Is your resume generating offers to interview? If not, it’s time to make some changes. Related: The Top 3 Resume Improvements Everyone Needs Now The #1 resume improvement any job seeker in any field can make is simple: Quantification. Quantification means to describe your accomplishments in terms of numbers, dollars, and percentages. For instance… “Led accounting team for division” is less effective than “Led team of 14 accountants in a $34M division” “Increased efficiency” could be much stronger and specific: “Increased efficiency by 50% in 2 years” “Won awards” is good, but this is better: “Won #1 Spot in sales team 3 years in a row” Numbers are attention-grabbing, hard evidence of your success. They make hiring managers (your future boss) sit up and take notice of your resume. Hiring managers see resumes all the time that talk about job responsibilities and accomplishments. Seeing the numbers helps them put it into perspective and see you as more valuable. Quantification boosts your chances of getting called in to interview. Almost anything can be quantified. One person tried to trip me up once by asking if even a janitor could quantify, but the answer is absolutely ‘yes.’ They could talk about how cleaning things up reduced workplace accidents or contributed to a company culture that was able to achieve 95% retention. All jobs contribute to the bottom line of a company in some way—if they didn’t, the company couldn’t justify keeping someone in that role and paying them. All you need to do is think about how you in your job contributed to those goals. Show that new potential boss how you can benefit their company. When you look at your resume with a goal of quantification, ask yourself these kinds of questions:
- How many?
- What size?
- What amount of time?
- When?
- How much?
- How often?
- At what rate?
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