Your Written Accomplishments Should Have Three Features
First, they should be in the form of a complete sentence, starting off with an "action verb." The following partial list of action verbs will help you get started. Each verb gives a highly descriptive "punch" to the expression of each accomplishment. Don't limit yourself to these verbs - there are many more in your dictionary.
The second feature of your written accomplishments is that each should show clearly what good resulted from your action. You want to show how your employer benefited from what you did. Here are several questions to help you remember your Accomplishments in terms of their benefits:
Did you do something to achieve more at the same cost? Did your action achieve the same at a lower cost? Did you do something to make things happen faster?
How did your action make things easier?
Did your action achieve something for the first time?
How did your action improve profits?
Were you responsible for reducing costs? Did sales increase as a result of your action? Did you enlarge the market for your products?
Did new markets develop because of your efforts?
Were you responsible for improvement in product quality?
Did you improve employee performance?
Did you improve relations with customers or employees? Were you responsible for improving flow of information? How did you reduce operating time?
How did you improve productivity?
Were you responsible for an improved technical process?
Did you contribute to a better administrative procedure?
Did you foresee a problem and initiate remedial action? Did you direct from scratch something not done before?
Did you develop innovative solutions to correct problems? Did you implement a program with significant results?
The third important feature of your written accomplishments is that they be expressed using numbers wherever possible. Business people, managers, and decision makers tend to think in terms of quantity - dollars, percentages, ratios, units, time (hours, days, months, years), and how many times an action was repeated.
For example, when writing part of an accomplishment, you should not say: "...resulting in improved production procedures which greatly reduced costs."
You need numbers in your statement, so you should say: "...improved production procedures which reduced costs 17% within 6 months."
Here are a few more examples to illustrate the need for expressing your accomplishments quantitatively...
Instead of: "Built a national sales organization that achieved an industry leadership position."
Try: "Built a marketing organization of 19 sales representatives covering 50 States and more than 4,000 retail outlets."
Don't say: "...resulting in improved employee morale."
Say: "...which reduced grievances almost 85% among 560 employees." or "...reducing employee turnover 20%."
Don't say: "...which dramatically improved collections of accounts."
Say: "...which reduced average aging of receivables from 95 to 42 days." or "...which reduced bad debt losses over $80,000 per year."
Don't say: "Developed research team that contributed many new products leading to improved market share and profitability."
Bring in the numbers and say: "Directed a 10 person professional research team that developed 27 new products introduced over a 5 year period."
OK, you are using strong action verbs; you are describing what good resulted from your actions; and you are using lots of numbers to quantify the benefits which were enjoyed by your company. The next question is: "How long should each of your accomplishments be?"
A practical answer is: "Long enough to convey meaning and value to the prospective employer, and short enough to be easily absorbed and understood!" A good answer to this "How high is up?" kind of question, is two typewritten lines.
Accomplishments expressed in only one line, or in 11/3 lines, just don't express the action satisfactorily. For example:
"Reduced payroll cost $240,000 per year while improving customer service.
The above statement is not complete. Actually, the writer hasn't described what was done. All that we see is the result. While saving almost a quarter of a million dollars annually is impressive, we still don't know what caused the savings. As written, this accomplishment takes up only 1 1/4 lines, so there is room to add a few words to give the reader a greater appreciation of the job hunter's ability. Perhaps the job hunter could have said:
"Computerized order processing, reducing staff 25%, saving $240,000 annually and improving shipping time 20%."
Here is another accomplishment needing more work:
"Restructured product mix using marketing research, raising profit margin 4%."
Ample space allows the writer to give more information without taking up any more lines. The Accomplishment could read:
"Implemented market research to restructure product mix, increasing profits 4% in 6 months on sales of $12 million."
Accomplishments that go beyond two lines are too wordy and need to be examined closely to cut them back to the recommended two lines. Remember, you are going to use your accomplishments orally during your interviews, and you will also use them in written form in your correspondence and your resume. Orally, you will always be fighting the temptation to talk too much, therefore shorter is generally better. The prospective employer is more likely to see your accomplishments in written form and it is there that length is even more critical.
Shorter accomplishments don't say enough, and when they go only a word or two onto the second line, you are wasting valuable space. The unused portion of that second line is space in which you could be much more explicit about your accomplishment without adding length to your letter.
Conversely, if the accomplishment is too long, you are limiting the amount of ammunition (the number of Accomplishments) that you can fire at a prospective employer. Except when answering ads, your letters should be limited to one page. This also applies to your resume. If all your Accomplishments are three-liners, the most you can get on a one-page resume is seven or eight of them. If you cut them back to two-liners you then can get eleven or twelve on the same page. Does it not make sense to shoot a few more arrows at the employer?
An efficient counselor will ask clients to start off by expressing each accomplishment in thirty words or less. The job hunter should focus on what was done, and not to worry about length. Those thirty words will usually take up about three lines. After a few accomplishments are down on paper, then the counselor and the job hunter can concentrate on editing to cut them back to the desired two lines.
Following is a first attempt at an accomplishment:
"Wrote and distributed press releases for seminar program which resulted in interviews and features on two local radio shows and two local television programs, as well as a 500 word column in the View Section of the Los Angeles Times."
