Achievement statements
Responsibilities and achievements
Contemporary or chronological CVs are achievement-focused.
Whereas responsibilities are what you are supposed to do, achievements are what you have delivered, over and above what was required.
You sell yourself to a prospective employer by including powerful achievements in your CV.
Unfortunately, many CVs contain long lists of responsibilities with a few achievements. They do not convey what value you can give to the employer.
Increasingly now there is less emphasis on the responsibilities so that more space can be dedicated to achievements.
One approach is to contain a couple of broad sentences explaining your responsibilities then launch into the achievements in dot points. You do not then need to explain the dot points as “achievements”.
Each achievement should start with a strong verb in the past tense. You can even disguise responsibilities to read like achievements by writing them this way. For example, instead of saying that one responsibility was “Managing a team of four”. you can say “Managed a team of four”.
Substantiating achievements
The ultimate result of achievement is usually to make the employer organisation money or save it money.
In many government and administrative positions, however, there can be other less obvious advantages such as making a system more robust or compliant.
Some roles are easy to substantiate achievements. These usually have tangible outcomes as part of the job. For example, meeting sales targets, delivering projects or producing other set results.
Even if your role tends to be more ongoing, try to avoid the mistake of making your CV read like a reproduction of your job description – this offers the reader no real insight into what you did or are capable of.
Quantifying your impact
If you have trouble identifying your key achievements, ask yourself:
(1) What have I done to change this job from when I arrived to when I left?
(2) How is the job different from when I started?
Generally, the gap in both cases represents your achievements. Keep asking yourself “resulting in what?” to prompt you to dig further into the value you have delivered.
Consider endorsements and feedback
Doing a great job and receiving positive feedback is an achievement in itself:
(1) “The improvement was rolled out nationally and I was commended by the CEO for my innovation.”
(2) “Received consistent positive feedback.”
(3) “Rated ‘outstanding’ in my performance reviews.”
Combining achievements
Consider combining similar achievements under an overarching theme. This can save repetition, increase impact and provide an opportunity to list specific examples.
Example 1:
“Appointed to various positions of responsibility:
- XX Committee member
- Diversity champion
- SAP Subject Matter Expert”
Example 2:
“Implemented several significant process improvements. Examples included:
Introducing staff debit cards with spending limits. These saved staff waiting for travel expenses to be reimbursed and reduced processing times considerably for the staff member and accounts.
Automating the payment system of recurring invoices. This freed up the Accounts Payable team half a day per week.
Invest-gated and gained approval for a new overdraft facility. This saved up to $10,000 per year in unnecessary interest payments.”
Flattering language
Rather than just “undertaking” a secondment, you were “selected” for it or “invited”?
Consider using language that paints your achievement in the strongest possible light. Other examples are “appointed”. “elected”. “nominated” and “promoted”.
Improving achievement statements
Good – “Conducted many training programs in several offices that reduced problems.”
Better – “Conducted more than 45 service technician training programs throughout eight offices reducing customer complaints by 22% in six months.”
Best – “Reduced customer complaints by 22% in six months by conducting more than 45 service technician training programs through eight offices.”
Sample achievement statements
“Received a customer satisfaction rating of 99.9% by developing a high level of proficiency on a new software during a two-month system conversion.”
“Developed a promotional fundraising campaign that provided contributions exceeding $30,000, three times the previous record.”
“Increased Consumer Markets Division’s revenue from $54m to $125m over three years with no increase in personnel. Built pre-tax profit from a loss of $3m to returns of $11m.”
“Established and directed manufacturing task forces that reduced waste by 20% in plastic processes and increased productivity by over 10% in forming and printing processes.”
“Identified excess investment in manufacturing and warehousing facilities. Negotiated sales of assets which generated over $4m and reduced fixed costs by approximately $1m annually.”
Useful verbs
The cumulative effect of all these “action words” is to paint a positive picture of yourself as a person who will make a difference, goes over and above and/or gets things done. If you are stuck for a word to sell your achievements, here are some options:
Accelerated
Accomplished
Achieved
Administered
Analysed
Approved
Awarded
Budgeted
Built
Championed
Completed
Conceived
Conducted
Consolidated
Controlled
Converted
Convinced
Coordinated
Created
Cut
Delegated
Delivered
Demonstrated
Designed
Developed
Devised
Directed
Drafted
Established
Evaluated
Event-managed
Exceeded
Expanded
Filled
Financed
Forecast
Formulated
Founded
Fulfilled
Gathered
Generated
Handled
Headed
Implemented
Improved
Improvised
Increased
Influenced
Initiated
Innovated
Installed
Instigated
Instituted
Introduced
Invented
Launched
Led (note spelling)
Maintained
Managed
Mentored
Met
Negotiated
Organised
Operated
Oversaw
Persuaded
Planned
Presented
Processed
Produced
Programmed
Program-managed
Project-managed
Promoted
Proposed
Provided
Purchased
Quantified
Received
Recommended
Recruited
Redesigned
Reduced
Reinvigorated
Reorganised
Researched
Retained
Revised
Rewrote
Scheduled
Saved
Serviced
Simplified
Sold
Spearheaded
Streamlined
Stressed
Str, etched
Structured
Summarised
Superseded
Supervised
Systematised
Terminated
Traced
Tracked
Traded
Trained
Transferred
Transformed
Translated
Trimmed
Tripled
Uncovered
Unified
Updated
Wrote