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Simple Tips For Remembering Your Career
Accomplishments
Nimish Thakkar, MS, MBA,
CCMC, CPRW, SaiCareers.com,
New York
December 19, 2005
Not having enough
accomplishments is a cause of major concern for most
job seekers. The
following strategies have worked with my clients, and I hope that you
will benefit from them as well.
Reflection and questioning
Start with your most recent position and
try to remember every milestone achieved, every positive comment that
came your way, or every result that got your boss -- or your team --
excited. Why were you encouraged? How did your work benefit the
company or project? Did you change something? Cut costs? Improve
Efficiency? A project manager, for example, could think about the
following questions: What was the size of my last project (budget,
number of people, etc.)? Did I finish my work ahead of deadline? If
yes, by how many days, weeks, or months? Did I exceed any benchmarks?
How was my performance in comparison to my peers? How much money was
saved? Don’t be in a hurry. Just try to remember your performance one
month at a time. Make plenty of notes.
Performance reviews and recommendation letters
Your performance
reviews -- if accessible -- can also be a valuable source of
information. If you don’t have
reference letters, ask your favorite
supervisors or peers to write some for you. Some of these letters may
provide material that you could use on your resume.
Friends and colleagues
You can also ask your friends and colleagues
to help you in this process. If you worked on a team, your team
members may be a valuable resource. Be careful, though; don’t make
them suspicious about your [job search] intentions.
CAR stories
A very effective method that career professionals use is
the CAR format, where the acronym CAR stands for Challenges, Actions,
and Results. List your employment in chronological order (starting
with most recent first) and prepare a list of challenges you faced in
each position. What actions did you take to overcome these challenges?
What results did your actions produce? How did it impact the company?
Try to write at least 3–5 CAR stories for each position you have held.
(Do take a look at our
CAR stories worksheet.)
With careful planning and serious preparation your
resume
could become
your gateway to success.
Also Read:
Career
Accomplishments: The Key To A Powerful Resume
CAR Stories Worksheet
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We hope you enjoyed
the following article: "Career Accomplishments: The Key To A
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