Achievements at work - personal and professional. Competency questions start with words

Why is it important to describe achievements and performance?

• The labor market today is not in favor of the applicant: there are few good vacancies, but there are many more competent candidates. It is the results of work and achievements that help to stand out from the general flow.
• In most companies, employees perform the same tasks. Therefore, the description of responsibilities in the summary of different candidates is almost the same. The individuality of the resume is given precisely by the different results of the work.
• It is possible to determine the level of competence of a particular candidate at the stage of reviewing a resume only by describing his work. And the achievements here are the best proof.

How to correctly reflect achievements:

1. we remember KPI (for each position they are individual) or tasks;
2. describe in active verbs: implemented, developed, initiated;
3. we make a logical connection between our actions and results: implemented - it allowed;
4. we use numbers, preferably in comparison: it was - it became.

Let's look at examples for positions with common KPIs.

Examples of achievements for positions where it is difficult to digitize the results of work.

№	position	Key KPIs	Achievement examples
1	CFO	Accounting	Organized from scratch the maintenance of accounting, tax, operational and management accounting.
		Setting up a budgeting system	Implemented a budgeting system for business areas, which increased the transparency of accounting.
		Optimization of the financial flow management system	Implemented a payment calendar based on 1C UPP and carried out a number of measures to strengthen payment discipline, which made it possible to obtain financial resources to generate additional income.
2	Purchasing Director	Procurement optimization	Organized procurement activities without attracting additional funds, this was achieved through successful negotiations with suppliers to increase the delay and improve other conditions.
		Business process automation	Initiated and managed a project to automate the ordering system, which reduced labor costs for information processing.
3	Chief engineer of the enterprise	Modernization projects	Implemented a number of projects for the modernization and reconstruction of the enterprise: modernization of the access control system and installation of a fire extinguishing system, alarm and video surveillance.
		Development of regulatory documents	Developed and implemented all regulatory documents on labor protection and safety, fire safety, environmental safety, traffic safety, which allowed to reduce the legal and financial risks of the enterprise.
4	Lawyer	Development of document forms	Developed forms of contracts: contracts, deliveries, purchase and sale, etc., which made it possible to minimize labor costs for preparing documents.
		Litigation experience	Case no.... - collection of debt under a supply agreement in the amount of 500 thousand rubles. (In this paragraph, it is desirable to describe several diverse cases, but no more than three for each place of work.)
5	Assistant Secretary	Projects or additional responsibilities	She initiated the participation of the company in charity events and sponsorship. Implemented the project of the head of the floristic design of the office.
		Workflow optimization	She initiated the creation of a workflow database based on Excel, which made it possible to systematize work with documents.
6	Sales Analyst	Development of reporting forms	Developed a reporting system for tracking orders and selling goods, which made it possible to systematize work with documents.
		Development of analysis tools	Developed mathematical models of sales planning, based on the efficiency of the sales staff.

Result: what do you want to get

The result, the second part of your goal sheet, contains a list of what you want from this candidate. For most of the positions for which we are looking for employees, this list will contain from three to eight items, depending on the degree of importance.

Take another look at the task description example. Pay attention to the wording of the first paragraph: "Increase in turnover from $25 million to $50 million by the end of the third year." That is, the new vice president of sales will either be able to increase turnover to $ 50 million in three years, or not. Player A will be able to do this, players B and C will not. This is a very definite result, and thanks to this property, it allows us to weed out unpromising candidates from the very beginning.

People don’t like to lose, but they also don’t like being forced to leave their homes and change one company for another, or even move to another city or country in the hope of succeeding. Raise the performance bar as high as possible—within reason, of course—and you'll get rid of Players B and C while attracting Player A with bold goals that challenge their talent.

You will be of little use to a typical job description, since it usually talks about routine activities and mechanically lists that a person will do in this position (answering customer calls or selling a product). On the other hand, a goal sheet will become your blueprint for success precisely because it shifts attention to results, more precisely, to what must achieve your candidate (increase turnover from 25 to 50 million dollars in three years). Feel the difference?

The expected results are all the more easy to determine for trading, since here we either have a sold product or not.

Unfortunately, not for all activities, the results of success can be so easily translated into something as simple and objective as numbers. For example, the expected outcome for a marketing manager might be: "Plan and execute a new marketing campaign within three months from such and such a date." For an online account coordinator, you might describe the result as increased site traffic and presence on popular forums. Subsequently, track whether the new marketer managed to run his campaign in time, and count the number of site visitors. Of course, these estimates will not be easy for you, but over the years of work, our clients have managed to accumulate quite a few quite objective criteria, which are usually based on feedback that allows them to plan a new budget in time.

It is curious that all these measures equally benefit the hired candidate. A person already understands by what parameters he will be evaluated. Does he know what? it is his boss and the company as a whole that are considered important to his position. And instead of guessing and uncertainty about how to do better, and trying to fight on ten fronts at once, he immediately gets a clear campaign plan. And this does not narrow down his possibilities at all - on the contrary, he gets additional freedom of maneuver.

