How to write achievements in resume effectively?
After all it's what will differentiate you from the rest of the candidates.
Statistics have shows that most job candidates only talk about their responsibilities in their resume. It may work for an entry level professional, but it certainly would not work for more experienced professionals.
Hiring managers look for your key skills and achievements in your resume, so that they can trust your capabilities.
So, instead of mindlessly writing about your your responsibilities, take a pause, and identify your greatest accomplishments in your past jobs, and write that in your resume.
It's the only way to stand apart from other candidates.
In this blog, we will tell you:
- Why Should you add accomplishments on resume?
- How to list achievements on resume?
- Where do you put your achievements in resume?
- What to do if you don't have the achievement data?
- How to List achievements if you don't have experience?
- A list of 60+ resume accomplishments for different profiles
Why Should You Add Accomplishments on Resume?
Your accomplishments gives the recruiters a clear picture of what you have done in your previous jobs.
Let's see an example:
Which one do you thing a recruiter will prefer?
The first example shows, exactly how much you've saved, and what you did to save the cost. It definitely makes you a valuable candidate
The second example vaguey tells that you've saved cost in your previous organization. It did not give any statistics. So, it's hard for recruiter to gauge your importance, even if you did a good job in your past organization.
Where Do You Put Your Achievements in Resume?
There are two major places where you can list your achievements:
- Work experience section
- Resume summary
- Dedicated Achievement Section
Achievement in Resume Work Experience Section
This is the most-practiced way to add accomplishments in resume. Given below, is an example:
Achievement in Resume Summary
Resume summary is also a good place to add your accomplishment, but here you can only add the most significant achievement to grab the recruiter's interests.
Achievement in a Separate Resume Achievement Section
If you have a lot of achievements, then you can create a dedicated section for your achievements in resume.
Example:
How to List Achievements on Resume?
Writing a perfect achievement list for resume may look difficult.
But it doesn't have to be.
We have developed the perfect system to create resume achievement points to list achievements in resume.
It is a simple STAR-based format:
- You display the Situation
- You note the Task
- You explain your Action
- And you justify the Result
Basically, a STAR point justifies how your Action about a certain Task in a given Situation yielded an excellent Result.
Here are some Examples of achievements on resume:
- Achieved model accuracy up to 95% (i.e., AUC from ROC curve) and increased F-1 score by 83% via U-Net algorithm
- Reduced overall cycle time by 4 seconds and bolstered process efficiency to increase revenue by USD 900 K per annum
- Recognized by the client for possessing SAP expertise, endorsed for H1B visa initiation & secured flex-time, vouchers, etc.
What to do If You Don't Have the Achievement Data?
- The best way to get your achievement data is by keeping a track on it by yourself.
- Set up an excel sheet or anything of your choice, and track the KPIs, for your company as well as yourself.
- The KPIs can change depending on the job you're doing
If you haven't tracked your impact, don't worry. You can reach out to your previous employer, and they are happy to send the data over to you. But Ideally this should be done at your own end.
How to List Achievements on Resume if You Have No Work Experience
If you're a student or do not have previous work experiences, you may include resume accomplishments from other aspects of your student life or extramural activities relevant to the target job.
A few good accomplishments on resume examples might include volunteering roles and good academic records.
For more resume achievements, try the following:
- Highlighting initiatives you have taken
- Quantifying the amount raised for charity
- Explaining how you made a difference while serving a community
- Leading a student team for a project
- Elaborating awards won and the values that they added
Examples of Achievement on resume for students:
Maintained a 3.61 GPA while playing with the college volleyball team
Taught 20+ kids English and Mathematics in a Volunteer Home
100+ Resume Accomplishments You Can Use
Finance Achievement Examples
Accountant
- Managed a financial team of 10+ employees for increasing efficiency in the department by 20%
- Balanced a budget of USD 2M with cost-saving strategies by ~25% YoY
- Authorized ~1000 vendor payments & invoices to ~100k customers/month
Bank Teller
- Processed Teller Cash Dispensers (TCDs) and Teller Cash Recyclers (TCRs) totaling USD ~100,000
- Secured highest customer satisfaction scores in branch history by reducing the average wait time by ~25%
- Facilitated timely filing of 200+ customer transaction receipts on a daily basis by streamlining operations
Investment Banker
- Secured debt of USD 50 million to acquire assets worth USD 200 million in Europe
- Secured an investment of USD 45 million from German clients to fund multiple infrastructure projects
- Implemented 5+ financing strategies leading to a 30% increase in the projected return on investment
Information Technology Examples
Software Developer
- Developed an online training platform to increase enrollment by 50+ in all courses per year.
