Your main professional achievement in life. How to describe achievements in a resume. Downplaying your achievements

Welcome to the blog site. Professional achievements play a particularly important role in your resume. Thanks to these characteristics, a potential employer will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your work and decide whether you are suitable to work at their enterprise.

A completely different question is how to describe an example of your achievements in your resume in such a way as not to get rejected? Examples of real characteristics will be discussed in detail below.

What are “professional achievements” and why write about them?

Professional achievements are your successes and merits that you have achieved and received throughout your time working in a certain field of activity. It is quite logical that such characteristics cannot be the same for all professions, therefore each applicant applying for a specific position must be able to indicate only that information about himself as a specialist that will be useful. Only correctly presented data on personal achievements in a resume will be of interest to the HR employee and company management.

Why write about professional achievements?

Why include examples of personal achievements on your resume? There are several important reasons for this.

1. The characteristics you describe of yourself as a professional will help the head of the company understand how successful you are in your profession. You not only work hard and brilliantly perform your job duties, you lead the company to prosperity and leadership among many competitors. Every boss will want to see such an employee within the walls of his company.
2. An example of your achievements on your resume greatly boosts the ego of a potential employer. Every boss wants his company to make a profit with minimal costs, so that old clients remain and new ones constantly come. One person physically cannot cope with everything on his own, especially if he runs a large company. Therefore, he needs a real pro, and that is you!
3. An example of personal achievements in a resume characterizes you as a purposeful and responsible employee. Simple indications of your personal qualities, such as “purposeful”, “obligatory”, “responsible”, are just a bunch of empty words that, in fact, do not prove anything. But if you give a specific example of your successes and achievements in your resume, your candidacy will certainly be of interest to the company administration.
4. If you include examples of your professional achievements in your resume, your manager will be able to understand how positive the dynamics of your career growth are. It is by this criterion that your boss will evaluate your hard work, professionalism, and readiness for further self-development. This will be a good chance for you to not only get the desired position with a high salary, but also have the opportunity to count on a promotion over time.

As you can see, by providing a sample of work achievements for your resume, you can attract attention to your candidacy and significantly “overtake” other applicants for the desired position.

Basic rules of description

You must be able to present an example of work achievements in your resume correctly. To do this, follow 3 basic rules.

1. Let's be more specific. Do not describe the basic principles and methods of your work. When giving examples, please include your most significant professional accomplishments. Do it in the following way: “increased the percentage of sales by...%”, “accelerated the task completion time by... minutes/hours/days”, “trained... employees”, etc. And it doesn’t matter at all in what units you measure your achievements - the main thing is give clear numbers. If this is problematic, try to clearly but concisely outline the essence of the work done.
2. Tie your main professional achievements to a specific place of work. As a rule, in their resume, potential employees indicate 2–3 companies where they worked before and provide a short list of their merits.
3. Prove that you are qualified for the position you are trying to apply for. If you previously worked as an economist, look for a job based on this criterion. Do not apply for the position of chief accountant with skills and experience in the field in which you worked previously. A sample of your achievements as an economist in a resume for the position of chief accountant will be more than impractical. Most likely, you will immediately receive a refusal from the head of the company.

Question. So, what examples of achievements can you include on your resume? It all depends on which position you are applying for. If it's a leadership position, take care to describe your characteristics from a manager's perspective. If we are talking about an ordinary ordinary employee, stick to this line without deviating from it.

Examples of personal achievements for different professions

What achievements should you write on your resume? Examples for different professions are given below.

Accountant

An accountant is a very responsible and difficult position that requires accuracy, responsibility, and pragmatism. Consequently, the professional characteristics of this specialist must be at the highest level.

Examples of professional achievements in a resume for an accountant are as follows:

• automation of accounting calculations and subsequent reduction of the staff of economists;
• successful completion of 10 (or more) tax audits;
• complete update of company software;
• creation of 3 – 5 publications for accounting magazines or newspapers;
• have a certificate or diploma confirming the qualification “Chief Accountant”, etc.

Another good example of what achievements can be included in an accountant’s resume is the number of successfully completed external audits. If you have such experience, be sure to write about it in your characteristics.

Teacher

What to write in the achievements section of a teacher's resume? An example is described below:

• presence of a certificate of honor for labor merits in teaching activities;
• successfully conducting 10 open lessons;
• participation in 7 district, regional, all-Russian conferences on pedagogy;
• organizing and conducting various training circles.

Also a good example of achievements at work is holding conferences or webinars to exchange teaching experience.