"Give an example of your achievements"- This is one of the questions that are asked in a competency interview. This type of interview is a reliable and widely used method in recruitment, which provides an opportunity to test the professional competence of the candidate for successful performance of the job.

For those who do not have experience with this type of interview, the main thing is to understand the basic concept:

In a behavioral interview, you should provide concrete examples of the successful application of skills and abilities from past work experience.

This type of interview is based on the fact that on the basis of the past behavior of an employee in a given situation, one can predict his future behavior in a new job. And all the candidate needs to do is to provide compelling examples that clearly demonstrate the required competencies specified in the job description.

The most commonly explored competencies are:

• communication
• teamwork
• initiative
• leadership
• problem solving skills
• analytical thinking
• stress resistance
• time management
• negotiation skills
• planning
• result oriented
• process oriented

For example, if the requirements of the job profile indicate that the candidate must be able to analyze, then the interviewer will definitely ask you to give an example of when you used this skill in your work and what results you achieved.

Competency questions start with:

• Tell me about a time when you...
• Give me an example...
• What steps did you take...

Here are some examples of the most popular questions:

• Give an example of your accomplishments.
• Describe a time when you had to overcome a major hurdle in order to get things done.
• Tell me about a time when you had to juggle several important projects.

Most often, candidates do not pay due attention to the issues of competence. And in vain. After all, if you manage to pass and then fail the first behavioral question, you will still leave the interview empty-handed. Even if you have a huge long-term work experience, but without prepared examples, you will not be able to make a favorable impression and confirm your competencies. It is quite difficult to answer such a question, because in your daily activities you cannot single out or remember immediately without preparation something really worthwhile, which you should tell a potential employer about.

Unfortunately, most often, it is the candidates who are less competent, but with good training, bypass more experienced employees. And so that this does not happen to you, it's time to remember everything and create a good story from your past work experience.

I recommend having at least three examples of the competencies indicated in the vacancy in reserve in order to highlight your strengths in the interview. The easiest way to effectively answer any question in a behavioral interview is to prepare three clear examples of your major accomplishments. Remember the most interesting projects, difficult tasks, problem situations. If you have little experience, then you can use the examples during your studies or internship.

As always, we will use the STAR method as the basis for the story, which will help you focus on key details and make your story structured, concise and memorable.

3. R — results

Formulate the results of your actions: what happened, what was done, what you learned. And finally, it is very important that your good STAR story always has a happy ending, like in a fairy tale. The last part of your answer should describe the positive results of your actions. Specific results are always especially impressive, for example: a 32% increase in sales, a halving of the budget, etc. But you can also refer to a positive outcome through emotional appraisal, especially from a boss or clients. This will be the best way to convince the interviewer that the story you are telling is real. For example: m oh the client was very pleased, my manager appreciated my contribution to the final result and highly appreciated my work, etc.

Answer example:

When I presented the new improved reporting to my manager, he was so impressed that he couldn't believe I had done it all by myself in such a short period of time! I also received high praise from senior management and was included in the Talent Bank program in our company.

6 tips: How to answer the question: Give an example of your achievements.

1) Take enough time to think of a vivid example from your past work or school experience. Pick an example that actually shows multiple competencies and personal attributes.

2) Listen carefully to the questions and if you do not understand, do not rush to answer, but ask to be explained to you. This is better than answering the question in a completely different direction and giving irrelevant examples.

3) Be prepared for clarifying questions because the interviewer will want to get more information from you and check if your answers are genuine. Here are examples of such questions:

• Tell me why did you do it this way
• Explain how you achieved this result
• Do you think it could have been done differently?

4) Be specific. Don't try to answer in general terms that don't say anything about you. For instance: " I consider myself a very responsible and organized employee, as I always achieve high results and complete the tasks on time.” So you are not answering the question. You can count whatever you want, but you are required to give a real example from your past experience in order to prove your point.

Some colleagues reproach me for the fact that, as a business consultant, I demand that the business owner fulfill all my instructions, which is not entirely correct, since the consultant should only give recommendations.

The fact is that I give money-back guarantees if the final result is not achieved. That is, I guarantee the result!

What is the difference between requirements and recommendations of a business consultant? If I, as a business consultant, guarantee, for example, that the business owner will double the company's turnover within three months, then I must demand that all my instructions be carried out. Since I give a money back guarantee if the result is not achieved within this period. So that it doesn’t happen that the owner of the business suddenly decided to do something in his own way, and then said: “Oh, it didn’t work out! But you promised to return the money if it doesn’t work out?

A small lyrical digression. I can already hear your dumb question: “Within three months, he will double the company's turnover, what kind of nonsense? Swindler! Like you…” and so on. For more information on the topic of increasing profits, you can see here, this is a fragment of the webinar "Where to look for Money in business, and how to get it!", which shows three possible ways for a company to grow exponentially. This technology was not invented by me and has been used for about 25 years, but there, in the west. I use it in conjunction with other tools, adapting it for the Russian market. And it works great! Yes, actually putting elementary order in business will give what a result that will surpass all the most fantastic wishes!

