No longer are CVs merely a listing of jobs and duties. The most impactful CVs describe your experience with an eye toward its scope, tasks, action and results. The best way to do this is to include high-quality accomplishments which are quantifiable and measurable.
Using quantifiable information in your CV consistently adds an impact no matter what industry you’re in. So, how do you get quantifiable information on to your CV so it really highlights the best of your experience? Many job seekers have quantifiable information that can be added to their CV related to one of these main areas:
✔ Making Money
✔ Saving Money
✔ Saving Time
✔ Improving productivity and efficiency
✔ Overall Performance
✔ Contributions to the bottom line
But what if your role has nothing to do with any of these areas?
There are other ways to incorporate other quantifiable information that highlight the best of your experience but isn’t directly tied to dollars/pounds ($/£) or percentages (%). Here are a couple of places to look and a few questions to answer:
➡ The number of projects managed.
➡ The number of direct reports/team members you led.
➡ The number of customers/clients served.
➡ Comparisons between past performance and current performance.
➡ Comparisons between competitors, industry or company averages.
➡ Growth in any areas that you directly oversaw.
➡ Other management responsibilities for functions, organisations, teams, or anything else.
➡ Were you promoted? How quickly were you promoted?
➡ How did you improve processes?
➡ What were the results of your leadership as measured by the performance of the team?
At the end of the day, your CV should be as unique as you are. There is no point copying your job description across to your CV. Recruiters can spot this technique a mile away and it won’t do you any favours.
Numbers and stats don’t lie — they help support the skills and experience on your CV and give recruiters hard evidence of your capabilities. Anytime you can quantify an accomplishment with a number, seize the opportunity.
Whether you increased sales, decreased product defects, were promoted four times, created a process that improved productivity or kept within a certain budget while growing your department — if it looks better quantified than qualified, go for it.
CV writing isn’t easy — and it can be incredibly difficult to objectively view your own work history. Hiring a professional can help you step back and make sense of your career trajectory. If you’re in the engineering or technology sectors, ABCV Solutions can provide you with immaculately and organically curated CV to ensure your applications pull the right levers. Visit www.abcvsolutions.com for more information.
