EP 11 – What’s your greatest achievement? [Thumbnail- 3 awesome examples + link]
In today’s video I’ll be share with you 3 examples to help
answer – What’s your greatest achievement? I’ll also be giving you some things to avoid
doing when answering this. Stick around until the end, to find helpful ways to ace this question 😊
Let’s jump into this question and find the best way to answer it.
Welcome back to… HOW TO INTERVIEW. My name is Dan and I HELP PEOPLE UNLOCK
THEIR INTERVIEW SUPERPOWERS! I have been part of many of interviews,
I’ve coached and helped people get the job that they want.
I’ve developed my own way to producing great responses to questions
and I’m sharing my tips with you in this video. Please subscribe to this channel, and share this
video with someone who will find value from this watching this.
It really helps grow this channel and reach more people with this content.
It’s my mission to help people land their dream job and unlock their potential.
Write down the information that I’m about to give you, writing down notes helps lock
in this important information. Feel free to take a screen
shot of the responses that I provide. Without further ado, let’s roll the tape…
What’s your greatest achievement? Employers love to ask this question,
use this as an opportunity to show how passionate and proud you are of your accomplishments.
You’ll be asked this to see what successes you’ve personal been involved in and how likely you are
to bring that positive energy with you. It’s also asked to see how you handle challenges
and what results you have achieved. This question from my experience
has a good likelihood of being asked and can be asked at virtually any part of the meeting.
Try not to get this question confused with What Are Your Strengths.
I’ve left a link for that video in the top right corner, please do check it out.
Your response should be somewhat tailored to the job description
so make sure you read it carefully. This question may be asked as
‘what’s your most recent achievement’ or ‘tell me about your greatest achievement’
Here’s 4 Tips you can use to construct your response.
Brainstorm a few professional achievements you have accomplished.
If you don’t yet work, pick a personal achievement or an achievement while at school.
Now we pick the achievement we feel most proud of, ideally this will have been in the last year or
two. The logic to this is the more pride you feel for something, the more vivid your memory will be
and you’ll naturally show more positive emotion. The interviewer will be able to see your passion.
Write out your response. You can take a screenshot of my responses
as a guide or go over to how-to-interview.co.uk and use a free Question/Answer template.
Practice your response with a friend or family member. You don’t have to memorize every word.
Just get yourself familiar with the points and the structure. This is why Tip 2 is so important.
Relax while you rehearse and have fun. Let’s get into answering the question. My
first 1st example is for an experienced professional. My 2nd example is for someone
with little work history and is more of a personal achievement. My last example is a personal one
that I have used before. So here goes…
Example 1. “My greatest professional achievement was when I was the Head of Sales Manager,
I successfully turned the sales department into a profitable department. I was to find
what problems were holding the team back from performing at their best. I spent a
good amount of time with each team member and found the rigid working hours were the cause.
I was able to allow more flexibility in working hours and as a result saw a 20 percent increase in
sales. The atmosphere of the room also improved dramatically. A result I am very proud.”
Example 2. “My greatest achievement was completing my degree in Engineering
in under 4 years. I did this while working a part time job and looking after family. I was able to
form good habits such as planning, carrying out responsibilities and developing my education.
I feel I have given myself the best platform to excel in my career with everything that
I have learned in the past 4 years. An achievement I am incredibly proud of.”
Example 3. “My greatest achievement was when me and my team saved the company
£15million. A critical component had failed at one of our power stations
and they were looking at the possibility of not being able to produce power for two months.
My team and I undertook the work and began producing the component. After many hours
of intensive checks and design stages, we delivered the component in exactly two weeks.
The station lost no time in production and we were massively congratulated for our effort.
I’m very proud of this achievement.” Have you been asked this question?
Let me know what you said in the comments below.. I’m interested to know what you said,
when you were asked this question. Also, if there are any interview questions you would
like me to cover, let me know. Here’s a recap of my tips to answer
What’s your greatest achievement? Brainstorm potential achievements.
Choose from your list. Construct your response.
Practice your response. Here are 3 things not to do;
Don’t just skim over this question. It’s important to express your story and let
the interviewer feel your pride and passion. Don’t memorize your story word for word. Keep the
main points in your mind and build your story with them. If you memorize the whole story and forget
a word or sentence, you have the potential to lose your rhythm.
Don’t include any negatives in your response. You want your story to be about you getting
the best from yourself. Be cheerful and let your interviewer see you at your best.
So, there you have it, there’s 3 ways of answering this question and 3 things to avoid doing,
I’ve included tips that will help you get the best from your interviews.
It’s now up to you to build your own response. To get your free question/answer help sheet of
this topic, have a look over to ‘how-to-interview.co.uk’
By using this, you can formulate your perfect, tailored response.
As always, there are more interview questions and related content coming your way,
stay tuned for the next video.
Tap on the next video coming up soon and I’ll see you there.