Chapter 5 | Realising your achievements
How to pull out achievements when you think you do not have any; this is one of the biggest blocks people face, and they tend to say things like:
‘I do not really have achievements’
‘I just did my job’
‘My role was operational’
‘I was not in sales, so I do not have metrics’
‘I did not save millions’
‘I do not know how to measure what I did’
In reality, most people have plenty of achievements, they just have not been taught how to recognise them as an achievement!
An achievement is not always based on awards, promotions, giant revenue figures, or public recognition, it can
be:
• Solving a problem
• Improving a process
• Increasing eHiciency
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• Reducing errors
• Supporting growth
• Handling complexity
• Leading change
• Rescuing a diHicult situation
• Improving relationships
• Protecting standards
• Creating consistency
• Improving visibility
• Increasing confidence
• Helping a team function better
• Handling a crisis well
• Delivering something important under pressure
Achievement prompts to ask yourself for each role you are presenting on your CV:
Improvement
What did I improve?
What worked better because of me?
What became quicker, easier, clearer, smoother, more eHicient?
Problem-solving
What issues did I fix?
What bottlenecks did I remove?
What risks did I reduce?
What confusion did I resolve?
Results
What outcomes did my work contribute to?
Did I increase revenue, reduce costs, save time, improve retention, improve quality, raise satisfaction, support compliance?
Trust and influence
Was I chosen for key projects?
Did senior people rely on me?
Was I brought into diHicult conversations, escalations, or sensitive work?
Growth and change
Did I support expansion, restructuring, transformation, onboarding, launches, integrations, system changes, culture shifts?
Complexity
Did I manage competing priorities, large volumes, complex stakeholders, multiple sites, changing demands?
Ownership
What did I take ownership of?
What was I known for?
What would have suHered had I not done it well?
Use the STAR thinking model here; you do not have to write your CV in STAR format, but STAR is very useful to pull out content, for each example, write rough notes on:
Situation; what was happening?
Task; what needed to be done?
Action; what did you do?
Result; what changed?
This helps you move from vague claims to evidence; remember not every role has obvious numbers, and that is fine, you can still show achievement through:
Scope
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Scale
Responsibility
Consequences
Improvements
Trust
Feedback
Complexity
Outcomes described clearly, for example, instead of:
‘Responsible for staE scheduling’
You could say:
‘Coordinated staEing across a high-volume service environment, maintaining operational coverage during peak demand and short-notice absence’