Scope of Responsibility

Several resumes included detailed job descriptions - laundry lists of duties and functions the individuals performed. Most prospective employers simply won't take the time or trouble to wade through such tedious and petty listings. Still, prospective employers want (and need) to know what your previous job experience was all about. An effective way to avoid boring your prospective boss to death and yet let him or her know what your responsibilities were in each of the jobs you've held is to explain your role in each position you've held. Let them know exactly where you fitted in the organization. You can do this in a brief (three- or four-line) paragraph just by providing answers to the following questions:

1. Whom do (or did) you report to directly?
   
   If you report to a vice-president or department manager, that it itself says something about you.
   
   
   
2. Whom do (or did) you report to indirectly?
   
   If you report to the department manager routinely but on special projects directly to the senior vice-president who is the department manager's boss, you reveal that you might be department manager timber yourself.
   
3. Who reports to you?
   
   The titles of several, people reporting to you suggest the scope of your responsibility. If you direct the efforts of the scheduling and inventory control managers, your prospective boss will know you must be knowledgeable in the details of production planning.
   
4. How many people report to you?
   
   State the specific numbers of people. If a sales staff of ten reports to you, that's one thing. If it's a sales staff of five hundred, that's another. Obviously, with such information the reader immediately has a better feel for you and the organizations you have worked for. And, if you have had several jobs with more and more people working for you in each, the short "scope" paragraphs defining your role in each case will quickly reveal your personal growth as your prospective boss scans your resume.
   
5. Who else reports to your Boss?
   
   In some instances, it pays to ask yourself this question - particularly if your title is not as good as those of other people reporting to your boss. If, for example, you report to the president along with several vice-presidents - but you aren't a vice-president - you enhance your stature by the fact that you and they both report to the same person.
   
6. What's the operational budget you control?
   
   If you're responsible for a five-million-dollar advertising budget, that's one thing; a ten-thousand-dollar budget, another.7. What's the personal budget you control?
   
7. If you control the payroll for a large staff, this suggests a great deal about the responsibility that rests on your shoulders.
   
8. What, in briefest terms, do you do for the organization?
   

Here's your opportunity to reveal in one sentence exactly what you do for the outfit. "One sentence!" you exclaim! How can I possibly boil down everything I do for my organization in one sentence?" Not easy, I'll admit, but well worth trying to do, because when you boil down what you do into one sentence, you automatically broad-brush your position and, in so doing, reveal your true role in the organization. You can't do anything otherwise!

Together your answers to these questions add up to the scope of your responsibility in the organization. And your scope statement is far more convincing evidence of your level of experience than any list of functions or duties ever could be.

Consider your own career this way and you'll be surprised at how much greater clarity you give to each job description. Incidentally, note how much more impressive your role in each organization sounds to you compared to a turgid accounting of your job functions and duties. Chances are your prospective boss will also be more impressed by this bird's-eye view of your experience!