It is the accomplishments on your resume that trigger an interview; it sets you apart from your competitors and gives potential employers a reason to consider you over others with similar qualifications.
An accomplishment is a way in which you solved a workplace challenge and what the solution meant to your employer. Use this 3-step method for turning challenges into achievements:
🔥 IDENTIFY SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES. Think back through your career to the times when your company, team or project faced difficult situations that had a potentially negative effect on bottom-line business. Identify what was at stake? Why was the issue critical? How much business was affected by the issue? Take a systematic approach & identify challenges for every few years of employment.
🔥WHAT WAS YOUR PART IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM? Think back to how you helped solve them. You may have worked alone or as part of a group. Perhaps you coordinated between diverse functional groups to facilitate the solution. Be specific about the technology you used, skills involved and steps you took toward fixing the problem. Did you introduce a new procedure or create a better way of processing information? Did you use technology? Did you automate routine tasks? Did you train your team on a new process? Did you take on added responsibilities to ensure the task was completed?
🔥WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF YOUR EFFORT? Think about the outcome of the action taken. What did it mean to your employer? What did your company get out of it? Did you save your department time? Did your solution lead to cutting costs? Were you able to identify new revenue opportunities? Did you free up time for your boss? Did you help others to work more efficiently? How many persons within the organization were affected by your work? It adds credibility if you can quantify most of your results.
Finally, put all this information together in concise statements that sell your skills. Keep the statements in a single line.
While the challenge and results should be highlighted, you should leave the action taken for the interview stage. By doing this, you are enticing potential employers, who are eager to learn how you can help solve their problems as well and will call you for an interview.
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