Struggling to Capture Your Achievements for Your Resume? Let's Talk Simple Tools That Can Help

Hi all, is anyone familiar with tools (simple forms) that can assist with the realization of one's accomplishments/achievements to record on the resume? TK

Sorry, Jacob. I am a career coach. One of the things we try to help the client realize is how much value they hold after years of experience in a field, and the skills honed that are transferable to a prospective new employer, etc. Is this clearer?

Hi,

With the additional inputs, my understanding is that you are seeking a format/program that can capture the achievements of your clients, which they can then present to current employers to leverage growth prospects or showcase the same to prospective employers.

As a prelude to this, it is imperative that they have a clear outline of their JD and KRA, for these would set the parameters to assess their performance and identify their specialized knowledge base and skill sets.

Ideally, your clients should be encouraged to record their major achievements as often as possible and review it, if possibly monthly or at least quarterly. For example, if you take the case of an officer in a bank, apart from their routine targets, the additional targets set could include their contribution to cross-selling the bank's products like insurance, garnering FD, and getting new clients/accounts. In effect, what this means is that the officer would, with each promotion, actually be handling larger and larger volumes of business which, when quantified, showcases his/her growth and reflects their abilities and strengths.

Recording the above is a very personalized and individualistic matter. What matters is being able to see the growth, the achievements, the learning, and understanding reasons for failures. Presenting these is also a matter of personal style and communication skills. For instance, a certain scientist when presenting his achievements told the management that in the first year, his target was to get an independent charge of a project which he managed before the year was out. In the second year, he had kept a target to ensure that in addition to meeting his own project deadlines, he aimed to ensure that his expertise was used by at least 6 out of the 17 projects that were ongoing. He managed to actively participate in 8 projects and additionally got another independent project to handle when the team lead left. He then outlined his targets for the next 5 years. From senior scientist, he was made an additional director simply because he showcased his abilities and performance and outlined his growth path.

I trust the above provides some roadmap and helps you guide your clients.

Regards

This is quite true and quite helpful too. Thanks, I did, however, get, for the purpose of writing powerful resumes (CV) for my clients, a 4-column table, the 'CARS/SARS matrix', to help them record their past achievements.

C - representing the Context or situation that the company was in, e.g., for delays in the submission of audited accounts.
A - the action taken by the staff member, e.g., got the team to start recording all transactions in a timely fashion, agreed on deadlines, etc.
R - for the results that these actions produced, especially to resolve the original situation/context, e.g., more positive management report from auditors, timely submission of accounts.
S - for the skills gained and the achievement recorded that are transferable to another employer, e.g., skills in team leadership, intricate understanding of the accounting processes, ability to break these into sections, etc.

I needed something simple like this to help my clients distinguish clearly between an achievement/accomplishment and that added value or made a positive difference.

I will gladly advise my clients to keep a journal of events and opportunities they constantly come across in their careers and how to seize these to give some mileage to their careers... this runs across all positions within an organization.

Having been in HR, it was not uncommon to have CVs looking alike and job seekers not knowing their worth. Career coaching has helped me improve and salvage many careers and help with progression.

Thanks, Jacob, I hope that someone else has benefited from this discussion as I have.

Thank you for your positive feedback and also for sharing the CARS model. That definitely is a systematic way to record and present career achievements. I am certain your clients are lucky to find a progressive person like you to guide them.

Regards