When people ask me “What’s the most important part of my resume?” I always reply “Measurable accomplishments.”
I’m not the only one. According to one survey, 34% of hiring managers say that a lack of measurable accomplishments on a resume is a deal breaker.
In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about measurable accomplishments—what they are, how to come up with your own (even if you don’t think you have any), and how to add them to your resume. Plus I’ll give you plenty of accomplishments examples from a variety of fields.
What are resume accomplishments?
Resume accomplishments are accomplishments that are quantified. In other words, it’s when you use numbers to show how you made a positive difference at your job.
For example, if you increased sales, that’s an accomplishment. If you increased sales by 20%, that’s a measurable accomplishment. Here are some more examples:
- Reduced costs by 15%.
- Led a project that finished 30 days ahead of schedule.
- Increased organic traffic by 40%.
- Saved the company $200,000 annually.
- Managed and mentored a team of 30 employees over 5 years.
Why are measurable resume accomplishments so important? Because they clearly show how successful you were in your job.
Accomplishments are NOT responsibilities
I often see resumes that are full of responsibilities, but no accomplishments. This is a common mistake.
Responsibilities are the duties you are expected to perform at your job. Responsibilities include things like managing a team, overseeing projects, or handling customer inquiries.
Resume accomplishments, on the other hand, focus on the successful outcomes of those job duties.
In other words, responsibilities are what you do, while accomplishments show how well you did it. It’s important to have both on your resume.
How many resume accomplishments do you need?
I recommend having a minimum of five measurable accomplishments on your resume. Ideally, you should have a measurable accomplishment for each major skill that you list on your resume.
For example, if you list project management as a skill, you should use a number to show how well you used that skill. For example, “Successfully managed a team to complete a $1 million project two months ahead of schedule.”
To create a resume with measurable accomplishments, try using an online tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner. It will tell you if you have enough accomplishments to get a job interview. Here’s part of the report Jobscan provides you with after analyzing your resume:
If you’re not getting enough job interviews, this tool will help. One Jobscan user said “I had been looking for work a month prior to using Jobscan with ZERO interviews. The first resume I sent out using Jobscan, I landed a job.”
What if you don’t have any accomplishments?
I’m often asked this question, and my answer is: Everybody has quantifiable accomplishments! Think about the things you did on a day-to-day basis. Try and quantify them. You don’t need exact numbers.
Here are five ways to come up with some measurable accomplishments:
1. Estimate time saved
Did you make a process quicker or easier? Estimate how much time you saved weekly or monthly. For example, “Streamlined filing procedures, saving 2 hours per week—30% faster than before.”
2. Quantify your support for others
If you trained new hires or supported teammates, count the people you’ve helped and estimate the time it saved. For example, “Trained 5 new team members, reducing onboarding time by 20%.”
3. Highlight customer service volume
Think about how many people you assisted daily or weekly, and estimate how much faster or better you served them. For example, “Managed 50+ customer inquiries daily, resolving issues 10% faster than the team average.”
4. Measure the volume of your task
If your role involved managing inventory, show the volume of work you handled. For example, “Oversaw 200+ inventory items weekly, cutting restocking time by 15%.”
5. Estimate cost savings
If you suggested a cost-saving method, estimate the percentage saved. For example, “Recommended a vendor change, cutting supply costs by 12%.”
You don’t always need hard data to show off your accomplishments—a well-thought-out estimate can highlight your value.
Where do you put your resume accomplishments?
I recommend adding your resume accomplishments to two areas of your resume: your work experience section and your resume summary.
1. Add them to your work experience section
The best place to put your measurable accomplishments is in your work experience section. Use bullet points. They make it easy for recruiters to see your impact at a glance.
Below is an example of a resume work experience section. First, a brief paragraph describes the job’s responsibilities. Then bullet points highlight some major accomplishments.
