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Rachelle Enns
Rachelle is a job search expert, career coach, and headhunter who helps everyone from students to fortune 500 executives find success in their career.
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What is your greatest work related accomplishment to date?
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OUR COACH SAYS
This question is tailored for the interviewer to see what specific successes you value in the workplace. Be sure to give as detailed of a work-related accomplishment that you can. If you are new to your career, you can lean on other experiences such as school, competitive sports, or volunteer work.
Think about the times when you were given extra kudos in the workplace or when you received a special award. Explain why this accomplishment means so much to you. If you can, finish your response with a qualifying statement regarding how you will continue this pattern of achievement, if you are the chosen candidate.
Think about the times when you were given extra kudos in the workplace or when you received a special award. Explain why this accomplishment means so much to you. If you can, finish your response with a qualifying statement regarding how you will continue this pattern of achievement, if you are the chosen candidate.
Example #1
"In my current position, I reduced costs by reviewing packing slips, contracts, invoices, and calling out vendor billing errors. Then, I assisted Accounts Receivable by making collection calls, bringing in potentially lost revenue. Lastly, I created a new filing system that helped us research transactions faster. These changes resulted in a 15% revenue increase in just 90 days. I am eager to bring these types of results for your organization."
Example #2
"My greatest accomplishment stems from my time in university. I graduated top of my Business Administration class while also holding down a full-time admin job. It was a true success story, and it encouraged me, knowing that wherever I land in my career, I will always be able to handle busy workloads and heavy expectations."
Example #3
"In my last role, I created a social cause program for our organization. The charity initiative focused on giving back to the community, and our employees were happy to be involved in volunteer efforts. I have many wins in my management career, but giving back to others was truly the most gratifying. I look forward to gaining more experiences like this with your organization as I see that your company also puts a spotlight on giving back."
Example #4
"My proudest moment was setting a company record for fastest hire-to-promotion at Company ABC. I walked into the new opportunity, crushed expectations, and saw the reward of a promotion. The situation turned out exactly how I had hoped, and it gave me the confidence to keep pursuing my biggest career dreams, which is what brings me here today - interviewing with your esteemed organization."
Example #5
"My proudest professional moment was being the youngest employee in my company to be promoted to the department manager role. I worked hard to meet my sales targets and also spent time mentoring new hires. I learned a lot about management, leadership, and coaching - all skills that I am excited to bring to this new opportunity."
Example #6
"Two of my proudest career accomplishments occurred this year. I earned a spot in the President's Club and was awarded Top Customer Choice in my division. This recognition meant so much to me because it showed me that my dedication and tenacity truly paid off. I won the President's Club annual trip to Mexico, which was exciting. I plan to continue this pattern of success with your organization."
Example #7
"My biggest work-related accomplishment came around the time when the school district cut my elementary Spanish program for budgetary reasons. The parents of my students rallied to ensure the district, the board, and the principals all knew that it was not an option to cut the program. I had former students speak about how important Spanish has been for them and how impactful I was as a teacher. I knew then just how big of a difference I had made at that community school. Rest assured, I will bring this same energy and dedication to your school, should you choose to hire me."
Anonymous Answer
"I took the lead in getting my product on Preferred Formulary status at a major hospital. While doing so, I learned a great deal about the process and was able to take that experience to a second major center shortly after that. This helped a lot of patients, was a major contribution to my organization while also creating a constant revenue stream for my business."
Rachelle's Reply
This is a great accomplishment, and you relay it very well. You should be proud!
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Anonymous Answer
"After researching co-teach best practices, I was given the opportunity to coach teachers in preparation for training videos. After developing an interactive module (with embedded videos), the entire module was published for district use."
Kristine's Reply
Great response! You interviewer will be impressed your employer recognized your expertise.
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Anonymous Answer
"I would say my greatest work-related accomplishment to date would be when I got promoted to my territory. I become a top rep within six months by working incredibly hard and keep pushing forward. That year I finished at the highest percent to quote within the company at 171%. I am very proud to say."
Rachelle's Reply
You should be so very proud of this accomplishment! Very good work, and a fantastic answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"My greatest accomplishment is when I worked on a project where the scope of work was to upgrade 2 VFDs and control them from a control room several miles away. The VFDs were used to start and stop large Water Pumps."
Rachelle's Reply
This is a great accomplishment! You must be very proud. If your work included results such as saving your employer time or money, be sure to include those details.
