Resume Preparation II
How to Dollarize Your Value to a New Employer
In our first article on resume preparation we wrote about the need to list all your talents, the individuals or companies you have benefited through the application of them and the need to dollarize your contribution. Many people become confused by the term dollarize.
Let’s look at the type and kind of dollarization you may be able to contribute to your employer.
For example, as a manager for a retailer your department increased sales by $350,000 in one year. The gross profit on that increase was 40 percent or $140,000. So, one of your lines on the talents list would be the ability to manage people to achieve results. The company XYZ Retail, and the dollarized result $140,000 profit increase.
Or, let’s say that you worked for a non-profit association. Your talent of being able to recruit new members led to an increase in membership of 200 new members in one year. The average membership contribution is $250. So your talent for recruiting members increased the ABC Membership Group $50,000 in that one year.
Or you are an elected official, through your negotiation skills you were able to create new contracts that saved the taxpayers $2,000,000 for needed municipal repair projects. So, your negotiation talent resulted in a dollarized amount of $2,000,000 savings for the town.
How do you determine dollarization?
It depends. What type of talent do you have?
Is it finding opportunities? Then the result is usually some increased amount.
Is it solving problems? Then it is usually expressed in dollar savings?
Is it increasing efficiency? The it may be measured in increased productivity, decreased payroll expense, or reduced costs of employee retention.
All these ways can be expressed in dollars increase to the bottom line.
But, what if you weren’t the primary mover in these things? What if you only contributed to the efforts of a team?
The same facts apply. You may not have been the primary cause of the results, but you did help bring them about and you can testify to the way in which things happened to effectuate that success.
Every talent can have a positive effect to a business (non-profit, public entity, etc.) if it is effectively applied. And you, provided you know how to apply your talents to new and different situations, can be of great value, dollarized value to a new employer.
For your assistance, we have included a list of verbs that are tied to and/or analogous to talents. This list may be helpful to you in your resume preparation.
Acquire, Adopt, Advance, Amplify, Build, Call, Cause, Choose, Claim, Collect,
Combine, Command, Communicate, Compel, Compete, Complete, Compliment,
Compose, Conceive, Confirm, Connect, Consider, Construct, Contact, Counsel,
Create, Decide, Defend, Demonstrate, Devise, Direct, Discover, Draft, Drive,
Educate, Elect, Encourage, Engage, Engineer, Enhance, Enlighten, Enlist, Enliven,
Entertain, Enthuse, Evaluate, Excite, Explore, Express, Facilitate, Finance, Foster,
Gather, Generate, Heal, Host, Identify, Illuminate, Implement, Improve, Improvise,
Inspire, Integrate, Involve, Launch, Lead, Light, Love, Make, Manifest, Master,
Measure, Mediate, Model, Mold, Motivate, Move, Negotiate, Nurture, Open,
Organize, Participate, Perform, Persuade, Present, Produce, Progress, Promote,
Provide, Pursue, Realize, Reduce, Refine, Reflect, Reform, Relate, Relax, Release,
Renew, Resonate, Respect, Restore, Revise, Safeguard, Satisfy, Save, See, Sell, Serve,
Share, Smell, Speak, Sustain, Tap, Taste, Team, Touch, Trade, Translate, Understand,
Utilize, Validate, Value, Venture, Verbalize, Work, Worship, Write
Remember the first article asked you to write all your talents. Surely you can find 10 ($50,000) or 20 ($100,000) worth of talents that can benefit and have benefited others.
