You may have heard that a resume should list your accomplishments, not yours. official duties. After all, this The best way to showcase what you've accomplished in your past jobs, as well as show potential employers what you can do for them. But many people forget to include the “Professional Achievements” section on their resume. How to write it in such a way as to interest the personnel officer as much as possible and get the desired position? Read on to find out all the details.
Relationship and difference between responsibilities and achievements
A simple example. Your main duty- organization and holding of events. Then your achievement can be: “I collected more than 200 thousand rubles. from 100 visitors during a charity evening.
Why is it so important? The person reading your resume needs to know more about you. Personnel officers already know what responsibilities are assumed by a particular position. When you list obvious facts, you are only wasting precious space on your resume, as well as the attention of the decision maker. Each phrase about you should have a specific purpose, namely, to prove to the employer that you are the best candidate for the position.
Sphere of trade
Today it is not so difficult to make a product as to sell it. Therefore, professions related to trade are in great demand, and offer job seekers the prospect of high earnings and career development. What professional achievements in the resume of the seller will help you get the desired position?
Important Rule
If you can't confirm, don't post. Recruiters often complain that sales applicants lie too much on their resumes. If you are asked to provide evidence of your brilliant achievements, you should be able to obtain another document from former employer to back up your words.
The main achievement of any seller
For young professionals
If you cannot yet say that your activity has significantly influenced the turnover of the enterprise, you can still find something to write in the “Professional achievements” section of your resume. Examples:
- “I developed a presentation “Economics at the enterprise for non-economists” and presented it to the management, and then to other employees, in order to improve the understanding of the requirements of the accounting and analytical department by the team.”
- "Conducted an analysis financial reporting over the past 18 months, identified formatting errors and created a universal template for reporting.
Accuracy and accuracy
Professional achievements in an accountant's resume are also directly related to numbers, as well as big role Timing and accuracy play. So their list might look like this:
For those who want to become an employee of a financial institution
Again, professional accomplishments on a resume are all about numbers and money. But besides this, it is important for the applicant to show that he knows how to work with people, has leadership qualities, but at the same time is a team player. After all, a bank is big company, consisting of many branches throughout the country, and all its employees must work smoothly.
Therefore, here is how you can describe your professional achievements in a resume. Example:
- “In the first six months after employment, I sold 20% more financial services than I delivered in terms of sales, due to a thorough study of customer needs and work with regular customers.”
- “Ensured an increase in the volume of mortgage lending to the business, which led to a 2% increase in the profit of the bank branch”
- “In 2014, I increased my client base by 10% with the help of phone calls potential clients, and encouraging the recommendation of the bank's services by existing customers.
- "Trained a group of 5 new hires on how to document the issuance of loans."
- “I worked with 3 VIP clients of the bank, with a total turnover on their accounts in the amount of about 7 million rubles.”
- "I was directly involved in the design of 5 new loan packages to attract more potential borrowers."
But you should not approach filling out the “Professional Achievements” section of your resume in an exclusively formal way. Example: you can also include such a fact as "Organized a corporate picnic for 120 people with a trip to a suburban sanatorium." It would seem that this achievement has very little to do with your professionalism, but in fact it will demonstrate to a potential employer that you have excellent organizational skills, support corporate culture, and have excellent relations with the team, which is very much appreciated in
For servants of Themis
The specialty of a lawyer is always very popular. In order for the personnel officer to notice you among a bunch of other applicants, take a responsible approach to filling out the section “Professional achievements” in the resume of a lawyer. Avoid generalizations and give specific facts. Use the problem-action-result model.
How exactly to apply it when you describe professional achievements in a resume? Example: instead of the phrase: “Done legal research and drew up a statement from the plaintiff for a decision by the court "describe the situation as follows:" Drafted a claim in the case regarding the receipt by the plaintiff, as a result of which damage to health was caused, which is estimated at more than 100 thousand rubles. The court granted the claim of the victim." The second wording reveals your role in the case much more fully and shows your competence.
If you do not have high-profile victories in court, and you work as a full-time lawyer in an enterprise, then concentrate on the benefits that the company has received from your actions: contracts for large sums drawn up in accordance with the law and with the greatest benefit for your enterprise; successful solution controversial situations with suppliers, etc.
Work is the most important part of life. Get her the goal of everyone. Under the current economic conditions when there is quite tough competition in the labor market, the applicant needs to show himself with better side to be preferred by the employer. The candidate may be accepted even if he does not have great experience work, but there is progress in a certain area. In practice, this task is embodied in a well-written resume. It depends on what professional achievements are indicated in the resume whether the candidate will transfer to the position or not.
Definition
Goals are close to this concept, they are the basis for achievements. They give direction to activities, indicate the results that need to be achieved in the future. Achievements are rewards for their accomplishment. They carry the program of a specialist, which he can implement in his work.
