How to convince an employer of your skills without bragging!

If there’s one thing older job seekers are reluctant to do, it’s to brag about their skills. Yet, convincing the employer of your skill level is essential if you are going to get the job. So how can you assure the employer that you could not only do the job but do it well without bragging?

The answer is to use achievement statements (also known as accomplishment statements)..

Achievement statements demonstrate your skills and personal qualities through describing things you have done, problems you solved, accomplishments you did well and are proud of.

If I were applying to you for a position which required a high level of physical fitness and I told you that I was a very fast runner, (1) you probably wouldn’t be convinced and (2) it sounds boastful.

On the other hand, if I were to tell you that ‘I ran the mile in 4 minutes 16 seconds, Caribbean Games, Barbados, 2018’, that would be convincing and it would be considered interesting rather than boastful.

Benefits of achievement statements

Achievement statements, also known as accomplishment statements, are the most important ingredient of any successful job application and they should also be the major component of every answer to interview questions. It’s your achievement statements which, more than anything else, will win you the job.

Achievement statements also bring another major benefit to job seekers – they provide an enduring boost to confidence and a positive self-image, qualities which are essential to job search success. Compile a directory of achievement statements and, when things look black, read through it and see what you have accomplished. Compiling such a directory is a major task but it can, and should, be an ongoing process. If you’re not already doing it, now is a good time to start.

There are two steps to writing achievement statements: (1) identify the achievement and (2) compose the best way to express it. Both steps take time. Set aside a couple of hours to get started.

Identifying your achievements

In my experience, older job seekers find this step difficult perhaps because they naturally tend to depreciate their own efforts. Well don’t. Follow these guidelines and you may find it fairly easy.

Look at your current or most recent work and identify the things you do or did well. What were you known for? Jot down as many things as you can using sufficient words to remind you what they are.

Another strategy is to look at the selection criteria for the sort of job you would like to apply for. Take them one by one and identify the accomplishments which prove that you have the required skills .

A word of caution: when identifying your achievements using selection criteria for a job, don’t go back too far or you may give away your age. ATS software can be programmed to detect age from clues like that. Therefore, keep your achievements as recent as possible and certainly don’t go back more than ten years. If you do have a really relevant achievement from a long time ago, use an imprecise way to indicate the date – something like ‘Some years ago …’ ATS is unlikely to pick that up.

Your achievements don’t have to be Olympic Gold Medal standard. They just need to show that you did your job well. However, do try to identify specific occurrences, specific occasions when you did something which you are proud of. For example, ‘Ran the mile in 4 minutes, 16 seconds …’ is much more convincing – and more interesting - than ‘Was involved in international middle distance running, 2015-2019’. The more specific the incident, the more convincing.

And they don’t all have to come from your work. You can demonstrate skills which are relevant to the workplace when you are volunteering at your grandchildren’s school. Achievements through sports or other pastimes or community activities can be just as valid as those accomplished at work.

Once you have identified five or ten achievements, it could be time to start writing them up as achievement statements.

Composing achievement statements

The easiest way to start composing achievement statements is to use the formulas for five different types. These will get you started and you will quickly learn that there are limitless other ways to write them so use the ‘rules’ to get started but don’t let yourself feel constrained to follow them.

A classic way to describe your skills

‘Ran the mile in 4 minutes, 16 seconds, Caribbean Games, Barbados, 2018’ is a classic achievement statement. There is a simple formula for composing them:

Action verb        Ran

What                   the mile in 4 minutes, 16 seconds

Where                 Caribbean Games, Barbados

When                 2018

This is not bragging; this is a factual statement which could be verified. It is both interesting to the employer and convincing. Notice that the personal pronoun ‘I’ has been left out. Saying I did this and I did that gets to be a bit like bragging. By leaving out the ‘I’, the statement sounds interesting and not boastful.

It is worth repeating that sticking to specific events is much more effective than being more general. “Ran the mile …’ is more interesting and more convincing than ‘Involved in international middle distance running, 2015-2020’.

Let STARs tell the story of your achievements

STARs, like classic achievement statements can follow a formula:

Situation

Task

Action

Result

STARs are a bit like a longer classic. They may comprise of several sentences and sometimes more than one paragraph. And like classic achievement statements, their effectiveness is maximized when they describe one specific event.

Other types of achievement statement

There are three other types of achievement statement worth noting. They are:

Testimonial

Position

Experience

A testimonial can be very convincing because it is repeating what someone else said about you. It does not have to be provable – if it was spoken feedback and you can’t remember the person’s exact words, repeat them as faithfully as you can. There can be a temptation to exaggerate a bit but don’t. You know that you are good enough to do the job and do it well so there is no need to embellish the praise you received. And if you do embellish it, it is quite possible that the interviewer will pick up a whiff that it’s an exaggeration and then your credibility and your job chances are down the tube.

A position statement reports a position that you held and when you held it. ‘Manager, marketing and business development, Turnstile Smith & Co, since 2017.’ It can be used to demonstrate the level of responsibility you had, or what senior management thought of you. It is not necessarily specific as classic and STAR achievement statements are.

An experience statement is the least specific of the lot, just relating your probable level of proficiency in a certain skill area. ‘Three years’ experience designing logos at Corporate Creative Company.'

Create a file of achievement statements

Save all your achievement statements in a file. This will supply you with useful ammunition for your next application and it can help boost your confidence, which is crucial to job search success. Confidence can take a hit if your application is rejected or, worse, if you receive no response at all. When this happens, read through your file of achievement statements and reassure yourself that you are worthy of that sort of role.

Next week we will start a discussion on preparing answers to likely interview questions for which achievement statements are an essential ingredient.