Evidence of Excellence [Examples and Descriptions]

If you’ve applied for a job at Tesla, you’ve probably encountered this question in either the application or interview stages of the hiring process. It’s also a common question I see asked of teachers applying for academic roles.

While it may seem frustrating at first because if you wrote your resume correctly, it should show evidence of excellence, this is an opportunity to stand out from your peers and add material that may not be appropriate for a resume. It’s an incredibly valuable opportunity for recent graduates especially those who may have limited job experience in their chosen field.

Where Do Employers Ask for Evidence of Excellence

Tesla asks for evidence of excellence as part of the application process. I’ve also spoken to former employees of Tesla who have encountered this question in one of their many interviews (over an 11-week timeline) and I’ve encountered one person who said she had to submit a write-up of her evidence at the end of the hiring process before they would extend a job offer.

I’ve also seen it in academia; however, the way it is written for teachers is very different from what Tesla expects. I’ll get into that a little later.

What Is Evidence of Excellence at Tesla 880/18

Tesla is looking for extremely smart people who are passionate about their work and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done according to one Tesla employee I spoke with.

They are looking for a track record that shows them you can perform the job duties and achieve high-level results - above-average results.

If you’re a recent graduate, Tesla managers want to hear about more than just being a good student. If you have limited work experience, you’ll be best served by talking about how you were part of an engineering club and won a competition or some other related extracurricular.

Elon Musk himself says that college is not evidence of excellence.

Tesla Application Evidence of Excellence

When writing about evidence of excellence on an application, you want to keep it concise. A best practice would be to write three sentences that show your great communication skills. Remember, it’s not just what you write, but how you write it that matters. In fact, how you write something is evidence of your communication abilities.

Pick the best, most relevant to the job piece of evidence you’ve got and write about it. You can always talk about other items in your interview or write about some in your resume.

What Does Evidence of Excellence Mean, What Can I Write About

In short, evidence of excellence is proof of your expertise, skills, qualifications, and experience for a specific job. Things you could consider writing about:

• Unique academic qualifications.

• Background in a particular field or industry.

• Certifications or licenses that indicate your unique or specialized knowledge.

• Results you’ve obtained for previous employers.

• Awards if they are framed correctly and relevant, although this is one of my least favorite things to write about.

• Projects you’ve completed and goals you’ve accomplished either at an employer, in an internship, or on your own.

• Promotions or relevant recognition from previous employers.

• References from clients or employers that showcase your work ethic or reliability, basically letters of recommendation.

Evidence of Excellence in a Resume

Whether you’re applying for a job at Tesla or in academia shouldn’t matter for this one. Your resume (for any job) should be littered with evidence of excellence. The challenge for most people of course is, “What does excellence mean?”

Here’s the easiest way to describe it for your resume. Excellence is how you leverage your knowledge, skills, and previous experiences to solve a set of problems that this employer is facing and requires this role to solve.

Make a list of all the required knowledge, skills, and experiences that an employer requires of you. For example, here is a Mid-Market SaaS Account Executive job from LinkedIn.

And here is a list of the required knowledge, skills, and experiences that this job would require from me:

• Selling to mid-market clients

• Working with PLS and PLG leads

• Driving new revenue and logo growth

• Communicating value propositions

• Influencing GTM initiatives

• Being inquisitive and customer-centric

And I could go on, but you get the idea.

Then I can ask myself how I can show that I am excellent at each of these items. I might ask myself questions like:

• Have there been any unique or successful ways I’ve communicated value propositions that have resulted in increased close rates or conversions?

• How have I influenced GTM strategy through customer feedback and advocating for my customers?

• How have I qualified leads and conducted needs assessments so that I stay closest to the prospects that are most likely to buy from me?

• What has been successful for me to ensure that I deliver accurate sales forecasts to my manager and identify trending opportunities and challenges?

Then I can write about those in my resume and attach them to results that show I’m excellent at these items.

Related Article: How to add metrics to your resume.

Evidence of Teaching Excellence

I want to take a minute and discuss teaching because everything we’ve talked about so far has been industry-related.

