Does your CV list accomplishments?

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Has this ever happened to you? You’ve been instructed to list your career accomplishments, and you can’t think of any. Or you’re asked in a job interview, ‘What accomplishments are you most proud of?” and you freeze up. You know you have had accomplishments, but you just can’t dredge them up.

The inability to come up with accomplishments happens to lots of Kenyan job seekers. We know because we ask our CV and cover-letter clients to list accomplishments as part of the process of preparing their CV and cover letters for their next jobs. Although we stress that accomplishments are far more important than duties and responsibilities, a surprising number of clients are unable to articulate beyond the day-to-day tasks they performed in their jobs.

Accomplishments are the points that really help sell you to an employer much more so than everyday job duties, and you can leverage your accomplishments for job-search success at all stages of the process: CV, cover letter, interview, and more. Kenyan employers are seeking success stories. CV’s are now focusing not only on ‘regular’ job descriptions, but also include concrete, measurable accomplishments.

A CV should be accomplishment-oriented, not responsibility-driven. The biggest mistake that I see in the CVs people send me is that they list responsibilities. That doesn’t grab anybody’s attention. Kenyan HR managers aren’t interested in your responsibilities. They already know the general responsibilities of a position so they don’t want to know what you do from day to day. They want to know that you’re a mover and a shaker: How you contribute to the organization, how you show initiative, that you can be a key player. That’s what they want to see.

To a great extent, if a job activity cannot be portrayed as an accomplishment, it may not be worthy of mention in your CV, cover letter, or in an interview.

OK. You’re convinced. An awareness of the importance of accomplishments does no good, however, if you haven’t been keeping track of all your wonderful achievements. So, Lesson One: The minute you start a new job, start keeping track of your accomplishments. Keep a log in a little notebook, or in a computer database.

But what about all the jobs that have gone by in which you haven’t recorded your accomplishments? Lesson Two: Use the following prompts to brainstorm all those terrific things you did. Try to list some accomplishments that set you apart from other job candidates.

1)   In each job, what special things did you do to set yourself apart? How did you do the job better than anyone else did or than anyone else could have done?

2)   What did you do to make each job your own?

3)   How did you take the initiative? How did you go above and beyond what was asked of you in your job description?

4)   What special things did you do to impress your boss so that you might be promoted?

5)   And were you promoted? Rapid and/or frequent promotions can be especially noteworthy.

6)   How did you leave your employers better off than before you worked for them?

7)   Did you win any awards, such as Employee of the Month honors?

8)   What are you most proud of in each job?

9)   Is there material you can use from your annual performance reviews? Did you consistently receive high ratings? Any glowing quotes you can use from former employers?

10)       Have you received any complimentary memos or letters from employers or customers?

11)       What tangible evidence do you have of accomplishments — publications you’ve produced, products you’ve developed, software applications you’ve written?

12)       Think of the ‘PEP Formula’ Profitability, Efficiency, and Productivity. How did you contribute to profitability, such as through sales increase percentages? How did you contribute to efficiency, such as through cost reduction percentages? How did you contribute to productivity, such as through successfully motivating your team? Read more about the PEP Formula and see samples.

13)       Quantify. Kenyan Employers love numbers. Examples:

·         Increased sales by 50 percent over the previous year.

·         Supervised staff of 25.

·         Served a customer base of 150, the largest on firm’s customer-service team.

14)       How did you make your company more competitive?

15)       How did you build relationships or image with internal or external constituencies? How did you attract new customers or retain existing ones?

16)       How did you expand the business?

17)       How did you contribute to the firm’s Return on Investment (ROI)?

18)       How did you help the organization fulfill its mission statement?

Finally, a word of caution: Resist the temptation to blow your accomplishments out of proportion. Accomplishments should be measurable whenever possible and always verifiable. Don’t risk having a prospective employer call a former supervisor and ask, did she really save the company from bankruptcy? And have your ex-boss say, huh? 

This article is by Juliah Karimi of Staff Kenya

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