Boost Your Job Application’s Wow Power

By Lily Whiteman, author of “How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job”; trainer on career issues; twitter: @Lilymwhiteman

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Most comprehensive job-hunting instructs job-seekers to quantify achievements described in their resumes and cover letters—but fails to explain the “why” or “how” of doing so.  So here is some quick, easy guidance on the topic that will help you ace your job application.

Why Numbers Impress

The first principle of quantification is that, with a little thought and creativity, you can probably quantify your achievements no matter what field you’re in–even if you’re not in a math-oriented field.

Quantifying is a powerful strategy because descriptions of achievements that are supported by statistics, measurements, counts and other metrics sound scientific, indisputable and objective (whether or not they really are).  Therefore, they sound credible.  In addition, hard numbers and other specifics give your achievements weight and heft, and so underscore their massiveness and impact.

By contrast, vague claims of achievements that are unsupported by statistics, measurements, counts and other metrics or other hard evidence of success are more likely to sound like baseless (and boring), self-serving exaggerations.

How to Quantify Your Achievements

When you consider how to quantify your achievements, start by thinking in terms of:

• MONEY:   How big is the budget you manage, and did you help increase it? How much money have you saved your organization, generated or fundraised for it?   What is the total dollar value of the contracts, grants, or accounts you manage or approve, or the products you procure or protect?  Did you increase sales or production for your organization? How have you contributed to resource allocation? What efficiency-boosting measures have you suggested or implemented?

• TIME: How many years of experience do you have? What tight or ever-changing deadlines did you meet or beat. How many work products (such as publications, reports, press releases, events or audits) do you regularly produce in a particular time period (such as per week, month or year) or have you produced during your career? Have you streamlined or automated procedures, cut red tape, or otherwise made it easier or faster for internal or external groups to access information or other important resources?

• PEOPLE: How many people do you manage or support? How many managers or staffers, associations, members of the public or another group use, benefit or are impacted by your work, such as a regulation or another resource you helped produce? How many people have you recruited, or can you cite a statistic that shows you have reduced turnover? How big is the reach of materials (including online materials) that you produce, or how much have you increased their reach? How many people have you trained? How many people attended a cyber or in-person event, conference, training or other event that you organized or led, and were any attendees particularly important? What positive feedback did you receive from attendees in evaluations, oral comments, emails or other formats?

• PRECEDENT: Do any of your achievements rank as precedent-setting, the first, the fastest, the biggest, the most, the best, the strongest, nearly so, or in the top tier?   Remember: You don’t have to be the first climber to top a Himalayan mountain to have rightfully bagged a braggable “first”, record or superlative. You should, for example, brandish your role in creating a new website, developing new trainings, creating a trailblazing employee reward system, or completing an audit or report in record time—or even creating a new online filing system.

• GEOGRAPHY: How many (and which) countries or how much geographic territory or how many offices does your jurisdiction cover? How many facilities or how much office space do you manage?

When in Doubt: Estimate

• When you can’t cite an exact number, estimate figures, and use phrases, such as “dozens of…” “a significant increase in”…” or “more than 100…”

• Use creative (but honest) accounting. For example, a federal attorney was recently asked about her supervisory experience in her application for a managerial position. But because she had only been supervising three professionals at the time, she did not cite that relatively small figure. Instead, she stated that during her 15 years as a supervisor, she had supervised dozens of professionals. Plus, she also quoted some of the praise she had received from her staffers in their good-bye cards to her when she left one of her supervisory jobs.

• Even if you supervised, led or trained employees in informal contexts, describe such experience in your resume (but don’t volunteer that your interaction was informal).