Quantify Your Achievements on Your Resume

One of the most important things you can do when preparing to send your information to a company is to quantify your achievements on your resume. Having all of the proper skills and abilities that match a job description is a good start, but if you omit tangible performance numbers from your submission you’re leaving a great deal on the table. 

If you are working in a sales-related position this is quite straightforward and provides you with an opportunity to showcase your performance against quota. I often see fantastic sales professionals list a number of key accounts closed but omit the numerical values for each and the overall production numbers for the year – even if they had far surpassed the expected 100% mark. Make certain to include the amount of revenue generated and the percentage against the expected at-plan mark that was achieved.

If you have a performance number for certain years or campaigns that is less than the expected baseline it’s still a good idea to include those.  Employers often will check references, and a willfully errant figure can be far worse than being honest about a down year or one that was possibly completed under a highly unrealistic expected revenue number. 

Other types of roles? Many positions may not have quantifiable metrics as straightforward as those in the sales realm. Nonetheless, it is always possible to come up with an explanation of your achievements that gives a company a more precise and tangible manner to assess your abilities.

Examples:

A Marketing Manager:
• Initial Statement: Increased client base by a significant amount.
• Quantified statement: Directed 40% growth in new client acquisition, increased direct client inquiries by 65%, and initiated growth of $1.4 million in additional revenue above the previous fiscal year.

A Plant Manager who runs a production facility:
• Initial Statement: Revamped an assembly line and improved efficiency. 
• Quantified Statement: Restructured a delivery system that saved $1 million in production costs over the first 6 months of the fiscal year. Refined the model to achieve additional savings of $2 million in Q3 and Q4.

A CSO:
• Initial Statement: Oversee security standards, procedures, and risk management.
• Quantified Statement: Effectively assessed risks, threats, and vulnerabilities to implement a new system that mitigated attacks by 35% and saved the company $2 million in unnecessary product outlay.

Methods to Use to Effectively Quantify Your Achievements

There are particular steps you may take to have sufficient information to properly express your accomplishments in a manner that will attract the company’s attention.

• Make it a point to amass and document appropriate performance data from day one. This will make it much simpler to have a detailed set of information from which to glean relevant numbers and achievements.

• Determine the type and amount of metrics you plan to employ. For someone in a direct revenue-generating position this will be a fairly simple matter. For other roles, think about concrete achievements and goals that can be readily converted into numerical wins. In addition to the obvious monetary guidelines you might also consider client base, staffing, and classification accomplishments amongst a host of others that are relevant.

Employers are far more drawn to quantified illustrations of how a potential hire has helped to improve the bottom line with prior and current companies. Achievements attached to actual numbers have significant influence over those in a position to determine who gets the job. Use them whenever possible to show how you have performed in the past and, most importantly, how you will help the company achieve and surpass their defined goals.