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Accomplishment Statements

Accomplishment statements are the fundamental building blocks of an effective resume. They are the “stories” of your experience and can be built on what is known as the PAR model.

• Problem, situation, or opportunity you faced

• Action you took

• Result of the action you took including the benefit to the organization

Every bullet point on your resume should include all or part of the PAR method. Most often, on a resume, you can only include the Action and Result statements. The Problem may need to be detailed in an interview. In order to develop points for your resume, think about what you did in your day-to-day with regard to problems or situations you faced (P), the actions you took (A), and the results of those actions (R). Through PAR stories, you will show your skills and competence to a potential employer. Refer to the sample resumes at the end of this section to view accomplishment statements utilizing the PAR model structure.

Resumes should scream ability, not claim responsibility. Employers should be visualizing you in the new position, not remembering you as ‘that account assistant from Chase.” While some former employers can promote your resume by their mere presence, you don’t want to be thought of as a cog from another machine. Instead, you resume should present you as an essential component of a company’s success.

Other Resources

The Vault MBA Career Bible 2005 Edition Vault Editors

Characteristics of an Accomplishment Statement

• Describes what you did.

• Identifies the action you took to improve a situation.

• Expresses the benefit of your actions through:

• Accomplishment statements can be written without results, but add results whenever possible.

• Statements are generally not longer than one sentence.

• Begin statements with an action verb and state the result of your action in numbers or percentages when possible.

Make Intangibles Real

Success on the job is based on personal qualities that may not be easily quantified or demonstrated. If you can somehow demonstrate such intangibles, you will greatly strengthen your employment prospects.

For example, say your resume includes descriptions such as “strong work ethic” or “creative thinker.” These are obviously desirable traits, but can you back them up in some way? If you have been able to make good grades and carry a full course load while working part-time, that might be one indicator of your work ethic. The same could be said if you’ve been able to help finance your education through summer job earnings, or if supervisors have given you outstanding performance evaluations. Similarly, creative thinking might be shown by accomplishments ranging from developing a newsletter during an internship, to putting together a publicity campaign for a charity event. Whenever you want to convey such traits (either in writing of during interviews), try to think of specific examples to illustrate them.