I wanted to make an awakened Golem for a monster to be tackled by me group. It strikes my as odd that the spell (linked here) doesn't mention any CR adjustments. Gaining skill ranks isn't really anything to write home about, seeing as Constructs have NO class skills, and you're unlikely to get more than 2-3 per HD. However, gaining feats is a big deal. For example, My awakened Clay Golem took Improved Natural Attack for 4d8 Slam damage, Improved Vital Strike (12d8 slam), Improved/Greater Overrun, Charge Through, and Power Attack. He can charge the group's caster (while overrunning the front-liner (attack-of-opportunity-slamming him for 4d8+7+Power Attack in the process), and then switch between Full-attacking 8d8+14+power attack (12d8+21+power attack with its Haste ability), and moving up and Vital Striking. This is well beyond the damage and mobility of a standard Clay Golem. It's not so much a question of SHOULD it get a CR adjustment, but HOW MUCH.
The only threads I could find addressing this are from at best a couple years back, and based on an old-/different-/3pp-version of the Awaken Construct spell. I'm hoping to find some precedent on this that perhaps came about since then. Any help/guidance would be appreciated.
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A CR +1 should be appropriate. Magic of Incarnum, an official WotC 3.5 supplement, has a Soulfused Construct template and the Living Construct subtype that essentially do the same thing as Awaken Construct and only grants a +1 CR no matter how many feats or skills the construct has for its HD. It might depend on how you build the creature as well.
I think some CRs assume the monster has feats that are generalized vs. specialized. If you front load the golem with nothing but a chain of optimal feats with the express purpose of killing things, it might be worth a +2 CR. If it's more along of the lines of one general feat for every two optimal feats (something like Great Fortitude + Power Attack & Weapon Focus (slam) for instance) +1 CR should be fine.