By posting his resume on a recruiting portal, the applicant expects that he will soon start receiving calls from employers. But it happens that this does not happen, and there are no invitations to interviews or there are very few of them. Obviously, the problem lies in the content of the resume - the candidate failed to interest the recruiters.
This situation can be changed by your professional achievements. How can you do this so that the recruiter has a desire to invite you to personal meeting? Read the tips.
The main thing is specificity
For example, consider the resume of the head of the sales department, discussed on our portal. We read the description of the candidate’s achievements last place work - in the Russian representative office of an international concern for the production of PVC profiles.
"Main achievements:
- ensuring sustainable growth of turnover in the region;
- maintaining all key clients during the crisis;
- increasing the efficiency of the regional sales department;
- implementation current system balanced indicators."
The author is perplexed: why don’t recruiters invite him to interviews? He has serious experience in sales - almost 15 years, he has higher education and even an MBA degree. But the fact is that, when drawing up a resume, the applicant made a very common mistake - he made it too typical. A resume with a list of responsibilities and achievements typical for a given position does not stand out among dozens or hundreds of similar CVs. How can a recruiter discern behind the many words that this is a truly valuable specialist?
To attract the attention of hiring managers, you need to be as convincing as possible about your professional achievements. In this case, the main thing is specificity: name specific numbers, give real examples of your initiatives. There is no need for general phrases like: “sustainable sales growth”; “increasing the efficiency of the department.” It is much more useful to provide concrete evidence of how effectively you worked. Three or four points (but convincing ones) will be enough to make your resume work.
For example, the head of the sales department can indicate in the “Achievements” section how much he managed to increase the level of sales over a certain period of work in the company, how many clients he attracted, which tenders for the supply of goods or services were won. PR manager - how many mentions of the company in the media occurred with his participation, how this figure increased over the entire period of work, how many press conferences were organized, for example, during last year what was their effectiveness? The head of the IT department should mention, for example, the successful implementation from scratch of a new production automation system, which speeded up the work of the design department by 30%. To the journalist - about victory in creative competition, about the great activity of readers in discussing his articles, etc.
Here is an example of a successful description of professional achievements in a resume for the position of sales director:
“- building a sales service for the company’s services from scratch;
- annual sales growth in 2012 - 350%, in 2011 - 270%;
- attracting more than 100 clients, including 40 companies with a staff of over 150 people;
- victory in 15 tenders.”
Let trade secrets remain secrets
Of course, the exact numbers of your successes can convince the recruiter that you really are efficient worker. However, does an applicant always have the right to indicate specific financial indicators in his resume? The employer is unlikely to be happy to see that former employee discloses trade secret company, and such an employee is unlikely to receive good recommendations.
However, it is possible to convincingly describe achievements without naming exact numbers, but still remaining specific. Use phrases like: “by 30%”, “by 2 times” to show the degree of your effectiveness. It is advisable to indicate the period during which impressive results were achieved - six months, a year or more.
If you have nothing to brag about yet
Availability of information about the applicant’s work results and professional achievements increases his value in the eyes of the recruiter. But what to write in the “Achievements” section for those who, due to the specifics of their work, cannot boast of “increased efficiency”, “increased citations” and “victories in competitions”? That is, those whose job involves performing the same duties every day, such as office managers, dispatchers, or payroll accountants?
In such cases, experts advise focusing on your reliability and ability to ensure uninterrupted and high-quality continuous work. Try to prove with reason that in your work the lack emergency situations- already a significant achievement.
Of course, the “Achievements” section of a resume can tell a recruiter a lot about a candidate. After all, behind the numbers that convincingly speak of professional victories, one can see the analytical mind of the applicant, and his ability to prove his point of view, and determination. And this, in turn, can make the path to your dream job shorter and easier.
Each person has his own scale of values. That's why someone your achievements in life may seem insignificant. But we're talking about not about them, but about you.
Why do we constantly have to turn to others, listen to other people’s opinions, think every minute about public feedback, afraid of making an unnecessary awkward move? The main thing is to your achievements in life were important to you.
Everything depends on ourselves. For some it is gold medal at school, a diploma with honors at the institute, the title of employee of the month, but some do not consider these indicators of success.