Let's continue the conversation. If I, as a business consultant, give recommendations on any issues, then the recommendations are not binding, and here I do not give a guarantee if the customer does not receive a result. Since most likely he will interpret my recommendations in his own way, that is, he will select what he likes and what not. So selectively and will use. Proven by practice!

What end result does the business owner want to get, based on this, he chooses the form of interaction with a business consultant. If he wants a quick and guaranteed result, he will have to fulfill the requirements, if he wants, as always, then after receiving the recommendations, he can use them at his own discretion, correct, improve, or not use them at all!

I am for the free choice of a free man! And what do you think?

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Yulia Perminova

Coach of Softline Training Center since 2008.

A basic tool for working with a huge amount of unstructured data, from which you can quickly draw conclusions without fiddling with filtering and sorting manually. PivotTables can be created with a few steps and can be quickly customized depending on how you want to display the results.

Useful addition. You can also create PivotCharts based on PivotTables that will automatically update when they change. This is useful if, for example, you need to regularly generate reports on the same parameters.

How to work

The initial data can be anything: data on sales, shipments, deliveries, and so on.

1. Open the file with the table whose data you want to analyze.
2. Go to Insert tab → Table → PivotTable (for macOS, on the Data tab in the Analyze group).
3. The Create PivotTable dialog box should appear.
4. Customize the display of the data that you have in the table.

Before us is a table with unstructured data. We can organize them and customize the display of the data that we have in the table. We send the “Amount of orders” to “Values”, and “Sales”, “Sale date” - to “Lines”. According to different sellers for different years, the amounts were immediately calculated. If necessary, you can expand every year, quarter or month - we will get more detailed information for a specific period.

The set of options will depend on the number of columns. For example, we have five columns. They just need to be positioned correctly and choose what we want to show. Let's say the amount.

You can detail it, for example, by country. We transfer "Countries".

You can see the results by sellers. Change "Country" to "Sellers". For sellers, the results will be as follows.

This geo-referenced data visualization method allows you to analyze data, find patterns that have a regional origin.

Useful addition. Coordinates do not need to be written anywhere - it is enough just to correctly indicate the geographical name in the table.

How to work

1. Open the file containing the table whose data you want to visualize. For example, with information on different cities and countries.
2. Prepare data for display on the map: "Home" → "Format as table".
3. Select a range of data for analysis.
4. On the Insert tab, there is a 3D map button.

The points on the map are our cities. But we are simply not very interested in cities - it is interesting to see information tied to these cities. For example, amounts that can be displayed through the height of the column. Hovering the cursor over the column shows the amount.

Also quite informative is the pie chart by year. The size of the circle is given by the sum.

3. List of predictions

Often, seasonal patterns are observed in business processes, which must be taken into account when planning. The Forecast Sheet is the most accurate forecasting tool in Excel than all the functions that have been before and are now. It can be used to plan the activities of commercial, financial, marketing and other services.

Useful addition. To calculate the forecast, you will need data for earlier periods. Forecasting accuracy depends on the amount of data by period - better than no less than a year. You require equal intervals between data points (for example, a month or an equal number of days).

How to work

1. Open a table with data for the period and the corresponding indicators, for example, from a year.
2. Highlight two rows of data.
3. On the Data tab, in the group, click the Forecast Sheet button.
4. In the Create Forecast Sheet window, select a graph or bar chart to visually represent the forecast.
5. Select an end date for the forecast.

In the example below, we have data for 2011, 2012 and 2013. It is important to indicate not numbers, but time periods (that is, not March 5, 2013, but March 2013).

For the forecast for 2014, you need two sets of data: dates and their corresponding indicator values. Select both rows of data.

On the Data tab, in the Forecast group, click on Forecast Sheet. In the Create Forecast Sheet window that appears, select the forecast presentation format - a graph or a histogram. In the "End forecast" field, select the end date, and then click the "Create" button. The orange line is the forecast.

4. Quick analysis

This functionality is perhaps the first step towards what can be called business analysis. It's nice that this functionality is implemented in the most user-friendly way: the desired result is achieved in just a few clicks. You don't have to count anything, you don't have to write down any formulas. It is enough to select the desired range and choose what result you want to get.

Useful addition. You can instantly create various types of charts or sparklines (micrographs right in the cell).

How to work

1. Open a table with data for analysis.
2. Select the range you want to analyze.
3. When a range is selected, the "Quick Analysis" button always appears at the bottom. She immediately offers to perform several possible actions with the data. For example, find the results. We can find out the amounts, they are put down below.

Quick Analysis also has several formatting options. You can see which values ​​are larger and which are smaller in the cells of the histogram.

You can also put multi-colored icons in the cells: green - the largest values, red - the smallest.

We hope that these tricks will help you speed up your work with data analysis in Microsoft Excel and quickly conquer the heights of this complex, but so useful in terms of working with numbers application.