Your

Accomplishments

In today’s job market, it is important to know your skills and be able to find positions that require
those skills. An excellent guide for developing accomplishment stories that showcase your skills
is called SOAR. Your SOAR stories put your accomplishments in a business context that an
employer can understand. The SOAR acronym is easy to remember and will help you organize
material in interview situations.

Example:

1. Describe the Situation.

Supervisor needed small database set up to automate manual records and calculate costs.

2. Describe the Obstacles you faced.

Lack of knowledge in spreadsheet or database applications.

3. List the Actions you took.

Took online training, asked for coaching from a colleague to set up spreadsheet.

4. Describe the Results you helped obtain and the benefits to your employer. Completed and
used the new database in a spreadsheet format reducing record keeping and calculation time by
80% from previous manual method.

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 1

 The SOAR approach works because it…

 Presents a complete story, from the context through to the results.

 Is applicable outside your industry – shows your thinking process.

You should have as many as 10-20 SOAR stories ready when you go in for an interview.
These stories are great for open-ended questions. Your accomplishments reflect your professional
successes. These are actions that you took, that were a success, and for which you are very proud.
Accomplishments are the best possible evidence that you can work effectively, and that you can and do
use your skills to good advantage. An accomplishment is not necessarily something exceptional or
spectacular. But it can reveal a lot about your talents and abilities.

To help you determine which activities could be considered accomplishments, ask yourself the following
questions:

► Did you make major changes or facilitated the work in any way?
► Did you take the initiative of acquiring new skills or learning new technologies?
► Were you selected to participate in a special project or to sit on a committee because of your skills or
experience?
► Did you successfully solve a difficult situation with a client?

► Did you resolve an emergency situation with little or no increase in time, energy, dollars, and
people?
► Did you surpass accepted standards for quality and/or quantity of performance?

► Did you perform within standard operating procedures even when circumstances were against
you?
► Did your ideas or suggestions help increase the performance of individuals or machines?

► Did you take the initiative of solving a problem that others had been ignoring?

► Did you identify a need and satisfy it?

► Did you act as a resource person for your colleagues on certain issues?

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 2

 ► Did you prepare any original reports, special papers or documents?
► Did you show creativity by developing and implementing a plan or a complex process?
► Did you participate in any technical improvements?

► Did you assist someone else in realizing his/her objective?

► Did your contributions enable those in charge to maintain better controls or make better
decisions?
► Did you implement or participate in any sales, profits, and/or cost saving recommendations?
► Did you initiate plans to reduce errors, costs or time spent?

► Did your work enlarge the client/customer base?

► Did you receive any award or letter of commendation?

Sample Accomplishments

 Increased gross profits by 8% and reduced cost of goods sold by 25% from previous year through
supplier pricing negotiations, design modifications, and change in product mix.
 Reduced supplies expenses by nearly 50% through purchase review and negotiating better
pricing with our vendors.
 Improved inventory accounting 33% by developing a common method of tracking assets.
 Recovered $1000 error by creating a Web-based corporate reporting system to automatically gather
financial and operational information from various facilities.
 Increased gross profits by 8% and reduced cost of goods sold by 25% from previous year through
supplier pricing negotiations, design modifications, and change in product mix.
 Reduced operating expenses by 49% through tighter expense controls in negotiating better insurance
rates and more effective use of outside consultants.

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 3

 Sample Accomplishments
 Improved cash flow $25 million and reduced inventory exposure 33% or $10 million by developing a
common method of controlling the various facilities.
 Recovered a $1 million error and maximized cash on-hand/cash flow by creating a Web-based
corporate reporting system to automatically gather financial and operational information from various
facilities.
 Reduced excess and obsolete inventory $3 million by developing new processes to monitor and track
inventory levels throughout the corporation.
 Raised product market potential from $1 million to over $12 million per year by designing equipment
and techniques for a new chemical process.
 Expanded sales 35% by increasing sales activities with new prospects and static accounts.
 Reduced the annual security operating budget 22% by developing and implementing several cost
savings projects while increasing the level of security.
 Saved $50,000 in costs annually by reorganizing and consolidating accounting, analysis and
forecasting activities.
 Prepared and presented computer system training for 28 people, saving the company $51,000
annually.
 Restructured 450 turnkey construction projects to ensure completion on time and within budgetary
limitations, reducing overall cost of project by more than $2 million.
 Researched and determined status of uncashed checks and created system to help track future
unclaimed obligations, which resulted in the initial savings of $184,000 and $20,000 annually.
 Implemented policy and procedure for auditing reports, increasing accuracy rate from 65% to
90%.

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 4

 Action
Verbs
accomplished consolidated explained maintained remodeled
achieved contained extracted managed repaired
acted contracted fabricated marketed represented
adapted contributed facilitated mediated researched
addressed controlled familiarized moderated restored
administered coordinated fashioned monitored restructured
advanced corresponded focused motivated retrieved
advised counseled forecast negotiated revitalized
allocated created formulated operated saved
analyzed critiqued founded organized scheduled
appraised cut generated originated schooled
approved decreased guided overhauled screened
arranged delegated headed up oversaw set
assembled demonstrated identified performed shaped
assigned designed illustrated persuaded solidified
attained devised improved prepared specified
audited diagnosed increased presented stimulated
authored directed indoctrinated prioritized streamlined
automated dispatched influenced processed strengthened
balanced distinguished informed produced summarized
budgeted diversified initiated programmed supervised
built drafted innovated projected surveyed
calculated edited inspected promoted systemized
catalogued educated installed provided tabulated
chaired eliminated instigated publicized taught
clarified enabled instituted published trained
classified encouraged instructed purchased translated
coached engineered integrated recommended traveled
collected enlisted interpreted reconciled trimmed
compiled established interviewed recorded upgraded
completed evaluated introduced recruited validated
composed examined invented reduced worked
computed executed launched referred wrote
conceptualized expanded lectured regulated
conducted expedited led rehabilitated

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 5

 Create your own Accomplishment Stories

© 2020 Lee Hecht Harrison LLC. 6