The Significance of Your Achievements

An achievement does not necessarily mean receiving an award or winning a contest. It certainly can be an accomplishment of this nature, but it doesn’t have to be.  We achieve things every day, but we don’t credit ourselves for it or identify it as anything worth mentioning. Granted, some of our achievements are of greater relevance than others but they are nonetheless achievements. Often coming up with notable achievements to state on a resume is as simple as merely changing the way you look at your life and what you have accomplished.

In the employment world, what constitutes an achievement is anything that can be measured and is shown to have had a degree of success or positive impact. It is something that you completed, implemented, conceived, and executed with measurable results. 

For instance, it could be that you implemented a new system which resulted in significant cost savings. Your achievement would be worded in such a way that it briefly explains what you did, and caps off by demonstrating the result. It should show how the company directly benefited or saw a positive result from something you finished. For instance: 

Saved 500 production hours by anticipating problems; presenting a technically sound alternative while maintaining the creative integrity.

Perhaps you raised the annual sales average by a significant percentage. Maybe you did it concurrently. You may know that the result not only in increased sales but in elevated standards of success among the sales team.

Advanced sales team to lead position in national sales average, resulting in 13% annual growth.

A more obvious achievement would indicate a specific event or culmination of some sort, for example: 

Received highest all-time first sale award by rookie account manager from 100 nationwide branches.

This accomplishment is punctuated by a specific event, but it is not necessarily more significant than the other examples.

A significant, well-worded achievement on a resume will state what you did, how you did it, and the positive result for the organization. That result can be measured in dollars, or in time, or in company morale.  

A resume without noted achievements is still potentially a very good resume but it will be immediately surpassed by a resume which clearly indicates to an employer how they will benefit from having you on their team. Examples of achievements speak volumes. No matter how well you say you can do something, it will have far greater impact and believability if you can show that you have done it by providing examples.