They are also closely related to duties - the range of actions that must be performed in a particular position. They are fixed in the job description, depending on the organization, the nature of the work, they may vary.
A competent and detailed presentation of previous duties in the resume demonstrates achievements in previous work. They cease to be a routine performance of their work and turn into successes when they go beyond the usual boundaries of terms, quantity, etc. They also pay attention to those labor skills that the employee acquired earlier in the course of activities. For commercial organization the primary indicator is an increase in profits.
Main classification
The main division is carried out by addressing.
1. Personal (they matter only for a specific person, i.e. the applicant). They change his life for the better, examples include winning a competition, awarding a prize or an award for participating in a competition. Such an event can be an achievement if it has something to do with a future position.
Personal achievements are also considered those from which the specialist himself has benefited. They talk about his career. Examples:
- receiving bonuses, salary increase;
- gratitude, encouragement;
- career growth, getting a new position;
- raising one's professional level by gaining new knowledge in
- individually or collectively.
2. Examples of professional achievements show the success of the entire company, not individual worker. Thanks to him, such results became possible. Examples are:
- Improving the efficiency of one specialist or a group of specialists
- due to the actions of this employee;
- developed, successfully completed project;
- increase in labor productivity due to the methodology introduced by the specialist;
- the firm's cash profit;
- the company's entry into the global market.
By the nature of professional achievements are:
- quantitative - figures showing an increase in profits by so much%, successful implementation by a specialist of a certain number of projects during the year, conclusion of a large number of contracts;
- qualitative - reflect the success in the activities of the organization, the expansion of the geography of the company, the change of counterparties to more promising ones, the attraction of new sources of income, some specific result.
CV preparation
Your professional achievements are most often discussed at the interview.
No invitation to interview due to weak resume, in which successes in past work are either incorrectly indicated, or they are absent.
Some job seekers think their resume looks flawless without this item. But this is a delusion: the most important achievements should be spelled out.
They must be specified for the following reasons:
- such an applicant looks advantageous against the background of others;
- they testify to the passion for their work;
- they show the ability to achieve goals.
Sometimes this aspect is written about in order to claim a higher position than before, on leadership position. In this case, the summary cannot do without managerial achievements (a team of such and such a number of people under the guidance of the applicant has achieved such and such results).
Requirements for wording
In order for an employer to distinguish your resume from many others, it must be written properly. Primary requirements:
- all the facts stated must be specific - numbers, places, names;
- professional success should not overload the text, they should be described briefly and clearly;
- they must be related to the activity that the applicant wants to engage in in the company;
- the language of describing professional achievements should be business-like, but without unnecessary complications; lack of conversational style, the wording should be clear;
- there should be no negative information, all past actions of a specialist should have a positive orientation.
Significant achievements
Sometimes it is difficult for the applicant to choose those achievements that need to be indicated and which ones to omit.
The following three groups should be present in the resume.
- Main achievements professional activity. They talk about the results of how you coped with the tasks that confronted you in the course of your current duties.
- Major professional achievements They demonstrate the effectiveness of the goals that have been set by you or management. The main professional achievement may be in leading the company out of the crisis, or in the fact that your developments have a positive impact on people's lives.
- Significant professional achievements can also be included in the resume. They can be significant from your point of view, or from the point of view of the former bosses, who encouraged you for this with a bonus, an increase.
Description methods and algorithm
It is important to write a resume correctly in order to convey information about your labor successes to the future employer. The following procedure must be followed:
- make a list of achievements related to professional;
- isolate the main, significant ones from them;
- check the result for compliance with the requirements for the vacancy;
- write in a resume in a competent language;
- work successes can be entered in a separate section or made a subsection in the section on work experience;
- it is necessary to draw up transmittal letter, in which you need to focus on the fact that the successes you have achieved will help the employer solve the problems of his professional activity.
What can be described
- introduction of new programs, management decisions;
- numerical values describing financial receipts, production growth;
- reference to the media reflecting achievements;
- success in a new area of work in the form of training a large number of employees;
- saving company resources.
Why is it important to describe achievements and performance?
- The labor market today is not in favor of the applicant: good vacancies few, but there are many more competent candidates. It is the results of work and achievements that help to stand out from the general flow.
- In most companies, employees perform the same tasks. Therefore, the description of responsibilities in the summary of different candidates is almost the same. It is precisely different results work.
- It is possible to determine the level of competence of a particular candidate at the stage of reviewing a resume only by describing his work. And the achievements here are the best proof.
How to correctly reflect achievements:
- we remember KPI (for each position they are individual) or tasks;
- describe in active verbs: implemented, developed, initiated;
- we make a logical connection between our actions and results: implemented - it allowed;
- we use numbers, preferably in comparison: it was - it became.
Let's look at examples for positions with common KPIs.