2. Add them to your resume summary
Another good place to add your resume accomplishments is to your resume summary. This is a brief statement at the top of your resume that provides a snapshot of your qualifications. Think of it as your elevator pitch or personal highlight reel.
Here’s an example of a resume summary featuring some measurable accomplishments:
If your resume doesn’t have a summary, I highly recommend adding one. “A professional summary is an amazing resource to optimize your resume with keywords, catch an employer’s attention, and provide career highlights,” says resume writer Jazlyn Unbedacht.
How to write your resume accomplishments
When coming up with your resume accomplishments, try to focus on three things: standalone numbers, percentages, and dollar amounts. Let’s take a closer look at each:
1. Using standalone numbers
I love resumes with numbers. Numbers reveal more about your qualifications than a hundred words. Whether it’s years of experience, completed projects, or awards won, numbers provide clear evidence of your achievements.
- Years of experience: “Leveraged over 10 years of experience in project management to successfully lead a team of 20 in delivering high-impact projects on time and under budget.”
- Completed projects: “Managed and completed 15 major software development projects, enhancing operational efficiency and meeting all project deadlines.”
- Awards won: “Received the ‘Employee of the Year’ award 3 times for exceptional performance and innovative contributions to the company’s strategic initiatives.”
2. Using percentages
Percentages are sometimes better than standalone numbers because they add context. Let’s say that you increased sales by $50,000. That’s a huge increase if total sales were $100,000. But not so much if total sales were over a million dollars.
That’s why using a percentage, like “increased sales by 20%,” can be a clearer way of expressing your accomplishment.
- Increased efficiency: “Improved operational efficiency by 30% through the implementation of streamlined processes and advanced project management software.”
- Boosted sales: “Increased annual sales by 25% by developing and executing a targeted marketing strategy that attracted new clients and retained existing ones.”
- Reduced costs: “Reduced departmental costs by 20% by renegotiating vendor contracts and optimizing resource allocation.”
3. Using dollar amounts
What’s the #1 priority for corporate America? Money. There’s no better way to grab the attention of hiring managers than to show that you increased revenue or cut costs.
- Revenue growth: “Increased annual revenue by $200,000 by developing and launching a successful new product line.”
- Cost savings: “Saved the company $50,000 annually by renegotiating supplier contracts and implementing cost-effective inventory management practices.”
- Budget management: “Managed a project budget of $1 million, completing the project $100,000 under budget through efficient resource allocation and expense tracking.”
Resume accomplishments examples
In this section, I provide you with examples of resume accomplishments broken down into general job categories. Feel free to adapt these to your own experience.
1. Customer service examples
- Maintained a 97% satisfaction rating over a 24-month period as a customer care representative.
- Increased client retention by 59% by implementing an efficient grievance resolution process and customer feedback system.
- Managed 500+ customer accounts without any complaints in 5 years and with 100% customer rating in online reviews.
- Increased customer base by 25% and improved customer response time by 11%, directly impacting sales in 2023.
- Drove Quality Assurance (QA) from an average of 65% to 90%.
More examples: Customer Service Skills and Resume Examples
2. Sales examples
- Exceeded retail sales goals by an average of 17% every quarter in 2024.
- Expanded the client base by 60% in just 3 months.
- Implemented an efficient sales funnel, directly increasing sales by 30% in 2024.
- Created a robust pipeline and improved closing rate by 11% in just 2 months.
- Awarded as the Top Salesman in Company X for 4 consecutive years.
- Led a team of 10 sales professionals who consistently brought big accounts, driving year-over-year company profits at a rate of 80%.
More examples: Sales Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
3. Marketing examples
- Created campaigns that facilitated improved market share and customer engagement in 2024.
- Grew email subscriber list from 300 to 2,000 in 8 months without expanding the monthly budget.
- Managed and deployed profitable Facebook ad campaigns with a monthly budget of $20,000.
- Created an SEO strategy that improved organic website traffic to the corporate blog by 58% year over year.
- Created 32 new blog posts, 5 eBooks, and 6 landing pages, making up 30% of the company’s online content.