- Launched a digitized filing system to increase staff attendance for boosting overall efficiency by 40%
Data Science & Deep Learning
- Achieved a reduction in downtime on Salad Production Line by 5% by deploying Six Sigma Methodology (DMAIC)
- Awarded the Best in-house Machine Programming Director (Production) for delivering the best performance in a quarter
- Successfully reduced cycle time by 3 seconds/output to streamline production cycle & increase revenue by USD 2.5 M
- Reduced dependence on foreign vendors by performing in-house machine programming to save USD 20,000 in costs
AWS Solution Architecture
- Evaluated 5+ proposals daily & recommended the best technical solutions to migrate the application to AWS
- Created the architecture and created the Cloud Formation template to facilitate deployment
- Provided complete infrastructure solution to 30+ clients including configuration, BOM of Server & Storage components
Also Read:How to write a AWS solution architecture resume in 2022?
Cyber Security Analyst
- Collaborated with the security team of 15 to develop security policies, perform tests, and uncover network vulnerabilities
- Detected intrusion & deployed software technologies like C, C++, PHP, Perl, Java & Shell while performing malware analysis
Business Examples
Business Development Associate
- Appointed in charge of 10 London Corporate Clients including the Brighton Group, Potter LLC etc.
- Achieved the highest YoY revenue growth of 25% among competition, ’13 – ’14
- Awarded the 'Employee of the Month' in Dec '14 among 300+ employees
Also Read:How to write a business development associate resume in 2022?
Business Analyst
- Advising the game development team on increasing user engagement and indulging more adults into gaming
- Conducted an extensive research through 50+ white papers and published papers by industry thought leaders
- Continuously suggesting tweaks and new features to improve engagement by 29% & retention by 34%
Data Analyst
- Played a key role in generating USD 8 million in ad revenue by preparing data sets & creating dashboards to boost sales
- Conferred with the Superstar Award '17 out of 500+ Analysts for rendering outstanding data processing services for all stakeholders
- Published a paper on 'Data Visualization Best Practices' to standardize training for new recruits
Healthcare Example
Junior Clinical Psychology Professional
- Gained key insights on the difference between patients' vs. their family's perspectives on the problem by working in the IPD
- Developed key skill of educating clients & their families on the condition to facilitate better prognosis
- Gained hands-on experience in the psycho-oncology department to develop an understanding of cancer patients' psychology
- Developed understanding of the importance of colour & creativity in therapy because of undertaking art therapy sessions
Medical Assistant
- Ensured accurate EHR documentation for all visits leading to reduced errors in documentation by 30%
- Administered the documentation, management and update of patient information according to HIPAA regulations
- Prepared blood samples for laboratory tests and recorded the vital signs of 30+ patients in a day
Registered Nurse
- Have taken care of the proper care and recovery of 10k+ patients over the past 9 years
- Communicated with 100+ individuals to gain an understanding of the requirements and re-positioning immobile residents
- Employed safe work practices and led the training to 5 newly recruited Nursing Assistants
Project Management Example
Product Life-cycle Management
- Played a key role in the development & launch of Network Attached Storage (NAS) products at BDC
- Expedited the development of first server platform at BDC as a critical member of the care team
- Enabled transition of sustenance operations engineering for 3 server products, 3 Direct Attach products & RAID controllers
- Negotiated and reviewed business contracts with key customer accounts for boosting business growth to ~USD 50 M
- Managed inventory worth USD 35 M and complied with the OTS and LTA metrics w.r.t. customer's account.
Project Manager
- Achieved a 15% reduction in costs annually by recognizing & minimizing risks in the buyout process
- Writing and distributing bid packages amounting to 8% of total production costs
- Recruited ~400 technicians and provided remote support to technicians in the field
For the same professional, it may be important to club scholastic achievements together:
Frequently Asked Questions
How to List Achievements on a Resume?
Simply prioritize your most significant achievements first. You may list your achievements
- respective to each profile, or
- club all achievements in one section.
How to Write Achievements in a Resume for an Experienced Professional?
As an experienced professional, you must keep your achievements relevant to the target profile. Also:
- club them together if they are similar
- write them respective to their profiles if there are spaces
Maintain the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) point formation.
What to Put Under Accomplishments on a Resume?
Only write STAR points that are quantifiable and highlight your capabilities, making your worth evident to the hiring manager.
What Are Some Accomplishments to Put on a Resume?
A few accomplishments on resume examples has been listed across the article. You shall find a repository of resume achievements in our examples.
Key Takeaways
It is not enough to put together your roles and responsibilities in your resume.
Corporate companies receive an average of 250+ resumes in response to one job opening.
Therefore your accomplishments resume should be results-oriented rather than responsibilities-oriented.
Many profiles may have similar responsibilities. So your resume achievements section showcases the exact skills you have to do the job.
Don't be too modest. But make sure to put a significant list of achievements on your resume.
Your achievements are listed differently from your team achievements.
Follow the Cause-Effect formula to provide the most impact. First, list what you did, then back it with quantifiable results.
Maintain the following key points while listing your resume accomplishments
- Traditional Formatting
- Easy Readability
- Be Selective
- Quantify your resume accomplishments
- Send a Message about your Personality
- Proofread for Spelling and Grammar
Go to Hiration career platform, which has 24/7 chat support, and get professional assistance with all your job & career-related queries. You can also write to us at support@hiration.com.
