Your Resume – What Are Your Accomplishments?

Your accomplishments are your unique selling points.  They effectively highlight that you are a SOLUTION to the problems that must be solved in any business.

Have you kept your resume up to date with your latest accomplishments? 

Or is that dusty document lurking somewhere in a dark cornice of your mind waiting to be dug out and brushed off at some time in the undetermined future? 

You must keep an updated resume with tangible accomplishments. Not just for application purposes but also for your performance reviews (and to show, specifically, why you deserve that raise).

It’s a reminder of how good you are and what you have achieved in your career so far.

A tailored resume that’s up-to-date and ready to use is a great confidence-booster.

Responsibility-based resumé vs Accomplishment-based resumé

Many resumes are responsibility based however the most effective ones are accomplishment based. 

Accomplishments are examples of how you have actually used your knowledge and your skills effectively with tangible or intangible positive results.

An accomplishment based resume makes you stand out from the crowd.  It demonstrates that you have made a difference in your role, you have not just ‘clocked in and clocked out’ each day.  

Everyone is hired to do a job.  If you have simply done your job, well that’s great, but you are paid to do that job after all.  It’s what you have done above and beyond that makes a difference to employers.

What have you done ‘above and beyond?’  Did you lead an important initiative, solve a difficult problem, identify a wasteful procedure and recommend improvements, improve profits, reduce downtime, improve team morale, consistently work ahead of deadlines and within budgets?

It’s always a good time to take a step back and review your professional career and identify important contributions you have made.  You may be pleasantly surprised when you are honest with yourself.  Many of us are too humble.

I have had so many clients say to me, “Well, I was just doing my job.”   Some people do their job exceptionally well and need to accept and own that fact. Do you?

Why Accomplishments are Important

·       Taking time to identify what you have done in your role that has made a difference is empowering and builds your confidence

·       Accomplishments highlight the VALUE you bring to any role

·       Your tangible accomplishments are the springboard for discussions in interviews

·       Accomplishments form the basis of a highly marketable resume

·       Your accomplishments are proof to your interviewer that you are a valuable employee who gets results

·      Accomplishments highlight why you are worth hanging on to (or deserving of that raise!)

Questions to Help You Identify Your Accomplishments

·       Did you generate new business?  If so how much?

·       Did you save time, improve procedures, save costs?

·       Did you create something new or something better?

·       Did you achieve more with the same resources?

·       Did you improve operations or make things easier?

·       Did you solve a previously overlooked problem?

·       Did you streamline a process?

·       Did you prevent something that could have been a disaster?

Once you have identified what could be your accomplishments on the job, turn them into statements that you can bullet point in your resume.

Start with an action verb in the past to make them punchy and to the point … use relevant words such as achieved, adapted, broadened, challenged, completed, devised, delivered, enhanced, improved, invented, managed, organised, pioneered, redesigned, secured, strengthened, transformed, etc.

Accomplishments in your resume make you stand out from the crowd.

They demonstrate that having you as part of the team will make a difference and you will contribute to the success of the organisation.

Take time to think about what you have done, have fun devising your accomplishment statements and include them in your resume!  You will notice the difference and so will potential employers.

How to Write a Resumé Online Course

Need help with crafting a resumé that will get past the Automatic Tracking System (ATS)? Have a look over my How to Write a Powerful Resume online course

Click the image below to dust off your resumé and create a new powerful resumé that will capture the attention of recruiters and hiring managers. 

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