- Exceeded customer acquisition target by 25% and increased new subscribers by 50% by launching niche marketing campaigns.
More examples: Marketing Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
4. Computer science examples
- Reduced data processing time by 50% by building a new cloud data infrastructure.
- Worked with the CEO to analyze 10+ technology systems and consolidate them into a new system that encompassed all programs needed to reach business needs.
- Developed and launched a new software application that increased user engagement by 35% and reduced system downtime by 20%.
- Led a team of 10 in the successful migration of a company’s database to a cloud platform, resulting in a 40% improvement in data retrieval speeds and a $50,000 annual cost savings.
- Set up and trained a staff of 15 on how to use the Microsoft Azure platform for cloud computing purposes.
- Reduced company spending from $6M to $800K and reduced mainframe software costs by proposing renegotiating strategies.
More examples: Computer Science and Engineering Resume Examples
5. Management examples
- Created a company culture initiative that raised employee satisfaction rates by 25% year over year.
- Hired and managed a team of 6 data scientists to successfully deploy a new data processing platform ahead of schedule.
- Implemented a bi-weekly meeting with 9 other department heads to discuss goals, updates, and challenges, increasing productivity across departments by 20% year over year.
- Reimagined business development strategy to include a 20% increase in Salesforce, resulting in $550M in increased profits year over year.
- Led the company through a complicated re-organization, resulting in a 75% increase in profits with minimal employee turnover.
- Grew working capital by 30% in 6 months, allowing the company to take advantage of better resources for continued growth.
- Implemented a company-wide work-from-home policy, resulting in an 87% increase in employee satisfaction, a 21% increase in productivity, and a 38% decrease in PTO usage.
- Received 2 promotions, from co-management to director-level, in less than 12 months.
- Chosen for the team lead on 15 design projects in 2024, 30% more projects led than any other team members.
6. Human resources examples
- Raised employee retention rates by 15% over a 5-year period by implementing a tiered interview system and organizing a minimum of 2 team outings per quarter.
- Counseled, educated, and advised over 3,500 university students in a span of just a year.
- Created simplified HR processes that boosted company productivity and morale by 10%.
- Prepared regular pulse surveys for employees that increased transparency and engagement by 11%.
- Recruited at least 30+ high-performing individuals who are now executives in big companies in the course of 3 years.
- Organized the company’s annual international summit, including flights, accommodations, and itineraries for more than 30 attendees.
- Scheduled and staffed coaching sessions for 70 weekly athletics classes.
- Organized quarterly volunteer projects with upwards of 50 volunteers per event.
More examples: HR Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
7. Teacher and education examples
- Assisted head teacher in overseeing and educating 18 students for 3 months.
- Developed a comprehensive student submission system for final exam projects in the University’s online portal, accessible by more than 3,000 students.
- Approved more than 50 pieces of new curriculum in the foreign languages department during the Spring semester of 2024.
- Documented children’s learning processes and regularly met with parents, increasing student performance by 32% and parent engagement by 20%.
- Awarded as an outstanding secondary teacher in Mathematics within the district for 3 consecutive years.
More examples: Education Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
8. Administrative work examples
- Reduced time spent on inventory by 20% by reorganizing the physical storage of supplies.
- Digitized the company’s internal microfilm library of more than 5,000 files.
- Managed multi-line phone system and effectively handled 200 tickets on a daily basis, contributing to a 60% increase in customer satisfaction.
- Established an efficient document database during my first 30 days in Company X, reducing slack time by 10% and improving overall efficiency.
- Created policies for the entire administrative team and streamlined processes that helped boost employee morale by 15%.
- Provided administrative support to the Director of Operations and 50+ team heads in the office while helping HR with employee orientation and training.
- Implemented a filing system for human resources, organizing more than 300 past and current employee documents.
More examples: Administrative Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
9. Accounting and finance examples
- Led a process redesign and decreased the company’s month-end close time by 53%.
