Accomplishments statements can be used to elaborate on and liven up relevant task descriptions. However, the main purpose for accomplishment statements is to show your value proposition as it relates to the job you are trying to attract.
Why do you have to show your value prop on your resume?
Because you need your resume to stand out from the pack. Let’s face it. Whether we’re in an employer’s market or an employee’s market, the talent pool continues to be very deep and wide. You are competing with active AND passive job seekers, which explains why employers receive an average of 200-250 resumes when they post a job.
So, it seems that we’ve arrived at a time when it’s not enough to simply state your education credentials and work experience. You need to do more than outline the tasks you performed and the responsibilities you held in the past. When there’s so much talent and credentials to choose from out there, the employer needs to be convinced that you can make the most impact with their organization. You can start that process of attracting their interest in you by showing your value prop on your resume.
The main way you can make this happen is to develop accomplishment statements for your resume.
First, let’s look at what accomplishment statements should do. They should:
– Show how you impact the bottom line and/or impact productivity using quantifiable numbers whenever possible.
– Show your career achievements such as awards, patents, publications, etc.
– Show how you went outside the usual scope of the job.
Now it’s time to show you how to develop your accomplishment statements.
To compose succinct statements that get your point across in an efficient manner so that you don’t take up too much room on the page, start with the SAR formula:
Situation
Action
Resume
Describe a situation in which you had to use your expertise, skills or unique value/aptitude to prove the point you’re making in your summary. When have you impacted money and/or time for your team, customers, company, etc.? What examples do you have of how you went outside the scope of your job? It might help you to look at your task descriptions to find material for this part, too.
Next, explain the actions you took during this situation, using past-tense action verbs. Try to use a variety. Starting almost every statement with “Managed this” and “Managed that” gets to be tiresome after a while, and it shows a lack of imagination. Mix it up with other appropriately matched words when you can, such as “Directed,” “Led,” “Facilitated,” etc.
Stumped on what action verbs to use on your resume? Check out LiveCareer.com (formerly QuintCareers.com), which has one of the best action verb lists I’ve seen. Here’s the link to their list “by skills sets”: https://www.livecareer.com/career/advice/jobs/action-skills
Okay, so now we come to the last part of the formula… and the main meat of the accomplishment statement. State the results. Write down what came out of the situation and your actions that show your value. I had previously mentioned using numbers at all possible. Absolutely, do it if you can. Numbers, percentage signs, currency symbols are easy to spot. They attract the eye of the reader. And even if you don’t have the numbers, there’s always impact so be sure to claim whatever you can. If there was a goal, even if you don’t state the specific goal, at least state that you met or exceeded the goal.
Examples with numbers:
- Developed and launched program accelerator and the first cohort comprised of 22 rising leaders. Surpassed qualified applicant goal by 150% and achieved $22K goal through successful promotional efforts.
- Wrote scripts, created visuals, and recorded on-demand programs that have been used by 100,000+ people worldwide.
- Created marketing content that increased social media engagement by 25% in less than 2 months for 9 brands for ABC Company.
- Surpassed sales over previous year by 33% during a market-wide recession by creatively modifying processes, quickly obtaining new knowledge, and stepping up to manage a special outreach project outside the usual scope.
Examples without numbers:
- Ranked in the “exceeds standard” category on every quarterly and annual scorecard based on client evaluations.
- Identified issues and implemented full containment throughout manufacturing, supply chain, and customer sites, which prevented customer down time.
- Improved morale after personnel changes across several units by emphasizing successes, increasing the number of team building events, and developing one-on-one relationships with each employee.
Now that you have some fabulous accomplishment statements, where do you put them?
I suggest you follow this rule when considering the layout of your resume in general:
– Tell in the summary section.
– Show throughout the resume.
I’ll break that down for you…
In the summary you will tell them about yourself, giving them a snapshot of the professional you are as of this moment in your career. (Naturally, you would tell them what they need to know as it pertains to the job you’re seeking.) You set the first impression there. This is not typically where you’ll put your accomplishment statements. However, you might have a special section under the summary where you will list them. More about that in a minute…
After you tell them about yourself in the summary, next you’ll show them how you did what you just told them about in the summary.
Tell, then show.
Imagine that your resume is a product brochure, and the top portion of your resume is the front cover of the brochure showing a word picture describing you, the product. You hook the reader’s interest there so that the reader will be compelled to “open” the brochure and learn more about this intriguing product.
Effective Placement of Accomplishment Statements
A moment ago, I mentioned setting up a special section of achievements under the summary, meaning it would be sandwiched between the summary statements and the work history. It could be given a header such as “Selected Achievements” or “Notable Accomplishments” or “Career Highlights.” Setting up a special section is usually advised when you want to bring out certain competencies that you have but haven’t demonstrated recently. So, this section appearing at the top of the resume helps to bring content from further down in the resume. That’s why the special section approach is also advised for a career-changing resume.
If you’re not trying to do anything fancy in your job search, meaning that you are looking for something pretty similar to what you’ve been doing in your current or previous role, then sprinkling accomplishment statements into the work history section is the way to go.
By now you should be able to distinguish the difference between a plain role description and an accomplishment statement. When you look at a statement that describes your role, it’s probably telling the reader stuff that anyone who’s qualified could step in to do and would be responsible for in the organization. An accomplishment statement, however, shows how you have made your mark on that role for the organization.
Alright, time to analyze your resume to see if you have accomplishment statements in there. If not, get to work adding some immediately. Make your resume stand out from the pack and go from average to memorable.