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Anonymous Answer
"My greatest work accomplishment is being able to help to increase the pharmacy adherence goal from 80 to 83 where the company has to be. By changing prescriptions to 90/days and putting prescriptions on auto fill."
Rachelle's Reply
Excellent! You should be very proud of this accomplishment :)
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Anonymous Answer
"Getting a promotion last November as a lead test technician is a great accomplishment to me to this date. I got this because I am being trained to work on all testing stations, starting from the board-level test, module-level test to system-level test."
Rachelle's Reply
This is an excellent accomplishment! Well done!
Rachelle's Reply
"My greatest work accomplishment was being promoted to Lead Test Technician last November. I trained hard and passed all my tests from board level to module, and system level."
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Anonymous Answer
"I would say that my greatest work-related accomplishment up to date is that I have been a part of a new organizational structure in my current project. In my project, we have formulated a development and operations structure, where I have act as a test coordinator for the development part of it. These have learned me how the production processes are related to the development part. This has also taught me agile ways of working with everything related to it, such as work roles, core values, and principles, new terminologies. The result has been that I have gained personal development and the project itself has delivered greater results."
Rachelle's Reply
Good answer! It's great that you added specifics on how your skills have grown at work. I like how you tied these into your accomplishments.
Rachelle's Reply
"My greatest work-related accomplishment to date is my involvement of the new organizational project structure. In this project, our team formulated a development and operations structure. I acted as the test coordinator for the development piece. Through this, I was able to learn how the production processes are related to development. I also learned agile methods. I gained personal skills such as learning more about work-related roles, core values, and principles."
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Anonymous Answer
"I was awarded as an outstanding employee on four separate occasions for my services to students, colleagues, and institution. However, my greatest accomplishment was to see my students take my advice, complete the course successfully, and embrace a bright future of doing what they are passionate for and capable of."
Rachelle's Reply
Very nice balance between professional rewards and reward through feelings of accomplishment.
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Anonymous Answer
"Retiring from the department of corrections."
Mary's Reply
Great response! No changes.
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Anonymous Answer
"My greatest professional achievement was completing my Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Penn State University. Being a first-generation American, I started my education in Arabic, so I had to overcome the language barrier in High School. Also, as a refugee who fled the war in South Sudan, I was uncertain about my future when I left home. But I knew I was now in the land of opportunities where you could become anything you want if you put in the work. So, like a lot of other Americans, I worked odd jobs while pursuing my education. This taught me to prioritize my time, build great habits, and stay focused on my goals."
Rachelle's Reply
You have faced challenges that many people will never meet, and you have come out incredibly strong. You show an exceptional work ethic and character in your response. Be proud!
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Anonymous Answer
"My team's manager set realistic working goals so that everybody could participate and still meet the proposed deadline times within acceptable parameters. My team worked so well that we rarely failed to meet our goals."
Kristine's Reply
Good start. Try to share a specific example that is unique and will impress the interviewer. Some examples include a time you won an award, earned a promotion, earned some other form of recognition, solved a problem, introduced a new program/initiative at work, increased company revenues by a certain percentage, or increased productivity by a certain percentage.
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Anonymous Answer
"As a retail pharmacist, learning how to deal with difficult customers has become one of my greatest attributes. I once had a patient who was outraged because we didn't have their pain medication in stock. She was yelling and cursing while I was trying to explain the reason why it hadn't come in. I decided to take a step back and understand this patient was in pain and may be experiencing withdrawal. This helped me to calmly think of a way to best resolve this issue. I called multiple pharmacies in the area and explained the situation. I contacted the doctor to have the prescription sent to a different pharmacy. The patient calmed down once she saw my willingness to help. That really taught me the power of patience and empathy which I now use going forward with any difficult patient."
Rachelle's Reply
Patience and empathy building are excellent characteristics to develop. This is a great work accomplishment! You could also try focusing on a response more concrete such as any awards or accolades you have received that are related to your pharmacy background.
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Anonymous Answer
"As our company was growing, I saw the need for us to all be on the same page in how we operated systems and protocols within the center; then voicing that need to the Doctor who agreed about my concerns, and together we created this Operations role. It was very hard in the beginning because ultimately this was a self-driven, self-initiated role with not a lot of direction, so it felt lonely at times but after gaining the trust and respect from the employees and seeing the difference my presence and protocols were making plus receiving emails from the staff at the other centers about how they appreciated me I felt validated and successful in the role I helped create."