Is it necessary to say, "Wrote and distributed?" Are so many words needed to describe the media coverage? If a good news story resulted, is it important to specify which section of which newspaper? A shorter and punchier Accomplishment follows:
"Issued press releases for seminar program featured on four local broadcast shows and in a 500 word newspaper article."
Following is another wordy offering:
"Converted from inefficient water lifter irrigation pumps to efficient, modern, self-priming centrifugal pumps, saving down time by 10%, maintenance costs by 25%, labor time by twenty-three hours annually, pumping 50% more water but only using 15% more electricity."
Lots of quantification, but it is a sentence that is long and hard to follow. What this person needs is to show an employer he understands water pumping systems necessary for cattle ranch management. The accomplishment can be shortened to:
"Converted to centrifugal pumps saving 35% maintenance cost, while pumping 50% more water with only 15% cost increase."
It bears repeating that your accomplishments are your ammunition in the job hunting campaign. But, there is another very important and salutary side to the process. As you identify the many things that you have done well - the things of which you should be justly proud - you will build up your self esteem.
When writing accomplishments, many executives' first reaction is, "I haven't done anything special. I have nothing in particular to brag about." However, after a few hours spent in going through the laborious process of writing Accomplishments, their attitude changes to, "Hey, I've done a lot. I am a valuable person!" This is the attitude you must project when you are job hunting.
Following are a few more suggestions to help you to keep your accomplishments to two lines:
Be Succinct
Each Accomplishment doesn't have to tell a complete story, providing every detail of your action and the result thereof. There isn't enough room on two lines to tell a story that might require several paragraphs to explain. All you want to do with your accomplishment is titillate the interest of a prospective employer. Think of your accomplishments as bait intended to touch the interest and needs of an employer. If you present an accomplishment to an employer and fail to get a positive reaction, he probably has no interest in that particular exploit. However, if the employer expresses interest by asking you a question, you can then expand orally on what you did and give more specific information.
Use Fewer Verbs
Often you will be tempted to use two or three verbs to describe your actions. This is all right if you have the space, but it is preferable, usually, to express your action with only one verb. For example, instead of: "Planned and organized...," just pick the one verb that most accurately describes the resulting accomplishment. You could have said: "Organized procedures for..." Another example, instead of saying: "Conceived and implemented..." "Implemented... "Would suffice.
Leave Out Articles
Leave out the articles "the, a, an." They take up space unnecessarily. Don't say, "Planned a marketing campaign...""Planned marketing campaign..." works just as well. Don't say, "Reorganized the budgeting procedures for the company..." Leaving out the articles produces the shorter, "Reorganized Company's budgeting procedures which resulted in..."
Time and Place Not Important
You don't have to be specific about where or when your accomplishment took place. What really counts is what you did, not where or when. For example:
"Designed computerized program for Acme Products in 1985 which saved over $700,000 within the first 6 months after installation."
It is not necessary to mention Acme Products nor the year the action took place. If you designed a computer program for Acme, the prospective employer will understand you can also do it for him. If you designed the program in 1990, it suggests you can also design one in 1995. Therefore, your accomplishment could be written as:
"Designed computerized program for $100 million food distributing firm saving, $700,000 within six months."
Find Shorter Words
Get out your dictionary or your Thesaurus and look for shorter words. If space permits, go ahead and get fancy. However, if you are having trouble staying on two lines, think of alternative verbs. "Consolidated" can be replaced by "combined," "formulated" can be shortened to "made." "Articulated" can be changed to "explained," and, if that is still too long, you can shorten it to "said" or "told."
Avoid Compound Accomplishments
Sometimes one long Accomplishment statement can be broken down into two or more separate Accomplishments. For example:
"Developed new advertising program, repackaged product line and reorganized sales force which resulted in sales growth from $50 million to $190 million within 3 years."
Obviously, there are three separate facets to this powerful achievement record. There should be one accomplishment describing the advertising program. How large was the ad budget? What kind of program? Radio? Print? National? Regional?
A second accomplishment should relate to the repackaging of the products. How many products in the line?
How many dollars were invested in the repackaging? How many units sold annually? Did the repackaging just consist of new art work, or were changes made in size and type of containers?
The third accomplishment would deal with the reorganization of the sales force. Were territories re-aligned? Were sales people added? Were outside sales representatives replaced by in-house personnel? Was the pay system changed to motivate the sales staff, such as from salary to commission?
You Must Use Numbers
You may not remember exactly how much sales increased in your territory in 1982, but you should be able to estimate that the increase was between 30% and 40%, or somewhere between $90,000 and $110,000 per year. In that case, pick a dollar figure or a percentage with which you feel comfortable, and use that.
Some managers hit a mental block when they attempt to quantify dollars saved, sales increases that took place 12 years ago, or anything else where numbers are not readily available. Don't worry, if you can't remember precisely, just estimate. There is no way that someone can check out your statement should you contend that the procedures you installed saved $75,000 per year. It is important, however, that estimates be based on reality. Your estimates must be reasonable, and you must be able to express them in conversation without blushing or looking guilty.
