I work with a lot of talented, albeit humble people. They do great things, and then they seem to have achievement amnesia when the time comes to sing their own praises. As a result, we’ve been having conversations lately about building your own brand and sharing your story. One of the most important things we’ve discussed is the importance of tracking your accomplishments before you ever need them.
Knowing what you’ve already done helps you determine what you have the potential to do in the future. It helps you look at a job description and say, “I could be great at this job because I have already done similar tasks. This job may stretch my abilities, but I was successful in the past when I faced a similar stretch assignment.”
Anytime you’re sharing your accomplishments, you want to make yourself look impressive while still being truthful, #integrity. Chances are that you are sharing your accomplishments because it matters for your job performance or an exciting opportunity.
You want to frame your accomplishments in a way that is attractive to your audience. Remember to address the “what’s in it for me?” for your audience. They need to see the value in what you did. You want to be able to demonstrate that you can not only handle the job at hand, but that you will also make it better and over-deliver.
Sometimes we are projects that ultimately fail. It happens. What matters most in those circumstances is how you reflect and learn from them. In an interview setting, those failures lessons can become your greatest asset. Now you know what not to do. You also know how you react under pressure and have the opportunity to demonstrate that you don’t throw people under the bus.
I wrote up a quick chart to help you track your accomplishments. I encourage you to use it with every project, no matter how big or small it may seem. Your tiny snowball may start an avalanche!
| Project Name & Description | Your Role/Title | What you thought the project would be | What you learned at the end of the project | What did you and your team accomplish? | What was the impact? |
Include a fancy title if it exists.Also include a brief description of the project so that an outsider will have a rough idea of what’s going on.Make sure to put the dates/time period in which this project occurred.If it occurred as part of a large initiative, you may mention that. |
What was your fancy title?If you weren’t given an official title, make one up that best describes your role on the project.What were you responsible for?What was your contribution to the project? |
What were the project goals?Were there any aspects of the original project plan that you anticipated would cause issues or pain points?What did you think success would look like? |
Chances are that your project didn’t go exactly according to plan. How did YOU navigate the pain points you encountered?What were the big “ah-has”?What transferrable skills did you demonstrate during this project? |
What was the overall result?Did you change something and/or make it better?This is NOT the place to say that you “helped do X.”Use words like “developed, managed, created, liaised, coordinated, analyzed, evaluated”If you worked with someone with a fancy, important-sounding title, SAY IT!Make sure to say both the team’s accomplishments and YOUR own accomplishments |
This is probably the most important section to your audience!Give me numbers!Did you save time, money, resources for the company?Did your project generate more money for the business?How many people did it affect? |
Project Bubblesa.k.a. teaching swim lessons |
Swim Instructor Responsible for teaching Parent-Tot, preschool, and youth swim lessons at XYZ pool. Taught 4 lessons every Saturday morning during the summer of 2016. |
Show up on Saturday mornings and teach swim lessons to participants using the XYZ Company’s swim lesson swim methodology and leveling standards.I knew that the previous/current swim instructors had not gone through the formal XYZ Company “How to be a Swim Instructor” certification course, so I predicted that they would teach things differently and in different orders than the company’s set standards.I thought that I would be able to teach students well enough that 50% of students would graduate to their next levels in swim lessons. |
I was the only swim instructor at XYZ pool. I got to be the face of the new swim lesson program.I also learned through my evaluation of the swimmers that they did not know proper breath control, and that all of the swim students (even the “advanced on paper” people) were only at the beginner level by the XYZ standards. |
I set clear expectations with course participants about what we would and would not cover in the course.I developed a Swim Instructor up-training course to onboard future swim instructors.I coordinated with XYZ leadership (including the Aquatics Director and Executive Director) to do …… |
I trained 300 youth and adults over the course of 3 months life-saving swim safety skills.I increased repeat enrollment from 25% to 50% of participants.
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