Let's try to figure out what life and professional achievements are in general.
Achievement is most often called a certain positive result, success in something. But this is where the universal concept of achievement ends. And then there are continuous disagreements.
Firstly, they distinguish qualitative and quantitative categories of success and achievements, because, according to some, nothing better than numbers does not record success.
The numbers always speak for themselves. Many people, when mentioning the phrase “ your achievements in life» want to hear specific data about , favorably distinguishing a person. For example, the advantages of a position applicant among other applicants.
Employers often ask for specific examples, confirming the candidate’s words, and talk about achievements in a certain field of activity.
They are most interested in statistics about the work done previously. For example, the number of attracted clients, the percentage increase in the sales volume of the department, how many transactions were concluded.
But for many, not only dry numbers are important, but also what the person himself considers to be his own achievements.
People's opinions about their achievements reveal part of them to others inner world, their . Based on such information, one can understand how a person assesses his strengths, how confident he is, and whether his self-presentation skills are well developed.
Secondly, some evaluate achievements by their quality, or rather by their scale. So, for example, occupying a managerial position after 2-3 years of work at an enterprise will be, in the opinion of “quality connoisseurs,” an achievement. Getting into the top list of “best entrepreneurs in the region” is also a qualitative achievement.
But, as we know, you can’t please everyone, so we need to decide what achievements are for ourselves and achievements in the eyes of the public, because these are often completely different concepts.
In the column " your achievements in life“Under the “personal” mark, you can safely enter everything that is important to you. For example, a self-developed business plan, a good productive idea, getting yourself into excellent physical shape.
Yes, even nowadays healthy image life can be a personal achievement. And if we talk about, then professional achievements, both qualitative and quantitative, are more suitable here and will be appreciated by others.
Therefore for one own opinion there is no need to count here. The second category of achievements is necessary when applying for a job, when assessing the competitiveness of your business (if most of the activities depend on you), when determining the quality of work of a department of an enterprise or company.
So, your achievements in life can be very diverse, and there can be as many of them as you see fit, but only as long as we are talking about your personality without reference to society.
In other cases, when assessing your achievements, you will have to proceed from the generally accepted scale of success.
People realize themselves in different areas of life: family, friends, education, and work. Professional field of activity is no less important than others. By realizing himself as a specialist in his field, receiving recognition of his skills, experience, knowledge, a person grows and improves himself. Another indisputable advantage of having professional achievements is increased wages, labor regulations, improving quality of life. This article discusses how to set and achieve goals in professional fields, why this is necessary, and how to describe your results in a resume. The issue of professional achievements of a teacher will also be separately considered, their types and descriptions will be presented.
Definition of the concept
What does “professional achievement” mean? Every job has moments that can be called achievements. This list is individual for each specialist; each employer pays attention to the points that are important specifically in his company. Professional achievement is a successfully resolved situation, the completion of certain tasks, useful experience in resolving complex conflicts and circumstances. In some areas, this means obtaining a certain title, degree, level of education, or specialist category. In others - unification of people, leadership among certain groups of people, exhaustion social conflicts. Thirdly - high levels sales, completed transactions, won tenders. Professional achievements are very broad concept, which depends on the field of activity, the specifics of the work, the attitude of employers and the relevance of the skill in the modern work process.
The meaning of work for a person
Work must generate income. This is its main meaning, with which many workers are satisfied. But in addition to the monetary result, work should bring pleasure, moral satisfaction, and the realization of human qualities. So professional achievements are also one of the meanings labor activity. They allow a person not only to arrange his life and career more safely, but also to realize himself psychologically and emotionally, to cause a number of positive emotions, stabilize nervous tension, increase self-confidence.
Setting a goal and achieving it
High professional achievements and results are rarely the product of luck and coincidence. Such situations do exist, but in practice, an employee receives these points of characteristics if he puts in some effort. In order to achieve something, you need to act. At the initial stage, it is necessary to determine what achievement is really important in a particular field and profession, how it can improve the employee’s position in society and in career growth. At the second stage, you need to set yourself a goal, break it down into steps and systematically move in a given direction. It is important to determine time intervals, available resources and ways to accelerate goal achievement. A properly developed plan will help you achieve your goals much faster and with greater likelihood.
