How to Write Achievements (the Right Way) On Your CV

Listing achievements is what differentiates the top candidates from the rest.

See, most job-seekers only talk about their responsibilities and day-to-day tasks.

But that’s not what’s going to make you stand out.

The employer knows exactly what responsibilities you have for your profession. After all, they’re the one that wrote your job description!

Instead, to really get ahead of the competition, you should talk about your achievements and greatest accomplishments.

This way, your CV is focused on how you stand out and not on what your job title is.

How To Write Your Achievements On Your CV

The work experience section of your CV is the part where you should list your accomplishments. 

This, after the skills section of your CV, is the most crucial component of your whole job application. You need to turn your responsibilities into achievements. 

Sound difficult and time-consuming? Don’t worry. There’s an easy formula to do it in no time.

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Let’s break down the three key steps to turning your responsibilities to achievements 

1. Use action verbs

 Begin each CV bullet point with a verb in active voice. Don’t say you were “responsible for doing this and that.” Say that you “did” it. Simple as that. For example, Negotiated (action verb) with office supplies vendors (specific duty), saving the company KES 100,000 annually (quantified achievement).

2. Use the Problem-Action-Result method for each CV bullet

For example: Commended for creating the in-house newsletter to communicate management’s vision. Reduced email back-and-forth by 35%.

Problem? Poor internal communication. Action? In-house newsletter. Result? Back-and-forth emailing was reduced by over one third.

3. Quantify whenever possible

Numbers pop and make your CV’s  job description more believable.

When possible, each of your achievements should include:

a. Timeframe

Over what timeframe did you work on the task? For example, “Increased customer satisfaction rate within 3 months of employment at Company X”

How many times a week did you work on this task? E.g. “Talked to 50+ customers on a daily basis”

b. Scale

How many people did you manage/work with? For example, “Managed a team of 5 software engineers to develop software solutions for clients.” or “Worked with a team of 6 to create marketing campaigns for Company X.”

c. Results

When possible, you should also include the results that followed your achievements. For example if you are a stock controller you could say “Successfully negotiated a 7% discount on all products and goods resulting in total savings of KES 26,000 per month.”

What If I Don’t Have the Data?

Any numbers that help estimate the impact of your work have to appear in your CV  job description bullets.

You might be thinking. “That looks great and all, but I just don’t work with hard numbers that much.”

You do. Just try to think about your day-to-day work in the form of timeframe, scale and results like we have talked about above.

Moving forward we’d recommend really keeping track of your results and achievements in your current or next job.

You’ll thank us for it later!

Finally,

Listing achievements instead of bullet points of your day-to-day responsibilities can really boost your chances of getting hired.

Your CV achievements give the employer an overview of your strengths and unique selling points; encouraging them to seriously consider your application and invite you for a job interview.

If you’re having difficulty writing your achievements, don’t hesitate to reach out to professional CV writers as you will get a free CV review with your enquiry!