Accomplishments on a Resume: Examples, a Formula and the Awards Section

A duty is what the job description asked you to do. An accomplishment is what was different because you did it. "Responsible for inventory" is a duty anyone in the role could write; "Cut inventory shrink from 2.1% to 1.3% in one year by moving high-theft items behind the counter" belongs to you.

UMass Global's career guidance boils it down to four rules: focus less on duties and more on what you accomplished, start with action verbs, quantify with tangible results, and keep only what is relevant to the job you want.

Use a three-part formula: action verb, the task or project, and the result or the reason it mattered. Florida Gulf Coast University's career services shows the pattern with "Created digital ads and flyers, resulting in over $2500 raised for the Humane Society of Naples." When the result is not a number, the reason works instead: "to increase awareness of animal abuse and neglect."

Keep each bullet to one or two lines, and put the strongest bullet first under each job. FGCU recommends three to five accomplishment bullets for your most relevant experiences; older or less relevant jobs can have one or two. If you are stuck, these questions surface most accomplishments:

• What did you make faster, cheaper, safer or more accurate?
• What did you start, build or fix that was not there before?
• What were you trusted with: a budget, a key account, training new hires?
• Where did you beat a target, a deadline or a previous record?
• What did a manager, customer or patient thank you for in writing?
• What recognition did you receive: an award, a promotion, selection for a project?

Most jobs have more numbers than people think: customers per shift, tickets per week, students per class, orders per day, square footage, budget, team size. Scale alone helps the reader picture the job, even when you cannot show a change.

When there is no metric, show the outcome in words: a process other teams adopted, a project delivered before a deadline, a promotion, a new responsibility, a clean audit, written praise from a client. Estimates are fine if you say "about" and can explain in an interview how you got the number. Invented precision is not.

Put most accomplishments as bullets under the job where they happened, so the reader knows the setting, the dates and the scale. Your summary can carry one or two headline results.

A separate "Selected Accomplishments" section near the top works for executives, consultants and combination resumes, where a few big results span several roles. Keep it to three or four items and still list the jobs with dates below. A list of achievements with no employer or date attached is hard to believe.

List each award with its name, the organization that gave it and the month and year, most recent first. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's career guide adds a rule many people skip: if the purpose of an honor is not clear from its name, add a short description, such as whether it is academic, civic, leadership or professional.

Academic honors such as the Dean's List, scholarships and Latin honors (cum laude) usually sit under Education. Ohio State's career office suggests naming the specific semesters for the Dean's List. Work awards can go under the matching job as a bullet, or in a separate "Honors and Awards" section once you have two or more worth listing.

Show how competitive an award was when you can. "Selected as 1 of 3 from 140 nominees" tells the reader far more than the award name alone.

List awards that are recent, competitive or relevant to the job: sales club recognition, employee of the year, scholarships, the Dean's List, competition placements, grants, patents and published work. Employee of the month counts for early-career and hourly roles, especially if you won it more than once.

Drop high school awards once you are a couple of years into college unless they are nationally known, such as National Merit recognition. Leave out participation awards and anything more than ten years old that the employer would not recognize. Certificates of completion are credentials, not awards, so they belong under Certifications.

1. 1

   Start from the duty

   Copy a line from your job description, such as "Process vendor invoices."

2. 2

   Ask what changed

   What was faster, cheaper, more accurate or new because you did it? Who noticed?

3. 3

   Find the number

   Volume (invoices per week), money, time, error rate, or a before-and-after. Use "about" for honest estimates.

4. 4

   Write it as verb, task, result

   "Processed about 400 vendor invoices a week and cut late-payment fees from $1,200 to under $200 a quarter by setting up approval reminders."

5. 5

   Check it against the posting

   Keep the accomplishments that prove what the job asks for, and put the strongest one first under each role.

Each pair describes the same work. Numbers are illustrations.

Fictional people, schools and employers.

• Resume Bullet Points: How Many to Use and How to Write Them
• Resume Action Verbs and Power Words, Grouped by Skill
• Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude on a Resume
• Work Experience on a Resume: How to Format the Section, With Examples
• Resume Summary Examples and How to Write a Professional Summary
• How to List Education on a Resume, With Examples

We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.

1. Florida Gulf Coast University Career Development Services: Describing Your Accomplishments (action, project, result formula; 3-5 accomplishment bullets for relevant roles)
2. UMass Global: Writing an Accomplishment Statement (four rules for accomplishment statements, weak to strong progression)
3. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Career Services: Strongly Recommended Resume Sections (honors with Month Year dates, short description when the purpose is unclear)
4. The Ohio State University, Arts and Sciences Career Success: Resumes and Cover Letters (Dean's List with semesters, graduation honors)