Good Morning Everybody! Today, I’m going to talk about resumes. Because I focus on recruiting in the insurance industry this article will be specifically geared towards account managers and account executives and how to better sell themselves on their resume. However, I think that the spirit of what I have to say is pretty universal.
Before we get started I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it is next week! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year because I love the following:
- Eating
- Football
- Celebrating my daughter’s birthday
- Spending time with family
I also love Thanksgiving because it allows me display my most prized possession. Last year my wife got me the greatest Christmas gift of all time and she gracefully allows me to display it from Thanksgiving to New Years. Below is quite possibly my favorite new tradition of Thanksgiving.
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| It's a major award!!!! |
Company A Insert Date Here
Account Manager/CSR/Account Executive Yourtown , USA
- Processed certs
- Marketed accounts
- Answered phone calls
They then move on to Company B and say:
Company B Insert Date Here
Account Manager/CSR/Account Executive Yourtown , USA
- Processed certs
- Marketed accounts
- Answered phone calls
The problem here is that by simply putting account manager, CSR or account executive as your title I already know this. When you are writing a resume and are intending to stay in the industry you need to put some meat in there.
I consider myself to be average and I can tell you that I am so frustrated when I see things like this because it tells me nothing. If you really want to create interest you need be very specific. Here are the things you should put on your resume that are really important.
1. Are you working with personal lines, commercial lines or employee benefits?
2. What industry groups do you have experience with?
· This is really important and honestly it goes farther than the resume. Account managers need to be able to answer this. It doesn’t matter if you handled a true generalist book and every account was in a different industry. List some of them out.
3. Specific information about the book you are working on
· As an account manager you need to know at least some of this information and list it on your resume. Things that you should include are:
Ø Book size in revenue or premium
Ø Client count
Ø Average revenue or premium size
Ø Number of producers
Ø Special circumstances – are you producing? Is it self funded?
4. What are your specific duties?
· Instead of what I shared above you need to share things that will set you apart
Ø Did you do new or renewal marketing
Ø Do you make client visits
Ø Do you present renewals to clients
Ø Do you handle claims
This is the type of stuff that needs to go on your resume. The last thing that you should be thinking of are what sets you apart from you co-workers. Think hard. There is something. Find a way to put this on your resume!
Good luck out there and as always please feel free to leave comments or email me at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.
Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:
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