E. 11 - Job Search Reset: The Impact Mindset
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[00:00:08] Melissa Vining: If you're a high performer looking to grow and make an impact, but feeling stuck, underappreciated, and burned out at work, you're in the right place. I'm Melissa Vining and this is the Job Search for High-Performing Misfits podcast. I help high performers leave draining jobs behind, reclaim their careers, and land roles in organizations where they can thrive. Tune in for tips, insights, and inspiration for your journey to fulfilling work that fits you.
[00:00:34] This is the Job Search for High-Performing Misfits podcast, and I'm your host, Melissa Vining. Welcome back to episode four in my Job Search Reset series, where we are talking about doing hard things in your job search. Today we are going to talk about switching from a duty to an impact mindset and what that means for your job search. So the practical impact of this is on your application materials—like your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn—and for the stories that you will tell during your interviews.
[00:01:09] So I want to start by introducing this concept of duties versus impact. When I review resumes, most of the time they say, "I did X, I did Y, I did Z." People get really stuck talking about what they did, but the truth is companies don't care about what you did. They care about the impact that you made. The best way I've heard this said is "they don't pay for activities, they pay for outcomes." So you have to make this shift in your job search strategy.
[00:01:44] If I can take your resume, for example, for a program manager position, delete your name, replace it with the name of another program manager, it is not an effective resume. Another program manager might share the same duties, but they do not share the same accomplishments. So in my last episode, I talked about how to find your impact zones. These are the things that you want to be known for, the areas where you have the greatest potential to make an impact in your work, and the areas that align with what your target companies need.
[00:02:23] So now what you have to do is think about those impact zones and come up with three to five accomplishment statements for each of your prior jobs that speak to your expertise in those areas. These are real stories of real successes. Also, whenever possible, you want to state the results of your accomplishments and impact in the same way that your target companies measure success. So for example, if they measure success by money saved, you are going to say, "saved X amount of money, by..." and then whatever it is that you did.
[00:03:04] So the formula that I like to use is pretty simple. It starts with an action verb, and then you add your action, and then you add your result or your impact. It does not necessarily have to be in that order. So I'm going to give you an example here, but the action verb is going to be something like led, managed, developed, increased, reduced. Do not say "responsible for," because again, it's not about your responsibilities; it's about your impact. The action part of this is what you did, so you want to be specific; show tools, skills, scope of your work. Then, the result or the impact—arguably, the most important part of this statement—is about why this mattered. Why was this important? Who benefited? And what changed?
[00:03:55] So again, it doesn't necessarily have to follow that order. You might start with the result. Oftentimes, starting with the result is a really effective way to write this. So, for example, one bullet point that I wrote recently for a client was "Drove $4 million in annual revenue—the largest revenue addition in company history—by introducing first-to-market chemical testing panels."
[00:04:21] So let's break this down. We have the action verb; drove. The action, which was introducing new chemical testing panels. And then the impact, which was that this person brought in $4 million in annual revenue that didn't exist at all before this project. So obviously this is a lot stronger than just saying, "Developed new chemical testing panels."
[00:04:46] This one example, this one bullet point, says so much. It shows that this person was contributing in a way that no other employee had ever contributed in terms of revenue add for the company. It shows his ability to innovate, to be the first one in the market to release this type of product. Plus it gives the tangible number of $4 million. So both the scope and the context are very clear here.
[00:05:16] Is this harder? Of course, yes. It's harder. We can all see that it's harder, right? It's much harder to come up with real tangible examples than just to write down a list of things that you did. You have to go back and think about all the things you did. You might have to go dig up metrics to include in these examples, but it will pay off in the end.
[00:05:39] One of my favorite resume writers on LinkedIn, Sam Struan—go look him up, he is amazing—he made a statement about this that really stuck with me because it was so clear and straightforward, and that was: "No Metrics = No Interviews." You have to show the impact of what you've done, otherwise, it will get lost in the sea of generic AI-generated resumes. And this is something that you're going to take and apply to all aspects of your job search.
[00:06:10] The impact needs to show up in every part of your resume, including your summary section. One of my biggest pet peeves right now is reading summary sections that summarize duties. They say something like, "Industry leader skilled in X, Y, Z." Please do not waste your summary section summarizing your duties. By the way, this is what ChatGPT will do every time. Use that section to summarize your impact. This probably goes without saying at this point, but the impact mindset also needs to take over your LinkedIn profile and your cover letter and any other job application materials you might be using.
[00:06:55] Also, this is how you need to communicate in your interviews. As someone who has been on the hiring side, as I'm sure many of you listening also have, I can tell you that the number of times candidates come in, and I ask them a question about their experience, and they say something really generic like, "Yeah, I have experience with that." It's crazy. Okay, give me an example. Tell me a real story, and show me what the impact was.
[00:07:25] This is not something they're just going to take your word for. They are hiring someone to solve a specific problem for them, to achieve a specific set of business goals, like we talked about before. You have to know what those things are, and you have to have real examples to prove that you can meet those needs for the employer.
[00:07:47] So go spend some time transforming your job search approach from a duty mindset to an impact mindset. And then meet me back here for the next episode where we're going to talk about telling your story in a way that actually makes people want to listen.
[00:08:04] Melissa Vining: If you love this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe, leave me a review, and share it with a friend so we can help more high performing misfits find work they love. See you next time.
