Being able to effectively articulate your achievements on paper is essential when it comes to selling yourself and your resume.

Achievements demonstrate examples of how you have added value and delivered a benefit to your employer.

For maximum effect, these should be listed in dot point format after you have outlined some of the primary responsibilities of the role.

Try and aim for at least 2-3 per role if possible (or more if you can).

There are obvious examples of achievements:

• Awarded “Employee of the Month” in June 2020
• Exceeded annual sales budget for 2019/20 by 25%

There are also less obvious examples:

• Played an integral role in a team that introduced a new audit system for stock, resulting in company savings in capital outlay and more efficient use of resources
• Successfully project managed the initiation of new Quality Assurance Standards
• Selected as member of OH&S Committee

Effective Achievement statements will do three things:

• State an action you took to improve a situation
• Explain how that action benefitted the organisation, eg. improved employee relations, increased revenue, etc.
• Quantify the result of your action (using $ or % to describe extent of benefit)

Beware of listing achievements that are more like role responsibilities or things you should be doing anyway! Eg. “Effectively liaised with key clients”

Finally, put yourself in the chair of the person reading all the applications.

If it is a role where a lot of the candidates have similar duties, then how do they decide who to shortlist for an interview?

It could easily come down to those candidates who have expressed their achievements in a clear and concise manner.

If impressive enough, these achievements could also prove to be a “talking point” in an interview situation so be prepared to further expand on them in person!

Paul Bell

Principal Consultant, Hender Careers

Oct 2020