Doctor

Of course, here professional achievements will directly depend on the medical field in which a person works and the degree of his qualifications. Each area of ​​medicine has some of its own, special, nuances that are important to indicate in the characteristics if you want to get a new job.

So, let’s look at the achievements that can be indicated in a resume, using the example of an ENT doctor:

• performed 50 successful operations on ENT organs;
• wrote and published 200 articles for Health magazines and newspapers;
• created and defended the scientific work “Innovative methods of treating scleroma”, for which he received the degree of associate professor of medical sciences;
• over the past 5 years, trained 45 intern doctors;
• conducted 8 webinars on otorhinolaryngology;
• took part in 15 conferences, 3 of which were international.

Note. It is very good if you indicate in your resume the invention of a new medical device, device, device. Moreover, it must not only be developed by you, but also patented. You, in turn, must have proof of licensing of your development. However, it is necessary to indicate this on your resume only if such an achievement actually takes place in your medical practice!

Sales Manager

If you are applying for a position as a sales manager, then indicate your achievements in your resume as follows:

• increased sales level by 30%;
• over the past six months, attracted 50 new partners/clients;
• trained 15 new employees within a year;
• Over the past 3 years, he has organized 35 promotions and discount programs, thanks to which he attracted 200 new regular customers.

An innumerable number of examples can be given. But you must clearly remember one thing: only the truth, and no distortion of facts! Remember that the head of the company can at any moment demand evidence that you are really successful in your field of activity, and if you embellished information about yourself a little, your deception will be quickly exposed.

Supervisor

Managers can be divided into 2 groups: small and large caliber. The first category includes administrators, supervisors, managers, etc. The second group includes directors, general directors, presidents of companies, etc.

Let's look at examples of professional achievements in a resume for a manager, taking as a basis the position of director of the logistics department:

• over the past 2 years, he has developed 5 new route schemes for fast delivery of cargo from... to...;
• automated the inventory system, thereby achieving a faster process (previously it took 5 hours, now it takes 1-2 hours);
• completely updated the software, thanks to which it was possible to increase the selection speed from ... to ... lines in an hour.

Thus, we provided real examples of professional achievements from applicants’ resumes. Of course, you shouldn’t copy everything into your description. The previously described samples will only help you navigate how to correctly fill out the column with professional achievements in your “business card”. Everything else is in your hands, so don’t miss the opportunity to get the job of your dreams by writing your resume correctly and competently!

If you list in an accountant's resume the achievements that took place in previous jobs, this will significantly increase the professional value of this candidate in the eyes of the personnel officer who selects the resume for a potential employer. We tell you what accounting achievements we can talk about, give examples, and also what to do if there were no achievements.

Concept

As a general rule, professional achievements in an accountant’s resume are the results of the specialist’s work in past positions, which:

• talk about the successful fulfillment of professional goals and objectives;
• reflect the economic benefits received by the enterprise where he worked.

It is important to understand that it is not so much the responsibilities and functions, but the achievements in an accountant’s resume along with a description of professional experience that will distinguish your candidacy from competitors for the position in question.

Thus, as examples of professional achievements, an accountant’s resume should include not just the functions that he successfully performed, but:

• special actions that go beyond the general scope of work;
• work results that can be measured (i.e., they are compelling).

How to act

First of all, the responsibilities and achievements in an accountant’s resume must be clearly divided and listed in different sections.

In the “Achievements” section, it is necessary to describe the successes achieved in the accounting field. This must be done as specifically as possible. In this case, it is advisable to use some kind of counting indicators.

It’s always easier for the chief accountant. It is usually not difficult to include achievements in a resume when occupying such a position. It is more difficult for novice specialists or accountants in lower positions. How to be in this case?

In the end, you can omit the block with examples of achievements in the accountant's resume. And the responsibilities in this document will then play a decisive role when considering such a resume. However, there is no need to rush in this matter: certificates, diplomas, etc. are also achievements! More on this later.

Example

We list the most common examples of accountant achievements on a resume:

• successful completion of audits on taxes, insurance premiums, labor issues, etc. with a mandatory (!) indication of their number (you can specify the types of taxes);
• successful completion of litigation (on taxes, insurance premiums, labor issues, etc.);
• successful completion of an external audit;
• transition to a new version of accounting software;
• transition to more profitable and convenient accounting software for the enterprise;
• increasing the efficiency of document flow by converting it into electronic form (including for the purpose of exchanging documents);
• automation of calculations, which made it possible to reduce the staff of economists by 2 times;
• managing several legal entities at the same time, which are on different tax regimes and systems;
• career growth within the same company;
• the presence of diplomas, diplomas, awards, certificates, etc. related to the accounting profession;
• Availability of publications on accounting topics, interviews.