Do I need to indicate all my merits?
Professional achievements in a resume are one of the key characteristics candidate. If a person strives to take a better vacancy with decent wages and good conditions, you just need to indicate your achievements. Achievements that correspond to the company profile will allow you to weed out most of competitors on workplace, agree on the desired salary level and gain the respect of colleagues and superiors.
Naturally, not all vacancies require certain corporate successes from candidates. Thus, it is difficult to present a resume for a loader, cleaner, plumber and other working specialties with a list of professional achievements. This item in the resume is necessary for workers in the social or intellectual spheres.
How is the candidate selection process carried out?
Before selecting an employee for a particular vacancy, organizations consider several options. Depending on the characteristics of the vacancy and the employer itself, the number of applicants who responded can range from a few people to hundreds. In large companies, reviewing resumes is the responsibility of an entire department of professionals whose job is to identify the best talent among a huge stream of incoming candidates. These people are very well versed in professions, requirements for applicants, can perfectly distinguish lies from truth, identify psychological portrait, conduct various types of testing and, based on the results obtained, draw up complete image applicant. It is difficult to hide from an experienced HR manager negative stories from the professional past, absolute ignorance of the subject of the vacancy and other criteria for inadequacy of the position. In addition, the HR department has various services at its disposal, in which previous employers leave comments and reviews about their employees. Often, if a person’s professional achievements in a resume are of interest personnel worker, then by the time of the live meeting at the interview he had already collected quite a lot of information about him.
How to describe yourself correctly
Based on the information in the previous block of the article, we can conclude that you should adhere to certain rules for writing a resume, describing examples of professional achievements, and listing your qualities, skills, knowledge and abilities. Following these instructions significantly increases your chances of being liked by the employer and getting the job you want.
So, a resume should have a structure. This is necessary for ease of reading, highlighting the most important aspects for the employer, increasing the possibility that the hiring manager will notice something significant in your response. With a huge amount of incoming correspondence, it is very difficult to focus on the monolithic text, read it and look for certain information in an array of completely useless text.
The resume should answer specific questions. The employer must see from it that this particular person has a sufficient understanding of the professional field for which he is applying.
Some companies require a separate resume. Thus, for many large holdings it is important for a person to study the history of development, the specifics of work, and the peculiarities of the corporate ethics of their organization. Your resume must show your knowledge of the company. An integral part of a well-written resume is cover letter. Some employers do not even consider candidates who have not written at least a couple of words in addition to their resume.
Exaggeration and outright lies
You should not attribute to yourself the highest professional achievements if in fact you have nothing to do with them. Firstly, not all people can lie professionally and embellish reality so that it is not noticeable to others. An experienced HR employee will definitely feel that there is something wrong with the information you present. Secondly, if in your professional history There were really negative aspects; most likely, the HR specialist is already aware of them from the blacklists of employers. Thirdly, deception regarding skills and professional achievements will be revealed in the first week of work. Starting a “new page in life,” and this is what a new job often is, is not worth doing with actions that discredit your reputation.
Downplaying your achievements
Many people have complexes, lack self-confidence and their strengths, and have no idea of their capabilities and talents. Yes, even ordinary embarrassment is inherent in every second person. And if a person is haunted by a series of failures, a long and painful search for work, he may completely despair and lose faith in his abilities. In reality, this position does not bring anything good. Even in the most difficult situations, be confident in yourself, talk in detail about significant achievements in professional activity, do not hide your merits. If you don't talk about them, your position will be given to someone else who can overcome fear and embarrassment. After all, how will the employer know about your advantages as a candidate if you yourself chose to hide them from the public?
Vagueness and specificity
A resume is a document. Even if it does not have an established form, it is not presented to government authorities and is not checked for falsification. A resume is a document that is a pass to new job. This means that it must be filled out efficiently, accurately and according to the rules, albeit unspoken ones. Many specialists who have not yet acquired a rich portfolio and experience try to squeeze as many words as possible into their resume, using vague wording, complex sentences and long lists of meaningless enumerations and explanations. As in diploma work, and in summary: the less “water”, the better. Write specific phrases, formulate sentences that combine brevity and information content.
