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Achievements in a CV are just plain impressive; there’s no way around it. Perhaps you've come across a CV brimming with actions, initiatives, and tangible results, leaving you feeling disheartened. How can one compete with someone who appears to have been consistently excelling since starting their career?
You possess far more achievements than you realise. This guide will show you how to put key achievements on a CV so you exceed recruiters’ expectations.
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We created the sample on the right using our builder. See other good CV examples like this one.
Having examined 6 million CVs created in our builder, we found that*:
*The data comes from a period of the last 12 months (August 2023-August 2024).
Freddie Nixon
070 1111 1111
fred.nixon@lcmail.co.uk
linkedin.com/in/freddienixon
Personal Statement
Results-driven customer service advisor with 7+ years of experience in inbound call centres within the fashion and tech support sectors. My key achievements include consistently maintaining resolution rates exceeding 85%, reducing refund rates by 15-20%, and attaining an outstanding satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5.0. Eager to leverage interpersonal skills and expertise in CRM software to enhance QueryCall's customer experience.
Work Experience
Customer Service Advisor
Zurru, London
October 2018 – Present
Customer Service Representative
Krakowiak & Co. IT Group, London
June 2017 – September 2018
Education
NVQ 3 in Customer Service
The Merchant College, London
August 2017–June 2018
Skills
Awards
Languages
Now, that’s what we call a modern CV template that highlights key achievements. Here’s how to write an equally impactful CV:
Achievements for a CV, also known as CV accomplishments or successes, are tangible results or contributions that attest to your skills, abilities, and impact in your past roles or projects. The most powerful achievements that make a strong CV include:
Including achievements on your CV provides concrete evidence of your capabilities and enhances your credibility as a candidate. It helps employers grasp your qualifications, knowledge, and skills and how they can translate into success.
Past behaviour is generally considered a good predictor of future actions, based on behavioural decision-making theory. If you achieved something for a previous employer, you likely possess the skills (both hard skills and soft skills), experience, and work ethic needed to achieve similar successes for a future boss. This is incredibly useful information for a recruiter or a hiring manager.
Achievements on a CV also indirectly point to other invaluable insights into your suitability for a given role. They indicate the skills you possess and at what proficiency level you have them. They can also provide indirect evidence of how well you could cooperate with colleagues and others.
A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.
When people think about achievements, they often picture someone climbing a mountain or winning a trophy. In the context of writing achievements in a CV, the most obvious association is that of awards, prizes, and accolades. This association is not wrong, but it misses essentials.
Below, you’ll see the CV sections that can be packed with key achievements examples going beyond just rewards.
Writing up awards, prizes, and accolades in your CV is simple—there are just a few things to remember. Firstly, give the name of the award you won, the awarding body (if necessary), and the date or year it was awarded. Secondly, list your awards in reverse-chronological order in a separate CV section.
Here’s an example straight from a customer service CV:
The achievements highlighted within job descriptions are paramount and carry significant weight in a CV. Ideally, these achievements for a CV should constitute the bulk of the content within your work experience section.
An ‘achievement’, in this case, is the brief description of an action you took, often in response to a challenge of one kind or another, and the benefits that went to your employer as a result.
Build each achievement around a strong verb in the active voice. Use ‘negotiated contracts’ rather than ‘contracts were negotiated.’ This is about what you did, but don’t use first- or third-person personal pronouns.
You should have up to six achievements for each job description and 5–9 for more complex and involved roles. Put your job descriptions in reverse-chronological order. You can use the following template to create a subheading for each job description:
[Job Title]
[Company Name, Location]
[Dates of Employment]
If you struggle to give at least three achievements per job description, list your duties. Then, make them into achievements by noting the scale at which you did things. For example, ‘helped customers find products’ might become ‘helped 15+ customers a day find the products they were looking for’.
Try to fully or partially quantify every single achievement. If you don’t have enough work experience, consider writing a student CV or graduate CV instead— both offer ways around this.
Here’s a sample job description from a software developer CV:
Software Developer
Cyber Doily Ltd, Bristol
August 2018—present
Key achievement: Achieved 98% code coverage using the Google test framework.
If you’re writing a CV with no experience or a school-leaver CV, you may often lack job-related accomplishments to put on a CV. Here’s where the education CV section comes in handy. You can enrich it with honours, publications, awards, and relevant extra-curricular activities. They’re your achievements, too.
Here’s a sample from a CV for a part-time job:
BA (Hons), 2:1, Political Science, September 2006–June 2009
University of Manchester, Manchester
Dissertation on the history and legacy of the post-Churchill Conservative party in South-West England.
A CV personal profile, personal statement, or even personal summary is your CV’s opening paragraph. It’s where you introduce yourself to the recruiter. Though it goes at the top of your CV, it’s best to write it last when you have other sections ready. It also serves as a CV summary, so it’s a good place to add your CV accomplishments examples as well.
Here’s an account manager CV personal statement example:
Dynamic account manager going above and beyond to retain old clients (+17% customer retention), and gain new ones (additional £120k of annual income from new markets) for 5+ years now in the digital marketing industry. Managing portfolios nearing £1m in value with constant improvements and no mistakes. Seeking a more international challenge to utilise language skills with DirectMedia.
The most important thing to remember when writing a CV is not to write a tedious laundry list of duties. Recruiters know what your everyday tasks look like. They are more interested in what you achieved in previous positions. And though accomplishments depend on your industry, there is a way to turn each job duty into an achievement regardless of what you do professionally. Use the PAR (Problem, Action, Result) formula.
Here are some key achievements examples that show what the end result should look like:
Always quantify achievements on a CV by including numbers whenever possible, emphasising the benefits that accrued to your employer as a priority. You’ll need to estimate some numbers, so keep them facts-based and be ready to justify yourself.
You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.
Getting these kinds of achievements in your CV is the biggest and most important step in preparing a job application. If you have relevant work experience, your CV and a cover letter will be built around these achievements. Once you get the hang of them, everything else is simple.
Here are some extra tips to make the whole thing even easier:
Lastly, your choice of a CV font can play a huge role in the overall presentation of your application. Go with something understated like Noto, Garamond, Liberation, or Arial. Speaking of overall presentation, remember to save or export your work in PDF to protect your formatting unless, of course, you’re asked for something else.
Sounds too hard? View dedicated CV writing guides with key achievements examples to get inspired:
I hope this article has given you some important knowledge about key achievements for a CV. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please drop a line in the comments section below.
Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.
About the author
Since 2013, the LiveCareer UK team has shared the best advice to help you advance your career. Experts from our UK editorial team have written more than one hundred guides on how to write the perfect CV or cover letter.
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