What did you save the company? Put on your bean-counting visor to quantify specific tasks accomplished.
So, every piece of career and resume advice is telling you to qualify your results in your jobs. If you want to be shown tha money, show them tha data, they say!
But what if you need help on how to make that a reality without it coming off sounding phony or made up? And what if you just do not understand how to do that, exactly? First, you have to think like a bean counter and put as much as possible into financial terms.
A recent article, “Quantify, Justify Your ROI,” has some smart advice and tips for overcoming the uncomfortable feelings associated with this kind of resume, and how you can get there. From the article:
- “Every job is quantifiable to some degree, even if that’s not the only thing you use to judge it,” Jautz said [Sharon Jautz is a HR consultant specializing in online and digital media] . “At Forbes, I hired more than 100 people in a given year without using a recruiter. There’s a (budget) number for hiring; dividing by the number I hired gives you a cost per hire. Even facilities management has that kind of quantification; if you switch from one water supplier to another, that’s a demonstrable impact on cost.”
The article breaks down a bit further other areas where you can make that return-on-investment argument for your resume. It includes:
Revenue:
- Even if your job had nothing directly do to with landing the business or making a sale, talk about your accomplishments in the context of revenue. Note your accomplishment as a key part of the effort… ‘Slashed hiring expenses and cost-effectively built top-flight staff in a division that increased revenue xx percent over two years.’
Productivity (which could be you, people you managed or other departments that benefited from your work):
- As a manager, did you have to absorb the workload of another department without adding staff? Did you have to demonstrate increases in workload or the amount of work your staff did without increasing hours or pay? Convert that to cash and claim it as productivity increases that go straight to the bottom line with a direct reduction in SG&A.
The article offers a rough calculation you can use assuming salaries at $100K (8*5*52)/(10*100,000). It then talks about
Process Efficiency:
- Making sure a product could be launched two days earlier gave the company two extra days to sell it; reduced the downtime of manufacturing and distribution networks; and gave every department involved in its launch, promotion or sale two extra days to do other productive work.Put a dollar sign in front of those numbers, and you’ve given a prospective employer a quick and easy way to understand the benefit of hiring you.
The importance of showing results with numbers and return on investment will help separate you from the pack of resumes listing job responsibilities and tasks. Recruiters know everyone has tasks, but what did you do with them that made a difference? It may seem challenging to qualify, but once you begin with a few results-centric ideas, the numbers will be there to capture and use.
Want more ROI and results centric advice? Look here:
How to Rise Above the Competition
How to Gain an Instant Advantage on the Job Search
Statistics-Driven Sales Resume Validates Salary
[Image by jekert gwapa via Flickr CC 2.0]
Discussion
No comments for “Resume Accomplishments: Better Living Through Bean-Counting”