Do you struggle identifying accomplishments for your résumé?
Many job seekers struggle to articulate accomplishments in their résumés. While some people are natural boasters, others are not. However, accomplishments are a key element of an effective résumé.
Asking questions about what you have done is a great way to help identify key accomplishments. Below are 30 questions that can help you identify accomplishments to include in your résumé. Note, not all accomplishments are relevant to your job search. Use the most relevant accomplishments for the positions for which you plan to apply.
30 Questions to Identify Accomplishments
- Have you directly or indirectly increased sales of goods or services?
- Did you increase the company’s profits or profit margins? If so, by how much and over what period?
- Have you launched new products or services? What results were associated with the success of the launch?
- Did you positively impact any profit and loss results?
- Were you part of an R&D initiative, where new products or techniques were developed? If so, what did you develop and what was the value of it to the business, customers or users?
- Did you decrease company expenses or costs? If so, how and by how much?
- Have you implemented technology that improved sales, services or processes? If so, what did you implement and how did it help the organization, users or customers?
- Did you reengineer any processes or workflows? If so, what value did it deliver to the business, users or customers?
- Did you have any ideas or recommendations that were implemented by your leadership team?
- Did you increase levels of customer service, value realization or retention? If so, how and to what extent?
- Did you improve, expand or implement policies or procedures?
- Have you led any successful special projects or major initiatives?
- Were you a participant in any focus or brainstorming groups?
- Did you identify any errors that saved time, money or brand image?
- Did you create or improve on any forms, dashboards or spreadsheets for better reporting or monitoring?
- Did you meet or exceed any personal goals, timelines or metrics?
- Have you led a team that exceeded goals, SLAs or other metrics?
- Did you hire and/or train new employees, or expand a department or program’s team? If so, how did this add value to the organization?
- Did you improve morale, collaboration or team culture?
- Have you streamlined any functions or processes?
- Did you influence marketing initiatives that drove customer demand or improved brand awareness or value?
- Have you acted as a liaison between departments or business units that improved efficiency or cross-functional communication?
- Did you resolve a problem without a significant increase in resources, such as time, money or staff?
- Did you create or generate data or reports that supported or enabled better decision making? If so, how did this help management?
- Did you create or facilitate presentations, trainings or webinars? If so, what gain did that provide the business, customers or other team members?
- Did you improve compliance with internal or external requirements? If so, what was the value to the business? What risks did you mitigate?
- Did you directly contribute to increased revenue, ROI or profits? If so, how?
- Have you received any awards or formal recognition for your performance or leadership?
- Did you earn a promotion?
- Were you given additional responsibilities or assigned mentoring duties?
When possible, use data to support your accomplishments. If you are concerned about divulging potentially confidential information, be cautious in how you word things. For example, you can use percentages instead of dollar amounts. While not every accomplishment needs supporting data, it is beneficial to include some data points.
