What Do You Consider Your Greatest Achievement?”
In order to learn more about you, employers may ask you a number of standard interview questions. One of them is “What is your biggest accomplishment?” In response to this question, you have the opportunity to talk about a notable achievement that highlights the value you will provide to your future employer. Your Greatest Achievement?”
This article explores the possible justifications for asking this question and provides some examples to assist you in coming up with a suitable response.
Why is this issue brought up in interviews?
This question is used by interviewers to get more information about your prior experience and the accomplishments you respect and think are most important. When people ask you about your greatest accomplishment, they are particularly interested in three things:
Your work ethic: Interviewers are interested in your definition of a “accomplishment” and the amount of effort it took to get there.
Your guiding principles: Interviewers are curious about what you select as your “greatest” accomplishment and why.
Interviewers want to know about specific examples of your work. These samples provide them an idea of the tasks you have handled and the standard of your work.
What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?
You must prepare an outline for your answers in order to feel at ease answering this query during your interview. To prepare for a strong response, you can take the following actions:
1. Begin by making a list of your accomplishments.
Write two to three anecdotes that, in your opinion, best illustrate your qualifications for the position you’re applying for. These accounts will showcase your most fascinating and exceptional accomplishments. It’s a good idea to think of several instances so you can adapt your story for different interviews. Furthermore, if you have more than one example prepared, you will be ready if the interviewer asks you to discuss any additional successes.
If you’re struggling to think of any remarkable achievements, reflect on the times when you were commended or acknowledged for your efforts. Think about the ways you helped in your previous positions, such as by enabling a task to be completed more quickly or with fewer people, by saving the company money, or even by increasing revenue. Think on the reasons for any recent promotions you may have received.
2. Review the job description
Prior to responding, read the job description and do some research on the company to ensure that it is relevant to both the interviewer and the business. This will help you select an accomplishment that demonstrates the skills and qualities the employer is looking for.
3. Apply the STAR technique.
By focusing on the key elements of your achievement, you’ll be able to tell the interviewer a memorable, condensed tale.
How to use the STAR method
Use the situation, task, approach, and results (STAR) framework to structure a concise, condensed, and unambiguous response.
1. Situation
In the first part of your response, briefly describe the background that led to your success. This frequently captures the essence of a challenge that you, your team, or your company are facing.
Example: “The team organized budget sheets for several hours each month during my marketing internship at a software company.”
2. Task
Then, explain how you fit into the situation. This could be a reference to the responsibilities you have, the role you played in a certain circumstance, or valuable skills you contributed.
Example: “While my position usually entailed assisting the other marketers with copywriting and other creative endeavors, I felt that my prior experience with managing budget sheets from a finance school could be useful.”
3. Approach
Then, describe how you contributed to a change or a solution to an issue. To keep this concise and pertinent to the interviewer, include keywords from the job description.
As an example, think about the following: “In order to avoid having to rework the entire budget each month, I created a more organized budget process after getting my supervisor’s approval to take on this project. This process allowed each team member to maintain the organization of their own section each week.
4. Completion
To finish your response, describe how your work was successful. If you can provide concrete evidence to support your argument (saving the company $5,000, increased sales by 30%), it will be more persuasive.
After a quarter of implementing the new approach, the team was able to focus on more important marketing duties, which allowed us to cut the time spent organizing budgets by 35%.
What is your greatest success, for instance?
By planning your response and getting ready for the interview, you will be able to respond to this common interview question in a creative and persuasive manner. Use the examples below to help you consider how you may answer a question regarding your greatest accomplishment.
Picture 1
“A member of our technology development team in my prior role left due to a move. He oversaw the iOS version of the app as its project manager. Sadly, no one else on the team had any prior experience in iOS app development. Because I had prior experience developing iOS apps, I offered to take the lead on the app’s development and implementation. I worked on the new app’s development and maintenance with the other team members. I was able to finish the project 60 days sooner than I had anticipated. It has received over 350 positive ratings so far on the iTunes Store, adding a new revenue stream for the company.
Picture 2
“In my most recent employment, I was in charge of managing the orientation and training sessions for all of our new hires. Sadly, the facts weren’t that fascinating. Although it was critical knowledge for our new employees to possess, we just found out that 35% of new hires failed to complete the training. Additionally, we were receiving unfavorable reviews of the classes. I decided to rework the training program to make it more relevant and interesting based on suggestions from the evaluation questionnaires and industry best practices. Currently, 93% of participants complete the course and give the experience a positive assessment. My manager asked me to give a training talk at our New York office as a result of the improvements.