Achievements in pedagogy
Teacher, teacher, educator, professor, lecturer - all these professions are united by the common concept of “teacher”. This in itself is a very important job that requires full dedication, many years training, a certain set of personal qualities and even conducting special image life. Moreover, the higher the status educational institution, in which a vacancy is announced, the higher the requirements for candidates. Teachers' professional achievements can play a key role in selection. In addition, it itself is low wages teachers in the field of public education can increase significantly upon receipt of certain degrees, ranks, titles, victories in competitions and certification.
Examples of teachers' achievements
What to write in a resume, what achievements of professional goals can a teacher have? Taking into account all the above rules, descriptions can be given following examples:
- Receiving the title “Teacher of the Year”, winning competitions related to professionalism, obtaining certification, advanced training.
- A successfully written and defended doctoral dissertation or any other scientific work in the field of teaching.
- Organizing events for students with a high turnout rate.
- Involving outsiders in the learning process who have had an important influence on the students ( scientists, celebrities, well-known persons).
- Successfully attracting and motivating students to volunteer, help needy segments of the population, improve public life And environment.
- Fruitful participation in the lives of children with poor living and social conditions, assistance in adaptation.
- Creation and maintenance of clubs, sections, interest groups.
A teacher is a person who participates in the formation of not only the level of education of his students, knowledge about specific subject, but also in drawing a picture of the world, establishing mental health and balance. All these points can increase the value of the personnel for the educational institution.
Show your achievements in your resume - and employers will be on your side. Because:
- most applicants describe their responsibilities and tasks for a specific position, and this is important, but mentioning achievements has a greater effect, so that a resume with achievements stands out favorably against the general background;
- the presence of achievements is the best evidence of the applicant’s competence (he not only has knowledge and skills, but can successfully solve problems).
The description of achievements must be correct for the resume to make a strong impression - otherwise it may raise additional questions and doubts. For example, a sales manager indicates that thanks to his work, store sales have increased by 20% over the past six months. Is the figure due to one employee or the entire management team? When describing achievements, do it in such a way that the information can be interpreted unambiguously.
Types of achievements
Quantitative. These are successes that can be expressed in numbers. The units of measurement can be monetary units, percentages, tons, square meters; number of buyers, partners and transactions; number of subordinate employees, completed projects - and much more.
Each professional area has its own set of quantitative indicators.
- Conducting 10 trainings over the last 6 months; total number of participants - 1255 people.
- Concluding 23 transactions in a year with a total profit for the company of 15 thousand dollars.
- Successful (without reprimands or fines) completion of 10 audits.
- Filling 10 vacancies for top managers in six months.
- Sale of 12 apartments in new buildings.
- Design rendering for 20 websites - for 15 different industries (fitness club, real estate portal, online furniture store, business card website for a coach, etc.).
- Writing 75 texts for websites over the last 3 months, average conversion - 12%.
High quality. Not in every industry a specialist can evaluate achievements in numbers. This does not mean that achievements are not worth mentioning at all - of course, that makes sense.
- Implementation and configuration of e-commerce for a multi-brand online store.
- Creation of an editorial board from scratch and launch of the first issue of a business magazine.
- Creation of a website to promote the company's legal services.
- Simplification of document flow - creation and launch of a system for creating transport documents in a semi-automatic mode.
- Preparing a child with a disability for school.
Principles for describing achievements
If success is the merit of a whole team of specialists, write what your contribution was. Don't take credit for successes that were made possible by the efforts of a few people. Most likely, at the interview it will turn out that you exaggerated your merits, and this means a loss of trust on the part of the employer.
Be prepared to confirm that the achievements you describe occurred. Confirmation can be a document (report page, diploma, certificate) or a review, recommendation (expert opinion). Be careful to provide factual supporting information without violating the principle of confidentiality.
Think in advance about how you will illustrate your achievements at an interview - the employer will probably ask you to tell us how you managed to achieve success. Follow a simple and effective scheme:
What was the task ==> What efforts did you make, what resources did you use ==> What result was obtained.
At the same time, specify what your personal contribution was to solving the problem.
Any employee knows the situation when it is necessary to provide information about their professional performance, for example, an annual performance appraisal. How to do it in the best possible way? We are trying to adapt the coaching tool “Wheel of Life Balance” to this task.
