Tag Archives: achievements

12 days of Christmas, No, Project Management Achievements, Seasons Greetings

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

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On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

…6 Geese A-laying! Good for a hearty breakfast I am sure, but today we bring you: On the 6th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements, 5 Golden Rules, 4 Calling Cards, 3 Networks, 2 Referees and a killer CV!

 

The all important key achievements in your CV, the clue is in the naming here – KEY, meaning only highlighted ones. Not everything you have ever done and ACHIEVEMENTS meaning noteworthy pieces of work, not necessarily delivering projects on time and to budget as this is expected when you are a project manager. However it is OK to talk about projects which have faced significant challenges and if you are not a delivery person so have stepped up to the plate and delivered above and beyond the call of duty then talk about it.

I have written an article which addresses stating key achievements on your CV here.

Would you like an example achievement?? Of course you would – here:

  • Identifying the need for a programme management framework within a large blue chip company – on agreement, tasked with defining the associated processes and controls, recruiting a team in cross functionally to embrace and embed new method, ensuring full training administered. Resulting in a 20% improvement in project delivery across the organisation.

Only you can sing your praises, so please stop being so British about things and actually tell the hiring manager just how good you are!

On the 1st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

On the 4th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards 

On the 5th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules

On the 6th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, Job Applications, PMO, Project Management

Stating achievements on your CV

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Your CV is a professional document which details your work history and skills – as a project professional you should look to ensure you are demonstrating your ability to add value and administer change. The nature of project management is to achieve a change and as such you should be addressing your achievements in your CV. If you are a seasoned project professional either deliverer or supporter of projects you will have a list of completed and ongoing projects which could fulfil a thesis word count requirement. Therefore it is important to describe the types of projects in your remit and save a dedicated section on the CV to bullet point a few of your key achievements. Personally I would look to create a good long list of key achievements and interchange them on your CV for a more tailored application – ensuring you are highlighting projects which are particularly relevant to the role you are applying for.

The key to writing key achievements is to be clear and concise; consider these points when constructing your bullets:

  1. What is the project / task in hand – give a brief description.
  2. What was your input – remember the aim of a CV is to talk about you not your team, if you formed part of a team delivering XXX it is OK to state this but ensure you state your actual involvement.
  3. What was the outcome – what did you actually achieve from the project / task, talk about the benefits. Increasing productivity or reducing waste, can you add £’s or %’s here?

A CV should look to address 4 to 6 bullet points of key achievements – the aim is to give the hiring manager a flavour of what you can do and there will be ample opportunity to discuss other achievements at interview.

Adding the key achievements towards the top of the CV will assist the hiring manager in understanding your strengths from the outset and lends a nice flow to the document to follow into your most recent role. Try to avoid using achievements which are too old, using more recent examples is especially important for IT roles as technology moves along so quickly – the current work is likely to be of interest to the hiring manager.

If you were a product and wanting to sell well to the consumer the key elements of sales are what you can do – market yourself in the best light possible by highlighting your best attributes to the target audience. Your CV is your own marketing document – if you were to sit in the hiring managers’ shoes, what would you expect to see?

At The CV Righter we work with you to understand your best marketing skills and ensure you are selling yourself in the best light by taking your portfolio and hand picking the parts which are relevant to your target employers. For a free CV review visit: www.thecvrighter.co.uk