Kevin1's picture Submitted by Kevin1 on
in

Forums

Career Management

Apologies if this has been asked before.

How do you write achievement bullet points when you have been a contributor on a project?

For example.  The project may have been a payroll system replacement that improved on-time payments by 300% and reduced payroll errors by over 99%.  Your role may have been the business analyst that documented some of the business requirements, wrote some of the functional specs, and participated in the testing and post go-live support.  You may have been on this project for 12 months, so you need to bullet your achievements. 

Do you include or ignore the project's achievements if you were only a contributor?

I expect this has been asked before, but I'm sorry, I could not find it in the forum archives.

Thanks in advance

Kevin

Bryan_Rivera's picture
Submitted by Bryan_Rivera on Tuesday September 30th, 2014 12:16 am

Hello Kevin,  

If you contributed, just say so, but then mention the result and how you did it.  I remember the Resume topic hitting on the 'Verb, Result, Method' formula often.  

I used that formula and came up with the below:

Achievements: 

 -Aided in replacing failing rostering and payroll systems by sourcing and screening vendors 
 -Corrected over 500 staff entitlement balances by designing audit and recalculation process 
 -Aided in customisation and implementation of RosterLive by performing audits & data collections

Hope that helps some. 

Best, 

Bryan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Green's picture
Licensee Badge
Submitted by Tom Green on Tuesday September 30th, 2014 11:45 pm

Hi Kevin and Bryan,

Having read countless resumes over the years, verbs like 'aided' are a big turn off.  The action verb should be specific to the activity.  So, using Bryan's examples, I'd suggest the following: 

-Sourced and screened vendors for rostering and payroll systems project that replaced failing system 
-Designed an audit and recalculation process that corrected over 500 staff entitlement balances 
-Collected data and performed audits to enable customisation and implementation of RosterLive 

You're not taking ownership of the project, just your contribution this way.  That is perfectly "OK" -- you don't have to be the project leader on everything you contribute to. 

Regards,

Tom

 

Kevin1's picture
Submitted by Kevin1 on Thursday October 2nd, 2014 12:51 am

Thanks for your advice guys.  I know these are just examples. 

Still, very helpful.

Kevin

Bryan_Rivera's picture
Submitted by Bryan_Rivera on Saturday October 11th, 2014 2:02 am

 Tom, 

Thanks a lot for the revision.  I've looked over the word "aided" and disliked it, but thought more looks like i'm taking 100%.  I really like your take on it.  

 

Best,

 

Bryan

 

G3's picture
Submitted by G3 on Sunday October 12th, 2014 1:17 pm

 Thanks, Kevin - great question!

 

I was working on this one, too. So much of the work that I've recently done was in a collaborative environment.

 

Brian & Kevin: terrific solutions!