Why Resume Metrics Matter to Recruiters
While most applicants do a fine job explaining what they did in their roles on a day-to-day basis, recruiters are looking to see measurable results.
“By the time a candidate reaches the executive level, they should be able to showcase their strengths and back them up with tangible accomplishments that demonstrate they’ve made an impact in their previous roles,” Jon Hill, a recruiter from The Energists, explained.
In today’s competitive recruiting environment, metrics help differentiate you from other similar applicants, increasing your chances of securing interviews.
In this article, we discuss:
- Why Should I Add Metrics to My Resume?
- Which Metrics Should I Include on My Resume?
- How Should I Incorporate Metrics In My Resume?
- How Can I Check if My Resume Includes Enough Metrics?
1. Why Should I Add Metrics to My Resume?
You should add metrics and KPIs to your resume to demonstrate the tangible impact your work made on an organization, make your claims more believable, and show that you are a results-driven and action-oriented individual.
Metrics Demonstrate the Impact of Your Work
At the executive level, it’s not enough to simply outline your day-to-day responsibilities on your resume.
As Darrell Rosenstein, a recruiter from The Rosenstein Group explained, “I want to see hard results and achievements…. Not just in words, but more importantly, in numbers.”
"Someone who is gunning for a top-management position must show their capacity to provide high-level solutions to the macro problems that any company has to deal with,” Rosenstein explained.
• Metrics Make Your Claims More Believable
On your resume, always aim to “show” instead of “tell.
We come across many resumes that utilize overused buzzwords and phrases such as:
- Seasoned executive
- Self-motivated professional
- Entrepreneurial leader
- Passionate, driven sales professional
Instead of using exaggerated language that may elicit an eye roll from your reader, aim to incorporate metrics that demonstrate these characteristics and increase your overall credibility.
• Metrics Show that You Are Results-Driven and Action-Oriented
Most importantly, metrics enable you to write accomplishment-driven bullet points and serve as a testament to the fact that you care about delivering results.
By adding metrics to your resume, you help recruiters and hiring managers to get a much better sense of how you will be able to practically add value to their organizations.
Which Metrics Should I Include on My Resume?
You can find relevant metrics to add to your resume no matter what type of role or industry you work in. Consider incorporating metrics related to sales and revenue, profitability, costs, people, marketing, partnerships, performance and operations, and data analysis.
To some extent, the metrics you have available will depend on how performance is measured in your current role or industry. However, even if you aren’t evaluated based on specific figures, you can still brainstorm ways to quantify certain elements of your role.
A writer, for example, can quantify how many articles he wrote or how much web traffic his content was able to drive.
A teacher can quantify how many students she taught or how much her students improved their standardized test scores as a result of her efforts.
As you prepare your resume, reflect on the categories of metrics and KPIs below. Under each category, we also included questions to help you brainstorm information you could potentially add to your document.
• Sales & Revenue Metrics
- Revenue Growth: By how much did you increase revenue on a month-over-month or year-over-year basis (either in total or for a given product)?
- Conversion Rate: By how much did you increase conversions?
- Frequency: How often did you execute sales campaigns?
- Customer Growth: By how much did you increase revenue for new customers versus existing customers?
• Profitability & Cost Metrics
- Company Net Profit: By how much did you improve the company’s net profit?
- Departmental Profit: By how much did you improve departmental profitability?
- Project Costs: By how much did you decrease project costs?
- Operating Costs: By how much did you reduce operating costs and in what areas?
• People & HR-related Metrics
- Recruitment: How many people did you interview or hire? Were you able to decrease the average time to hire?
- Team Leadership: How many people did you lead? How many teams did you oversee?
- Retention: By how much did you improve customer or team member retention or decrease turnover?
- Engagement: By how much did you improve employee engagement?
• Marketing Metrics
- Cost Per Conversion: By how much were you able to reduce cost per conversion?
- ROI: What was the ROI of your advertising campaigns?
- Traffic: How much were you able to increase store or online traffic?
- Content: How many articles did you write or ads did you create? Do you have any relevant engagement metrics?
- Emails: What was the email open/response rate you achieved?
- Phone Calls: How many leads did you contact and what percentage were you able to convert?
• Partnership & Deal-Related Metrics
- Quantity: How many partnerships did you create, deals did you close, or clients did you manage?
- Impact: What impact did the partnerships that you established have on the organization in terms of revenue, funding, or sales growth?