As an example of an achievement in a chief accountant’s resume, one can cite other people’s mistakes that he had to identify and eliminate.

EXAMPLE

Revealed the fact that the cost of production was incorrectly calculated, due to which the selling price was inflated, which made the product less competitive. Elimination of this error made it possible to re-evaluate the cost and successfully resume sales.

Why is describing achievements and performance important?

• The labor market today is not in favor of the job seeker: there are few good vacancies, but there are many times more competent candidates. It is the results of work and achievements that help you stand out from the crowd.
• In most companies, employees solve the same problems. Consequently, the description of responsibilities in the resume of different candidates is almost the same. It is the different work results that give a resume its individuality.
• The level of competence of a particular candidate can be determined at the stage of reviewing a resume only by the description of his work. And achievements here are the best proof.

How to properly reflect achievements:

1. remember KPIs (they are individual for each position) or assigned tasks;
2. described in active verbs: introduced, developed, initiated;
3. we make a logical connection between our actions and results: implemented - it allowed;
4. We use numbers, preferably in comparison: it was - it is now.

Let's look at examples for positions with frequently encountered KPIs.

Examples of achievements for positions where it is difficult to digitize work results.

It is no secret that some candidates are hampered by tightness and excessive modesty in telling stories about themselves, while others - real virtuosos of self-presentation - can create an enchanting impression of themselves, however, not always supported by real deeds.

So how can you most competently answer one of the favorite questions of HR managers: “Please tell us about your achievements?”

The main thing is facts
Remember, when asking such a question, the personnel officer is not expecting lengthy stories from you about your life and the difficult choice of profession. First of all, he wants to hear about the specific results of your work, which had a positive impact on the company’s performance in general and on your professional path in particular.

If your job is to attract customers, tell us how many new organizations or people began using your company's products or services after you began working there. If you are a public relations specialist, share the number of PR events, publications, etc. you have organized.

When preparing for an interview, stock up on clearly formulated information (this can be an oral or written story, a selection of numbers or tables with graphs) reflecting your successes at your previous job.

It's not just the experienced who win
But what about those who are looking for work for the first time - students or university graduates? You should not think that such candidates have nothing to say: lack of work experience (or little experience) does not at all mean a lack of achievements in the chosen profession.

So, if you are a young specialist, at the interview you can talk about successful student projects, victories in competitions, etc. Having such experience will convince the employer of your dedication, initiative and intelligence.

The main condition is that these achievements must be relevant to the vacancy for which you are applying.

A little about personal
However, sometimes it is useful to tell the recruiter about accomplishments that at first glance are not related to the desired position. We are talking about personal achievements that reveal the qualities of your personality that are important for your chosen job.

For example, a story about how you conquer mountain peaks in your free time will tell the employer about your determination and courage. The fact that you head a regional chess club indicates that you have not only logical thinking, but also organizational and communication skills.

But when talking about such victories, be careful: your personal achievements or hobbies (for example, you are a master at making stuffed animals or a winner of an indecent joke competition) may close the doors to your chosen company, since the HR specialist will decide that , despite the brightness of your achievements, you will not be able to work for them.

With faith in yourself
Before you go for an interview, carefully read the requirements for the vacancy you are interested in and think about how best to present your achievements at the interview, which ones to mention and which ones to leave “until better times.” Speak clearly, do not hesitate, but avoid bragging - the employer does not want a poseur, but a specialist who understands what he does. Your confidence will certainly work - others will believe a person who does not doubt the importance of his own victories.

A well-written, informative, interesting resume can guarantee successful employment in a prestigious company. Among the components of the relevant document, which many HR specialists consider key, is information about achievements. How to correctly reflect them on a resume? What types of facts must be included in a document?

Priority of facts

Experts recommend that achievements in your resume should be supported by facts and figures. This will be more convincing than any beautiful words. The main thing is to correctly correlate the indicators with the positions that the candidate held at that moment, and not to confuse anything. Because, for example, a record like: “The client support specialist increased the department’s sales by 20% in a year” would look quite strange.

There is no need to be shy about artificially increasing the number of feats by reflecting personal achievements in your resume. That is, for example, you can classify those same sales of 20% (if you are really an expert in them!) into separate product groups. How? As an option - “increased department sales in the office supplies segment by 30%”, in another line - “increased software sales turnover by 10%”. The arithmetic mean will remain the same, but in fact there will be more achievements.

