Identifying Your Achievements

Now it's time to start listing your achievements, including your entire school and work history. Write down every experience that made you stand out or brought recognition from others. Think back over your first job experiences - you may have had a summer job or contributed to a school project. Continue your list through each job you have had since you began your professional career.

If you do not have specific recent work experience, use community service, coursework, club participation, association activities and part-time work as a means of demonstrating your achievements.

You should include instances in which:

• You contributed to a decision or a change.
• You created or built something.
• You demonstrated leadership in the face of challenge.
• You developed an idea.
• You followed instructions and realised a goal.
• You identified a need and resolved it.
• You increased sales or profit or reduced costs.
• You received an award or special commendation.
• You saved time and/or money.
• You solved a problem or handled an emergency situation.

Now you should describe your achievement in a little more detail, using the following guide:

1. What was the problem?
2. What did you do?
3. What skills did you use?
4. What was the benefit for you?
5. What was the benefit for your company?

Assign numbers or values to the achievement and state explicitly what happened as a result of your action. If efficiency improved by 45% or costs came down by 25%, or you saved £1 million over three years, then say so!

Here are some examples:

• Designed a marketing plan that increased sales from £2 million to £8 million in two years.
• Expanded the company's customer base by 78% and increased sales by 150% to more than £4 million.
• Reduced audit expenses by 34% through better record keeping.
• Negotiated a line of credit one point lower than former lending rates for an annual saving of £200,000.
• Found new sources for raw materials, saving 16% on purchased materials amounting to more than £700,000 the first year.
• Negotiated a new union contract within the company's objectives and with no lost time.
• Reduced the work force by 15% with no loss in production.
• Processed more than 30 orders per day, resulting in a daily increase of reported sales of £50,000.
• Successfully recovered £3 million in overdue accounts.
• Increased sales and profits by 22% and 25%, respectively, over three years.
• Hired and trained an entire sales team that achieved its goal of £1 million sales in the first 12 months.
• Launched a company newsletter, which improved morale.
• Added a computerised database for employee records, providing better controls with fewer personnel.
• Initiated a safety programme that reduced accidents by 10% in the first 2 months.
• Created and introduced a management review system as a basis for a new bonus scheme, resulting in a 13% profit increase.