- Increased the department’s productivity by 10% by establishing process improvement initiatives and implementing strict compliance with GAAP and SEC guidelines.
- Provided timely financial reporting that led to business improvement and a 25% drop in company costs in 2024.
- Offered financial advice on crypto assets and investments to 50+ executives.
- Contributed to over $65,000 in profits in 2024 through proposed system changes and investment strategies.
- Reduced the company’s operating expenses by 15% through the implementation of cost-saving initiatives and renegotiation of supplier contracts, saving $200,000 annually.
- Managed an investment portfolio that achieved a 12% annual return, outperforming the market average by 5% and increasing client assets by $1.5 million.
More examples: Accounting and Finance Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
10. Student examples
- Improved GPA from 3.2 to 3.8 within two semesters by implementing effective study strategies and time management skills.
- Led a team of five classmates in a marketing project that increased event attendance by 40%.
- Organized a charity fundraiser that raised $5,000 for local community programs, surpassing the initial goal by 25%.
- Conducted a research project that was selected for presentation at a national conference, competing against 100 other submissions.
- Increased membership in the student volunteer organization by 50% through targeted recruitment efforts and engaging events.
More examples: Resume Examples for Any Job
3 tips for writing powerful resume accomplishments
Here are three additional tips that will help you highlight your major achievements to prove you’re the perfect fit for the job.
1. Use the C.A.R formula
To help you frame your significant accomplishments, use the C.A.R. formula. C.A.R. stands for Challenge, Action, Result.
This is how the formula works: First start with a challenge you faced at work, then talk about the action you took to overcome that challenge, and conclude with the positive result of your hard work.
Here’s an example of how to use the C.A.R. formula to create a resume bullet point:
- Challenge: The company was struggling to attract new customers and increase online sales through its e-commerce platform.
- Action: Developed and executed a targeted digital marketing campaign, including SEO optimization, content marketing, and advertising on social media accounts.
- Result: Increased online sales by 35% within six months and attracted 50,000 new visitors to the website.
Resume Bullet Point:
- Addressed declining online sales by developing and executing a targeted digital marketing campaign, resulting in a 35% increase in sales and 50,000 new website visitors.
2. Use strong action verbs
One of the biggest resume mistakes I see is not using strong action verbs to begin bullet points. Action verbs convey doing, and include words like spearheaded, optimized, managed, designed, and implemented.
Action verbs paint a vivid picture of your achievements in the mind of the hiring manager. In fact, one study showed that using strong action verbs on your resume can increase your chances of getting an interview by 140%.
To show you the difference between strong and weak action verbs, look at these examples.
- Weak: Helped to improve customer satisfaction by implementing a new feedback system.
- Strong: Spearheaded a new feedback system, boosting customer satisfaction by 15%.
- Weak: Worked on a marketing campaign that increased product awareness.
- Strong: Implemented a strategic marketing campaign, increasing product awareness by 25%.
- Weak: Was in charge of reducing operational costs by streamlining processes.
- Strong: Optimized operational processes, reducing costs by 20%.
3. Tailor each resume to the job
I can’t stress this enough. You must tailor each resume to the job you’re applying to. Don’t just send out the same resume with every application.
Why is tailoring each resume so important? Because most companies today rely on computer software to sort and filter the hundreds of resumes they receive. This software is called an applicant tracking system (ATS).
When you send in your resume, it doesn’t go to a hiring manager. It goes into an ATS database.
Hiring managers then search the database for suitable resumes by typing keywords into the database’s search bar. These keywords are usually job titles and skills (a keyword can be one word or a phrase).
To tailor your resume, carefully read the job posting and pick out the most important keywords. Then add those keywords, exactly as they appear in the job posting, to your resume.
To speed up this process, I recommend using an online tool like Jobscan’s resume scanner. This tool analyzes your resume against the job posting and then gives you a Match Score. This score tells you how closely your resume matches the job requirements. It also gives you a list of keywords you should add to your resume to increase your score.
