Achievements are must-have in any CV. However, many people intermingle their achievements with lengthy job descriptions and fail to make an impression on prospective employers.
Employers want to see your achievements because they connect your skills, personality, and drive. Achievements spell out the dividend an employer will get by hiring you.
But before you fill your CV with ‘achievements,’ consult with a professional CV writer to understand what employers are looking for. Then you can use these tips to highlight the relevant achievements.
What Employers Are Looking for
The whole point of employing someone is to add value to the company. Employers seek candidates who can give them the most return for the payment. That often means contributing value to the organization’s objectives. Employers look to hire people who can: solve problems, boost revenues, reduce costs, enhance productivity, generate ideas, enhance end-user satisfaction.
Including relevant achievements in your CV helps employers to connect the person to the role, and see the value add.
Here’s more on how to highlight your achievements.
Be Succinct
Don’t waste space or bore the recruiter with long narratives of what you’ve achieved. If you can’t state your achievement in three or fewer sentences, then don’t mention it. Or work with a professional CV writer to help you cut down the words.
All your achievements should be clear and concise statements.
Load Each Statement with What You Did and The Resultant Benefit
This is sort of a contradiction, but you are to load each “concise” statement with what you contributed and the resulting impact or benefit.
Start the statement with a positive verb like promoted, or improved. Then follow it up with a brief description of the subject, for instance, customer satisfaction or management resources. And close with your contribution like: by introducing a new customer relationship management system.
The end statement will be like this: Improved customer satisfaction by developing a new customer relationship management system.
Use Facts and Figures as Much as Possible
Arbitrary statements don’t have a lot of meaning to prospective employers. You should use facts and statistics to support your achievements.
If you cannot quantify an achievement, don’t have the CV writer mention it.
Use numbers, and percentages to paint a more vivid image of the impact of your contribution. Remember, these figures must be specific to you. Not a team or the organization in general and they must have a direct link to your contribution.
Also, be ready to extensively talk about these achievements in an interview. If you are not, don’t include it in the CV.
Show the Impact of Your Contribution to the Organization or Team
The achievements you write must connect not just with the recruiter, but to the entire organization. You should include a description of the impact made by your contribution to the unit or entire organization. If you reorganized a process and it resulted in better efficiency or improved productivity, how did it translate to cost reduction or improved sales?
Your contribution should have an impact on the organization or team.
Working with a professional CV writer will help you to highlight your achievements. Look closely through your work experience and plan to include at least six achievements.
