How to Best Showcase Impactful Accomplishments on a Resume
Crafting a resume that stands out requires more than just listing your job duties; it demands a showcase of your achievements with measurable impact. We’ve gathered insights from directors to career coaches to distill the essence of what makes a resume truly compelling. From quantifying results with clear examples to presenting compact, engaging information, discover the top twelve strategies for making your accomplishments shine.
- Quantify Results with Clear Examples
- Phrase Results for Maximum Impact
- Include Data and Numbers
- Lead with the Result
- Use the PAR Method
- Focus on Quality Over Quantity
- Tell Stories of Wins and Contributions
- Tie Data to Skills
- Add Metrics in Professional Summary
- Use Relevant and Believable KPIs
- Implement the STAR Method
- Present Compact, Engaging Information
Quantify Results with Clear Examples
Everything on a resume can be backed up by quantifiable results. If you can’t explain how you made your company more money or saved them some, you should not include that point on your resume.
For example, it’s not enough to say, “Led project management efforts for Company X.” What you should say is, “Led project management efforts for Company X and delivered results to the client in 8 weeks, making/saving $50,000 in revenue/costs.”
Ade Molajo, Director, AIWeb3 Career Accelerator
Phrase Results for Maximum Impact
Always be sure to phrase the quantifiable result to create the greatest impact. For example, if you increased client size from 5 to 10, instead of saying you got 5 new clients, you can say you doubled the size or had a 100% increase, which sounds a lot more impactful and impressive.
Mofei Xu, Career Coach, Mofei Xu Career Coaching
Include Data and Numbers
When possible, always include data and numbers. For example, “Achieved 125% of quota in Q1” or “Cold-called 70 people daily with a 10% conversion rate.” This makes it easy for a recruiter to see how you were successful in your last role before talking to you and gives them hard facts to use when presenting candidates to the hiring manager.
Corey Schwitz, CEO & Founder, Skydog Ops
Lead with the Result
Always lead with the result. Instead of writing, “Helped create a proposal that generated a significant amount of new revenue,” make sure that the resume reader can’t miss the impact you made: “Generated $5 million in recurring annual revenue by leading the pitch process to land one of the company’s largest accounts.” Never make the reader hunt for the results of your work.
Scott Shrum, President & COO, Hennessey Digital
Use the PAR Method
One best practice for highlighting quantifiable results and impactful accomplishments on a resume is to use the PAR (Problem-Action-Result) method.
Start by describing the problem or challenge you faced (Problem), then outline the specific actions you took to address it (Action), and finally, emphasize the positive outcomes or results achieved as a result of your actions (Result). This method helps provide context, showcase your skills and abilities, and demonstrate the value you can bring to a potential employer.
Kristina Ramos, Reverse Recruiter, Find My Profession
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
When it comes to highlighting quantifiable results and impactful accomplishments, go for quality over quantity. Less is more, so only include the most impressive of your results. Resist the temptation to add every detail and number because, while they add greater context to an achievement, they can overwhelm the reader. Rather than making a positive impression on a reviewer, including too many details in a resume typically dilutes the impact of what’s listed and puts off recruiters from reading further.
Instead, custom-curate your achievements within your resume to include the details that are most relevant to the position you are applying for. By showcasing the key data of similar results and accomplishments to what you hope to achieve in the new role, you can demonstrate your suitability for the position and the value you’ll bring to the organization.
Balázs Keszthelyi, Founder & CEO, TechnoLynx
Tell Stories of Wins and Contributions
The best resumes do more than provide a chronological list of your job roles and responsibilities. They tell brief stories of your greatest wins and unique contributions.
To do so effectively, start with the baseline metric, illustrate your action, and then highlight how you raised the bar. Be it higher sales or lower turnover, greater quality or reduced risk, the magic is always in the movement. If the preview is compelling enough, they’ll want to hear the whole story in an interview.
Tim Toterhi, CHRO, Plotline Leadership
Tie Data to Skills
Tie data to your skills every single time possible (and spoiler alert—it’s almost always possible). Did you help your team consistently meet customer demands? Quote what percentage of the time you were rated at 80% satisfaction or above in a customer service survey. Look for the data and prove your value.
Kerri Roberts, Founder & CEO, Salt & Light Advisors
Add Metrics in Professional Summary
Hiring managers want to know what you’ll bring to the table if you are hired, and you only have a few seconds to show them. I suggest that people add at least one professional accomplishment, along with a metric of success, in their Professional Summary. Numbers are eye-catching on a resume, so adding them at the very top can entice a recruiter to keep reading.
But don’t stop there. Add them throughout your work experience section, too. Recruiters don’t just want a list of job duties—they want a snapshot of the skills you used to perform the role and the impact your work had. Data and metrics are the key to providing that information in a way that is easy to see on a resume.
Heather O’Neill, Career Expert & Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW), Resume Now
Use Relevant and Believable KPIs
As a recruiter, I’m always amused when candidates make exaggerated claims about things they evidently couldn’t have measured. For instance, I’ve had junior-level candidates claim they increased a massive company’s efficiency by 70%; at least make it believable by mentioning the area in which you improved efficiency and using metrics relevant to your job scope.
On the other hand, some candidates fail to impress with underwhelming achievements. For this reason, I always recommend using metrics with larger numbers. For instance, if you brought 7% annual revenue growth as a digital marketing specialist, but the actual organic sales achieved were over $4 million, “Generated $4M+ in sales organically” sounds much better than “achieved 7% revenue growth in a year.”
Joe Coletta, Founder & CEO, 180 Engineering
Implement the STAR Method
Resume norms vary across industries; however, one best practice that transcends industry norms is a focus on accomplishments with quantifiable outputs, showing your precise contributions.
One tactic is to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method when describing your experiences. This allows recruiters to pick your resume out from a stack because it shows tangible, action-oriented outputs, rather than overused action verbs and buzzwords, which can lack clarity.
To implement the STAR method in practice, clearly articulate the challenge or situation you encountered in your role. This provides context for your accomplishments and demonstrates your ability to tackle obstacles and the analytical ability to articulate a challenge.
Then detail the specific actions you took to address the problem or situation. Focus on your role, responsibilities, and the strategies you implemented to overcome challenges or achieve goals. Of course, many actions are a team effort in the workplace, and you can use the interview to showcase your team spirit, but in a resume where being concise is crucial, focus on your specific contribution.
Finally, provide concrete, quantifiable outcomes to showcase the impact of your actions. Use metrics, percentages, or numerical data whenever possible to quantify your achievements and demonstrate your effectiveness. For example, instead of simply stating “Increased fundraising efforts,” you could say: “Developed and implemented a targeted fundraising campaign that resulted in a 30% increase in donations, raising $100,000 for the organization.”
By following the STAR method, you not only highlight your achievements but also provide evidence of your capabilities and contributions, making your resume more compelling to potential employers.
Kelsi Kriitmaa, Professional Coach & Consultant – Social Impact, Kriitmaa Coaching & Consulting
Present Compact, Engaging Information
Keep all the information you’re presenting on your resume compact, precise, and easy to understand. There are various frameworks for presenting accomplishments in a resume format, but I think the most important principle to follow is easy readability and engagement with the language and figures you choose to share.
Numbers are helpful, both for quantifying the impacts you made and for showing prospective employers your engagement and commitment to your past roles. Taking that a step further means spinning those numbers into a cohesive story—the problem you faced, the strategy you used to confront it, and your results are the basic skeleton to stick to.
Joanne Demeireles, CXO, Oula Health