Accomplishments or achievements in a resume refer to the section that describes the record of your technical achievements from the past jobs. An ideal resume lists precise accolades that you achieved during relevant work experiences. In fact, over 70% of hiring managers use automatic resume and applicant tracking software such as ATS to filter candidates with exclusive skills that apply to the job application.
How to Write Achievements Section in a Resume
In today’s age and achievement-focused resume attracts the best response from recruiters. While traditional job seekers are unaware of how to customize the resume to fit a specific job, you must not commit the same error.
The steps below will educate you on the necessary formats and styles of writing a winning achievement section in a professional resume.
· Differentiate Duties and Achievements in the Resume
The commonest error often seen in fresher or graduate resumes is the misplacement of duties in the achievement section.
It is true that listing routine duties may have worked well on resume achievements in the past, but the same does not apply anymore to job applications. In fact, most candidates mention generic duties in their resume achievement section, resulting in achievement – focused resumes winning the upper hand. It is important to condense your duties and mention the achievements or impacts you made because of the skills you applied in the past jobs.
· List your Relevant Achievements
The first step for making a good achievements section in your resume is by narrowing on technical achievements that are specific to the job role. It is important to eliminate irrelevant achievements in a resume as it may raise the red flag for being too wordy or lengthy as well.
Applicants must prepare a shortlist of relevant accomplishments that highlight your expertise as a fitting candidate for the position offered.
· Use Powered Action Verbs
Yet another little known secret to writing a winning achievements section in your resume is by using relevant power verbs to emphasize your qualifications.
Also called the action verbs, power verbs are verbs that add meaning to work experience and convert duties into achievements. However, it is considered derogatory to use the same verb or synonym of the verb, twice in one sentence. Moreover, beginning your work experience with an action verb is the best format for writing the achievements section in an official resume.
· Condense your Achievements with PEC Technique
Lengthy resumes are red flags to today’s hiring processes, as aforementioned. Candidates must condense lengthy paragraphs in the achievements section into short and concise phrases with technical terminology to impress the hiring manager.
Yet another way to furnish your achievements ideally is by using the PEC or Problem-Effort-Consequence, where you divide every achievement into three sections.
- Problem: List how you identified the Issue;
- Effort: List how you Rectified the Problem;
- Consequence: List the Positive or Profitable Results of the Action;
· Quantify your Accomplishments
It is important to prove to your employer that you’re well-groomed to deliver targets by adding digits to your achievements. The best way to do so is by stating the exact number of sales, percentage of progress or growth rate you achieved for your past employer.
For example, candidates can convert simple duties such as “supervised a routine day” into “Supervised and Ensured Accident-Free Working of 50 Masons and Carpenters for 300 Manhours”.
· Follow a Consistent Order in your Achievements Section
It is important to maintain a timeline or functional order when listing your park work achievements to maintain consistency in the resume for the hiring manager as well as ATS applications. An enticing way to do is by demonstrating a visible graph of your progress rate in the descending order of your achievements according to the timeline.
Simply put, any achievement that does not add to the profit or success rate of your actions is merely a duty or responsibility than an achievement.
· Focus on Personal Accomplishments ahead of Professional Traits
It is important to keep your focus on technical achievements in your resume as an individual than the professional traits to prove your expertise. Including your individual actions that led to positive results is an ideal example of how to keep the focus on personal or technical actions in the achievements section.
Ten Best Examples of Achievements Section on a Resume
From tricks to quantify as well as arrange or condense achievements, there are many ways to upgrade your resume achievements to win you the dream job. Examples of Accomplishments from latest winning Resumes are listed below:
- Monitored and Operated Windows 2003/2007 Upgrade of 1000 Servers to Exclusive Standards of Orange Mobiles.
- Restructured and Increased Sales by 14% using Accurate Budget Forecasts for O’Real Boutiques International.
- Designed and Introduced Social Media Customer Service Forum in National Food Chain that Increased Sales by 33%.
- Secured and Saved $10 Million in Packaging Costs by Introducing Environment-Friendly Recycled Paper Bags Directly from Local Paper Mills during National Plastic Ban
- Organized Music Concert in Five Days with $1 Million Dollar to Earn $4 Million Exclusively in Profits
- Reduced On-Site Accidents to 2% and Saved $1.4 Million in Insurance Costs with HSE Seminars and Supervisor Appointments
- Expanded Banking Business to Gold and Mutual Funds Expanding the Investors by $34 Million
- Best Employee of the Year Award for Managing and Improving the I Daily Productivity of Internal Staff by 30% in the Writing Department
- Earned the promotion of Lead Software Analyst from Software Intern by Demonstrating Superior Risk-Assessment and Management Skills that Saved $20 Million for the Software Security Company
- Tracked and Restructured Shipping Costs of Transport Company by Creating Product-specific Packaging that Saved $25,000 Monthly Costs
Conclusion
The accomplishments section in a resume is the core content that decides the fate of your candidacy. It is important to be concise, specific and clear in this section as it will be, reviewed and, ascertained numerous times by the hiring committee.
Lastly, it is important to maintain accuracy in your achievements section as fabricating false achievements is punishable by law, if not instant termination! As a candidate, you must not be modest, but relevant and technical in this section to captivate the hiring manager’s attention and prove your candidacy.