How to Write Achievements in a CV? [+ Examples]

When writing a CV, many candidates are lost and unsure about how to impress the recruiter. 

If that’s your case, consider listing achievements in your curriculum vitae.

Listing achievements in a CV helps the recruiter understand how well you can do the job, rather than the responsibilities you’re expected to fulfill.

Let’s see some examples of achievements in a CV:

Clearly, an achievement-based CV with convincing details will catch the recruiter’s eyes. 

Want to win a dream interview? 

Let’s walk you through how to write achievements in a CV.

First, achievements are not what you’re expected to do. If you are a waiter, making tables and taking orders are not achievements.

Achievements in a CV are impressive highlights that demonstrate your outstanding skills or capability. Key achievements prove that a person surpasses the average quality and aims at being better than required.  

Here are the types of achievements that can be included in a CV:

💡 Personal achievements

Personal achievements in a CV might include experience like completing a full marathon or having been to more than 25 countries. 

There are debates on whether a professional CV should include personal achievements. 

The best strategy is to think from the recruiter’s perspective. Personal achievements like those can be eye-catching if you are applying for roles in the entertainment or sports industry. 

However, you should try to include only the relevant personal achievements in your CV to spark the hiring manager’s interest.

💡 Professional achievements

Professional achievements are career highlights that can represent your job skills. It is the most common type of achievement in a CV that applicants list. 

Key professional achievements in a CV are extraordinary performances that prove a candidate fulfills the duty and make additional contributions to the company and the client.

💡 Academic achievements

It’s crucial to provide distinguished academic achievements in the CV for students or recent graduates if they have limited to no professional experience. 

The benefits of listing academic achievements, such as a high GPA, Latin honors, Dean’s lists, or publications in a CV, are that they show a candidate’s potential and characteristics, such as hard-working, that are valued. 

Other unique academic CV accomplishments, such as joining a foreign university lab research or helping organize an academic conference, are also ideal experiences that add value to your CV.

💡 Sports achievements

Participation in sports is a great way to display key soft skills for a future career on a CV. It demonstrates teamwork skills, perseverance, self-motivation, and more. 

To outperform other applicants, you need to know where to list your achievements in a CV.

There are four sections in a CV to write about different kinds of achievements.

1. CV summary 

A CV summary is a short passage with 3-5 sentences that describes your professional profile. For job applicants, it’s also a key section to incorporate their best career performance into.

2. Work experience section

For recruiters, the work experience section is the most important part of a CV. 

They expect to review your work history and accomplishments to determine whether or not they should invite you to an interview. 

As a result, this is the best section in a CV to include all your exceptional achievements.

3. Education section

The education section in a CV is another highlight for recent graduates or students looking for an entry-level job or an internship.

Academic achievements in a CV will immediately add value to a candidate, especially when hiring managers are looking for freshers with high potential and dedication.

4. Awards & achievements section

Recruiters from different industries look for different accomplishments in a CV. For example, design awards are definitely a huge plus for the design industry. 

If you have several industry-related awards that do not fit in the work experience section, consider adding the accomplishments in an additional “Awards” section in the CV.

Now you know where to put accomplishments in a CV. 

Here comes the ultimate question: How do you describe previous work experience in a CV to prove that you have impressive achievements? 

There are many ways to put your effort into words. Nevertheless, which is most appealing and persuasive for the hiring managers?

Here’s the formula to describe your accomplishments in a CV and make them shine..

✨ Measurements

It’s great that you’ve done a lot for your work. Yet, when describing your work, adding understandable context to the hiring manager is important.

Measurements are tools to help us calculate things and be more specific. 

✨ Duration

When writing about your achievements, it’s best to add the duration of the project alongside measurements. How long does it last? Specify the duration, whether it’s a year, a month, or a week.

✨ Quantifiable results

Finally, after you provide background knowledge of your achievements, don’t forget to add the final results. 

Results, similar to the measured background of your work, should be quantifiable. 

Don’t hesitate to spend some time calculating percentages or the amount of financial impact you make in your CV achievements.

Surely, describing your achievements in a CV can be a pain in the neck. You might encounter problems like:

• Not knowing the result of the work you do
• Not sure about what counts as achievements in a CV
• Not sure if the hiring manager would be interested in your accomplishments
• Not sure how to put your achievements in the CV to make it attractive

Here are some tips to help you write about accomplishments on your CV:

✅ Reach out to previous clients or employers for details.

Oftentimes, we don’t have access to financial details or back-end data that we can use to back up our achievements in the CV. If you’re wondering about the numbers or outcome of your work, asking your manager or previous clients may be a good idea. 

The employer and clients, in most cases, are willing to share the result unless classified data is involved. Asking for KPI information or numerical documents is acceptable. 

Of course, you should explain your purpose politely and add that it’s solely for job searching purposes and writing about your accomplishments in your CV, and these materials would not be leaked or utilized with malicious intention.

✅ Utilize adjectives or adverbs. 

When writing accomplishments in the CV, word choices matter. Adding powerful adjectives or adverbs like “significant” or “accurately” will make your accomplishments look influential. 

✅ Differentiate achievements from responsibilities.

After finishing your achievements in your CV, read it again. How does this description portray you? 

Ideally, your accomplishments in the CV are elements that reflect your goal-oriented and problem-solving working skills. 

If the descriptions are merely information about what you’re asked to do, you should rewrite them.

✅ Always use quantifiable results.

Numbers really pop. 

Arabic numbers are not only easier to interpret and calculate, but they are also visually distinguishable from letters. Whenever it’s possible, use numbers to write about your accomplishments and work results in the CV. 

Moreover, it shows that you value the result of your work and are willing to dedicate more to achieving your goal.

✅ Highlight key accomplishments and be ready to talk about them in an interview.

Suppose that there are more than 5 accomplishments you’d like to add to each job in your CV. In this case, you can choose to highlight one or two of your best performances for the recruiter in the CV like this:

Since it’s your key achievement in the CV, you are likely to be asked about it in the interview. Make sure you can present the details of the achievement coherently.

--- Originally written by Wu Chao Min ---