Let's Quantify A Resume Together

Some quick news before we begin:

My website will be launching soon! Here’s what it will offer:

2 Ebooks that are extremely detailed, over 20 pages long each.

• One on my method of recruiting - target audience is recruiters who want to take their game to the next level

• Other is Job Search: Best practices to make yourself more marketable, the inside scoop on what recruiters look for, detailing from auditing your job search, to resume/linkedin/job board strategies, to interview prep, negotiations, and more.

Cheap resources

• Resume template with pointers

• LinkedIn SEO Optimization with pointers

A few free templates

• Resume

• Cover Letter

• LinkedIn/Twitter DMs

• Basic Interview Prep

Intro

Follow enough recruiters on Twitter and LinkedIn and you’ll see this piece of advice every day:

"Quantify your accomplishments on your resume using data, numbers, %’s instead of just listing out your roles/responsibilities”.

For good reason, this is one of the most important things you can do when writing your resume out.

Quantifying your resume will make you stand out against the crowd. It will show the reader how you contributed to the bottom line or what impact you directly had to the project at hand. While most people are just listing out responsibilities that everyone, you’re showing them what you actually got done, and what you actually can do.

The most common question we see is “how do I actually do this?”. It’s a fair question when you think about it. If you’re not in a sales role where you can just say “I made X calls, Y deals, Z profit”, it can be tough to do this.

Here’s the thing: I was able to do it before I even knew you were supposed to quantify resumes.

Back when I was in college, I was a Security Guard and Lifeguard during winter, spring, and summer breaks. Granted I found my recruiting job through my network (go figure), but I still had to go through a legit application & interview process. I was able to quantify that resume.

If I could do it as a security and lifeguard with 0 knowledge, you could do it with your tech resume.

Here’s how I did it:

If you read previous issues, you know that my brother was an Agency Recruiter. And like I mentioned above, someone referred me into my job. So I used my network to get an inside scoop (hint, you need to do this too when applying/networking) on what the team was going to look for.

Entry level role - they want someone who works hard, is motivated, & is good with people. They can teach the rest.

So I’m thinking, how the heck do I do this as a security guard and lifeguard at an amusement park?

Well - I pulled out my resume from 2014 - here are some bullet points I had.

Security Guard

• Patrolled X Amusement Park Ride Area, which was the 2nd most populated zone of the Park

• 1 of only 4 Security Guards patrolling the area. In my first year, we reduced the number of incidents by over 60% as a team.

• Implemented “Community Patrolling” that I learned in college, where we emphasized meeting & greeting customers & building relationships versus just “supervising” them.

• Had a goal of greeting at least 50 customers & guests of the park per day.

• Received one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the park, of any role/occupation, at 9.7/10.

Lifeguard

• Audited at least 1x/day. In 4 years, only failed 1 audit, having more than a 99% success rate.

• Earned one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the park at 9/10.

• Greeted over 50 customers & guests per day to maximize customer service.

• Achieved a perfect incident record of 100%, where not 1 guest/customer was injured in my area in my 4 years as a lifeguard.

Analysis

So everyone knows just about what a Security Guard and Lifeguard does. A Security Guard keeps the peace. Break up fights. Makes sure everyone’s following the rules (within reason) Make sure bad actors get kicked out. There to protect you from any dangers. A Lifeguard makes sure no one’s drowning, going down any slides the right way, also following rules within reason, and usually the first person on call for any medical issues.

So I figured two things:

• Why would I write those things down if everyone knew what they did already

• I definitely do not have a traditional background for an office job, I need to find a way to highlight my jobs to fit what these guys are looking for.

I looked at the job description - one of the things highlighted was “make at least 50 calls per day”. So that was perfect to highlight that was the same amount of customers I wanted to meet each day.

In recruiting, client/candidate relationships are everything. So why not highlight a couple of those stats.

Then, I wanted to round up that obviously my background isn’t traditional, but I was very good at it, showcasing them I had a history of being a motivated & high performer.

Call to Action

If I can do this as a 22 year old, zero office experience, non-business major, who only worked at an amusement park, you can do it in your tech role.

Start thinking about these things:

• XYZ method when writing out your bullet points

  • X: What you accomplished

  • Y: The qualitative results

  • Z: The skills/experience achieved

  • In an ideal world, this is done on every bullet point. But - as long as each XYZ is covered on each work experience that is decent enough.

• Ways to actually quantify

Let’s look at a java developer and product manager for example.

Java

• Bad: Developed and maintained Java-based applications, utilizing object-oriented programming principles and adhering to industry standards and best practices.

• Good: Developed a highly scalable & State of the Art Point-of-Sale System, which increased sales in X Telecom’s retail stores by 30%, using a tech stack of Java+Spring Boot+Microservices

Product Manager

• Bad: Led the development and implementation of successful product strategies, working closely with cross-functional teams to conduct market research, analyze customer feedback, and prioritize features

• Good: Led the development & implementation of the loan origination project in an Agile environment, increasing revenue by 35% by utilizing data-driven insights, prioritizing project features based on customer feedback, and collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality solutions on time and within budget.

Now, you can include the ‘bad’ resume bullet points in your resume. You just cannot leave out the ‘good’ ones in these examples.

TL;DR

If I can quantify my resume as a security guard & lifeguard from an amusement park, as a recent grad, with no experience, you can do it in your tech role

Extra points if you found your role using your network. If you did, do what I did and use that network for some inside scoops as to what they’re looking for.

Remember to use numbers, data, facts, outcomes, %’s.

Utilize the XYZ method to help build that framework in your resume.