Section 9: List Your Achievements in the Resume

What person would you choose if you were an employer?
A person with past record, achievements, who accomplished something in his career or someone who fulfilled duties, tasks and “was responsible for” – You will undoubtedly prefer a result oriented persona.

As mentioned in the first sections, put your best assets at the beginning of your resume.
Highlight your greatest achievements as the best ingredients to demonstrate your suitability for  the job.

For example, if your previous projects achieved their targets, state these facts. List these target goals as a quality record prove about you. If you don’t bore the reader and give him what s/he wants to read, s/he gets interested in you and calls you for the job interview – it’s as simple as that. The employer would want to hear about your success stories, because s/he assumes that you may perform the same when working for him!

If you write in term of achievements you prove in the most effective way that you have the required competencies, you are motivated, self-aware and that you’re a performer. What else do you need to communicate to the reader?

Types of achievements
The section which lists achievement in a resume (professional experience mostly), has to show progress or enhancement, such as:

• An organizational problem that you solved.
• Any initiative that led to constant benefits, high revenues or improved quality.
• Any positive difference that you have made in sales numbers, costs and profits?
• Any successful project that increased the company’s reputation.

Quantify your achievements
It will be convenient for the reader to evaluate your achievement using numbers. Therefore, try to specify numbers for any achievement if possible.

It is because numbers project transparency and a measurable indication of success.
For instance-

• If you saved time, write how much time you saved – Time is money.
• If you improved annual sales, provide figures to showcase the revenue increase.
• If you improved QA, provide numbers – good quality saves money.

Therefore, when listing your resume achievements, use numbers or percentages to describe them.

Use action verbs
Action verbs are powerful words when it comes to presenting energy, motivation and efficiency. However, try not to repeat the same action verb twice or use synonyms in the same sentence, like: developed and designed, improved and enhanced etc.

Sample Resume Achievements

• Saved $15 million annually by reducing fixed spending by 10% and variable overhead spending by 19% through a variety of cost-improvement initiatives through better utilization of resources.
• Developed and implemented client service program, which expanded small-to-medium client base by 35%.

Cut product replacement cost by 50% and increased on-time delivery from 80% to 95% using Kaizen approach to quality issues rooted in manufacturing.