The single, most important message to convey in your professional materials is the value that you offer your company. What results did I deliver? What successes were you able to achieve? How did you impact the achievements of the company for which you worked?
One of the best tools to articulate your value is through metrics.
Avoid filler words. Show your growth as a professional and how that has translated into measurable wins for your company demonstrates to an HR professional or recruiter that you can do the work and deliver results.
Ask yourself: what was the goal and did I achieve it?
Here's how to identify and articulate metrics on your resume:
Ask yourself: what was the goal and did I achieve it? Then gather data on what tasks you completed that have measurable results.
Consider a few of these sample questions to get your gears turning:
Did you bring in new clients? How many and in what time period?
How much revenue did you bring to the company?
How many people walked into the gallery for your art installation? Compare that to a typical installation -- is that above average?
What was the percentage of measurable growth for social media followers from your posts?
Approximately how much money did your company save because of your project?
Keep in mind that without context, these statistics don't seem as impactful in telling your professional story as they could be. Make sure that you succinctly explain what is typical or expected for someone like you to deliver so that you can show how you happily and effectively overdelivered.
BEWARE: The biggest mistake candidates make with metrics is flooding their professional materials with too many statistics. Remember, your resume should be easy-to-read in six seconds or less.
Sarah Sax is the founder of Write For The Job.