What Are MSA's?

“MSA" represents Made, Saved and Achieved.

“Made" is what you tangibly produced in prior positions. Examples include that you "made improvements" in processes and procedures; or that you "made a change" in a process that generated significant savings for your company

“Saved" is a positive outcome, usually described in dollars, that you generated as a result of what you did, or what you "made", in a prior position.

“Achieved" is another form of positive outcome, usually described in either percentages or some other measurement that you generated as a result of what you did, or what you "made", in a prior position.

The Importance of MSA’s in an Impact Resume

As experienced Recruiting Professionals, we know that most Hiring Managers and every Applicant Tracking System react favorably to the key words that are used in MSA’s. However, whereas KSA’s talk about you and are typically rich with keywords, MSA’s talk about what you have done. Therefore, most MSA’s contain fewer keywords.

What our recruiting experience has also taught us is that it is the quality of the message the MSA delivers that is important, not the quantity of keywords. Therefore, we use MSA’s to educate the hiring manager about your accomplishments. And we use terms that most business people can immediately recognize as valuable. By doing this we improve the odds that the Hiring Manager will be able to match your accomplishments to what he needs. Helping the Hiring Manager easily make that match is a key to successful recruiting – and we use MSA’s to help your Impact Resume make that match for you.

The Importance of MSA’s in the Interview Process

MSA’s are critical to a successful job search because they convince a Hiring Manager that you are the best candidate for the job. Therefore, to have an effective resume it must have MSA’s. In order for you to have a resume that accomplishes its objectives, your resume must have MSA’s.

But, what role do MSA’s have in the actual interview process? Keep this in mind – rarely does the most qualified candidate get the job. In most cases, the Candidate that gets the job demonstrates the highest likelihood of meeting or exceeding the Hiring Manager’s expectations. You want to – you need to – be the candidate that gets that done.

As experienced recruiting professionals, we strive to portray our candidates as the best overall match for a position. We understand the value of effective MSA’s and work with our candidates to include those in their resume.

But, in every interview, it is the Candidate’s job – it is your job - to convince the Hiring Manager that you can meet or beat his or her expectations. Only you can do that, and you usually only get one chance to do so. It is MSA’s that make your case that you are that right choice – that you can beat the expectations – that you can accomplish for this Hiring Manager what you have accomplished for other – that you have been successful, and will continue to be successful – that the Hiring Manager should want you on his or her team.

Let our Impact Resumes, which always contain great MSA’s, help you overcome that challenge.

Use our Interview Prep Kit, which you receive with every one of our Services, to show you how to use MSA’s to prepare for the interview, how to let the MSA’s become the roadmap for the Hiring Manager to follow in the interview, and to give you the ability to turn the dialogue into a discussion of what you offer – and your Value Proposition.

MSA’s become the Impact in an Impact Resume and enable you to be more confident in the interview, have more control of the interview, and have a greater likelihood of “nailing the interview” then you ever thought was possible.

We use MSA’s as part of an Impact Resume designed to accomplish the following for you:

Get an interview
Be Better prepared for the interview
Compete more effectively for the job
Have a better chance of winning.