Examples of Personal Achievements that Impress

Personal achievements encompass any type of personal, educational, and professional goals you have achieved and obstacles you have overcome. Personal achievements are typically measurable evidence of your strongest skills and abilities and, therefore, offer the hiring manager or employer reviewing your credentials concrete proof of the type of employee you will be. Effectively highlighting your personal successes can further signal to an employer your best qualifications and better position you for the job you seek. Personal achievements speak to your level of success and your commitment to improving all areas of your life.

When explaining your personal achievements, it is best to give an example that relates to your job performance, duties, or specific industry. Keep the following in mind when providing an employer with some quality examples of your own personal achievements:

• Be specific. When discussing your personal accomplishments, be specific and give detailed information to help the interviewer visualize the importance of your achievement. You can consider using the STAR interview technique. STAR is an acronym that stands for situation, task, action, and result. It provides a framework for your response to fully explain your achievement. You can learn more about it here.
• Use action verbs. The key here is to use language that shows your actions rather than just telling the struggle. You can consider saying something like, ” I stayed late at work for three weeks and dedicated 10 overtime hours to create a campaign strategy that met all of our client’s requirements,” rather than, “I worked hard to come up with a campaign strategy.” The action verbs “dedicated” and “create” express your commitment to your job and can help an interviewer visualize your devotion to quality work.
• Have an assertive tone. When explaining your personal achievements, be sure to make eye contact and speak clearly and directly. Having a positive tone will express confidence and reveal your strong communication skills.
• Include numbers and data when possible.
• Prepare to explain your steps. An astute interviewer will probably have some follow-up questions and want to know about your process. Showing that you consistently take steps to improve your skills is a characteristic of a growth mindset and shows a potential employer that you are a good candidate.

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To help you identify what types of examples of personal achievements to provide for a potential employer, review the examples below organized into different categories:

Customer service and sales

• Efficiently cold-called over 30 potential customers daily, with a monthly average closing rate of 50%.
• Exceeded sales key performance indicators consistently over a three-month timeframe in 2020.
• Introduced a cold-email approach that resulted in telephone contact with over 40% of recipients.
• Consistently met sales deadlines for entire year.
• Successfully upsold customers on 23% of transactions.
• Resolved over 30 ticket issues on a daily basis.
• Increased customer satisfaction by 34%.
• Earned “Employee of the Month” recognition in July, September, and December of 2019.
• Cross-sold with over 90% of completed transactions to increase company revenue by 8% overall.
• Trained 10 on-boarding sales representatives in company procedure and policy.
• Successfully and accurately completed transactions in under three minutes by minimizing customer wait time and improving overall brand experience.
• Completed retention calls with unsatisfied customers, resolving issues to maintain customer loyalty in over 60% of cases.

Business

• Sourced qualified candidates using various social media outlets, streamlined the application process, and reduced hiring costs by 22%.
• Increased brand and branch visibility through active community involvement in three different community programs.
• Initiated a company-sponsored mentor program to help 15 at-risk teenagers in the area.
• Led team in four team building exercises to maintain positive company culture and support team relations.
• Increased revenue by 10% using data analysis best practices.
• Finished projects under budget for three quarters within the last two years.
• Grew customer base by 33% last year.
• United different teams to complete a demanding project through positive motivation and clear communication.
• Decreased production costs by half through implementing new management procedures and company directives.
• Revamped an outdated quality assurance program to reduce company annual production cost by 15%.

Office management

• Renegotiated with office suppliers to reduce yearly supply cost by 26%.
• Evaluated the recruiting and hiring process to minimize paper consumption.
• Hired, processed, and trained 20 maintenance workers and 10 custodial workers.
• Researched most effective and cost-efficient cleaning products for office use.
• Facilitated effective communication between management and staff to increase company productivity.
• Successfully scheduled 100% of meetings for senior management.
• Organized and planned day-to-day schedules for three executives during a six-year time span.
• Collaborated with senior management to schedule flights and hotel accommodations for six different conventions.
• Composed and delivered a weekly company recap email to board members providing important information and dates.
• Recorded minutes for partner meetings in over 200 meetings during four years of employment
• Transitioned three different offices to digital storage to maximize office space and improve the professional atmosphere.
• Successfully secured confidential company and employee documents and organized important documents daily.

