Ready to grab the attention of a hiring manager and get the interview? The best resume tip of all is this: quantify your accomplishments. This will build your value as a job candidate and help you get more interviews.
What is quantification?
Quantification means using numbers, dollars, or percentages. You’re quantifying your accomplishments on your resume, so you’re describing them using numbers, dollars, or percentages instead of using only words.
Why is quantification so important?
Numbers are attention-getters. They provide evidence or proof that you’re valuable. So, if your resume demonstrates that you can cut costs, generate revenue, improve efficiency, increase productivity, and so on, then they’re going to see you as valuable and want to talk to you.
Countless job seekers I’ve worked with who had no luck getting interviews only changed this one thing—they added quantification to their resume—and they got more interviews immediately. (See The Halo Effect of a Quantified Resume)
Best resume tip: How to incorporate quantification
Each job on your resume should include bullet points of quantified accomplishments (what you accomplished in that job).
How did you in your role contribute to revenue, growth, efficiency, improvements, or profits? Think about rankings, accuracy, budgets, schedules, turnover rates, procedures, customers, or sales.
With everything you did, think about how much, how often, how many, etc. Add that information.
Here are some examples of how you could improve your resume with quantification:
Revenue
Instead of saying, “Responsible for bringing in new clients,” you could say, “Brought in 20 new clients in 3 months,” or “Brought in new clients worth $4M.”
Rankings
“Top-ranked sales rep” is good, but “#1 sales rep” is better, and “#1 sales rep out of 34 reps” is the best.
If you’re a new graduate, this works well when describing your GPA and class rank, too. (But only if it’s very good.) An OK resume would talk about how you were on the Dean’s List, but a great resume would say that you “Maintained 3.7 GPA over 4 years,” or you ranked “#3 in class of 432.”
Accuracy
Instead of, “Maintained company database accuracy,” you’d want to be specific: “Achieved 100% accuracy in a 50,000-item database over 2 years.” You’ve answered the questions, ‘How well?’ ‘How big?’ and ‘How long?’ These are important details that paint a clearer and stronger picture of your skills and abilities.
Numbers are everywhere
You can incorporate numbers around budgets, projects, schedules, production, procedures, and more. For just about every accomplishment, there’s a way to quantify it. If you weren’t making money, saving money, or saving time (which equals money), that company wouldn’t be able to afford to pay you. Show potential employers that you’re valuable with quantification.
It may take some effort to go back through your records and find these numbers, but the effort is worth it because you’ll get interviews.
Get More Help Here
If you know you need more direction and help, get everything you need in my Extreme Resume Makeover Kit. It has all the best resume tips, along with a perfect resume template. Get more interviews today!