Résumé Guidelines Part One - Achievements

Résumé writing is an important part of the assessment process. Your résumé is essentially a list of your achievements. It requires you to review all that you've done so far. Creating and reviewing your achievements reveals your strengths. It also prepares you for interviews.

List Your Achievements

Think about your past jobs, extracurricular activities and volunteer work. Ask yourself:

  • What can I do better than anyone else?
  • When did I take the initiative?
  • Was I promoted? How often?
  • Did I win awards, e.g., Employee of the Month?
  • Did I get good performance reviews?
  • Have I received complimentary letters from customers or coworkers?
  • Have I produced anything tangible (e.g., a publication or product)?
  • Did I finish a major project on time and under budget?
  • Did I start some system that improved efficiency?
  • Did I participate in my company's employee suggestion program?
  • Have I saved the company time or money?
  • Did I work with someone important, e.g., the vice president of company?
  • What are the 10 greatest accomplishments of my life and what skills did I use to achieve them?
  • Was I recognized for excellent attendance?
  • Did I file all the forms daily so that there was no backlog?
  • Did I complete tasks in less time than expected?

Write Your Statements

Now comes the actual writing process. Each sentence should contain these three components:

  • Challenge: a problem or opportunity
  • Action: what steps you took to meet the challenge
  • Results: what happened (using dollars, time, percentages or amounts)

Your achievement statements should be brief and always begin with an action word, as the examples in the box below illustrate.

EXAMPLE ACHIEVEMENT STATEMENTS

Here are some examples of achievement statements. Notice how using numbers gives them more impact.

  • Developed a new employee orientation program that 100% of the company locations adopted.
  • Responded to over 85 customer calls daily and solved 90% of their concerns.
  • Submitted over 500 construction bids annually and was awarded 90% of the contracts.
  • Served customers in a positive way, receiving two customer service awards in the past year.
  • Assisted credit manager in account collection by phone and mail, increasing accounts receivables by 20%.
  • Co-chaired a series of blood drives in the local area, netting over 1200 units of usable blood.
  • Created a multi-media campaign that increased enrollment by 700 students in eight years.

See Action Word List.