What nonsense. Focusing on your responsibilities as an employee certainly will drive your resume… right over a cliff.

Check out the following responsibilities (gleaned from the extensive Career Change historical archives), contrast the responsibilities with the results, and decide how impressive the responsibilities really are:

Responsibility: “Directed defense of West Point against British attack.” Result: Turned traitor, plot discovered, escaped country in disgrace, became a Redcoat.
Employee: Benedict Arnold, General of the Continental Army: Involuntarily Retired.

Responsibility: “Master of vessel, responsible for transporting 53 million gallons of crude oil from Alaska to California.”
Result: Crashed vessel, dumped 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound, convicted of negligence, became a paralegal.
Employee: Captain Joseph Hazelwood, Exxon Valdez.

Responsibility: “Handled navigation on solo flight of experimental, dual-engine aircraft.”
Result: Heading west from Brooklyn to California, landed in Ireland, became punch line.
Employee: Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, Pilot of the “Sunshine.”

Responsibility: “Organized and directed Grand Armée on the march to Moscow.”
Result: Left with 450,000 soldiers, returned with 10,000 frostbite victims, lost empire. Quel dommage.
Employee: Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France.

Based on the following resume snippets, which surgeon would you want carving into your thorax?

“Responsibilities include cutting, suturing, and directing OR nursing staff,” or

“Successfully handled three thousand mitral valve replacements with zero morbidity, restoring full health and vigor to every patient.”

If it were my mitral valve (whatever that is), I’d pick Surgeon Number Two.

Jack Welch of GE fame has observed that the top 20 percent of employees perform best and earn the most. The next 60 percent include personnel with a potential to rise to the top. The bottom 20 percent were ultimately dismissed.

What differentiated the three groups? One thing…results.

A truly impactful and persuasive resume will focus on your accomplishments rather than your responsibilities. Responsibilities are for bureaucrats and under achievers; accomplishments are for winners.