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Teaching video: 7 minutes 33 seconds. Add this to the reading and practice estimate below; complete the lesson check once after studying.

Lesson 3 of 6 · Estimated 40 minutes including practice

Write honest achievement bullets

By the end of this lesson you can:

• Turn duties into specific action statements.
• Use trustworthy measures and qualitative results.
• Represent your contribution to team work accurately.

Explain what you did

A duty describes what a role involves. A useful CV bullet shows what you did in that role. Start with an accurate action verb, name the task and add relevant context. When you know the result, include it. A practical pattern is action + task + method or scope + supported result. You do not need all four parts in every sentence.

Choose verbs that fit your responsibility: prepared, checked, answered, organised, updated, compared, tested or supported. Use led only when you actually led. For a current ongoing responsibility use present tense; for a completed activity use past tense. Keep sentences compact enough to read without decoding jargon.

Ask four questions before rewriting a bullet: What did I do personally? What was the setting or scale? How did I do it? What can I truthfully say happened? Your answer can show value without making every task sound like a dramatic transformation.

Use numbers carefully

Numbers can describe workload, scope, time or results, but they are not compulsory. “Prepared materials for four workshops” says something useful about scope. “Increased engagement by 80%” is a result claim that needs a defensible baseline, period and measurement. Do not add a percentage because a CV checker asks for one.

If you use a calculated improvement, understand the calculation. Reducing a task from 50 minutes to 40 minutes is a reduction of 10 minutes; 10 divided by the original 50 is 20%. This example is arithmetic practice, not a claim you should copy. Do not attribute the whole change to yourself if several factors contributed.

When a measure is unavailable, describe the output or process you can verify: “Created a checklist used by the volunteer team at each event.” If you know only that you created the checklist, stop there. Do not add “eliminated all errors” without evidence. Protect confidential business information; use approved general descriptions if needed.

Show your own contribution

Team achievements belong in a CV when your contribution is clear. “Supported a four-person team by checking the final presentation for source accuracy” is precise. “Delivered the entire project” would be false if you did only that check. Credit scope honestly even when the result was shared.

Improve a weak bullet in two passes. First make it accurate and specific. Then remove repetition and unnecessary words. Avoid copying the wording of a job description as if you have already done those duties. If you use a writing tool, compare every suggested sentence against your evidence bank and reject invented claims.

Before keeping a bullet, imagine an interview question: “Tell me how you did this.” If you cannot answer comfortably and truthfully, revise it. You are aiming for useful evidence, not maximum impressiveness.

Worked example

Fictional source note: “At a college event I maintained the sign-in spreadsheet for 45 attendees. I checked paper forms against the file and asked the organiser about unclear names. I do not know whether this reduced errors.”

Weak bullet: “Responsible for administration.” It names a duty but hides the actual work.

Supported revision: “Maintained the sign-in spreadsheet for 45 event attendees, checking entries against registration forms and flagging unclear details.” This states action, scope and method without inventing an outcome.

Unsupported revision to reject: “Transformed event operations and reduced errors by 100%.” Neither the transformation nor the percentage is established by the source note.

Your practice

1. Choose three examples from your evidence bank. Write one action bullet for each.
2. For any number, note where it came from and what it measures. Remove numbers you cannot justify.
3. Underline your personal contribution in each bullet. Check that team outcomes are not presented as solo work.
4. Read each bullet aloud. Remove generic adjectives and explain any jargon.

Completion check: You have three concise bullets with support for every action, date, number and outcome.

Knowledge check

Choose one answer for each question, then open the explanation.