What was valued in my job change was the work I thought had no value

"What kind of work do you do now?"

When asked that, I often reply,

"Oh, I don't really do anything special."

I would answer.

I work properly every day. But I haven't been entrusted with any major projects, nor have I been awarded anything. I didn't think I had any 'achievements' worth talking about to others.

That's why when I opened my resume for job hunting,

"Achievements," "Things I've devised," "Unique experiences"

I would stop at those sections.

Even though there are many jobs I've done,

"If I write about such ordinary things, won't it look exaggerated?"

I would delete them.

Has that ever happened to you?

For a long time, I also thought that what I could write on my resume had to be something special that I would create from now on.

But later, I realized.

It wasn't that I had nothing to write; there were jobs I had excluded from the candidates myself, thinking, 'This isn't it.'

I thought achievements were things to be created from now on

When I hear the word 'achievement,' I inevitably imagine something special.

Producing visible results. Being highly evaluated by someone. I thought I could only write on my resume after having such experiences.

That's why even when I changed the way I did things in my daily work,

"Isn't this something anyone would do if they were working?"

That is how I dismissed it.

I thought I wouldn't have anything to talk about in a job change unless I added something new. That is what I believed.

However, the first thing I realized I could write about was not a new experience.

It was work I had been doing normally for years.

I just made it a little easier because it was a hassle

At the time, there was a task I had to do at a set time every month.

I would create documents using the same procedure and enter them into a fixed format. It wasn't difficult, but it took a lot of time every time.

"Couldn't I make this a little easier?"

Thinking that, I rebuilt it into a form that could be processed automatically.

I didn't start it for the sake of changing jobs. I could use the free time for other work, and it seemed like it would reduce mistakes.

To me, that was all there was to it.

When I told an acquaintance about this while I was preparing for my job change,

"No, I just automated it a little because it was a hassle to do every time"

was about the extent of my feeling.

Then,

"That is something you can usually write on your resume."

I was told.

At first, it didn't really click.

I had just made a tedious task a little easier. Yet, the work I thought wasn't worth writing about was seen as something different by people looking from the outside.

It was me who thought it had no value.

The more you do a job every day, the harder it is to notice its value yourself.

Looking back, I think the reason I didn't consider it a job worth writing down was that as I did it every month, it had completely become just 'my usual work'.

At first, it was a hassle, so I thought about how to make it easier. I fixed the parts that weren't working well and made it usable.

But once it was finished, that too became routine.

As I used it every month,

'This is work I improved myself'

I stopped thinking about things like that one by one.

Rather,

'This much is normal, right?'

That feeling had become stronger.

But from the outside, it was work that had been manual, which I changed the way of doing to make it proceed more easily than before.

The more a job becomes second nature to you, the more the improvements you made along the way become invisible.

It wasn't that I had 'no achievements,' but rather,I was excluding them from my list before even thinking about them, telling myself 'this is just normal.'

Looking at work I changed a little instead of searching for 'achievements'

So now, I don't suddenly think, 'What are my achievements?'

Instead, what I look at isthe parts of my daily work that I changed a little.

It was a hassle, so I changed how I did it. It was prone to errors, so I changed how I checked it. I left behind procedures so the next person wouldn't have trouble.
Of course, not everything will directly become an achievement on a resume.
But if you discard it from the start by saying 'this is just normal,' you can't even get to the point of considering whether it can be written down.

Of course, not everything will directly become an achievement on a resume.But if you discard it from the start by saying 'this is just normal,' you can't even get to the point of considering whether it can be written down.

But if you discard it from the start by saying 'this is just normal,' you can't even get to the point of considering whether it can be written down.

'Compared to before, was there any work that I changed a little?'

First, let's go back to that point.

In my case, I found things I could write on my resume when I stopped looking for "amazing experiences" and re-evaluated my ordinary work.

Finally

"No, I haven't done anything significant."

I used to answer like that often.

Even now, I don't think all the work I've done as a matter of course counts as an "achievement."

But I think there was no need to discard it from the start by saying, 'It's just ordinary work, so it's not worth writing about.'

If you are currently thinking,

"I don't have any achievements to write on my resume,"

you don't have to decide that right there.

First,

try remembering, 'Was there anything I changed even a little in my work so far?'

Start by recalling that.

Even among the work you think is "not significant," there might be things left that you don't need to exclude from your list of candidates yet.

That said, you might be wondering, "Then, which of my jobs should I re-evaluate?"

When I look back on my work, I use three perspectives: "What was difficult?" "What did I change?" and "As a result, who experienced what kind of change?"

I have summarized here how to find material you can use for your resume from work that seems plain.

Thank you for reading this far.

If you felt even a little bit like, "Maybe I'll re-evaluate my own work too," I would be happy if you could press the 'like' button.

I will continue to write about what I have learned through my own trials when you lack confidence in your career or are unsure how to convey your experience during a job change. Please follow me and come back to read more if you'd like.