Non-disclosure principle

At the same time, when reflecting achievements in your resume using numbers and facts, you need to know when to stop. The fact is that in the activities of almost any company it is present, however, it can be contained in the very figures and facts that the candidate wishes to cite in his resume. Perhaps, for the former employer, the leak of such and such data will not be critical. But the managers of the company where the person is going may not like the fact that the candidate easily takes secret information outside the employing company. Experts advise those who work in retail to be especially attentive. Achievements in a sales consultant's resume certainly require numbers (like no other document of this type). But in many cases they will constitute a trade secret.

Reliability instead of numbers

What to do if, due to the specifics of the position held, the candidate cannot provide specific figures and facts? It is quite difficult, for example, to reflect this kind of achievements of an accountant in a resume. Or, for example, an office manager. They don't sell anything, but perform functional work. How should they be?

In this case, experts recommend focusing on the precise implementation of functional operations. That is, list job responsibilities with comments like “performed without errors.” And if there were some shortcomings, then that might even be good. If they were corrected, then the fact that there were errors can be turned into an achievement. It is enough just to enter a small explanation in one line with information about the defect: “I solved such and such a problem.”

Templates are useless

Achievements on a resume are an important aspect. But an equally significant factor is the form of presentation of information. It often happens that there are plenty of achievements, but for some reason the HR manager ignores them. The summary should be made in such a way that the person reading it has a desire to at least become familiar with the facts contained in it, and not just skim at one glance. How to do it?

Experts recommend, as an option, to focus on reflecting the uniqueness of previous experience. So that when looking at the resumes of candidates with the same track record, the manager can see that this person really learned something useful from his previous job. And therefore there is a high probability that he will do the same in the new company. How to do this in practice?

Very simple. When listing previous jobs and positions (with achievements), give small accompanying comments. Such as, for example, “mastered the art of cold selling.” Or, let’s say, “learned the 1C program.” An employer always wants to see effective specialists in its ranks. One of the criteria for this is the desire to learn and master new tools at work. However, this quality must be reflected in the resume.

At the same time, HR specialists do not recommend experimenting too much with the appearance of your resume. It happens that candidates present information about themselves in the form of pictures, and sometimes even in poetry. Of course, this kind of resume may be in demand if a person is applying for a job in a company for a corresponding creative position. Of course, this format of presenting information will be a positive factor for the candidate. However, this is rather an exception. As a rule, due to his profession, he is conservative. In his attitudes, the invariable rule is that if the candidate is worthy of the desired position, he will find a way to present facts about himself within the framework of a standard, but at the same time informative scheme.

Achievements in resume structure

How to reflect achievements in a resume in terms of the structure of this document? Experts recommend not delaying the presentation of facts in accordance with the algorithm for presenting information. Personal achievements in a resume should go immediately after information about responsibilities at previous jobs. Regarding the content of the relevant section, as we said above, specifics, numbers, facts. No general phrases like “gained invaluable experience while solving assigned tasks.”

What would be a sample scenario for highlighting accomplishments on a resume? For example, a sales consultant? The facts can be reflected this way. First we write: “Work at such and such an enterprise, in such and such years.” The line below: “Developed an algorithm for communicating with customers, which allowed us to increase smartphone sales by 20%.” Even lower: “Sold more than 300 iOS devices in 4 months, while the department average was 100 devices.”

If the task is to reflect the achievements of an accountant in a resume, then the algorithm may look like this. First - place of work, position, deadlines. A line below: “Ensured error-free reporting.” Even lower: “Transferred accounting completely into electronic format using digital signature.” What about problem solving? And we also reflect this: “We made adjustments to the mechanism of interaction with the Federal Tax Service, which allowed us to avoid errors in recognizing file formats.”

Types of achievements

What other examples of achievements can be on a resume? There are a lot of options. Both exclusively professional achievements can be reflected in the resume, and, for example, those that are related to the business development strategy of the employing company. At the same time, achievements of the first type may well predetermine the second. In the first case, you can write: “I have mastered three such and such programming languages.” In the second: “I created an IT product that allowed the company to enter the international market.”

When achievements are still ahead

Of course, it is possible that it is problematic to give examples of achievements in a resume due to their small size or because there is nothing special to brag about yet. In this case, experts recommend that the document at least reflect a sincere desire for numbers that are worth talking about out loud. For example, if we are talking about describing achievements in the resume of a retail salesperson, then it is quite acceptable to comment on previous work experience as follows: “Regularly practiced sales using Neil Rackham’s SPIN method.” The desire to master an effective technique in itself can be almost a greater advantage for a future employer than the successful results of its application. Therefore, if a person has not yet decided what achievements can be reflected in a resume, what to write as an alternative, we now know.

