Career Counselor Edythe Richard’s third blog post offers up The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Accomplishments.

Everyone has accomplishments. Even you!

Accomplishments aren’t necessarily awards.

They could be

  • Processes you created or developed
  • Money you earned your organization
  • Customers you served
  • Time you saved
  • New business you generated
  • Committees you established or served with
  • Projects you collaborated on

Here are some strategies to help you write your accomplishments:

Think about an employment review you’ve had. Your boss most likely wanted to know what you’ve done in the past 3 months, 6 months, 1 year to demonstrate your value. What did you say? Perhaps you even generated a list of things you’ve done (accomplishments!).

achievement

Have you ever been on a job interview and knew you were the best candidate for the position, but you ended up losing out to someone else? If you were offered the chance to interview for the same organization/position again, how would you show your worth?

Ask yourself these questions:

  • What have you done that would impress an employer?
  • Why should the employer interview you instead of other candidates?
  • What makes you stand out?
  • What do you have to offer?
  • How were your previous employers better off because you worked there?

Sound difficult? You may find it helpful to think of accomplishments in terms of

Challenge - Action - Result

Here’s an example

  • Challenge: Disorganized office with no means of tracking member names or important (confidential) member information.
  • Action: Created a database with a single contact page for each member; compiled all relevant information into an accessible format; updated profiles as necessary.
  • Result: Reduced time administrative assistants spent searching for member information, leaving more time to focus on direct communication with customers, which led to an increase in membership. ***

Quantify, whenever possible

*** Increase in membership was estimated at a 65% jump within 6 months

Turn this result into an accomplishment that you can use for your resume:
**Contributed to a 65% boost in membership within 6 months by independently creating and the organization’s first viable database of confidential association member profiles, significantly streamlining workflow, enabling increased and enhanced communication with members.

Tip: Make sure you tailor your accomplishments to your Target