Examples of achievements for positions where it is difficult to digitize the results of work.
| № | job title | Key KPIs | Achievement examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CFO | Accounting | Organized from scratch the maintenance of accounting, tax, operational and management accounting. |
| Setting up a budgeting system | Implemented a budgeting system for business areas, which increased the transparency of accounting. | ||
| Optimization of the financial flow management system | Implemented a payment calendar based on 1C UPP and carried out a number of measures to strengthen payment discipline, which made it possible to obtain financial resources to earn extra income. | ||
| 2 | Purchasing Director | Procurement optimization | Organized procurement activities without attracting additional funds, this was achieved through successful negotiations with suppliers to increase the delay and improve other conditions. |
| Business process automation | Initiated and managed a project to automate the ordering system, which allowed to reduce labor costs for information processing. | ||
| 3 | Chief engineer of the enterprise | Modernization projects | Implemented a number of projects for the modernization and reconstruction of the enterprise: modernization of the access control system and installation of a fire extinguishing system, alarm and video surveillance. |
| Development of regulatory documents | Developed and implemented everything regulations on labor protection and safety, fire safety, environmental safety, safety traffic, which allowed to reduce legal and financial risks enterprises. | ||
| 4 | Lawyer | Development of document forms | Developed forms of contracts: contracts, deliveries, purchase and sale, etc., which made it possible to minimize labor costs for preparing documents. |
| Litigation experience | Case no.... - collection of debt under a supply agreement in the amount of 500 thousand rubles. (In this paragraph, it is desirable to describe several diverse cases, but no more than three for each place of work.) | ||
| 5 | Assistant Secretary | Projects or additional responsibilities | Initiated the participation of the company in charitable events and sponsorship. Implemented the project of the head of the floristic design of the office. |
| Workflow optimization | She initiated the creation of a workflow database based on Excel, which made it possible to systematize work with documents. | ||
| 6 | Sales Analyst | Development of reporting forms | Developed a reporting system for tracking orders and selling goods, which made it possible to systematize work with documents. |
| Development of analysis tools | Developed mathematical models sales planning, based on the effectiveness of the sales staff. |
One of the most controversial sections of a job applicant's profile is personal results. On the one hand, it largely affects the impression of the applicant. On the other hand, they are the most difficult to paint. It is very important to choose the right example: your achievements in the resume must fully meet the expectations of the recruiter. But even this is not enough. Wording plays a significant role.
What to write
Not everyone is able to correctly distinguish between duties and achievements in a resume: examples suggest that the concepts of “did” and “did” are confused in the minds of applicants. This clearly demonstrates a sample of achievement in work for an accountant resume:
- "Passed tax audits."
- "Successfully passed tax audits for 4 reporting periods in a row."
In the first case, the employee simply did what he prescribed job description. In the second, he achieved certain personal results, which distinguishes him from other representatives of the profession. Here are more examples of personal achievements in the resume.
| Profession name | Correctly | Not properly |
|---|---|---|
| Cook | Developed the menu, supervised the preparation of food according to the established standard, personally supervised daily industrial sanitation | Cooked meals for customers, cleaned the kitchen |
| Merchandiser | Conducted monthly checks on the availability of accountable goods, personally kept records of the receipt and expenditure of goods in the X program | Participated in stocktaking and reporting |
| Driver | Every day I went to the line for the transportation of passengers, during the work of traffic police violations were not recorded, there were no accidents | Carried workers from the place of assembly to the place of work and back |
Let's compare these formulations with functions. In this case, the achievement example for the summary is a double instantiation.
Table. Examples: responsibilities, functions, achievements in a resume
|
Profession |
Duty |
Result |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Teach informatics for the use of ICT technologies in everyday life |
Prepare students for the exam in computer science |
Prepared 10 students who scored 100 points on the exam in computer science in the 2017-18 academic year |
|
|
Sales Manager |
Interact with clients |
Attract customers through cold calls |
Attracted 43 clients through cold calls per month |
|
Dentist |
Render medical care on the profile of surgical dentistry |
Perform tooth extraction |
Successfully performed the removal of "eights" without complications in 11 patients in a month |
|
Programmer |
Create websites |
Develop plugins for online stores |
Developed an online payment plugin for an online store website, which increased the average order receipt by 15,000 rubles. |
How to write
Consider examples of what achievements can be indicated in a resume and how to formulate them. Here are 5 golden rules:
- The focus is on the benefits for that employer. Are you applying for the position of an architect? It is not necessary to describe personal successes at the McDonald's checkout. You need to show your results as the desired professional. Here is an example of what achievements to indicate in a resume for this position: received an award in an industry competition, brought his company to n-th place in the ranking for 2017.
- Specificity is an indicator of reliability. Describe what specific results you personally achieved and for how long. Not "increased sales", but "increased sales by 33% in two months".
