How to Answer: “What is your greatest accomplishment?” in Your Job Search

There you are staring at your computer screen. It’s one hour before the deadline to apply for your dream job and you’re facing that dreaded question on the job application. “What is your greatest accomplishment?” Argh! You turn to your resume to cut-paste the answer to that all-important question, but you realize in scanning the document that you don’t have an easy-to-grab paragraph.

OR

You’re having lunch with a mentor two levels above your boss and you tell her that you are considering applying for an opening in a new department. She offers to put in a good word for you and asks you which accomplishment in your current job is most relevant. Argh! You scramble your brain cells trying to think of something fast and end up drawing a blank.

Don’t you wish you had an easy-to-reference list of previous accomplishments to choose from? 

Why Do They Always Ask for Your Greatest Accomplishment?

It can be annoying to get this question while positioning yourself for success, because accomplishments can be hard to think up and present. Why do they always ask you for them? In short, recruiters and hiring managers get a lot of resumes they have to scan. They tend to first review them for who meets the essential job requirements, and then they try to find information that will help them rank and prioritize who looks best. These people in the “cream of the crop” pile get the first invitation to interview. Know what tends to pop a resume out of the pile and into the “cream of the crop” list? Yep. Relevant accomplishments. Interviewers will always ask about your accomplishments to weed you out quickly if your experience is not relevant. 

Stating your accomplishments is a word-efficient way to tell others a lot about what you have done and can do in the future. <==Click to Tweet

There are many reasons accomplishments catch their eye, however one of the most basic factors is simply that stating an accomplishment is a very word-efficient and intuitive way for them to envision your competencies. For example, when you state this accomplishment: “established cross-functional team approach to product testing prior to release, reducing reported errors in commercial production by 25%”, this is what recruiters and hiring managers immediately know about you:

• you “get” how important reducing errors is to company and customer success
• you’ve lead people in a product group and/or customer service discipline
• you are effective working across organizational groups and departments
• you can put tracking systems into place and/or use them to measure success
• you know the importance of testing prior to commercial release and can probably manage projects

That’s a lot you just told them with very few words. And they probably want to reduce their own errors by 25%, too! 

How to Be Ready for the Greatest Accomplishment Question

As the second example above makes clear, whether you’re actively looking for a new job or not, you should always have a list of your greatest accomplishments, and keep updating it over time. This way, you have your list of accomplishments at the ready when:

• Applying for jobs
• Tailoring a cover letter for a specific job
• Updating your resume
• Updating your LinkedIn
• Job Interviews
• Informal networking
• Performance reviews
• Asking for a raise
• Reminding your boss how valuable you are
• Reminding yourself how valuable you are

What goes on this list? First of all, realize that this list of greatest accomplishments isn’t something you necessarily publish to anyone. This is your personal resource. A document that sits in your files alongside the last ten versions of your resume. Each job on your resume should have a list of accomplishments, and for each one you need a short description and a longer description. Here are some greatest accomplishment examples:

Greatest Accomplishment Examples

Job: Program Manager at Company X

Short Accomplishment Example: Saved most profitable customer from cancelling multi-million dollar contract by instituting emergency escalation procedures, which became a company best practice.

Best used for:

• Resume
• LinkedIn
• Performance Reviews
• Reminders

Long Accomplishment Example: One of our biggest customers had chosen to be a beta account for a large service upgrade program. That service release turned out to be more error-prone than previous releases and the customer experienced several disruptions in their service. They had also appointed a new point of contact who didn’t know us well and who began escalating even the smallest problems to our President (a personal connection of his) and threatening to cancel the contract. While this was only one of four major accounts I was managing, once I realized how important it was to do right by this particular customer, I worked with the head of service delivery to establish an immediate escalation and response process for their complaints. The process worked well, the contract remained safe and the service delivery department requested that we use this same process with all VIP customers in the future. 

Best used for:

• Cover Letters
• Networking
• Interviews

By the way, you also have to be ready for them NOT to ask you this question, and yet still find a way to weave your examples into answers to their other questions. Why? Because even if they don’t say the words, “Tell me about your greatest accomplishment,” they still want to know!

How to Prepare Your Greatest Accomplishments List

FIRST: Write them out immediately. 

One of the most important things to do is to create these accomplishments immediately after the fact, as soon as you complete them. That’s when the situation is freshest in your mind and you have access to the data you need. You’ll get started by remembering everything you can about previous jobs and writing down your most meaningful accomplishments, but keep this document up to date! Don’t wait until an hour before the deadline to update your resume to try to think it up.

SECOND: Relate your accomplishments to a business driver.

All your greatest accomplishments relate to an outcome that drives the organization forward. A business driver is often a key metric (e.g., quality) but not always (e.g., competitiveness). When you can demonstrate that your work produced results that helped the business serve its customers, manage its finances or achieve its mission, you are showing that you deliver value for your employer. Know what drives the business case for your organization and ensure your results support success. Even if you work for a non-profit, these business drivers matter, since they speak to the health and success of any organization. 

THIRD: Practice speaking your accomplishments

We usually think about accomplishments as something you write into your resume or LinkedIn, but they can be even more powerful in person. That’s when you get to give your storytelling (long-form) version. People from a networking event or job interview will walk away with a much greater understanding of how good you are and what you can do when you’ve told them a story or two about some of your results.

Visibility is not vulnerability. It is an important step on the ladder of success to stand out as an individual. <== Click to Tweet

If you find yourself shy about talking up your greatest professional achievement, don’t be. Do it in a way that teaches others the lessons you’ve learned along the way. This way you’re not bragging, your sharing knowledge about what works. And in the process, you’re making yourself look good (because you are!)

Ready to catalog your greatest accomplishments? Create your list now and identify the 2-3 that are highlights to emphasize. But feel free to pull out a small one that is the perfect example to show someone how you can shine. 

Need help answering the question What is your greatest accomplishment? Get our easy step-by-step worksheet to help you build your accomplishments, view more examples of business drivers and lots more great accomplishment examples included!