|July 31, 2026
Skills For Your CV: What To Include & How To Do It
What are skills and why do I need them? Wondering how to choose key skills to put on your CV? ... Read more...
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With decades of CV writing experience, the PurpleCV team knows what makes hiring managers and recruiters tick – and equally, what frustrates them when reviewing a candidate’s CV.
One of the cardinal, and most common, CV missteps is too much detail on an individual’s professional responsibilities, with a far lighter touch applied to what they have actually achieved in their career.
Admittedly, space in a CV is always going to be at a premium. This is where CV key achievements make a real difference.
They quickly show recruiters the results you delivered, the problems you solved and the value you could bring to a new employer.
Too often a weak CV reads like a sequence of chronological job descriptions. A strong CV helps an employer understand why you were good at a particular job, not just what a job involved.
Key achievements are the results, improvements or successes you can point to from your work, education or personal life.
In some ways, they’re best exemplified by how they differ from responsibilities.
Let’s take an example: “Answered customer enquiries” is a responsibility.
On the other hand, “resolved up to 80 customer enquiries per day while maintaining positive feedback scores” is an achievement.
This is the key difference recruiters look for.
Put simply, responsibilities tell them what your role involved, while achievements show your impact.
Sufficient details shouldn’t be overlooked if you are writing a key achievements CV section. Focus on tangible evidence.
That could mean sales figures, customer feedback, reduced costs, faster processes, successful projects or extra responsibilities you took on.
The job market is as tough as it’s ever been in the UK, with high volumes of candidates applying for roles.
As such, it’s like recruits will be comparing multiple candidates with similar experience. This is where your achievements can help you stand out when your job titles and responsibilities look similar to everyone else’s.
A retail assistant, administrator or marketing executive may share many of the same daily duties as someone else in the same role. What distinguishes them is what they actually achieved while doing those duties.
For instance, a sales candidate might mention increasing quarterly revenue by 18%.
An administrator could explain how they improved a filing system and reduced time spent searching for documents.
A marketing executive may be able to point to their contribution in the delivery of client success and retention.
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You’d be surprised how many people struggle with this part, simply because of the assumption that an achievement needs to be especially large or striking.
This isn’t the case.
You may not have won an award or managed a major project, but you may have trained new starters, solved customer problems, met difficult deadlines or improved the way your team worked.
Think about moments when someone trusted you with extra responsibility. Look back at performance reviews, feedback emails or targets you met.
Good achievements often start with simple questions.
Hiring managers are looking for nuanced successes that fit the criteria of the role they’re looking to fill.
Let’s look at some key achievements examples for some inspiration for your own CV.
These examples show a clear pattern. The strongest cv key achievements explain what changed because of your work.
Not every achievement needs to come from paid employment. Personal achievement examples can help if you are a graduate, changing careers or returning to work after a break.
We’ve pulled together some examples that are particularly effective for those starting out in their professional journey, career changers or those returning to work.
These are useful because they show qualities such as commitment, organisation, resilience and communication.
If you are applying for roles outside the UK, you may see the phrase ‘accomplishments for resume’ instead of CV achievements.
The idea is the same; it’s just a difference in wording.
Employers want to see what you achieved, not just what you were asked to do.
Useful resume accomplishments keywords include ‘achieved’, ‘improved’, ‘increased’, ‘reduced’, ‘delivered’, ‘led’, ‘generated’, ‘trained’ and ‘introduced’.
For example, instead of writing “responsible for training staff”, you could write “trained five new team members and helped reduce onboarding time”. That sounds more active and gives the employer a clearer result.
The most common mistake is turning your CV into a list of duties. “Responsible for admin tasks” or “worked in a busy team” does not tell recruiters much.
Another mistake is being too vague. If you write that you “improved processes”, explain how.
You should also avoid exaggerating major accomplishments. Recruiters may ask about them during an interview, so only include achievements you can explain confidently.
A key achievement is any clear result, improvement or success that shows your value. It could involve sales, customer service, time saved, targets met, training completed or positive feedback.
Aim for three to five achievements for each recent role. Choose the strongest examples rather than trying to include your full list of accomplishments.
Yes, especially if they show relevant skills. Personal achievements work well for graduates, career changers and people with limited work experience.
Strong key achievements can make your CV much more convincing. They show employers what you have done well and help them picture the value you could bring to their business.
If you found this guide useful, you may also like these PurpleCV articles:
Need help turning your experience into a stronger CV? Our professional writers can help you highlight your achievements clearly and confidently – please contact us for more information.
