How to Articulate Accomplishments

Employers want to know about more than your former job responsibilities. They want to know what you accomplished. However, many job seekers have a difficult time describing their accomplishments to employers, whether it's in a cover letter, resume or in an interview. To convince an employer to hire you, learn how to articulate your accomplishments.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Quantify your experience using numbers, percentages and time frames. Instead of saying, "wrote press releases" say "wrote 10 press releases weekly." Think about how you increased productivity and cite by how much using a percentage. Mention how many people you trained or supervised.

2. Consider any positive impact you made on your company's bottom line as an accomplishment. Mention how much money you saved the company or how much money you added to the company's profits. Tell the amount of money you managed for your company.

3. Use superlatives. Articulate your accomplishments using words such as "most," "best," "highest" and "first." State any awards received for job performance such as "Salesman of the Year" for selling the most cars.

4. Think in terms of how you saved your company time. Discuss how you met deadlines or increased efficiency. For example, say "suggested and implemented a new accounting system that decreased check-processing time by 25 percent" or "managed a project while adhering to strict weekly deadlines for each phase."

5. Describe any problems you solved in your former jobs. Explain the situation, how you addressed the problem and what the outcome was. For example, "I was assigned to a poorly performing sales territory, and within a year, after implementing a new marketing plan, I increased profits by 30 percent."

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