, I’d just be wasting my breath (well, keystrokes really). While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with adopting the doer mindset, you should realize that your career is likely to stagnate, so you’ll want to manage your expectations accordingly.

I think the trick is to really do some serious soul searching and figure out what your priorities are. Once you have a firm grip on your objectives, you can then concentrate your efforts on making any necessary changes and improvements.

Your thoughts?

So, if someone asked you, what would you say? Are you a doer or achiever?

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