Use Resume Metrics to Improve Your Job Search
I have said it many times, but it bears repeating: a resume is a marketing tool. As such, it’s important to understand your audience. Far too many job seekers operate under the assumption that a resume should list the tasks associated with your previous roles. Nothing could be further than the truth. For a resume to be effective, it needs to highlight your achievements. Those achievements should be quantified whenever possible.
There is truth in that tired business adage that “what gets measured gets done.” If you want to stand out among the crowd, you must include metrics on your resume. The average amount of time spent “reading” a resume is a disheartening 7.5 to 14 seconds. That’s right—when a recruiter looks at your resume, she scans it for keywords and superstar accomplishments. The same can be said for the ATS systems. If you want to grab the recruiter’s attention (or get through the bots), adding metrics to your resume is one way to do so quickly.
What types of metrics should you include in your resume? You don’t want your resume to look like a math problem because that is visually distracting. That’s counterproductive. Instead, provide select, high-impact, measurable achievements.
Tips for how to add metrics to your resume
Define measurable achievements. When you add metrics to your resume, you need to include figures demonstrating the scope of your accomplishments, including the budget, the number of people you affected, and the positive impact you made.
Assess and compare. Assess your results compared to your peers, department, company, or industry. You can pull out numbers and percentages or cost-savings comparisons, which will instantly demonstrate your effectiveness.
List firsts. Identify any firsts you’ve had in your career or any firsts within a specific role. If your company was the first to launch a certain product or offer a new service, you should add this to your resume to prove you were part of a strong team.
Examples of resume metrics
We’ve established that you will not quantify everything on your resume. (As an example, it’s probably not relevant that you were a member of a team comprised of 4 people.) So you need to decide which metrics to include on your resume and which ones to leave off. Here are the four types of resume metrics that are relevant and will grab a recruiter’s attention:
Growth. What did you add to the company?
Reduction. Where and how did you save money, time, or other resources?
Impact. How did your work help? What was the payoff for your efforts? How much did your work save/make?
Frequency. How often did it happen?
Sample resume metrics
Authored 4 white papers on the emerging digital economy, which resulted in 50,000 downloads by unique visitors. (Growth)
Sourced new manufacturing vendor, resulting in 23% savings over 6 months. (Reduction)
Conceptualized and executed a multi-channel social media campaign that reached 200K+ new users. (Impact)
Consistently beat revenue goals by an average of 9% over 5 years. (Frequency)
In today’s challenging job market, candidates must do all they can to stand out in a crowded field of qualified applicants. Adding resume metrics can help you to get noticed and stand out. After all, the name of the game here is RESULTS!