Emphasizing Current Achievements

I’ll use the example of an American rock band, Cheap Trick, for this entry about “not resting on one’s laurels." Cheap Trick is a musical group that has been putting out albums since 1977, with some familiar hits along the way in the 70s and 80s such as “I Want You to Want Me,” “Surrender,” and “The Flame.” As has happened to many of the bands from that time period, as musical tastes changed in the 90s and 2000s, the songs that used to be hits and played non-stop on radio were overlooked in favor of the newer groups and musical trends. Many groups from these eras elected to end their recording careers at this time, and when they perform in concert, their catalog of songs is limited to the songs from their heyday. Cheap Trick chose a different route. Throughout the 90s and the 2000 decade, they have continued to release CD after CD of new material, and the band represents all eras of their music when they play live, hits as well as non-hits.  Certainly, this is a group that has not rested on its past fame, but has continued to produce high-quality music and maintain an impressive career in this field for 5 decades. 

My question to the modern job seeker is this: are you resting too much on your past laurels? Are you de-valuing achievements from your current position? In my practice, particularly in the current recession where millions have been forced to take positions outside their career fields, I have seen many, many clients who are not as happy with some of their current positions as their previous ones. Their existing resumes are rail-thin on achievements from the past year, 2 years, 3 years, etc., and instead hearken back to their "Glory Days," to quote another famous artist. Even if your current position or most recent positions are outside your primary career field, you can still emphasize some of your achievements with these employers. 

Here are 2 key strategies/sources for gleaning this information:

1. Performance evaluations. Most employers will provide you with formal or informal performance reviews. Use them. Place a comment or two from your written evaluation on your resume. If the evaluations were informal, or verbal, create a statement such as "Recognized by supervisor multiple times for working extra hours and assisting on projects beyond assigned duties." 

2. Positive self-assessment. The self-assessment needs to be focused on the positive. It is easy to downplay current achievements through a negative self-review: "I didn't really do much...I was only there for a year." However, this is not the time to downplay. Ask yourself: was I effective in this position? Did I resolve any problems? Bring projects in on time? Help customers with issues? Make my supervisor's job easier? Once you start focusing on the positive, you can start coming up with key contributions that demonstrated your value to your employers.


You should be able to see value and worth in every single employment positions you've held, with rare exceptions. Because employers are always going to want to know how you've performed in your most recent positions, you will only do yourself a disservice by focusing on achievements from 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago. For the abovementioned band, 2011 is just as relevant as 1981, 1991, and 2001.