3 Must Read Tips On How to Write Achievements in Your CV

By Selipha Kihagi,

While having a professional CV that is well formatted is the first step towards getting the interview, how you write your achievements in the CV is even more important. Recruiters and employers are always looking to hire someone who can deliver beyond expectation and including your achievements will help confirm that.

So how do you ensure that recruiters and hiring managers are able to spot your achievements in only the few seconds they spend with your CV? The trick is to place them in sections they will have to look at.

But before you even start to write your achievements, you need to understand what they are. Most people confuse awards for achievements and even put in their duties in place of achievements. Your achievements are anything you did in your previous or current job that made a positive impact on the company or client.

It is anything you helped create, initiate, improve or design for the benefit of the company and that is not part of your responsibilities. If you are still confused, here is an example of achievements to highlight.  Now that we have the concept of achievements out of the way, below is how to write your achievements.

Writing Achievements in Your CV:

1.List achievements below the duties & responsibilities for each position

When employers and recruiters are selecting candidates for a job interview, they will always give your work experience priority. This then means that the work experience section in your CV becomes the most important. So, to make sure you impress the person scrutinizing your CV, list the achievements below your main duties for each position held. The achievements you list should be minimal (at most 3) and recent; not what you did 5 years ago.

 

2. Use numbers and figures to write your achievements

Employers always have a way of measuring the productivity of their employees regardless of the profession. It could be increasing sales in percentages, reducing costs in figures, bringing in more clients in numbers and increasing efficiency. Whatever your profession is, there is usually a way to quantify results and that is what recruiters want to see under your achievements.

For example; “I helped develop and implement a customer service program that significantly reduced the number of unhappy customers in one month” or “I created an online marketing campaign that helped increase sales by 35%”

 

3. Write your achievements in bullet form

Most people make the mistake of listing their responsibilities in paragraph form and thereby their achievements also in a paragraph. The reality is no employer or recruiter is going to read through the paragraph to try and make out what your work experience is. So always list your duties and achievements in bullet points.

Also, like earlier mentioned, your achievements should be just below the duties for each position. You also don’t want to seem like you are bragging so focus on the most important achievements, the rest you can talk about during the interview.

Bottom-line

Anyone who has worked for at least 1 year has achievements to show for. Just because you do not work in the sales department where you can say you increased sales doesn’t mean you do not have achievements. Improving customer satisfaction, growing numbers of social media followers, having no defects in your duties as a technician or even improving office efficiency as an administrative assistant are also counted as achievements.