In my consulting practice over the past two years, the question that has most often arisen is: “How to formulate your professional achievements?”
When does such a need arise?
- In a job search situation, for writing a resume, for an interview with a potential employer.
- Within the company, when there is a transition from one career stage to another.
- During the period of preparation for annual/quarterly certification.
- etc.
But really, what is the best way to do this? I thought about it and started trying different options.
The practical application of all variations on the theme “what is best” swept aside one method after another. As a result, the option using the favorite coaching tool “Balance Wheel” showed its viability. I’m sure that the community audience is familiar with it, so I won’t describe it, and you can read a lot about this wheel on the Internet useful information. Let's get down to practice.
So, take a sheet of paper, a pen and draw a circle. Divide it by 6–10 equal parts(or into as many parts as you like). We label each area of the circle, for example, as in my drawing. These are the areas of activity in which your achievements may lie.
Next, we formulate what each area of your circle means. Why is this important? The fact is that, on the one hand, all definitions can be found in any textbook or Wikipedia. On the other hand, each company may have its own individual characteristics. And also your professional skills can only be yours.
Let’s say, if you work within a company and are preparing for certification, then the area “Working with clients” may have the following definition according to the information that the company puts into this concept - clearly explain over the phone the features of working with the service provided by the company, show restraint in conversation with a conflict client.
And in another company, “Working with clients” means creating a complete package of documents for a transaction, entering information into CRM, timely providing clients with changes to the transaction, and maintaining correspondence through electronic document management.
If you are creating a resume for yourself, then there may be this option - “Working with clients” - these are my unique abilities to understand the needs of the client, combine working on scripts with a “live” conversation, building long-term relationships with him.
A similar algorithm will work with other names of areas of the circle. As an example, a couple more definitions from the work of my clients:
- "Leadership" - difficult situations, in which I took responsibility for decision made when working on a project, brought the work to a result.
- “Communication skills” - my skills in negotiating with difficult people, with colleagues of different positions, with managers different levels authorities, etc.
Now, we write how many and what achievements you have in each professional field.
For example, “Effectiveness” is your effective actions that led to the planned result.
Example: “She suggested analyzing the ROI indicator in order to obtain data on the effectiveness of investments in training sales managers. The data results showed a direct correlation between the increase in sales volume and the new skills acquired during training.”
“Savings” - as a result of your work, the company saved its budget and received financial benefits.
Example: “I found new suppliers of such and such services or equipment, with more low prices, but without loss of product quality, concluded an agreement, and the company saved 30% of its usual budget for these expenses.”
“Profit” - the department team, as a result of your innovations, has increased sales compared to previous months.
Example: “I analyzed the motivation system for sales managers over the past 3 years, approved new system motivation general director, implemented it and as a result, revenue increased by 40% in the first month after the introduction of innovations, then by 30% monthly.”
The principle, I think, is clear. Here it is important to first formulate what you understand as “customer service”, “leadership”, “innovation”, etc., i.e., decipher each area of the circle. And then write down your specific achievements.
In front of you are two sheets of paper:
- The first sheet is a drawing with a circle of achievements.
- The second sheet is a list of your achievements in each area.
We take the first sheet with a circle, and divide each area of the circle into 10 equal parts. We have a scale from 0 to 10.
- 0 - in the center of the circle.
- 10 - on the outer line of the circle.
We look at the second sheet - our list of achievements. We count our achievements in each area and mark the point, equal to the amount achievements in a specific area. Complete the circle of your achievements in this way. Look at this impressive list, these are your results today, you have something to be proud of!
The obtained data can be used in accordance with the situation - for a resume, for certification, for an interview, etc.
How else can you work with the Circle of your achievements for the future:
- Notice in which areas there is more achievement and in which there is less. You may be able to better understand your strengths and weaknesses in your profession or career.
- Mark the areas in which you would like to achieve more. Write three simple steps how this can be achieved. Take this plan to work and implement it.
- Plan your success in an area where you have not yet received results, this will be your development zone.
This tool has only been used in my practice for six months so far. During this time it has never let me down. Everyone who tried it in their work noted two main points:
- I was able to structure my professional results and understand the situation “here and now.”
- Set goals for the future, i.e. identify growth areas.
Irina Lebedeva