14 Scope and Accomplishment Statements
Scope and accomplishment statements show the employer you have the skills and abilities they seek.
Everyone knows that a cashier operates a cash register and that a customer service representative provides customer service. Do NOT waste valuable space on your resume listing obvious job duties. Instead, use scope and accomplishment statements to highlight the transferable skills you learned and used in previous jobs or volunteer positions.
Scope Statements
Using scope statements to describe what you did at each job or volunteer position can set you apart and make your resume stand out. You may feel that your experience is limited or unrelated and that it’s not worth describing your tasks in detail; however, oftentimes, we are actually gaining and using transferable skills without even realizing it.
Focus on including the following components in your descriptions:
- Task: Identify the day-to-day activities you were expected to complete.
- Skill: Decide which transferable skills you used to perform the tasks.
- Outcome: State the outcome of the task.
Even in your part-time and volunteer jobs, you’ve gained many applicable transferable skills, take a look:
- Interacted with customers (Task) by listening carefully (Skill) to answer questions about store products (Outcome).
- Sold store merchandise (Task) by upselling product benefits (Skill) to meet daily sales goals (Outcome).
- Handled cash (Task) accurately in a busy environment (Skill) to ensure store till was balanced before closing (Outcome).
Accomplishment Statements
Employers highly favour accomplishment statements because they provide tangible evidence of what you can bring to the workplace and substantiate the skills or competencies you present on your resume. Accomplishment statements also demonstrate why you would be the best candidate for the position and can be used by employers to help differentiate you from other applicants who may have had similar experiences.
Start by brainstorming the tasks and activities you performed well in your past or current experience. Typically, these are characterized by occasions where you recognized a problem or a situation that could have been improved, you acted or responded to it, and it resulted in recognition or a positive outcome. When thinking about each experience, ask yourself the following question: How was my performance measured in this position, and what value did I bring to this workplace or organization?
It can be helpful to list your experiences to date (work, volunteer, education, academic projects, assignments, and presentations) and identify achievements for each of these. Think of significant contributions, individual or group projects, recognition from a formal performance review, or informally from coworkers, team members, customers, professors, and supervisors. Accomplishments can also include awards or any contributions you made that positively impacted your workplace.
- Add value, provide tangible evidence, and increase credibility by including numbers, statistics, percentages, or figures and using strong accomplishment statements and action verbs when describing your experiences.
- Accomplishments can include awards and formal recognitions, as well as any contributions you made that positively impacted your workplace.
Reflection Questions
What are your accomplishments? Ask yourself these questions:
- Have you received praise from managers, supervisors, instructors, or clients?
- Have you ever been assigned a task that you could do better than others
- Have you ever been asked to train anyone?
- How did you distinguish yourself or set yourself apart in your last job? What did you do to show your initiative?
- When did you go above and beyond your job duties to complete a task and/or satisfy a customer?
- Have you ever been promoted, recognized, awarded, or thanked by your coworkers?
- How did your work affect the strategic business operations?
Writing Accomplishment Statements
To write your own accomplishment statements, watch this video or follow the STAR method described below.
The University of British Columbia. (2012, September 17). Resumes 101: Accomplishment statements [Video]. YouTube.
STAR Method
(S) Situation + (T) Task + (A) Action + (R) Result
Start by describing the situation or task, followed by the action you have taken and the result you have achieved. Use strong action verbs to make the most impact. Don’t forget to quantify the results or actions as much as possible. Be specific but concise. You can additionally vary the focus of your statement by choosing what actions you highlight.
Take a look at the following example:
Situation/Task: Orient new employees to the job.
Action: Prepared department’s first operations manual; researched and analyzed best practices and surveyed staff on what they thought should be included.
Result: Orientation went faster, department used fewer staff resources, new staff members remembered more, and both new employees and manager had a record of what was covered for future reference; obtained good feedback from new employees, coworkers, and manager.
Accomplishment Statement (starting with an action):
Created the department’s first operations manual, which increased the effectiveness of the new employee training and significantly reduced the expenditure of time and resources.
Accomplishment Statement (starting with a result):
Increased effectiveness of the new employee training while reducing the expenditure of time and resources by creating the department’s first operations manual.
Accomplishment statements demonstrate value, provide the “so what” factor, and add credibility and strength to your resume. Including Accomplishment Statements in your resume and cover letter is an effective job search strategy that will make you stand out from other candidates and impress potential employers. Here are a few more examples:
- Prepared over 10 accurate, well-researched, concisely written, and properly cited reports, 10 + pages long on average, in a two-month period.
- Led a team of five to deliver a final research project one week ahead of the deadline through careful coordination of tasks and effective resource and time allocation.
- Consistently achieved daily sales targets by demonstrating interest in customer needs and actively interacting with them in a friendly, non-invasive manner throughout their visit.
Transferable skills are skills that many employers strongly desire yet were learned in your job/school/life experiences that are unrelated to the job to which you are applying.
An acronym that is used as a formula for creating scope statements.
Situation
Task
Action
Result
