After applying for a job, the next step is meeting hiring managers for an interview. Can you tell me one of your career achievements? Or what is your significant career achievement? These questions sound a bit tough to answer, especially when you are a new graduate or when you don’t have enough professional experience. That’s why Fratres has considered this interview section to help you look more impressive and deserving of this job position. You can also read;

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What is the Purpose of This Question?

If you are preparing for a job interview, you can always anticipate this question. Employers are looking for extra information to draw the difference between multiple candidates. They want the ultimate achievement as evidence of your professional abilities.

This question can show interviewers that you can master your skills to reach this achievement moment. As the majority of job descriptions are requiring individual skills, this question helps the interviewer to make more visions for you. Interested in modeling? Check this article:

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What is an Achievement?

There is no specific definition of achievement. The concept is related to the field. You can make an academic achievement, a scientific result, a personal achievement like weight loss, a new job, a career shift, etc.… In other terms, it can be defined as a success story. For example, If your achievement is about individual success, teamwork, or customer service, your chances of being hired will increase, depending on the role of this achievement in the company’s culture.

So, try to consider an event or an experience in your life and relate it to the professional field that can impress potential employers.

How Could this Experience Become Impressive?

, what impress employers are three things:

1. Time-management: employers are looking for candidates that can achieve potential goals, without too much delay or wasting time. As time is very precious, you need to gather events related to successful time-management like performing research or something before its deadline or doing manual work within a short period.

2. Problem-solving: employers appreciate the candidates that overcome obstacles and show responsibility and ability to keep things under control. It can be an achievement if you tell them how you would react in tough situations.

3.   Leadership:  many employers are looking for someone who has the sense to lead a group and assign tasks with balanced techniques. Therefore, to impress such employers, you need to state a situation in which you lead a group and realize many accomplishments.

How can I Describe my Career Achievement?

A career achievement should at least include one of the three previously mentioned qualities that employers want. To describe this moment, you need to follow these tips.

• Put your interviewer in the plot of the achievement story. Your interviewer knows from your CV, what are your achievements. But he does not know the details. Like what happened? Where and when this happened? Therefore, you need to describe the plot of the story, such as when I was in college, I competed writers, or I was in a volunteering exchange program for students, etc.…
• Describe the challenges: an achievement will not get enough attention and importance if there were no challenges. Or else it will be viewed as an ordinary task or event. To put more value on your career achievement, you need to describe the problems and the limitations you had faced during that time.
• Describe the solution: it’s time to show the superhero in you! Describe how you solved the situation and what your plan of success was.
• Draw the connection: in this stage, you need to relate what you’ve accomplished in the past to the position you’re applying for. Employers want to see if this achievement would add something to their company or not. So try to connect the dots.

What to Avoid When Talking about a Career Achievement?

There is much etiquette related to answering interview questions. Here is a list of what to avoid in answering this specific question.

• Avoid having a funny or silly attitude: as a candidate, you need to take the question seriously. Don’t exaggerate your answer. It would be best if you were professional. It would be best if you talked in a positive way précising the time and the place. Your answer should match what you have in your CV. check how to build a CV with achievements from here;

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How to Plan Your Answer:

When you talk about career achievement, you need to follow a chronological order. You need to mention the date and the steps of your achievement. Although your answer should not be as long as a biography, you need to say specific features related to this success.

• Your achievement focuses on skills or qualities: you know that hiring managers are looking for many qualities such as time-management, problem-solving, and leadership. This is an opportunity to demonstrate that you have these qualities and these skills.
• Mention reliable sources: an achievement must happen in a considerable place such as university, competition, company (be it multinational, international) to get credibility. You need to mention the sources such as, and I was selected to attend an event sponsored by the United Nations organization. Even if you didn’t work in big organizations, it’s not a problem. Mention your starting point.
• Be honest: Whatever the nature of your achievement, you should always be true. You cannot impress your hiring managers by fake achievements or made-up stories.

This was all about the current interview question, ‘what’s your career achievement?. Follow the tips mentioned in this article and answer the question according to your real situation. It’s your chance to reveal your success story in a job interview. If you find this article very helpful, share it with your friends.