Learn From the Pros

In a quick sentence, here is a description of my job responsibility:  Supervised 65 employees in the creation of a full-body wiring harness.

That’s how I viewed my job.  If someone asked what I did, that’s what I told them.  But here is what I accomplished every day simply by attending to my responsibilities:

Achieved – on a consistent basis -- the best production rate of three shifts dedicated to “just-in-time” delivery of full-body wiring harness.

See the difference?  You go to work every day to perform your responsibilities, but while you’re there you’re creating in a very real sense a treasure trove of accomplishments, if you dig deeper.

Digging for the accomplishments.

So, here are some questions, right from the start for you to tackle in order to allow your “accomplishments” to rise to the surface of your consciousness.  You may not be able to rout through your brain in just one sitting to find the answer to these questions, though.  In fact, hopefully, you won’t.  You’ll discover that if you let these questions simmer on the back burner for a while, accomplishments you haven’t thought about in years – many of which you’ve just taken for granted – will appear.

So, think about some of these questions:

• Have you saved any firm money?  How much? How did you do it?
• Have you helped improve overall sales?  By how much?
• Did you ever improve productivity or efficiency at any of your jobs?
• Were any of your performance reviews rated as outstanding?
• Did you solve any customer problems?
• Institute any new techniques for performing jobs?
• Were you a member of any committees?  Which ones?
• Were you on a task force of any kind?
• Did you help to launch a new product or a new service?
• Did you achieve better results using fewer resources?
• Did you exceed accepted quality standards for you industry?
• Did you prepare any original documents or reports?
• Did you identify the need for a new program or service?
• Did you participate in any technical or operational improvements?

Not every accomplishment you’re noting right now is going to be big. The primary purpose of listing “accomplishments” to your potential employer is simple enough though.  It shows that, as you carried out your assigned responsibilities, you achieved results.

Very often these accomplishments are indeed actions you’re proud of, but many times they are a very handy – and clarifying – method of explaining what you did on a daily basis.  When you list them as accomplishments, they illustrate – quite vividly – your experience  . . . knowledge of your industry.  And in the process they are solid proof that you actually were – or still are – an asset to your company.