Your Skills & Accomplishments
The better you can describe your skills and accomplishments, the stronger the impression you’ll make on potential employers.
Identifying your skills
Employers need people with employability skills, such as adaptability and responsibility:
- Why employability skills are essential to your success…more
- How to describe your employability skills to an employer…more
Employers also need people with work-specific or technical skills, like using a specific software program or operating certain equipment. Take stock of your technical skills:
- List all the tasks you have performed in your current and previous work.
- Read your job description, if you have one.
- Check out occupation profiles.
- Look at resumé books or job ads.
Identifying your accomplishments
Your accomplishments are what you achieve when you use your skills. They are the highlights of your best experiences. To sell yourself to potential employers, you need to identify and describe your accomplishments.
Work-related accomplishments can be hard to recognize, especially when they seem like just part of your job.
Strengthening your accomplishment statements
Employers want to know the specifics of your accomplishments. Notice the bold items in the list below. Anything that’s quantifiable (numbers, dollars, time) or proven (promotion, award) strengthens an accomplishment statement:
- doubled sales in district territory from $500,000 to $1,000,000 within two years
- achieved savings of $70,000 through volume discounts and central co-ordination
- promoted from Marketing Co-ordinator to Marketing Manager
- received Employee of the Year award for exceptional performance
- answered 20 customer service phone calls per day, troubleshooting problems, cutting red tape and making special arrangements resulting in repeat business
- maintained accurate bookkeeping records and reduced outstanding accounts by 20%.
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