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By Vincent Malunga|24 June 2022
During the course of career progression, everyone develops a portfolio of individual and team achievements. Both are very important when trying to illustrate a career path of success and achievement through your CV. Most jobs in the modern economy require collaboration and teamwork and people who can deliver with and through others. Many people are comfortable with articulating their own individual achievements but tend to fall short on describing valuable team achievements. Thus, this time we look at how one should articulate these in the context of a CV.
At the end of every section describing the roles and responsibilities of each job through the career path, one needs to summarise achievements that illustrate past success, since it is a good predictor of future success. Among these ideally should consist of individual and team success. This tells a story of a consummate professional who can work alone with initiative and who can deliver with others in a team context.
It is important to know that all achievements should be described in quantitative and/or qualitative terms so that a reader can visualise and surmise impact. Thus statements such as “Improved revenue by 20% year on year” or “Grew net promoter score (NPS) from 4 to 9” are appropriate. This is as true of individual achievements as it is for team achievements.
When it comes to the team achievements, it is important to highlight that the achievement belongs to the whole team in the first instance. This may be in the form of a team trophy, with or without cash benefits split among team members, with certificates of recognition and such other paraphernalia.
Secondly, it is important to highlight one’s role in the work that secured such an achievement. For example, if you are a team leader, you can reference your leadership style and actions that ensured that the team delivered to the best of their abilities. You may have given them resource support that ensured they did not struggle to get work done and so on. You may have been the Chief Architect of the Proposal that led to action, or simply ensured that a proper monitoring evaluation tool and process were implemented. The key is to be precise and specific about your actual contribution to the team effort.
When you articulate this, although this is your CV, avoid coming across as a “Me, me me” kind of person. The recruiter wants to know that you are clear about your own role and those of others within the team to ensure positive outcomes for the group. They do not want you to own individually what was in fact a team achievement. Giving credit where it is due is a mark of true leadership and professionalism, where usurpation of credit is mark of tyranny and abuse. Recruiters know which of the two is a better fit for an organisation that espouses true inclusivity and team play.
A simple and straightforward way to show teamwork on your CV is to use action verbs like contributed to, participated in, spearheaded, led, guided, mentored, supervised, liaised with, collaborated with, partnered with and proceed to highlight the team you worked with. E.g. "Partnered with stakeholder X to deliver Y", "Led a team of 6 technical advisors to develop country specific development plans for countries x, y and Z".
Do yourself a big favour then and give credit where credit is due without dimming your light. It will make your light shine brighter all the way through your impressive CV!
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This article is also published in the GFI Newsletter on LinkedIn
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