Quick answer
How to write accomplishments on a resume or CV
A resume accomplishment says what changed because of you, not what your job was. Start with a strong verb, name what you did, then give the result, ideally with a number, a timeframe or a before and after. Only include results you can back up in an interview. If you have no numbers, describe scale, speed, quality or who relied on the work.
Published by Look At You Go. Last updated 24 September 2026. Examples are illustrations, not real user records.
Duties vs accomplishments
A duty is what anyone in the role was hired to do. An accomplishment is what happened because you were the one doing it. Hiring managers skim for the second. If a line would still be true for your predecessor, it is probably a duty.
A simple formula
[Verb] + [what you did] + [result, with a number or before and after]
This is the short, one-line version of the CAIP Framework. On a resume you keep the Action and Impact. The Context and Proof stay in your notes, ready for the interview question "tell me more about that".
Before and after examples
Before: Responsible for the company newsletter.
After: Relaunched the weekly newsletter and grew opens from 21% to 38% in six months.
Before: Managed customer accounts.
After: Kept all 40 of my enterprise accounts through a price increase, with no churn in the renewal quarter.
Before: Worked on the checkout.
After: Rebuilt checkout validation, cutting failed payments by about a third in the first month.
Before: Handled onboarding for new staff.
After: Wrote the onboarding guide now used for every new starter, cutting time to first solo shift from three weeks to two.
When you have no numbers
Plenty of good work does not come with a metric. Use scale (how many people, sites, customers), speed (faster than before, ahead of deadline), quality (fewer errors, passed audit), trust (asked to train others, chosen to lead) or firsts (the first time the team did something). Never invent a figure. If you cannot defend it in an interview, cut it.
How many accomplishments per role?
Three to five for recent roles, one or two for older ones. Put the strongest first. Tailor the order to the job ad, leading with the accomplishments closest to what they ask for.
Resume or CV: does the advice change?
In the US a resume is usually one or two pages and very results-led. In the UK a CV follows the same principle, often with a short profile at the top. Both reward specific, checkable accomplishments over lists of responsibilities. See the US resume builder and UK CV builder pages for how Look At You Go handles each.
Where the evidence comes from
The hardest part is remembering. Most people write their resume from memory and lose the best examples. A running record, whether a brag document or a weekly check-in with Look At You Go, means the accomplishments are already written, dated and backed up when you need them.
You did the work. Keep the evidence. LAYG turns a 90-second weekly check-in into a dated record you can use for all of this.
Try the 90-second check-in