Accomplishments on Your Resume

“Focus on Accomplishments not Responsibilities.” This is extremely common resume advice that is probably as old as the first resume. Despite this, I see resumes every day that list responsibilities and fail to include accomplishments. This hurts the job seeker. When reviewing lots of resumes, there has to be something that sells the candidate. Often the best way to do this is by showing what you have accomplished.

For some job seekers, this is easy. Their position has clearly defined metrics, with data showing that they are successful. The majority of job seekers don’t have this easily available and find it extremely difficult to write down their accomplishments.

The first place to start is to review the basic expectations of your job. What were your expectations and did you meet them? Although meeting the minimum expectations doesn’t sound like an exciting accomplishment, it does demonstrate a level of success. I’ve seen bullets on some resumes like this:

• “Consistently met or exceeded all expectations”
• “Consistently completed all projects on time”
• “Exceeded annual goals each year”

If this is a true statement for your performance, and you can’t be more specific, this is better than not listing any accomplishments.

Just remember, saying you met all your expectations needs to be a true statement. Putting something like this on your resume is asking for an interviewer to focus on it. You can expect to receive questions like:

• “What were your goals/expectations?”
• “How did you perform in each aspect of your job?”
• “How did you compare to your peers in these areas?”
• “When did you exceed expectations?”
• “Describe a few of the projects you completed and the deadlines you had.”

Make sure you have answers to questions like this, or any credibility you have will be shot.

Ideally, you have a variety of specific, quantifiable accomplishments to write about. If not, consider broader based accomplishment statements that will help focus your interview on what makes you successful.


Gary Capone owns an executive recruiting firm (Palladian International, LLC) and is the author of a blog offering career advice to job seekers. Check out the blog at http://blog.palladiancr.com or signup for the biweekly newsletter recapping the blog and receive free a free copy of Palladian’s Resume Writing Guide and Palladian's Interview Preparation Guide (Newsletter Signup).