Turn Your Career Challenges Into Resume Achievements

One of the most effective ways to stand out from the competition is to add accomplishments in a job to your resume. Often the case, candidates list their duties, responsibilities, and education. This is great, but not very impressive. A carefully crafted accomplishment sentence will change that drastically.

Usually, recruiters know what are the typical duties for a specific position. On contrary, resume career highlights put it all into perspective.

 

They showcase your impact, results, initiative, and professionalism. Accomplishments in the workplace are extremely effective in presenting your competencies and experiences in the best light.

 

 

In this guide, you’ll learn how to turn your career challenges into resume achievement statements.

 

What are Achievements and Challenges?

First things first, let’s define the differences between those two in terms of the work environment.

What are professional accomplishments? What awards to put on resume? Measurable and visible results of your professional performance.

It can be something like:

 

• Sales and revenue increase;
• Implementation of new tools and techniques;
• Optimization of workflow and productivity;
• Resolution of a particular issue, etc.

 

For example, imagine you are a WritePaper.com professional. This is a professional academic writing service that helps students with all types of college assignments.

Specialists deliver writing, editing, and proofreading services on demand. So if a student needs homework help, they always have an access to top-notch expertise and assistance.

 

The accomplishments on a job like this would include the number of projects/papers you’ve completed, the level of customer satisfaction, and the grades for papers.

What about challenges? These are particular situations that you or your team faced in the previous place of work.

 

Often, people tend to hide away from them and do not view them as activities and honors for a resume. But every experience is valuable, not only the list of accomplishments.

And sometimes challenges teach us much more than easy wins. So the best way to approach this is to turn them into significant work accomplishments.

 

How to Turn Challenges into Accomplishments for Resume

What is considered a challenge can showcase your resilience, determination, and ability to be flexible in new situations. Handling a difficult matter gracefully should be among your career highlights.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to turn one into another.

 

Step 1. Remember previous challenges

Reevaluate your previous career path. There should have been moments when your company or team faced challenging situations that had a potentially negative effect or provided significant risks for reputation, revenue, or project success.

Go back to your early days of employment. Create a list and signify why this situation was dangerous or risky.

 

What was at stake? Who was bearing the responsibility? Why was it crucial to resolve it quickly? How much was the company affected by the situation?

Such situations can potentially become achievements in the workplace to put in your job application.

 

Do not stop at one or two. The more you remember, the more awards to put on your resume you’ll end up with.

 

Step 2. Describe your role in the solution

It is important to focus on those challenges that were successfully resolved. After you complete step one you have a list of the. Remember how you participated in the solution.

You may have been involved individually or worked as a member of a team. Common accomplishments here could include the usage of new methods or technology, the creation of specific procedures, fast response, etc.

 

Or, maybe you acted as a mitigator and coordinator between different teams to come up with the resolution together. This could be a leadership accomplishments resume opportunity.

It is always good to get into details, for example, name the used technology, the particular skills and competencies that came in handy, and or the actions you took to resolve the issue.

 

Maybe you introduced the team to a new technology that allowed streamlining tasks and increasing productivity.

Or maybe you’ve trained another employee on a new procedure or process. All of that is the summary of accomplishments you can put on your resume.

 

 

Step 3. Showcase the impact

What was the result of this whole situation and your effort in this? It will go to the CV awards and honors statement. When the issue was resolved, what did it mean to the company or organization?

What did your company get out of it? Maybe you’ve managed to cut down costs, explore new market opportunities, or increase the department’s productivity.

 

Did you help others to work more efficiently? It’s nice if you can describe accomplishments with numbers and quantifiers, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t quantify every result in numbers.

Surely, successes at work are not always measured in percentages or dollars, but if there is some kind of measurement, it is always good to add for clarity.

 

Compare three examples of job-related accomplishments:

 

1. Increased website conversions.
2. Increased website conversions by 20% in 3 months.
3. Increased website conversions by 20% in 3 months, which resulted in a 40% increase in quarterly revenue of the company.

 

All three examples list noteworthy accomplishments but the last one looks the most impressive. It presents not only a measurable impact on the workflow but also a result for the company.

This adds scale and perspective to your professionalism and skills.

How to Put Skills and Achievements on Resume

There are mainly three sections to use for this matter:

 

• Summary;
• Work Experience;
• Projects/Volunteering/Internships.

 

Top Achievements in the Work Experience Section

The work experience section is one of the most common and organic ways to signify major achievements and skills.

One can use two sentences structures – the first lists responsibilities for a resume and the second presents the result of your performance.

 

Separate notable achievements by the different positions you’ve had and companies you’ve worked with according to the timeline.

Here is an example of how to add achievements at work to the experience section:

Managed a team of 8 professionals. Maintained customer satisfaction at 97% for 2 years

 

Outstanding Accomplishments in the Resume Summary

The key accomplishments can go to the summary. It is pretty limited in volume, so choose only the most prominent ones.

Make sure they are relevant to the position you are applying to. For example, you can write about team management experience or leadership in the development of particular projects.

 

The summary should present the professional and their main accomplishment statement.

 

Core Accomplishments in Projects/Volunteering/Internships

The projects section is often situational. It can be useful for freelancers or contractors that work based on projects.

This is another perfect opportunity to use your challenges to your benefit. How to list projects on resume? Here are a few tips:

 

• Use reverse chronological order – the latest project goes first;
• Give its name and duration;
• Name technologies used;
• Shortly describe the scope;
• Add personal achievements.

 

For example, it try something like:

 

Creating a marketing and content strategy for business resulted in a 30% organic traffic increase in 2 months.

 

Those who have 10+ years of professional experience also benefit from a separate resume awards section. For example, if you have certifications or industry rewards that illustrate your expertise, it is perfectly reasonable to use them for resume honors and activities.

Application is often the only chance to make a first impression on a potential employer, so it should be strong.

 

However, if you are a young professional or fresh out of college, moving out achievements in a separate section might seem strange.

 

 

In Summary

Previous challenges easily become impressive achievements in CV. Reconsider your experiences and remember difficult situations you’ve faced in a workplace previously.

Evaluate how they were solved and your role in it. Put them as personal or team achievements on your resume in work experience or summary.

 

You can also summarize your achievements in optional or additional sections like projects or certifications.

This will help you stand out from the competition and showcase your accomplished career and high level of professional skills.