- Size: What was the size of the average deal you worked on?
• Performance & Operations Metrics
- Efficiency: How much were you able to improve efficiency in time or percentage terms?
- Output: By how much did you increase productivity or output?
- Client Satisfaction: How much did you improve customer satisfaction metrics such as CSAT or first response time?
• Analysis-Related Metrics
- Projects: How many projects did you analyze?
- Modeling: How many Excel models did you create? How many people used them?
- Outcomes: What results were you able to drive by leveraging insights from your analysis?
- Web: How did you improve website metrics such as bounce rate or domain authority?
3. How Should I Incorporate Metrics in My Resume?
When adding metrics to your resume, be sure to put them into context for your readers, helping them understand exactly why a given metric is relevant or impressive.
As Kelly Garland, Principal of Garland Source, explained, “Your resume [should demonstrate] that you are an impact player, able to drive change and make improvements, [and] solve pain. Make that clear and visible.”
To provide adequate context, answer the following questions for your readers:
- When (did you achieve the metric)?
- How (did this metric benefit the organization)?
- Why (was improving this metric or KPI important)?
Below, we provide examples of how you can add context to your metrics by asking yourself these questions.
• When?
- Before: Increased sales by 10%
- After: Increased sales by 10% in the first two months of entering the role
- Before: Signed 4 new hotel development deals
- After: Signed 4 new hotel development deals in 2020, which are scheduled to open by Q4 2021
• How?
- Before: Decreased project completion time by 25%
- After: Decreased project completion time by 25% by creating a new project management workflow in Asana
- Before: Reduced cost of goods sold by 12%
- After: Reduced cost of goods sold by 12% via contract renegotiations with 4 major suppliers and employee training to reduce waste
• Why?
- Before: Wrote 15 blog posts
- After: Wrote 15 blog posts to improve website traffic via SEO optimization strategies
- Before: Developed and rolled out 4 new Excel forecasting models
- After: Developed and rolled out 4 new Excel forecasting models that reduced month-end reporting time by 30%
4. How Can I Check If My Resume Includes Enough Metrics?
To quickly see which metrics are already present on your resume, copy and paste it into the tool provided by Jobscan below.
Not impressed by the results? Read through the questions above to help you identify areas that you could potentially elaborate on.
In Summary
Never underestimate the importance of including metrics on your resume, as recruiters expect to see accomplishment-driven bullet points that demonstrate your value-add.
If you are currently employed, make it a priority to track your performance at work using an Excel spreadsheet or note-taking app.
You’ll not only be able to leverage this data on your resume moving forward, but you’ll also be able to bring it up during performance reviews.
By incorporating KPIs into your bullet points, tailoring your resume to your target roles, and keeping your formatting simple, you’ll be on the right track for a successful job search.
About Resume Pilots
Resume Pilots is an award-winning executive resume writing firm and a proud member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches. Our previous clients include CEOs and senior executives at the world's leading companies.
As a professional services firm, we take your reputation seriously. We are committed to delivering writing excellence and superior service while operating with integrity and discretion. Recruitment firms we partner with also trust us to consistently deliver quality documents for their clients.
Our writers have studied in the Ivy League and other top-tier universities and have strong writing backgrounds coupled with industry experience.
Here's how we can help you:
Resume, Cover Letter, and LinkedIn Writing Services: If you are looking for end-to-end support, hire one of our professional resume writers to rewrite your documents from the ground up.
Executive Resume Template Downloads: If you plan to prepare your own resume, consider using one of our classic, ATS-friendly resume templates for Microsoft Word.
To learn more about our services, book an introductory call with our founder here or email team@resumepilots.com.
About the AuthorMatt Glodz
Matt Glodz is the Founder and Managing Partner of Resume Pilots and a Certified Professional Resume Writer.
After studying business communication at Cornell University, Matt worked within Fortune 500 companies, where he noted that qualified candidates were frequently denied interview opportunities due to poorly written documents.
At Resume Pilots, Matt combines his business and writing background - which includes prior work for a Chicago Tribune publication - to craft resumes that give his clients the best chance of landing interviews. He works with clients ranging from CEOs to recent graduates and has been writing resumes for over 10 years.
He has been quoted on numerous business and career-related topics in outlets including Business Insider, CNBC, Fortune, Glassdoor, The Ladders, and Thrive Global.