Accomplishment Statements
An accomplishment statement highlights experience you have had in your work or volunteer activities where you were successful. It does not have to be a huge accomplishment, but it should show something that you are proud of while demonstrating that you can take action when situations arise. Employers like action-oriented people! An example could be the following:
- Coordinated a Walk for Breast Cancer that raised over $2K
The accomplishment statement is effective because it identifies the situation (need for funds), describes the task you undertook (Breast Cancer Walk), describes an action (coordinated), and describes a quantifiable result (raised over $2K).
To write an effective accomplishment statement, consider these phases: SITUATION, TASK, ACTION, and RESULT (STAR).
- PROBLEM or SITUATION: Identify the problem or situation that needed to be improved.
- TASK: Describe the task that you were responsible for--what was your role?
- ACTION: Describe the action you took and what skills you used to resolve the situation. (SEE LIST OF ACTION VERBS).
- RESULT: Describe the result or contribution you made to the situation. Whenever possible, quantify your result with a number.
Examples of other accomplishment statements:
- Spearheaded publicity and facilitated on campus meetings via advocacy actions such as letter writing and media activity.
- Completed an original research project that resulted in a report and presentation to the research scientists.
- Accurately entered confidential patient data.
- Wrote movie, theater, and restaurant reviews for the weekly student-run newspaper.
- Designed a homepage and electronic mail distribution list to make information on upcoming events more accessible; efforts resulted in a 20% increase in member participation at club events.
- Managed retail outlet and increased sales volume by 25% in first six months through promotions and marketing.
- Began as Sales Associate and was promoted to Assistant Manager after five months.
- Collaborate with on-campus organizations to organize collectively to educate the campus community about social justice issues.