Hi, I'm Nicole Coggan from Nicole Coggan Resumes, and today, I want to talk to you a little bit about achievements on your resume. I know I've covered this topic before, but I wanted to make it a little bit more specific about how to actually find your achievements. So, grab a pen and paper, and I'm going to ask you a series of questions.
Watch here: Okay! Straight up! Any volunteer or community work. These could involve being on the PNC at your kid’s school, fundraising for cure for cancer, running a half-marathon to raise money or volunteering at the local soup kitchen or with the local rural fire brigade. That was a bit of a mouthful. So, any volunteer or community work, you want to jot that down.
The next thing, have you ever worked somewhere where a new computer system has been implemented, and were you ever on the committee or responsible in any way for either training new staff on this computer system or bringing back the feedback to the vendor so that they could troubleshoot issues? So, for example, when I worked at iTech, we brought in a new computer system, and I was on the committee there, one of the first testers. My job was to use the program before they implemented it across the board and then go back to the vendors with any feedback or ways they could improve it so we could get it all ready for the complete rollout. So, anything like that, new technology systems that you've learned, you want to include that as well. Okay, personal achievements. Now, some people will say personal achievements have no place on a resume. If it's a personal achievement, good enough. It definitely has its place there. For example, I once worked with an Olympian who forgot to mention that they were an Olympian because they didn't think that it translated to their job. He didn't have anything to do with that job, but the fact that they made the Olympic team shows that they have all that energy and enthusiasm and can meet goals and stick to training schedules, it's a big selling point.
You want to have a look at things like, have you ever climbed Mount Everest in your spare time, have you ever volunteered overseas saving monkeys or something, is there anything that you've done that stands out in a crowd. It could be something as simple as you have been the champion Rose Garden person for your town for three years running. If you have a personal achievement, anything that shows that you have initiative drive, can follow routines, anything that stands out and shows that you can accomplish good things, make sure that's listed as well. Next thing, any media attention. Have you ever been featured in the local newspaper, have you ever spoken for the company on radio or television, have you ever written an article that was published. I want you to write those ones down as well.
Our next thing, any professional development that you've taken on, this could be work-related or it could be personal. Even if it's personal development, you're still showing that you have an interest in something and that you follow through on your interest and are willing to learn.
Our next thing, have you ever saved a lot of money for a business, think about a time where you found that a supplier was overcharging and found a new supplier and saved lots of money, or perhaps it's something like you implemented a new computer system that saved heaps of money. Anything that saved money, drop that down.
Next stop, anything that made money. If you blitzed sales targets or exceeded them, or if you brought in a new client, anything like these, found a new business idea that the company ran with, those sorts of things, need to go down too.
Next question, have you ever implemented something new that's been taken on board and successfully implemented. So, that could be you implemented a new administration system that saved X amount of time per day or per week. It could be something like you implemented a new workplace health and safety thing that reduced lost time industries and lost time injuries.
Basically, anything that you've implemented that's been successful. Especially if it's something that can be measured. So, reduced lost time industries from 6 to 3, etc. Anything like that, you want to drop that down. Same for sales targets, any sort of target really. Customer service feedback reports, if you have really good results on them, make sure you include those to show that you're really good at customer service. Now, if you know your typing speed word per minute, and it's a really good one, then absolutely include that as well.
I'm just trying to think, oh, I have this whole list, and I really should have printed it out so I could read it out to you. The next thing, if you've managed or stepped up to a supervisory position so your manager goes on leave and you're next in line, or if you've been taken on an additional project and you've had to run a team, how many people did you run, what was the result. Same goes for projects. What sort of projects have you been involved in, what sort of workplace committees, were you on workplace health and safety, were you on the rescue squad, were you on the charity squad, the social squad, what sort of extracurricular work-related activities did you take on. Especially if you was in a position like a teacher, you know, did you run the school musical or anything like that.
Next stop would be, here's me, trying to run through the list, and remember, I really should have printed it off. We might leave it there, and what I'll do is I'll put the whole list below in a link so if you want to download the whole list where I have all the questions written down, feel free to download it, go through one by one and answer any of the remaining questions.