Quantify, quantify, quantify!

© Copyright Roy Miller, All Rights Reserved.

There is no substitute for quantified experience on your resume. Here's what I mean. Supposed you're reading a resume and you see the following statement:

"Supervised a team that installed a new customer service tracking system."

Okay, that's nice. What does that force the person to do? He has to ask you about that in the interview just to get more basic details, potentially wasting valuable time and costing you the job. If you get the interview at all.

Now suppose you read this instead:

"Managed a team of five that selected and implemented a new customer service tracking system that reduced lost sales for the company by $1.5M in the first year."

You're hired! No, probably not just because of that, but that second statement does two critical things:

1. It tells enough of the story that an interviewer can ask you for more details about this significant accomplishment.
2. It stands out from all the other resumes containing statements like the first one, because it talks about what your employer really cares about - MONEY.

Employers aren't mean old scrooges. Well, most aren't. But without profit (or without breaking even for a non-profit), there's no business, which means no jobs.

If you quantify your experience, you absolutely vault over your competition.

You see, non-quantified experience says you showed up, did some stuff, and drew a paycheck. Not exciting, and unlikely to get the job if somebody else quantifies his experience.

Why?

Quantified experience says you didn't just take, you GAVE, and in a significant way. Then it's on to talking about benefits and décor for your office.

Quantify your experience whenever you can. It's not as hard as you might think. Just remember that three things count as quantifiers:

• Dollars you added to the bottom line
• Time you saved the company
• Any other numbers that add to the "he uses numbers" impression

Money is, of course, money. That's a no-brainer. If you initiated and spearheaded a project that increased corporate profits (or departmental profits, or office profits, or location profits - you get the idea), that's fantastic. Highlight it using real money numbers.

Ask yourself the worth of what you did, from your employer's perspective. Did a particular action save money? That's quantified! Did it bring in more revenue? That's quantified! Did it produce an operational improvement, such as shorter turnaround on customer service requests? That's not quite quantified (in terms of dollars), but it's close! Don't know a dollar amount, but know an improvement percentage? Use it! It better than nothing.

Quantify whenever you can, and get as close to dollars on the bottom line as you can. That'll get you rave reviews from your current boss (or a raise!), and will make it easier to get your next job.