Resume – Achievements
The other really powerful element of a great resume, is the area of achievements. Once again, let’s go back to the idea that emotion is a particularly significant motivator of human behaviour and great achievements are likely to set up certain ideas in the mind of the reader. Things like;
- This person gets things done.
- This person is dependable under pressure.
- This person can overcome barriers and achieve outcomes.
- This person can make decisions and get people motivated in the pursuit of goals etc etc.
Extraordinary accomplishments are only achieved when we are able to overcome extraordinary challenges. O. J. Brigance
Great achievements reinforce your gifts and add another layer of positivity to your resume. BUT … If we can’t see ourselves in a positive light, how can we expect others to do so. We have all achieved great things in our career, but we often have trouble recalling them and then speaking about them. Once we start to unpack this suite of achievements that help to demonstrate your character and gifts, the challenge is to learn how to talk about an achievement in a way that is interesting and compelling.
An achievement is just a story
For many people, this is a difficult areas to navigate. Why? It shouldn’t be as complex as we make out. We all have stories that are worthy of being told, stories of things that we have done that go to the very heart of our gifts and are a demonstration of the value that we bring to an organisation. But we find it really difficult to recall these stories and even when we do, we find it equally as difficult to talk about them.
Sometimes, I think we get a little embarrassed to talk about ourselves as achievers. We resist taking credit for things, downplay our involvement or find it too hard to talk about the things that I have done, of which I am most proud.
We think that there are 3 primary reasons as to why discussing our achievements is difficult to do.
1. We literally don’t remember – Yep … that’s a real thing. We don’t bring attention to things that seem so natural to us. Much of what we do in a work context is done on auto pilot, we perform the tasks to a satisfactory level because of skills and capabilities that are either innate or we have been trained to do so. When we reach this level, we are using what is known as procedural memory and it’s like riding a bike, we just know how to do it. So when someone wants us to talk about it, we can’t actually remember what we need to say.
2. We are not encouraged to talk about them – We can go too far and come across as arrogant, self-absorbed or big headed and particularly when we were young, this might have been discouraged. This is more evident in some cultures and families and can breed a reluctance to talk about anything that might be considered self inflating. However, if done well, our achievements send a very clear message that we are a person who makes things happen. We need to find a level of comfort.
3. We don’t know how to structure them – Essentially, each of your achievements is just a story. A story that you tell about certain things that you did or were involved in doing. Not overly complicated hey?
We tell these stories every day, we just need to learn to tell them in a business-related context, with you as the main lead and some sort of journey to undertake. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have more of these in the work detail area, but they are really significant things that you are most proud of, in your career to date.
The bigger the barrier that was being overcome, the bigger the achievement that is being realised. Spend time in articulating the barrier and the listener will assign a greater weight to the achievement.
TargetIf you have 2 or 3 of these stories that you can articulate in 3-4 sentences, get them into the first two pages of your resume and make it really easy for people to find. You might even like to have them on your front page, just after your profile.ActionSpend some time and develop a bank of these achievements, each of which focuses on different aspects of what you do. Each time we approach a role, we need to choose the achievements that most reflect the nature of the role and the issues they may be confronting.
A story process
Here is a little process that might be helpful in building stories about our achievements. The first thing that we want to do is to pick the area that you want to focus on. Generally speaking, these areas will fall out of one of two things, the competencies that are sort after or, the gifts that you really want to emphasise. Building a story is then about breking down the dialogue into 3 key areas.
- Context – When did it happen? (What Role) and What happened? (The Issue)
- Climax – What was going to happen if I/we didn’t sort it out? (The Impact)
- Conclusion –What did I/we do and what was the outcome? (The Result)
| Focus Area | Context | Climax | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership | |||
| Project Management | |||
Keep it simple, concise and interesting.
Your achievements are critical in establishing credibility to your work history. But not only that, they bring a degree of confidence to your story, as you speak with pride about those things that have been important to you within your career. Learning to be able to tell them with impact is a challenge, so understanding each component of the development process is important.
Cool Stuff
7 ways to talk about your achievements / accomplishments
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2017/01/29/7-ways-to-talk-about-your-accomplishments-without-sounding-like-a-braggart/#7e606c696fcc
Blow your own trumpet plus https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/07/blow-your-trumpet/
What’s next?
We have already looked at some of your strengths and hopefully you have a nice long lists of strengths in your journal. Here is where we use that information to impress upon the reader what we actually bring to an organisation. We don’t allude to it, we actually tell them what they are going to get if they employ me, and in so doing, become an emotionally safe choice.