- Brevity is a job seeker's best friend. Choose the most important and don't get carried away with the details. They distract from the result.
- For each duty - according to the result. You will determine a sufficient number of points according to the duties listed above. Show that you strive for the maximum in everything.
- Verbs are everything. Let's give an example: successes and achievements in a resume, expressed in short participles, are mentally transferred to someone else. “An innovative project management system has been introduced” - and who introduced it? "Introduced the system" - it's clear, it was you.
You can tell a story about how you excelled in your last job and make the recruiter bored. Or bright facts to attract his attention and show his candidacy as the most suitable. And do it based on the same information.
What won't attract a recruiter
Clear your story of the following facts:
- If they do not relate to the vacancy. When you indicate professional achievements in a resume, examples for a manager are important only for an applicant for a similar position.
- Lack of personal results. It didn't get worse, it didn't get better.
- Personal growth. The recruiter is not interested in the fact that at your last job you finally mastered the computer or learned how to communicate with clients.
If the interviewer asks you this question, consider yourself lucky. This is a great opportunity to share your experience. Unfortunately, most candidates miss it because they are not prepared or are not used to praising themselves and do not know how to do it in an interview.
Most people don't usually rehearse their achievement speech.
Interviewing is an imperfect process. It's impossible to really know who the best candidate is after a few minutes of talking. However, we interviewers are doing everything we can, using the tools (methods, methods) that are available to us at the moment.
For interviewersCompetency questions are the most reliable way to find out who the candidate is and whether he is suitable for the job.
For candidatesgood answers to behavioral questions will allow you to stand out from the crowd and highlight your best qualities.
Your Big Achievements = Your Big Benefits
By asking questions about your biggest accomplishments or major successes, the interviewer provides you with an opportunity to tell a story that will set you apart from other candidates. This gives you some power to influence the interviewer's image of you, so you need to be prepared.
The example of the story you give will say a lot about you. First, it will be clear what you value the most. What were you most proud of closing a huge deal or building a great team? Your story will help decide if you're a good fit for the position and fit in with the company's culture. Also, your story will help present you in the best light in front of the interviewer. That is why it is important to give a vivid example, emphasizing your main skills and qualities.
While teaching you how to prepare for this particular behavioral question, I will also give you my approach to creating a range of stories that you can adapt to different behavioral questions.
Successful Approach
I almost always ask clients in their first coaching session, “What is your biggest achievement?” Their answer helps me immediately understand which they think is the best story from their work experience.
This is important because a story is a powerful tool in any type of interview. I recommend having at least 3-5 impressive stories with you (if you know that you will have an interview that will only ask questions on competencies, then the number of stories should be increased to 7-10).
Surprisingly, many candidates do not know when and how to tell stories in an interview.
This is usually due to one or more of the following reasons:
1) They consider themselves good communicators, so they think that their stories will naturally “pop up” in the conversation. The problem here is that the interview is not a normal conversation, and as you go along with the flow, you tend to give weak, impersonal examples (the first story that comes to mind is not the best - you either cannot remember important details, or you take too long and speak spatially).
2) They don't know how to tell good storiesso that they are memorable or sound convincing (usually the stories are either general, superficial, or they are too long).
3) They worry too muchtrying to figure out what behavioral questions to prepare examples for, how much detail to include, how to compose good story, etc.
A good story can be told in a variety of ways and exemplified in response to a variety of behavioral questions. For example, the story of successful project can be used to demonstrate leadership, problem solving, or
Your most important success is the one you would like to talk about at the interview, because it is the one you are most proud of. Choose the story that you think best describes why you are the perfect candidate for this position. If you have 3-5 successful stories, you can adapt them to different vacancies.
Keep in mind, I am not a supporter of writing history and memorizing it verbatim. As always, I recommend the STAR technique for telling your story. The STAR structure helps you focus on key points so that your story is told in a way that is real, memorable, and concise.
The goal of the STAR technique is to write out a few bullet points for each of the key aspects of your story (Situation/Task, Actions, and Outcomes).
In my coaching sessions, I go into detail on how to structure your stories using the STAR technique, which will help you answer any behavioral questions quickly and easily.
Example of a response to a behavioral question: "Tell me about one of your greatest accomplishments."
Let's look at an example of a major achievement based on the STAR technique.
S / T (Situation - situation / Task - task)
Start with overview project and/or situation. Tell about it in in general terms by giving your interviewer just the context. Try to convey to him the complexity and importance of the project/situation.
An example of using a bulleted list to describe a situation/task:
- My department is responsible for organizing the training and onboarding program required for all new hires.
- Unfortunately, when I started work, many of the materials were in their raw form.
- It was necessary to provide training for employees, but we had a big problem with employees who did not complete the training - and the evaluations of the course were quite negative.