Reliability is the main criterion

When presenting facts, especially those related to regalia, the candidate is obliged to write the truth. Even if there is a temptation to paint inflated figures, for example, on sales. Or the pace of implementation of such and such solutions. An experienced HR specialist can check the achievements that a sales manager reflects in his resume without any problems. And therefore, experts advise candidates: it is better to forget to enter some facts than to indicate unreliable ones.

Incorrect wording

Experts note an interesting fact. Many candidates are confused by the terminology that requires the correct presentation of information about achievements on a resume. What types of cases are most common? Many HR specialists believe that this is either a conscious or an involuntary substitution of the concept of “achievement” with another, which sounds like “job responsibility.”

Let's study a few examples.

Many candidates write comments in their resumes like: “I performed high-quality work related to the timely sale of goods.” Or, for example: “Stably performed tasks related to software compilation.” Essentially, this is a reflection of the positions held. It is therefore extremely important to distinguish between responsibilities, functions, and achievements in your resume. Subjectivity in determining performance criteria is undesirable. It is necessary that the HR manager shares the candidate’s vision that such and such a fact is an achievement, and not a job description.

There are other interesting points of view regarding this aspect. Some experts, for example, believe that one of the criteria for recognizing a person’s achievement may be going beyond the scope of one’s job duties. Of course, if in this case we are not talking about a direct violation of production instructions. A good example: if a person, working, for example, as an office manager, encourages colleagues to take advanced training courses and organizes a joint trip to them after work. A new employer may well like this. And a manager may well reflect this fact in his resume. Achievements of this nature can significantly influence a positive decision on the selection of this candidate by the employer company.

Achievements must be relevant

An important aspect is the relevance and relevance of the facts that the candidate presents in the relevant documents. It is also important to consider from the point of view of how to correctly present achievements in a resume. What should a candidate write so that the HR manager considers the information relevant and up-to-date?

First of all, you need to pay attention to the timing. Many skills tend to be forgotten over time. For example, if a person managed to master the 1C program, for example, 4 years ago, but did not reflect in his resume the fact that he had used it until recently, then the HR manager may not count the corresponding skill. Likewise, there are skills that require practice to master reliably. That is, if a person, relatively speaking, studied the 1C program in courses literally a month before submitting a resume, then he, most likely, simply did not use it in a real production environment. And in this case, the relevance of the skill is low. The manager probably won't count it either.

Of course, information about achievements should be as closely related to the intended position for which the candidate is applying. That is, the corresponding section of the resume should be targeted. By the way, the candidate’s ability to correctly place emphasis in presenting facts related to work experience is a significant plus for the HR manager. Even if, perhaps, some information about achievements seems rather modest to an HR specialist, the very fact that they are applied to the place is likely to play a positive role for the candidate. In turn, undeniably high-quality results, but not in line with the vacancy profile, will quite possibly make the HR manager doubt the prospects of hiring the person who reflected the relevant information in the resume.

Evidence of realism

Let's study one delicate nuance. We talked above about the fact that it is unacceptable to indicate lies in your resume. However, close to the presentation of false information is the tactic of reflecting in the relevant document facts about achievements that may seem dubious to the HR manager due to their amazing effectiveness. And this despite the fact that the candidate writes the pure truth. Moreover, the remaining components - responsibilities, functions, achievements - are built into the resume very competently. How can this be?

Here everything comes down to the subjectivity of the perception of facts. The fact is that a person, working, for example, as a sales manager, increased the sales dynamics of a certain product not by 20%, but by 320%. And if he indicates the second number, then it is quite possible that the HR specialist simply will not believe him. What if this type of achievement is true? Experts advise: there is no need to be modest in any case. Facts of this kind cannot be excluded from labor achievements. But they must be accompanied by a primary evidence base - one that, at a minimum, will force the HR manager not to put the resume aside as containing clearly fictitious information.

What are the options here? It is quite acceptable, for example, to accompany a phrase that reflects figures of 320% with a comment like: “Due to the successful implementation of a combined sales technique using the SPIN method and Steve Shiffman’s strategies, it was possible to increase the company’s turnover by 320%.” It will be more believable.

Another great option is to accompany your resume with a recommendation. Ideally, from a former boss or a well-known specialist in the industry, which will reflect praise for the candidate for precisely that same 320%. Then any HR specialist, even the most conservative ones, will believe what is written in the resume. Recommendations, by the way, are an excellent addition to the corresponding document in all cases. So it won't hurt to stock up on them anyway.