What Are Some Good Accomplishments For A Resume

Example Accomplishments By Industry

It might be beneficial to examine examples of successes split down by popular industries to help you understand what kind of accomplishments to include on your resume. Consider the following examples:

Business example

• Managed a quality assurance programme, reducing rework by 34% and saving the firm $315,000 in yearly production costs

• Consistently exceeded monthly KPIs by 15% or more

• Implemented Lean Management guidelines, which resulted in 22% operational cost savings

Education example

• Investigated and implemented behaviour management techniques aimed at reducing negative interactions amongst students and fostering a caring culture

• Make frequent home visits to teach 10+ handicapped kids who are unable to engage in typical school lessons, boosting their comprehension and developing relationships with guardians

• Founded and organised Career & University Day, which introduced 750 students and parents to 50 universities, colleges and businesses

Engineering example

• Managed the maintenance of corporate machines, saving $27,000 in equipment costs

Finance example

• Cut bad debt by 17% by studying delinquent accounts and implementing consumer surveys to identify frequent payment issues

• Implemented cost-cutting measures and productivity tools, such as simplified internal audit procedures and company-wide usage of SAP ERP software

• Analysed and reported overtime spending variations by comparing payroll’s OT Differential Report to approved OT requests, generating 35% savings

How To Improve Accomplishment Levels

Few notable achievements happen without advance planning and diligent attention to detail. If youre looking for ways to step up accomplishments within your organization, consider the following approaches:

Set individual and group goals for staffers every 6 to 12 months. Make the goals relevant and achievable. Include action plans that outline the necessary steps for achieving the stated goals.

Invite employee participation. Just because someone doesnt work in the corner office, doesnt mean they dont have good ideas for the company. In fact, front-line employees often have a first-person view of what could be done better in a company. Invite opinions and input from all.

Provide regular feedback. Employees need regular feedback to achieve their goals. Help with identifying potential stumbling blocks and trouble-shoot issues that may be blocking the path to success.

Increase morale. Employees who are happy with their jobs, their responsibilities and their managers perform better than those who dont. Solicit input about what employees think about your company and what theyd like to see change, and make an effort to address those issues within your power.

Offer rewards. Even though theoretically, working toward major achievements should be considered part of an everyday work cycle, employees often put extra time, effort and brainpower into achieving high-level goals. Give them a boost with goal rewards, such as cash prizes or paid time off.

Write A List Of Your Achievements

Rack your brains, think about your past professional positions, and write a list of accomplishments. Think about any positive comments youve received from your bosses and colleagues, problems youve dealt with, any honors or awards youve received, and if youve reached or surpassed any targets.

If you have worked in a team, what did your team achieve? You were an integral part of the team so any team accomplishments count as yours. If youre struggling for ideas ask your boss and colleagues. See the industry-specific accomplishment examples in the final section of this guide for inspiration.

Also Check: Can You Have More Than One Resume On Indeed

What Are Technical Or Hard Skills On Your Resume

When listing hard skills on your resume, include specific proficiencies and certifications. Front-end web developers, for instance, would report their level of expertise in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and other technologies the company lists in its job posting. A financial controller, meanwhile, might claim a strong foundation in GAAP or SEC reporting, and an administrative professionals resume skills could advertise a CAP or MOS certification.

Here are some hard resume skills for 15 in-demand fields:

Where To Include Resume Accomplishments

You can list your accomplishments in a few sections of your resume. Your work experience should absolutely include your achievements. Also, your resume summary statement sounds more professional and impressive if it includes measurable accomplishments.

But what if you are a recent graduate? If you recently graduated and dont have an abundance of experience to share on your resume, the volunteer section should include achievements. Also, projects and internships offer opportunities to share your accomplishments.

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How To Write Your Personal Achievements In Your Cv

Step 1: Decide on the format

There are two popular formats in which applicants write their achievements:

1. Include it in a separate Achievements section

This is the most common way of presenting your attainments and accomplishments on your CV.

Benefits:

• It stands out due to its prominent position.
• It acts as a quick list of your personal selling points.
• It encourages the prospective employer to read your CV in more detail.

We generally recommend following this format.

Your achievements section should be located just before the education section and just after the personal profile statement. Check out CV format and layouts for more information.

2. Include it across different parts of the CV.

In this format, applicants do not have a separate section but mention their accomplishments in the other various sections of their CVs.

