Achievements on a CV

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Achievements on a CV show off your skills and experience. They can be a great way to stand out from other candidates when applying for jobs. Think of achievements as the equivalent of an awards ceremony, where you get handed a trophy for doing something amazing.

When writing achievements on your CV, it’s important that you choose achievements that are relevant to the job you’re applying for and make sure they’re specific as well as measurable or quantifiable

It’s also worth remembering that not all achievements should go in the same place—they should appear in different sections of your CV rather than just one place!

But what is an achievement? What do they look like on a CV? And how many should you include?

We’ll cover all these questions below as well as where best to place achievements on your CV so you have the most impact on recruiters and land you that coveted job!

How to list your key achievements on your CV

Listing your key achievements on a CV is a job application technique which can give you the extra edge. However, it is important to know which key achievements to put on your cv sample.

Achievements do not include habitual responsibilities or skills which you consider professionally impressive. Instead, you should include a list of achievements which involve a combination of winning ingredients demonstrating capability, management and professionalism.

You can choose to list personal achievements if you feel that they pertain to the job listing. A good example of a personal achievement could be public speaking. Many find it difficult to speak in public and overcoming such fears can take years.

Identify your achievements for your CV

An achievement can be any accomplishment which you feel took great effort or had a great result. Achievements can be work achievements, such as a project which you completed at work or they can also be achievements outside of work, such as building your own freelance website.

You can choose your own achievements, as they are elements of success which form part of your life only.

Tips for identifying your achievements

• Compile a list of your work history and previous jobs and list important achievements you had in the roles. It’s important to do this but we often forget about things which seem simple now they are completed or over, yet actually took a lot of time and hard work.
• Use the list to highlight the most important professional achievements or things which link well to the job specification.
• Contact colleagues or ex-colleagues and ask them about work achievements or projects which they feel were important or impressive during your time working together. This may inspire you or remind you of a particular professional achievement.
• Use feedback or references to back your achievements and understand which achievements are considered key achievements by employers or peers. You can also use professional platforms such as LinkedIn to quote feedback from the recommendations section.
• Don’t feel that you can’t choose to mention an achievement because it’s too small or insignificant. Sometimes listing achievements such as supporting a colleague during the process of a big achievement is worth more than you think. After all, this reflects teamwork and leadership.

What achievements should you add on a CV?

You should put a mix of personal, profession, and academic achievements on your CV.

CV achievement examples for each of these different types could include:

Personal achievements:

• Volunteering
• Coaching a sports team or leading a kid’s club like scouts or brownies
• Fundraising for charities

Professional achievements:

• Increasing sales or revenue
• Meeting deadlines
• Overcoming serious challenges
• Saving your company time or money
• Improving business practices
• Achieving a promotion
• Winning an award in your industry

Academic achievements:

• Achieving strong grades
• Receiving academic awards or honours
• Leading a club or society

If you want some more inspiration for how to describe these different types of achievements on a CV (and why), check out our list of examples below!

Achievements to avoid on a CV

The best achievements to put on a CV are those that are obviously impressive, relevant, and specific. For example, let’s say you’re applying for a job in HR (human resources). A good achievement would be something like “created a new employee handbook.

The worst way of writing about achievements is by being vague or unspecific. An example of this includes “improved customer satisfaction.” What does that actually mean? Did you do it through customer service? Did you increase sales? Did you improve the product itself?

You need to be clear about what specific actions resulted in your improvement so the hiring manager can see how well suited for the job you really are.

How to write achievements on your CV

A list of achievements on a CV should be included in a similar format to the rest of your document. You can choose to title your achievement and write a short explanation underneath or alternatively, bullet point the most important elements of the achievement.

If you are short for space, you might find it more useful to write a sentence or bullet point per achievement.

Once you have created your list of achievements and are ready to write your achievements on your CV in an impacting way.

Remember: any achievement makes the cut; you decide.

The way you write achievements should consist of:

1. The activity or thing that you did
2. Involve the use of a skill or characteristic which helped to achieve or produce the outcome
3. The result of your achievement

This combination of describing your achievements is a clear way of demonstrating the tools and skills needed to help achieve your final result, product or act which can help to highlight skills you possess which could be used for the job role.

Don’t worry about writing too much. Sometimes when things are very important to us, we elaborate or explain too much. This usually happens because we feel very passionate about the subject. Save your passion for the interview and let recruiters know just enough about your achievement to get you there!

There are various ways of learning how to write a CV and where to write or how to list certain elements. You can use CV building tools to help create a flawless CV which will help you to get through to interview stages.

CV achievement examples

If you’re wondering how to write achievements on a CV or you’re lacking inspiration, here are some CV achievement examples.

• Led a website building project from start to finish, guided a team over the process of two years until completion and reached profitability.
• Launched a marketing campaign which raised sales by 40% in the company.
• Awarded employee of the month four times in a year at a company consisting of 200 people
• Started a personalised fitness programme for a client and watched them fully rehabilitate physically after a serious injury within a period of six months.

Where should I put achievements and awards on a resume?

You’ll want to list your achievements and awards in the most relevant section, usually within individual job descriptions.

However, If you have a lot of educational achievements, consider listing them under each subhead of your education section.

If you don’t have a lot of educational achievements or work experience that’s relevant to the position you’re applying for, consider listing them under an additional heading like “Other Experience” or “Honors and Awards”.

You can also list achievements under your hobbies and other interests sections. For example if one of your hobbies is ‘Martial Arts Instructor’, you could say something like ‘Martial arts Instructor – trained 20 kids to black belt level’.

You can also list skills in a different part of your CV.

Benefits of including achievements to your CV

You’ve now been equipped with everything you need to know when it comes to including achievements. So, let’s just review why it’s so important to include a list of achievements on your CV:

• Your achievements can help you stand out from the crowd. Everyone’s resume will look similar, so it’s important to make yours different by adding achievements that show your skills and personality.
• Achievements can help you show that you are a high performer.
• Achievements can help prove that you’re a team player. If there aren’t any jobs listed on your resume or cover letter where teamwork was required, then you can experience where it was necessary to work together with others in order to achieve success (clubs, sports teams). This shows employers that not only do you know how to build teams but also enjoy doing so!
• Achievements can show off your work ethic. For example: having volunteered at a non-profit organization for two years means working long hours without pay or reward because you believe in what you’re doing enough not only to invest time into volunteering but also sacrifice financially in order to do so.

It’s important to remember that listing achievements isn’t just about listing your past accomplishments—it’s also about using them as a tool for helping others see how your skills and abilities make you the best person for the job!