It is surprising how quickly some people can forget what they achieved or play down their role in successes. Sometimes this is because you are not feeling too god about yourself. You may have lost your job, or you have been out of the work force for a long time. These are just normal reactions of a human being who have suffered so much stress. However, you must learn to recognize the symptoms if you are playing down your achievements.
Achievements’ is an important part in a resume. It helps to prove your contributions towards the organization and establish your worth as an employee. The resume puts forth your credentials and experience to show what you are capable of.
The achievements section helps the employer to know how these qualities will benefit the organization. Hence, writing the achievements section is very important to improve your chances of gaining the interview call.
Before starting to write achievements on your resume, recall your work history. At this stage, do not attempt to decide whether the information is relevant or not.
If you are going to convince an employer or recruitment consultant that you are worth inviting to an interview, you have to be able to articulate your achievements and contributions in a compelling way that will demonstrate how you have added value to the organizations for which you have worked.
In presenting your achievements use action verbs. Action verbs are powerful words when it comes to present energy, motivation and efficiency. However, try not to repeat the same action verb twice or to use synonyms in the same sentence, like: developed and designed, improved and enhanced etc.
If an achievement is not easily quantifiable, you can still provide a meaningful indication of the value of the achievement. For example: “Reduced duplication and enhanced the re-usability of test suites by improving testing and planning through discussion forums which enabled team members to share knowledge and identify areas for improvement. The general pattern is: what you did, how you did it and what happened as a result. (what, how and so what.)
The task involves what all you did and aimed to achieve. Effort includes the ways and means adopted by the applicant to achieve the target. The result should bring out how your efforts benefited the organization. Thus, the achievements sentence should be combination of all three points. Write in cause-effect format.
Putting your achievements and specifying them on your resume doesn’t mean you have to brag or embellish the truth. It does mean that you have to make sure that your next employer understands that you didn’t leave your brain at the door each day you came to work and that you applied your skills, knowledge and expertise in ways that were useful to the organizations in which you worked.