For example, educational accomplishments would be added in the education section professional accomplishments would be added in the employment section, etc. This makes it easier for the employer to quickly identify the area in which this achievement is relevant

Which format should you choose? Both are effective, so its up to you!

Step 2: Make a list of your achievements

The time has come to make a list of your achievements in life, education and employment. Think back on some important moments of your life and find instances which made you proud and happy about your performance.

When listing down your attainments, bear in mind the following:

How And Where To Add Achievements

Dont feel you have to add too much detail to your list of achievements excite the reader with some impressive figures and then save the rest for interview.

A popular choice for the placement of accomplishments in a CV is a dedicated achievements section. It can be a great way to sell yourself to the employer and get them to read on use simple bullet points to capture the readers attention.

Alternatively, you can split up your achievements and put them in the appropriate sections

If youve got several relevant previous positions, you might want to feature an achievements section for each of them.

So, a job entry might look something like this:

Read Also: Can I Apply To More Than One Position At The Same Company

Where To Include Your Accomplishments

This will depend on your resume format and what suits you best. You can include your accomplishments in the job descriptions of your previous job roles as it demonstrates your duties as well as your achievements. Alternatively, you could include them in your skills section to highlight your abilities.

If you have a few particularly impressive accomplishments which you want to emphasize, you could create a career accomplishments section. It can which include a bullet-pointed summary of accomplishments or a concise accomplishments statement. When you add your accomplishments make sure you avoid the most common resume-writing mistakes

Examples Of Key Achievements By Different Jobs

Examples of business achievements

• Completed 200 hours of work experience
• Three years of previous work experience in the industry
• Increased sales by 17% over six months
• Collected £20,000 in unpaid debt
• Successfully managed and led a team of six members
• Successfully negotiated a 10% discount on all products and goods resulting in total savings of £26,000 per year
• Resolved 95% of customer enquiries and complaints

Examples of student achievements

Need more examples? Imperial College Londons Guide to CVs contains some excellent examples of interests and achievements on CVs.

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If Youre Not Convinced Its Worth Your Time Tracking Achievements There Are Additional Reasons To Do So:

1. Use your tracked achievements to flesh out your next performance report.

No doubt, listing your career accomplishments from the past year within your next performance report will be a huge win for you.

For employers, its all about performance metrics. The more you can show your peak performance, the faster youll excel.

Most often we focus on tangible achievements, such as revenue and sales increases. We can measure those.

But, dont overlook intangible achievements as well.

Intangible achievements have to do with employee and customer satisfaction.

Things that cant be measured, but are just as important to a companys bottom line.

2. To set career goals for the next 30 days and 6 to 12 months.

Short and long-term career goals can be accomplished much easier when we measure our successes and our expectations.

What are your goals?

In marketing, theres a saying: What gets measured gets managed.

We must measure and further assess our successes before setting future goals.

A list of short-term goals might look like this:

• Initiate new training to the customer service staff in the next 30 days boost customer satisfaction levels by a minimum of 10%
• Boost revenue by $1.2M in the next 6 months by signing contracts with Jackson National Life and Toledo Engineering Company
• Finish content optimization certification in the next 12 months boost website visitors by no less than 30%

Notice how these goals are VERY specific.

3. Project tracking

Why Include Accomplishment Statements On Your Resume

It’s important to include accomplishment statements on your resume because they can illustrate the impact of your accomplishments and provide potential employers with a better idea of your abilities and what you can bring to their organization. They may show specific contributions you have made to your organization, either individually or as part of a team, and how you actively worked toward achieving short- and long-term goals, made improvements and positively affected your company.

Related:Resume Writing 101: Tips for Creating a Resume

Also Check: Spell Resume For Job

Looking For More Information On Resume Accomplishments

Define How Success Was Measured

Identify the bottom line for each of the departments or functional units where you worked. Ask yourself how one would measure the success of those units. This means knowing how to include numbers on your resume when possible.

For example, a recruiting department might be measured by whether or not it sourced the right talent. An accounting department might be graded by how clean their audits were. A purchasing department might be rated by the money it saved. A restaurant might be measured by the number of repeat customers or the quality of their online reviews.