Here’s an example of a Match Report (keywords that are missing from the resume are marked in red):
Jobscan’s resume scanner doesn’t just provide you with a list of keywords, it also tells you how to incorporate them into your resume bullet points.
All you have to do is click on a keyword and you’ll see multiple phrase suggestions you can choose from. You can turn these phrase suggestions into measurable accomplishments by adding numbers when appropriate.
Jobscan’s tool also helps you generate cover letters, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and track your job applications.
Key takeaways
- Measurable accomplishments are essential for a standout resume. Hiring managers want to see evidence of your impact, not just a list of duties.
- Transform your responsibilities into accomplishments by focusing on results. Use the C.A.R. formula—Challenge, Action, Result—to craft resume bullet points that highlight the positive outcomes of your work.
- Aim to include at least five measurable accomplishments on your resume, one for each major skill you list. These can be quantified using numbers, percentages, or dollar amounts to show your real value.
- If you don’t have exact numbers, approximate. Even an educated estimate can give your accomplishments the measurable edge hiring managers look for.
- Add accomplishments to both your work experience and summary sections. This ensures hiring managers see your impact right from the start and in each relevant role.
- Use tools like Jobscan’s resume scanner to check if your resume includes enough accomplishments and matches the job requirements.
FAQs
Using resume accomplishments in place of responsibilities makes the most out of resume space by showing the hiring manager that you are results-driven and have a history of going beyond the expected requirements.
Unlike job responsibilities, resume accomplishments prove to recruiters and hiring managers that there are unique skills and areas of expertise that you bring to the table and that you have a tangible track record of success.
To turn job responsibilities into resume accomplishments, focus on the results and impact of your work. Quantify your achievements by adding numbers, percentages, or specific outcomes that demonstrate your contributions.
For example, instead of saying “managed a team,” say “managed a team of 10, increasing productivity by 20% within six months.” This shift highlights the value you added to your role.
To identify your accomplishments, start by reflecting on your role and daily tasks. Consider the impact of your work by looking at outcomes where you exceeded goals, solved problems, or made improvements. Quantify these results with metrics like increases in sales, cost savings, or efficiency gains.
To write an accomplishment statement, follow the C.A.R. (Challenge, Action, Result) method. Start by describing a specific challenge or situation you faced. Then, detail the actions you took to address the challenge. Finally, highlight the results of your actions, including any measurable outcomes.
For example, “Implemented a new inventory management system (Action), reducing stock shortages by 30% (Result) and improving overall efficiency (Challenge).
List your accomplishment statements in the work experience section and the resume summary. In the work experience section, detail specific achievements under each job entry. In the resume summary, highlight key accomplishments to immediately capture the hiring manager’s attention.
Prospective employers care about past achievements because they show what you can actually accomplish. It’s concrete proof of your skills and work ethic, giving them confidence that you’ll bring the same value and success to their team. Basically, your past wins help them see you as a great fit for the role.
You can include volunteer experiences and list the soft skills that you were able to use and some measurable outcomes during volunteering. You can also highlight your academic awards and extracurricular achievements.
What if you’re a new graduate with limited work experience? Then you should focus on highlighting accomplishments from your volunteer work, internships, and academic projects if possible.
If you are changing careers, you may include measurable achievements that are relevant to the job that you are applying for. You can specify how your previous achievements will help you in your new career.
Check out our guide on How to Explain Gaps in Employment on a Resume.
Including accomplishment statements on your resume is key to standing out to employers. These statements showcase your achievements and the real impact you’ve made in your previous roles.
By highlighting specific successes, you make it easier for potential employers to see your value and what you can bring to their team.
Keeping track of your accomplishments is important because it helps you remember and articulate your successes when updating your resume or preparing for interviews.
It also boosts your confidence by highlighting your achievements and provides concrete examples to demonstrate your skills and value to potential employers.
