How to include achievements on your CV (with examples)

The strongest CVs are those that are focused not on what you've done, but how you've added value. By including achievements on your CV, you’re positioning yourself as a valuable asset to the company – someone who will go above and beyond to deliver results, rather than sitting around doing the bare minimum. That will obviously count in your favour during the selection process!

You may have had your CV reviewed and received the feedback that you come across as a do-er not an achiever, or that your job descriptions aren't results focused. Firstly, don’t feel too deflated at the feedback you’ve received. Reviews from large companies are usually very generic and designed to undermine your confidence to sell their product. Secondly, CV Shed is here to provide all the guidance you need to include achievements on your CV.

What is an achievement?

There are hundreds of ways you may have contributed to a business, so it’s impossible to list every potential achievement you could put on your CV. Try to identify ways in which you have surpassed the demands and expectations of your role, delivered a positive result or made a difference. A few examples to get you started: 

• Increased profit or productivity
• Reduced costs or waste
• Won awards
• Received positive feedback from clients or colleagues
• Exceeded targets or KPIs
• Improved processes or quality
• Overcame business problems or challenges
• Improved customer service or satisfaction 
• Developed junior staff

This is by no means a comprehensive list but should give you some ideas. If you’re struggling, look at past performance reviews or even speak to colleagues to see if they can jog your memory. 

Quantify your achievements

When you've identified achievements for your CV, you need to quantify them. Wherever you can, add numbers.  Quantifying your achievements makes them more credible and backs up your claims with facts. They also give the reader a better idea of the scope of your role. If the numbers themselves aren’t that impressive, or could be considered confidential, consider using a percentage instead, or broader phrases such as "doubled" or "multi-million-pound".

Explain what you did

Now that you've identified and quantified your achievements, you need to - very briefly - explain how you got the results. Start with the STAR method. Write down the Situation, your Task, the Action you took to complete it and the Result you achieved. This may give you a paragraph that's far too long to use on your CV, but now you have the key information to strip back to the bare essentials and convey in one or two lines.

Put your achievements together

Now you're ready to write your achievements onto your CV. The process could look like this:

Identify: You increased sales.

Quantify: Sales have gone up by 20% since you started the job six months ago,

Explain: Sales were consistently below target and it was your responsibility to bring them back on track. You did this by explaining the situation to your team, incentivising them to increase sales and providing additional training to staff who needed it. As a result, your team actually beat its targets.

Achievement: Increased sales by 20% in just 6 months by incentivising staff and delivering additional training, resulting in a historically underperforming department surpassing its targets for the first time ever.

I don't have any achievements for my CV!

Yes, you do! Everyone has achieved something. Even if you're just turning up every day and doing your job, you're still having an impact on the company. Why were you in that role and not someone else? Take a look at your job description to see how you can frame some achievements. Maybe you were in charge of sales pitches, for example, and regularly pitched to potential clients. As it stands, that's just a responsibility, not an achievement. But you could frame it like this:

• Regularly pitched to clients, winning business from 75% of all pitches delivered
• Delivered pitches to audiences of up to 15, presenting confidently and persuasively to win 12 new clients
• Won new business valued at £20,000 by delivering influential pitches, overcoming objections and explaining product benefits

Sometimes, just doing your job is enough. If you're still struggling to find achievements for your CV, you could think too about what you're good at that your colleagues aren't. Not everyone can mediate conflict between colleagues, or explain complicated processes and concepts to new starters, or find the best way to overcome an unexpected challenge, for example. What would other people say you've done well?

Everyone has achieved something in their role - you just need to pinpoint it!

Presenting achievements on your CV

You could use just one heading to list all your achievements throughout your career, but to create an even better CV it’s wise to add a “Key Achievements” sub-heading for every role. That way, recruiters can see not only which achievements are more recent and which role they relate to, but also that you have a strong record of achievement running through your entire career. 

Bullet point them, to ensure that they stand out and are easy to read - these are your main selling points, after all!

Choose dynamic vocabulary

Impress your reader with words that immediately show that you're an achiever. Consider: increased, reduced, improved, enhanced, delivered, won, grew, developed, transformed, progressed, enabled, exceeded, attained… the list is endless! Try to write from a reader’s perspective and crank up the wow factor. 

Personal achievements on your CV

Don’t confuse personal achievements with professional achievements. Whilst it may be a great personal achievement that you improved your communication skills or learnt to use a new IT system, this doesn’t generate a direct result for the business. Try to focus on specific outcomes that have directly impacted the company’s success. 

The exception to this rule is for those that have very little – or no – work experience. In that case, it’s fine to include achievements such as academic awards, fundraising involvement and extra-curricular successes. 

Also, stick to true achievements only! Making up achievements not only shows a lack of integrity but can also be classed as fraud.

CV achievement examples

Firstly, here's a general example of how your CV achievements section could look on the page:

Branch Manager – Fred’s Building Supplies (May 2020 - date)

   Managing day-to-day branch operations. Identifying and maximising sales opportunities. Spearheading a team of 5 

   sales staff. Leading by example to deliver first class customer service. Managing stock levels to meet demand.   

   Controlling costs. Driving compliance with health and safety regulations. 

   Key achievements 

   • Opened 150 credit accounts in just 6 months, by leveraging a strong network in the building sector 

   • Increased trade sales by 105% within 1 year by building a reputation for service excellence and product availability

   • Reduced stock loss from -2.5% to -0.2% by developing strict new procedures

   • Consistently exceeded branch targets for sales and cost control through staff training and mentoring

   • Passed health and safety inspections with full marks

And some more specific CV achievement examples, to give you some idea of what to include and how to word your achievements:

CV achievement examples for students:

• Successfully completed the Duke of Edinburgh silver award
• Won selection to captain the netball team, winning 8 out of 10 matches that season
• Enabled course improvements by communicating student feedback to lecturers as Course Representative

CV achievement examples for line managers:

• Provided supervision, coaching and mentoring to an underperforming colleague, who went on to achieve his targets within 6 months
• Reintegrated a colleague following a period of long-term sickness, in collaboration with Occupational Health and HR teams
• Designed an Inclusive Leadership course for senior executives, which was rolled out to 12 departments across the business following positive feedback

CV achievement examples for senior leaders:

• Spearheaded a major project to integrate a new business acquisition, which was delivered within a challenging 4-month deadline
• Launched new products in the Australian market to achieve projected profit of $9million in the first year
• Negotiated successfully with suppliers to reduce training costs by £20,000 per annum

When you’ve included your most impressive achievements on your CV, be prepared to talk about them further at interview stage.

Need help with achievements on your CV?

If you need any further input on your CV, please do take a look at my CV writing services to see how I can help. From a an eBook to a full CV from scratch, you can have a better CV whatever your budget. I'd love to help you land your next role!