Recommended Reading: Resume Publication Format

Kicks Two Cents: Awards And Achievements Piece Of Advice

• Keep it short. Avoid writing long paragraphs and use bullet points instead.
• Prioritize. If you decide to designate an entire section to your achievements, think about which accomplishments are the most significant. Would you be impressed by it if you were a hiring manager?
• Avoid controversy. Some awards and achievements may be too personal or controversial. Avoid listing any political or religious accomplishments.
• Dont exaggerate. Avoid making something up. You might be asked about your award and accomplishments in your job interview. Or they might contact your references. Lying or exaggerating can cost you a job.
• Mention your biggest accomplishments in your resume summary. If youre a seasoned professional with many notable achievements, they deserve to be placed on the top of your resume. A resume summary is the first thing hiring managers read. Impress them from the get-go.

What Are Some Accomplishments To Put On A Resume

Resume accomplishments are mainly the points which effectively:

• quantify

You skills across your tenure in whichever field you are in.

The following examples of professional achievements on resume would give you a broader idea:

• Achieved model accuracy up to 95% and increased F-1 score by 83% via U-Net algorithm
• Reduced overall cycle time by 4 seconds and bolstered process efficiency to increase revenue by USD 900 K per annum
• Recognized by the client for possessing SAP expertise, endorsed for H1B visa initiation & secured flex-time, vouchers, etc.
• Self-initiated the lead role for a US-based logistic client and appointed as the SPOC for directing technical deliverables

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Where Do Awards Go On A Resume

List your awards under the awards and accomplishments section of your resume. You can also include them under a personal achievements section if you would prefer to use that instead. Awards sections are typically at the end of your resume and formatted as a list.

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Third Use Your Job Duties As Accomplishments On Your Resume

Unless you worked a niche position that is widely unknown, any recruiter is already going to have a general understanding of a jobs duties. For example, if youre a graphic designer, theyre going to know that you designed graphics for clients, so offer them new information by describing your accomplishments. Instead of merely stating that you design graphics, you can describe your accomplishment of designing graphics for multiple Fortune 500 companies. The same would apply if you were a project manager. Instead of listing your duty as managing a particular project, you could describe how your successful management of a particular project led to a 6% increase in profit for that year.

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What Kind Of Achievements Should I Include

Your achievements are the things you did which made a positive impactandcontribution to your employers business. The skills and knowledge you’d need to perform your everyday work duties do not count.

The most powerful achievements are those which are quantifiable, so include numbers or percentages where possible.

The statement, Increased sales revenue, for example, is stronger if the reader knows by how much you increased sales revenue. You could try: Increased sales by 15% or Increased sales by £10,000.

Its fine to estimate if you dont know the exact number, as long as you state that you are estimating. Its important to be confident that what you are saying is fairly accurate, and can be confirmed if an interviewer asks a previous employer for a reference.

If some of your best results were achieved as part of a team, you can still include them. For example, Member of a high-performing team that won the regional support award last year.

Highlighting team performance demonstrates that youre a good team player but it doesnt always tell a prospective employer how you contributed to the teams success.

For maximum impact, you need to make sure that you include specific details of the role you played. Dont leave the person reading your CV to guess what your contribution was.

Highlighting The Accomplishments On Resumes

The simplest way to highlight your accomplishments on resumes is by highlighting the key facts within a STAR point.

Further, to highlight your awards in resume:

• quantify your contributions
• bold the necessary factsFor example:

“Anchored automation Phase 2 in the project by converting L1 monitoring to SAP tool for achieving a reduction of 10 FTEs“

Recommended Reading: Emailing Resume Template

How To Write An Accomplishment Statement

Identifying the various achievements that have driven your career or even your educational experiences forward is the first step toward making your resume stand out. But if you truly want to catch the eye of a potential employer, youll need to learn how to write impactful accomplishment statements.

To wrap your mind around ways to effectively present your achievements to hiring managers, it can help to try using the Challenge-Actions-Results approach:

• Challenge What was the existing problem, need or situation?
• Actions What did you do about the challenge?
• Results What outcomes did you produce?

Once youve identified which accomplishments to highlight, you need to figure out how to actually write about them. To craft statements that can really bring your achievements to life, consider the following four guidelines:

• Focus less on your job duties and more on what you actually accomplished.
• Start your statements with impactful language, such as action verbs.
• Use quantitative measurements when you can, with an emphasis on tangible results.
• Focus only on skills and experiences that are relevant to the job youre seeking.

The more relevant detail you can provide in your accomplishment statements, the more impressive they will be for the hiring managers who read your resume. A mildly effective accomplishment statement may read, Hosted networking events. But there are some ways to improve it. Consider the following two ways you could make the statement better: