Selling Accomplishments

For Awards, Fitness Reports, and Resumes:

Do you know how to sell yourself on paper?

Often how well you can articulate yourself on paper can be the one distinguishing factor between you and another candidate (whether it’s for a promotion or billet).

During boards in the Marine Corps your section I is briefed out loud—more often than not, your RS will only be able to write you decent comments if you know how to spell out your accomplishments for them when you submit your MROW (on top of good performance of course).

-test each accomplishment you write with a “so what?” You helped out (XYZ), you supervised (XYZ), so what? What was the result and why is it worthy of mention?
-Make sure you understand the difference between your daily tasks and accomplishments that fall outside of basic expectations. If it’s part of your billet then it’s not an accomplishment.
-Lay out measurable/tangible evidence with each accomplishment so that any reader can understand the impact.
-Proof read, proof read, proof read! If you give me a shitty product then I’ll give you shitty output.
-If you complain about having an uninvolved boss ask yourself if you’ve made the effort to communicate your accomplishments with them.
-If you receive a poorly written MROW, don’t just correct and submit. Take the time to sit down with the Marine and teach them how to better write it out. This way if they have a subpar boss in the future, they can at least cover their own ass.

Sometimes taking care of your dudes means sitting down and teaching THE very basics.

S/F
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