Rachelle's Reply
It sounds like this role was an uphill climb for you at first, but you were tenacious and had a vision. Mentioning the positive feedback that you received is a great added touch. Very good answer!
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Anonymous Answer
"As a child protective worker, I had to detain and remove many children from their homes and parents. The parents have to go through a court process, parenting, and other classes, which can take months to complete.
I have always encouraged parents to meet the conditions set by the court and be compliant with the services ordered. It has always made me feel great when I see the parent complete their court-ordered conditions/services and have their children returned home."
Rachelle's Reply
It must be gratifying to see parents make changes and improve in their parenting approach. Good answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"After six months of inception in my career as a case manager, the company grows considerably, and I was able to coach new nurses and expand the department."
Alexandra's Reply
This is a good start! I recommend that you be more specific in what your accomplishment was. Was your accomplishment growing the company? If so, what actions did you take that led to this? Was the accomplishment coaching new nurses and expanding the department? If so, how did you get the responsibility to coach new nurses? What was the result?
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Anonymous Answer
"The greatest moment was I solved the problem of the process of the new production line. There was an issue to merge new product process into the old process. I joined the team as a process engineer, and I devoted 4 months to the problem without even one day off. Our team finally figured out and won the annual awards at the end of the year."
Rachelle's Reply
Wow - this is a very proud accomplishment! If you have further details on the annual award (award type and if it was from your employer) those would be nice to include.
Rachelle's Reply
"My greatest work accomplishment was a problem I solved on a new production line. We had an issue with merging new product process to the old process. I joined the team as a process engineer and devoted four months to the problem, without taking a single day off. Our team solved the problem and won the presented by our employer at the end of the year."
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Anonymous Answer
"I have supported the business in its expansion plan to what is now the largest retail company in the country. Here are the top three:
1. Reviewing, negotiating, and the acquisition of real property interest worth over $7 billion.
2. Minimizing litigation exposure by 70%.
3. Being part of a committee that drafted the retail industry regulations among others.
I have many great wins in my career in the retail industry, and I look forward to gaining more with your organization."
Rachelle's Reply
Superb! These are extraordinary accomplishments, and you should be very proud.
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Anonymous Answer
"I developed an own-brand product, and with every item sold, I had a tree planted in the developing world as part of an afforestation project. To date, I have been responsible for planting 400 acres of forest in South America!"
Rachelle's Reply
This is a great accomplishment! Make sure to mention which role this achievement was associated with.
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Anonymous Answer
"When I first started at the Bunnings store, there were many miss tints and sales were a little down in the paint accessories so I put the miss tints down by a few dollars and advertised the paint accessories in a way where customers would see if they are purchasing paint. In the result of these changes all the miss tints sold and the sales in paint accessories went up."
Rachelle's Reply
Smart thinking! One person's trash is another person's treasure, right? :) You portray a solid understanding of the impact that product loss has on a company. Also, you show an interests in boosting sales and creating eye-catching displays. Great way to highlight multiple skills in one answer!
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Anonymous Answer
"My greatest work accomplishment is the reputation I built over the years. My patient's family still contacts me on special occasions to remind me how grateful they are that I was the one taking care of their loved ones. It means so much to me to know I made an impact."
Rachelle's Reply
What an honor to have made such a positive impact on the lives of others. Very heartwarming answer.
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Anonymous Answer
"My greatest work-related accomplishment to date was when I worked as a sales agent in an insurance company. I had not worked in sales for a while and was transitioning into the position. I had a goal from the company of $10,000 in premium for the month. In my second month in the position, I not only met that goal but exceeded it by $5,000, ending the month with $15,000 in premium."
Rachelle's Reply
This is a wonderful accomplishment! You must have felt great :) Try to add in a bit about what you did to surpass your goal (i.e., increase cold calling, asking for referrals, etc.)
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Anonymous Answer
"In my current research position, our findings and hard work culminated in award-winning research granted by the university and the college dean and city have recognized it."
Rachelle's Reply
Wonderful answer, and a great accomplishment. Well done.
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Anonymous Answer
"Just recently, I was named the employee of the quarter, and what makes that such a great accomplishment is that it really was a recognition for my entire team and the hard work and dedication that they gave during some of the most challenging conditions we have seen in many years. I was fortunate enough to be the Lead on the project and the name on the award, but it was indeed a great team effort that I am very proud to have been a part of."
Rachelle's Reply
It's wonderful that you give so much credit to your team! This shows true leadership qualities.
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