7 resume achievements that will wow government recruiters
Andrew Fennell is the founder and director of StandOut CV, a leading careers advice website with a mission to help job hunters land the jobs they want. He is also a regular contributor to publications such as Forbes, CV Library & The Guardian
If you want to impress government recruiters with your resume, it needs to be packed full of your greatest achievements.
These allow you to highlight how you can solve the employer’s key problems and add real value through your work.
But how do you know which achievements to include?
Well, your resume needs to show that you’ve got the skills and experience to match the job requirements. As such, it’s a good idea to choose achievements that align with the job description.
Fortunately, there are certain skill sets that all government and public sector employers will appreciate.
So to help you create an interview-winning resume and land a job, we’ve put together a list of seven of these achievements that are sure to impress government recruiters.
Increased revenue or funding
As we’ve said above, money talks, so it’s a good idea to show recruiters not only how you’ve saved money in the past but how you’ve increased revenue or funding as well.
Revenue and funding might mean different things for you depending on the nature of your public sector role. However, to inspire you we’ve included some examples of how you might showcase these achievements on your resume:
- Gave a presentation to potential investors which secured an additional $10,000 worth of funding for the department
- Introduced a new online system which saw productivity increase by 15% and led to a boost in sales of up to $12,000 a year
Increasing efficiency
By running as efficiently as possible a business is able to increase profits, save money, and have less waste. It also makes things much easier for the employees and can increase overall employee satisfaction rates.
As such, you can boost your resume and stand out from the crowd by giving examples of how you’ve helped to increase efficiency in the past. For example:
- Answered public queries 30% faster than my predecessor, helping an average of 10 additional individuals every day
- Implemented a new online system that cut document processing times by 25%
Saving money
When scanning through your resume, you have roughly 7.4 seconds to impress the recruiter, and quantifying your achievements is the perfect way to grab their attention quickly. Metrics such as percentages and dollar signs are the key to doing this.
After all, cutting costs and saving money is important in every business but particularly in government and public sector organizations. For this reason, employers want to see how you can have a real impact on the bottom line.
So be sure to include examples of how you’ve cut costs or saved money wherever possible. Some examples could be:
- Negotiated with contractors to reduce company spending by up to 20% a month
- Saved $2,000 annually by canceling an online service the company no longer used that had previously gone unnoticed
We’ve put together a list of seven of these achievements that are sure to impress government recruiters.
ANDREW FENNELL
Solving problems
Problem-solving is an important skill in all aspects of our lives but particularly in our working lives.
So, it’s unsurprising that recruiters want to see examples of this on your resume.
Showcase your achievements by highlighting problems that you’ve recognized and dealt with in past roles, leading to great results. Examples of problems you might have solved could be:
- Recognized that the department received a lot of time-consuming phone calls so I oversaw the addition of an FAQs page to the website to support general enquiries. This resulted in a 33% decrease in calls each day
- Noticed that admin assistants weren’t being trained how to use the new data entry software effectively. By implementing better training initiatives we were able to reduce clerical errors by 45%
Exceeding targets and KPIs
No matter what industry you work in, targets and goal setting are an important part of our career development. As such, it’s likely that you’ll have your own targets to work towards in your public sector role.
You can impress the government recruiter by proving that not only are you able to meet your targets but you can also exceed expectations. Do this by including achievements like:
- Completed an educational project two weeks early and $3,500 under budget
- Tasked with running a campaign to raise awareness of our apprenticeship scheme, I was able to secure over 100 applications, exceeding my original target by 50%
Demonstrating your ability to drive results will also benefit you greatly when it comes to negotiating a higher salary at offer stage.
Receiving awards and commendations
One of the best ways to show the recruiter you can add real value to the role is to highlight examples of when you’ve been recognized for your hard work and dedication in the past. This means including some of your top awards and commendations.
You don’t have to include them all, just pick the most relevant and impressive achievements. For example:
- I was named Employee of the Month three times within my first year at the company
- I received a promotion from an assistant to an executive role after just six months
What’s more, if you’ve won any industry-related awards that are relevant to your role in the public sector, these can really make you stand out from the competition so be sure to include these too.
Training and leadership
Showing how you’ve trained and led other employees looks great on your resume for a number of reasons. It lets the recruiter know that you’ve got good communication skills, that you’re confident and can take charge, but also that you’re trusted with such an important responsibility.
Therefore, it pays to include examples and achievements that pertain to your abilities to train and lead others. Examples of these might be:
- Selecting, training, and motivating a team of 10 junior employees
- Recognizing the need to develop training guides and then implementing these to better support both new and existing members of the team
As you can see from this guide, including achievements on your resume is the perfect way to demonstrate your skills, whilst proving to the recruiter that you can add real value.
Where possible, using facts and figures to quantify your achievements can help to grab the recruiter’s attention quicker – and always highlight those that are most relevant to the job description of your target role.
So, make the most of our examples above to help inspire your resume and you’ll be able to include an impressive list of achievements that will wow government recruiters.
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