What Do Hiring Managers Think of Resumes with Quantified Accomplishments?

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

If my resume describes actions that “increased revenue by $1 million,” or “Increased productivity by 50%,” are hiring managers generally impressed, or do they assume the numbers are all made up? Do they want to see numbers like that?

I was asked a question that I thought was terrific, and I just want to go through it with you, if I may. Let me just get it back on my screen.

“What do hiring managers think of resumes with quantified accomplishments?” But here’s the fun part, the follow-up to it: “If my resume describes actions that increased revenue by $1 million or increased productivity by 50%, are hiring managers generally impressed or do they assume the numbers are all made up? Do they want to see numbers like that?”

So, I’m not going to go into the “whether they want to see numbers like that” part of the question. I want to talk about what do hiring managers think of the resume itself.

Now, to know that, you have to understand that business is, you know, the language of numbers—you know, money, right? Money is a number. And thus, if you can help an organization make or save money, this is valuable. I want you to hear that: make or save money.

So, it’s not just that you help the firm make $1 million, to use this person’s example. It could be that you, you know, saved costs by 23%. See, you know, it has an impact.

Now, are they impressed, or do they think you just made it up? Well, that’s what the interview is going to determine. So, understand: you can throw a number around, but unless you can back it up, you’re going to get chopped up like you were put into a Cuisinart, you know?

So, I’ll I’ll simply say that yes, they like to see numbers, because otherwise you’re just reciting tasks: you know, “I am responsible for such and such.” Great. What did that do? How did it impact the firm that you work for?

You know, even if you work in a job that you consider low-level, there’s a way that—excuse me—you can use numbers to your advantage. So, for example, you can talk—I’ll use a call center example, not because I think it’s low-level, but it’s one that you can, you know, clearly understand. In a call center, there’s a mean by for which people handle calls, right? So let’s say the mean is “I handle five calls an hour.” I’m just picking a number at random. And you handle eight. So, what you’re able to talk about is, you know, over time, it’s been determined you handle 60% more calls than than the average call center worker in your firm. That gets people’s attention: “60% more? Wow.”

So, you know, you are responsible for a group of 27 that’s responsible for a—I’ll use technology as an example—designing and developing a design, development, and implementation of a system that helped generate $47 million for your firm. “Hey, we notice that.” “It replaced a 12-year-old legacy system that had clearly become obsolete. And in developing this system, we took advantage of…” and you talk about some of the—you get where I’m going with this? You kind of lay out what the story is and the result that you got. Because otherwise, you’re presenting yourself as a drone: “I am responsible for this. I do that.” You know, on and on and on. “I am a task monkey.”

And if you want to be seen as a task monkey, just talk about the task and not the result that that task delivered. So, I’ll simply say yes, managers are impressed by it, but only if you can deliver the goods afterwards.

So, my answer to that question is simple: yes, include it. Don’t avoid it, unless, of course, you’re making it up.

Hope you found this helpful.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 3200 episodes, and is a former member of The Forbes Coaches Council.

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