Including your achievements and accomplishments are a testament to your abilities, capabilities, skills, and commitment. Accomplishments are a result of your actions; hence they should be highlighted. Mentioning your achievements in extracurricular activities and education is also a must to further strengthen your resume.
What are personal accomplishments?
Personal accomplishments include your achievements in education, personal, and professional life by overcoming obstacles and achieving something that is beyond what is demanded from you. They can range from receiving awards, winning some competitions, achieving high grades in studies, volunteering, participating in sports events, etc. All the efforts which helped the company to save time and money, increased performance, facilitated growth, and met the targets are examples of professional accomplishments.
What are the benefits of including your accomplishments in the resume?
Your past performance is an indication of your future commitment to work. Generally, employers tend to gravitate towards a resume that is accomplishment-based.
How to write personal accomplishments in the resume?
There are two separate ways to write your accomplishments in the resume. One way to do it is to write it in a separate section called Achievements. It is the most common way of presenting your accomplishments. The other way is to include it across different sections in the resume. For example, your educational achievements should be added in the education section, your professional achievements should be included in the work experience section, and so on.
Take the time to think back on life and make a list of your accomplishments over the years. These accomplishments could be related to your personal or professional life or education. Also, do not add accomplishments that would have no relevance to your job position. For example, a dancing competition won when in school while applying for the job of a financial analyst.
You don’t have to include all you have achieved in the resume. Prioritize your accomplishments that would make you a strong candidate for getting short-listed. You should add your top three accomplishments in the resume.
The last step is to write it. While writing the accomplishments, remember to be specific. Try to quantify your accomplishments by using numbers and figures. Use bullet points instead of writing in a paragraph. Also, while writing accomplishments, use action verbs.
Examples of personal accomplishments
Elected as a class presidentElected as a project managerWon the early bird submission award for an assignmentParticipated in the science fair and won the third prizeAchieved three GCSEs at an A* grade
Completed a marathon for charityLearned a new programming languageElected captain of a football team
Over a year, I published six scholarly pieces on themes connected to bankruptcy litigation in prestigious legal online publications. Implemented a file system for human resources, categorizing over 300 previous and present employee paperwork, above and beyond my responsibilities as an office administrator.
How to list awards as personal accomplishments?
An award always shines positively on your resume. You can either include your awards in the work experience section. After describing your roles and duties in a particular company, you should mention the award in the key achievement section.
Or, if you are a holder of multiple awards then you can have a separate section that lists your awards in reverse chronological order. Write only the award name and the year and group the awards by their specific industries.
Conclusion
Writing accomplishments in the resume is a great way to make your resume stand out from the rest. Your achievements would give your employer an overview of who you are as a person and also highlight your strengths and unique selling points.
Can scholarships be added as accomplishments?
Yes, scholarships awarded to students would come with your educational accomplishments.
How to turn job duties into accomplishments?
For this, quantify your results. For example, don’t just write “increased sales of the company”; frame it like this; “Helped achieve the 20% growth in sales that was over the set target of 15% for the year.”
Can I mention my accomplishments in the career summary?
Yes, you can. But a career summary would not allow you to elaborate on your achievements because a summary is supposed to be a short introduction of five lines at best. Hence, it is better to write it in work experience or have a separate section for this which would give you enough space to highlight your result and what you have accomplished.
