How to Answer “What Is Your Greatest Achievement” With Sample Answers

“What is your greatest achievement?” is a common interview question that is asked of candidates to showcase what they have accomplished in their professional lives. The answer should be in favor of the company and should be clear enough to give hiring managers a clear picture of the candidate’s capabilities, and a chance that they can choose to highlight some of the most significant accomplishments in their career.  But this question goes further and serves multiple purposes in understanding the candidate’s real capabilities and greatest accomplishments in their career.

Why Interviewers Ask “What Is Your Greatest Accomplishment?”

This question gives the recruiter a genuine opportunity to learn more about the candidate’s professional career and experience. Your answer to “What Is Your Greatest Achievement” should satisfy the interviewer. You must speak in detail about your successes and convince the decision-makers why you’re the candidate to hire. A strategic answer to the question can remind the interviewer why you have made it in the interview this far, and it could give them the final push to make an offer to you.

Answering the question smartly can let the hiring managers know that you’re success-oriented, career-focused, and can be a good fit for the job position. Some candidates are fine going with the flow and doing bare minimum tasks to succeed in the job. Obviously, companies do not want to hire those people who are just good in their roles but they want to hire exceptional leaders. Companies want people ready to go above and beyond to make a real difference in the organization and stay for longer.

How to Answer – “What is Your Greatest Achievement”

Read the job description thoroughly

 Go through the JD (Job Description) thoroughly.  It is the best way to know how to answer what is your greatest achievement. Jot down the things you’ve done well in your previous organizations, and lean in on what you did differently than your colleagues. Make your answer as per the JD and talk about the achievement that matters most in the project. Narrate about the ways you helped your former employers to reach new levels of success. Your answer should serve as another opportunity to talk yourself up as per the job description and let hiring managers evaluate why you should be their top choice.

Research about the Company

When talking about your career goal, your best work should match what you want to become in the future. Your previous achievements must always be connected to your response to the job you have applied for.  Give relevant answers because relevancy is key. Research the company well in advance and do not go for an interview with half knowledge about the company or unprepared. Generally, interviewers don’t expect you to know everything about the company, you may clear your doubts with their help. It will show them your keenness to join the organization and blend the achievements you are most proud of with examples.

Make a list of your values and greatest qualities

Choose to speak about a project with a story that highlights a specific relevant skill that has helped to achieve the project successfully. Do plenty of research about the new company’s projects before the interview. Try to understand the company’s expectations from the new hire. Pay attention to the organization’s goals and overall mission, club it with your career goal, and answer the employer. 

Support your answer with your personal achievements examples. If you have a particular achievement that has to do with those details, you can easily connect the dots and make yourself the best candidate among others. 

Be relevant, recent, and specific

Being asked to talk about your greatest accomplishments in a job interview is an excellent opportunity to speak about yourself and show them your achievements. It is the best way to let interviewers know without a shadow of a doubt about the exceptional qualities that make you fit for the job. So, be relevant and genuine. You may start with your recent company and discuss the recent project you’ve completed, the number of days you took, challenges that came your way and how you and your team found a solution. 

Sample Answers for “What is your greatest achievement?”

‘what is your greatest achievement sample answer’

Sample 1

Difference made at the previous job.

“My greatest achievement is turning around the marketing department at my previous company. When I joined the marketing team, we struggled to achieve goals. I took help from my supervisor, developed an innovative marketing plan, and improved the existing strategies.

The entire team was asked to follow the new plan. Within six months, the team adhered to my plan and we recorded remarkable goals by 20%. . Everybody in my team agreed to my proposal and liked the plan. The head turner was that the company achieved 2X revenue after the implementation of the new strategy. I was rewarded with an excellent performance badge within about 8 months of joining. “

Sample 2

Major operational change implemented and how it enhanced   the company’s daily operations 

“As an HR administrator, one of the things I’m most proud of is how I helped save time. When I joined my previous organization, I noticed how the department was finding it difficult to locate files and manage documents. It used to take much time and made the simple tasks time-consuming. As I knew, there were better ways to handle those documents, so I took the initiative and implemented HRMS. The software helped me to centralize candidates’ data and other information by making crucial employee documents easy to find in one place. It eliminated the need for manual work and dramatically improved accessibility for the entire department.”

HR Admin’s achievement- 

“I think my greatest accomplishment was as an HR administrator. Usually, the hiring department had great difficulty locating specific files and managing documents. So, I thought there was room for improvement in employee file management. To increase their productivity and efficiency and save time spent on looking for documents, I automated the process by keeping a database of candidates online.  I decided to take an initiative by introducing a new HR document management software for maintaining candidates’ data. In the end, my company found it convenient and time-saving that there was no more time lag between sharing documents with HR, Payroll, and supervisors separately. We totally eliminated the physical files gradually. We saved space and recruiters’ time simultaneously.  Online records maintenance increased my team member’s productivity and I got appreciated for the same too.”

Conclusion

There are a lot more other ways to answer “What is your greatest achievement?” during an interview. But like any other question, answering this one takes a little more preparation to turn it into an opportunity and impress your interviewer!

All the best.