Marketing

• Updated company’s social media accounts to improve brand awareness.
• Increased user engagement over various social media accounts by 77% within a four-month time frame.
• Successfully updated copy on company website in two months to attract a wider audience.
• Increased company return on investment (ROI) by 22%.
• Developed a word-of-mouth marketing campaign to attract new clients.
• Increased website conversion 60% by implementing a different format.
• Motivated customer interactions by offering discounts per purchase.
• Led a team of five to develop innovative marketing strategies to increase client revenue by 36% within four months.
• Slightly altered already established marketing campaigns with no overhead cost to appeal to a broader audience.
• Attracted up-and-coming influencers by offering low-cost incentives to position brand and market to a younger audience.

Education

• Used peer-to-peer reteaching strategies to increase student understanding.
• Created a student-to-student mentor program to offer support to students who matriculate into higher education.
• Published 16 articles in six different academic journals in 2019.
• Mentored 10 different M.A. candidates through theses completion.
• Served as an academic advisor for four years.
• Increased rate of enrollment for specific major by 12%.
• Published a peer-reviewed book on Aristotle’s teachings applied to today’s world.
• Offered reading tutoring to six students who each improved their LEXILE reading level to perform at grade-level by end of year.
• Increased student passing rate on state standardized tests by 48% through innovative classroom instruction strategies.
• Advised eight students and edited their applications for the Gates Millennium Scholarship.

Technology

• Created an advanced web crawler to index content quickly.
• Volunteered to lead five different building projects within two years.
• Redesigned and implemented a more effective content management system for company.
• Used employee feedback to host a webinar to support company efforts in using new technology.
• Presented data analysis and recommendations for more efficient data systems.
• Designed four data systems for four different companies within one year to minimize time expenditures and maximize company output.
• Received recognition for two years as exceeding expectations on annual employee review.
• Led a team of six engineers through a troubleshooting protocol to help the struggling company fill orders at a faster rate, helping to double company revenue and keep it from going under.
• Designed a new website to increase traffic.
• Developed a strong customer relationship management system (CRM) to help company gather information.

Service industry

• Trained two servers within three months.
• Helped hostess develop a fair system for seating customers.
• Increased customer satisfaction by 30% through quality service at the reception desk.
• Created a customer loyalty program to reward loyal clientele.
• Invented a new menu item for the Mediterranean section of the menu.
• Redesigned the drink menu and increased beverage sales by 44%.
• Overhauled sales promotions and attracted 20% more dine-in customers.
• Designed a system for to-go orders and increased revenue by 25% for the take-out menu.
• Offered motivation to new employees and created a positive work environment.

As a student

• Selected for Dean’s List two semesters in a row.
• Helped edit and publish the school newspaper.
• Recognized by local newspaper for storytelling skills with a feature in their Living section.
• Maintained a 3.9 grade point average.
• Recognized as Scholar of the Year.
• Voted by peers as most likely to own my own business.
• Recognized by instructors as helpful.
• Designated as group leader for three different semester projects.
• Learned to read Latin within one semester.
• Received the Presidential Scholarship for academic success and volunteerism efforts.

Volunteerism

• Provided educational enrichment walks for over 20 dogs during a 10-week period.
• Organized a bark-a-thon to promote adoption of shelter pets, which resulted in over 80% of animals finding fur-ever homes.
• Taught basic painting skills to 10 children ages 4-8 for summer youth camp.
• Organized the summer showcase that raised over $2,000 for children to display and sell artwork to support nonprofit organizations.
• Established a tutoring center at the Child Crisis Center to support children in transitional situations in achieving their academic goals.

In a leadership role

• Reduced questions during meetings by 30% through effective communication.
• Increased team’s productivity by 20% providing positive reinforcement through small rewards such as gift cards.
• Increased company revenue by 30% through implementing weekly checkpoints for project progress.
• Decreased employee turnover by 15% through employee feedback data analysis to improve company culture.
• Built internal talent by providing ongoing professional development opportunities for employees.

Including quality examples of personal achievements that speak to your strengths, values, and contributions in your industry can help you have a successful interview. For further help in preparing for your interview, discover real interview questions asked for thousands of job titles.