Answering this question for teaching is completely different and has a unique set of expectations. It often involves a much more lengthy piece of writing. Writing three sentences will not suffice for these jobs.

The teachers I’ve worked with in the past usually include these sections:

• Personal Statement or a Self-Evaluation Statement Regarding Their Teaching

• Evidence of Contributions to Education

• Peer Evaluations

• Diversity Statements

Do not reiterate what is in your student experience of teaching (SET). They already have that.

Instead, focus on direct evidence of student learning. This is the ultimate criterion for identifying excellence in teaching. Did your students complete a work product that demonstrated achievement for a specific learning outcome? That would be the best thing to write about.

You can also include standardized tests or student portfolios, but grades alone should not serve as evidence of excellence in student learning.

Unlike industry, in teaching you can rely on multiple sources of evidence and discuss their interconnections in a much more lengthy document. Focus on indicators of good teaching that are supported by research.

And lastly, recognize that excellence in teaching goes beyond the classroom. Writing about teaching innovation, mentoring, and peer reviews are all fair game.

MacQuarie University has some great ideas to find evidence of teaching excellence in this document.

Discussing Evidence of Excellence in Your Interview

Hopefully, you wrote a really great resume and the interviewer will use it as a roadmap for the interview. That’s the goal. When this happens you can expand on what you’ve already teased them with in your resume and application materials.

Before the interview, you should review the job listing, company website, any news or press releases on the company, and possibly things like their 10K to 10Q to gain insights about what you will talk about. You may have already done this when writing your targeted resume, but if not, do it now.

When discussing your evidence, be specific about what excellence looks like in the job you are seeking to perform. Use data to support your claim that you are qualified for it by relying on past experiences (even similar, transferable ones).

Don’t be afraid to take credit for team projects and team results. If you were a part of the team, you still own the results. Few people succeed without relying on others.

Excellence can be subjective, so be sure to state what you are measuring it against. If you worked a sales job in an industry that was highly competitive and closing 4 new accounts per month was considered excellent, make sure you let the interviewer know. They may think that is a terrible performance.

Use context such as industry average or even team averages if you need to.

Evidence of Excellence Examples

Accountant Evidence of Excellence Example

Applied knowledge of ASC 606 from software sales to a construction environment enabling them to recognize over 80 million in new revenue 2 to 3 months earlier which resulted in better financing terms.

Customer Success Evidence of Excellence Example

Designed a new shared dashboard within Jira ticketing system that enabled the resolution of 90% of all account questions and concerns within 2 hours or less.

Data Analyst Evidence of Excellence Example

Took the initiative to create a data model that gave multiple departments real-time visibility into commodity purchase prices, customer pricing indexes, and profit margins resulting in a revenue increase of 5% and a profitability increase of 12%.

Recent Graduate Evidence of Excellence Example

Won the NASA rover engineering challenge involving the design and assembling of a rover that successfully cleared asteroid debris in a VR environment.

Software Engineer Evidence of Excellence Example

Constructed the logic for a payroll application that scaled to 35 million users and integrated with over 8 HRIS.

Supply Chain Evidence of Excellence Example

Leveraged 8 years of distribution experience to ask the right questions and identify the root cause of a downward trend in shipments, determining it was an expired maintenance contract for a facility with 12 bay doors. Partnered with procurement and other departments to rectify within 3 days and reversed the trend within 1 week.

Talent Acquisition Evidence of Excellence Example

Came up with the idea and executed a new referral initiative that increased employee referrals by 12% and improved quality of hires by 26% while reducing hiring costs by $150,000 annually.

Evidence of Excellence Recommended Reading

How to Add Metrics to A Resume

Why Am I Not Getting Hired

How to Find the Jobs I’m Qualified For

---

Cole Sperry has been a recruiter and resume writer since 2015, working with tens of thousands of job seekers, and hundreds of employers. Today Cole runs a botique advisory firm consulting with dozens of recruiting firms and is the Managing Editor at OptimCareers.com.