How to List Key Accomplishments on Resume (Tips & Examples) (original) (raw)

If there’s one rule you should follow when writing your résumé, it’s to show potential employers what you can do and how your previous successes can contribute to their company’s success.

But how can you do that?

By showcasing your accomplishments, of course.

It might feel uncomfortable tooting your own horn, but it’s necessary for job search success — when done right, that is.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to (and why you should) include your accomplishments in your résumé, plus examples for inspiration so you can make your résumé truly shine.

Why include accomplishments in your résumé

Including accomplishments in your résumé is crucial because, in doing so, you provide recruiters with tangible evidence of your key skills and contributions. And when you highlight the specific, measurable results you’ve achieved, your résumé becomes all the more powerful in differentiating you from other applicants.

Another reason to highlight your accomplishments here is that it helps you steer clear from talking about job responsibilities and typical duties — which only waste valuable space. (Spoiler alert: Hiring managers know what an accountant or a graphic designer does, so they don’t need an insider’s guide to the profession. What they do need is to know whether you will be successful in the job you’re applying for, and your past achievements can be the proof they need.)

Which accomplishments to highlight

There are three main types of accomplishments you can include in your résumé.

The first are professional accomplishments. These are the most valuable kind, as they’re “living proof” of what you’ve done in your career and how you can contribute to a company’s success. They include things like improving processes, generating revenue, and winning work-related awards.

Then you have educational accomplishments, which are particularly useful if you have limited or no work experience — especially achievements that demonstrate your work ethic and transferable skills. These include earning academic awards and honors, receiving grants and scholarships, and completing extra training and certifications.

Finally, you have personal accomplishments, things you have achieved in a personal capacity outside the workplace or classroom. They include volunteer or community work, impressive athletic achievements, or running a successful blog.

Which accomplishments not to highlight

Some accomplishments, unfortunately, shouldn’t be featured in your résumé at all, as they will only dilute your résumé’s impact and your overall candidacy, including:

That said, there are some, very nuanced, situations where you can list such accomplishments. For example, someone who has recovered from alcohol use disorder may consider mentioning this in their résumé if they’re applying for a job at a rehabilitation center where they would be helping others overcome this same illness.

How to choose the right accomplishments

While all your accomplishments are impressive in their own right and are worth shouting about from the rooftops, you should only showcase those that are directly relevant to the job that you’re applying for. Anything else can ruin your chances for job search success.

First things first, carefully read the job description (again) and research the company to better understand their mission, values, and ideal candidate.

Then, make a list of all your achievements, dividing them up according to each position or job function. For each one, ask yourself “So what?”. Why would the hiring manager care about it? What exactly does it show them you can do? How is it relevant to the job you’re applying for?

This will effectively help you separate the “good” accomplishments from the “bad” ones, giving you a starting point of what should be highlighted — and what shouldn’t.

You should aim to showcase your accomplishments wherever you can in your résumé, but there are three places where their inclusion is non-negotiable:

Summary section

The first place you should feature your accomplishments is the very first section of your résumé: the career summary. (The career summary shouldn’t be confused with a résumé objective statement, which focuses more on career goals than anything else.)

The summary section, which is typically the first section in a résumé, is a short introductory paragraph consisting of 3–5 sentences that tells employers, at a glance, why you’re the ideal candidate.

As you write a résumé summary, you should focus on summarizing your most relevant skills, experience and qualifications to potential employers, carefully intertwined with notable achievements from across your career journey.

EXAMPLE

CAREER SUMMARY

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with 15+ years’ experience covering breaking stories and investigative stories for major publications. Helped cover 2016 and 2020 presidential races, and produced numerous exposés on political and corporate corruption. Committed to bringing honest and powerful news to the public, and proficient in digital production, data analysis and CMS platforms.

Experience section

Next up is the work experience section, which is often the most important part of a résumé. Here, your past achievements should take centerstage, as opposed to listing general job duties and responsibilities (which offer no real value to hiring managers).

For each position listed in the experience section, showcase your 3–6 most notable achievements in the form of a bulleted list. And try to prioritize them according to importance, relevance and impact — this means listing “Generated revenues exceeding $1b” above “Managed a team of 5 accountants”, which is less impressive.

EXAMPLE

EXPERIENCE

Senior Accountant | Accounting Corp, New York City, NY | Jan 2020–Present

If you’re an entry-level jobseeker, though, you likely won’t have any work experience to share with potential employers. And if that’s the case, then you can instead focus on your academic achievements in the education section.

Accomplishments section

A dedicated accomplishments section isn’t always necessary, especially if you can integrate this information elsewhere in your résumé (particularly in the experience section) or if you don’t have room for one (remember: résumés should, in most cases, be one page long).

That said, this section can be incredibly useful if you have achievements outside the workplace or you’re at a more senior level in your career and have extensive experience, and is typically placed immediately after the summary section.

Unlike the accomplishments listed in your experience section, which are specific to a particular position, those listed here can — and should — be a mixture of 3–5 achievements spanning your entire career.

EXAMPLE

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

How to write accomplishment statements

Next up: how to effectively write about your accomplishments in your résumé:

1. Use the PAR method

Perhaps the biggest trick to employ when writing about your accomplishments in your résumé is the PAR method, which calls for addressing three things:

For example, instead of saying that you “managed social media campaigns”, you could say something like “Increased brand awareness by 52% by creating and managing social media campaigns”. This effectively shows the problem (little to no brand awareness), the action (managing social media campaigns), and the result (increasing awareness by 52%).

On that note, make it a point to use numbers and percentages when you can, as this provides hiring managers with tangible evidence of your accomplishments.

2. Incorporate keywords

An important part of writing a résumé is to tailor it to the job you’re applying for. And one of the best ways to do this is to carefully intertwine important keywords from the job description into your résumé.

For example, if the position requires a “strong understanding of SEO”, you could mention something like: “Leveraged strong understanding of SEO to generate over 1m unique users on CareerAddict.com on a monthly basis.”

Not only does this help your résumé pass through applicant tracking systems (specialized software that parse résumés based on preset criteria and keywords), but it also makes your accomplishments that more memorable and impactful.

Indeed, it makes hiring managers stop and think: “This candidate has achieved this impressive accomplishment using the specific skill that we’re looking for.” And this inevitably sways them in your favor.

3. Use action verbs

To make your accomplishment statements all the more impactful and memorable, it’s a good idea to start them off with powerful action verbs like “orchestrated”, “spearheaded”, “transformed”, “rehabilitated” and “implemented”. Not only do they spice up your résumé, but they also create a persuasive tone.

Meanwhile, do try to avoid using buzzwords and other clichés like “proven track record”, “results-oriented” and “results-driven” in accomplishment statements, as they’ve been so overused that they’ve lost their meaning — and they offer little evidence to back up your claims.

Accomplishment examples for top professions

Need a little inspiration? Here are some examples of accomplishments for 10 professions:

1. Digital marketing specialist

2. Registered nurse

3. Customer service representative

4. Civil engineer

5. Accountant

6. Web designer

7. Research assistant

8. Veterinarian

9. College professor

10. Retail associate

Résumé example

Let’s see it all in action with an accomplishment-driven résumé example, specially created from one of our professionally designed résumé templates:

Classic resume template - Promotion example

Get the Classic template

Key takeaways

It can sometimes feel uncomfortable tooting our own horn, but when it comes to writing a résumé, it’s a necessity — especially if you want a fighting chance at impressing the hiring manager and getting invited to a job interview.

When writing about your accomplishments in your résumé, remember these pointers:

Got a question? Let us know in the comments section below.

Originally published on December 20, 2018.