Metricize Your Resume into a Capability Statement.

Many job seekers are unaware their resumes are ‘boring’ and tell the recruiter nothing other than providing a copy-and-paste version of a job seeker’s most recent job description. The job description from the most recent company’s compensation plan may be word-for-word. Job seekers don’t realize this is a turn-off to recruiters. It’s boring and tells recruiters nothing about the job seeker’s capability and the problems they have solved for their last employer.

The best way to improve a resume’s attraction and the job seeker’s qualifications by as much as 50% is to metricize the achievement bullets. Here’s a simple example. When asked about a dinner waitress’ tasks, most would write the resume as follows:

• Serves food to customers
• Takes orders, submits the check to customers, cashes ticket out at register
• Busses tables, folds/wraps silverware
• Cleans serving area(s) and server station at the end of the shift

This is a typical job description for waitresses. Nothing stands out, which makes a hiring manager want to hire this applicant over the competition. Unfortunately, nothing is incentivizing the manager to pick up the phone.

When the resume is metricized, the words ‘show’ versus ‘tell’ what the wait staff can do for that restaurant manager. Numbers impress people, numbers document verifiable information, and numbers prove capability. A metricized resume would have the following ‘rich’ bullets:

• Serves meals to ~45 customers at 10 tables, per five-hour shift, four nights a week; often flipping tables 2-3 times nightly
• Takes orders, selling ~$150 per ticket/table; with average sales per shift of ~$1,500 on week-nights/$2,000 weekend shifts
• Busses 10-20 tables during shifts, wrapped 200+ silverware sets, and sanitized and wiped 40-50 chairs and tables at the end of the dinner shift
• Maintains cash register sales, with zero cash errors over six months, including processing cash, ATM, and charge sales and invoices
• Assists kitchen/bus staff by vacuuming ~1,500 square foot restaurant; cleaned out margarita machines; prep for circa 100 desserts/salads nightly

Which waitress is the hiring manager most likely to hire – the one submitting the dull, boring job description or the second applicant – who obviously is a ‘go-getter’ – submitting a capability statement? A capability statement can be created for any job by thinking through the achievements of the tasks accomplished and adding numbers to show what has been achieved by the applicant.

The hiring manager can decipher those ‘metric-based’ capabilities to their needs. A capability statement makes a powerful statement to a future employer. This method of enriching a resume can be applied to any job. 

• How much new revenue did the salesperson develop over and above their monthly quotas? 
• How many new hires per month did the recruiter manage to complete?
• How many donations and grants did the business development manager bring in for the non-profit for which they worked?
• How many children did the teacher instruct for five classes daily?
• How many products did the manufacturing line assembly worker complete each shift, and how much over quota did they reach?
• How many stories did the newspaper desk editor read, edit, correct, and push to print daily or weekly?

Verifiable data is more straightforward for employers to confirm (…or deny – be careful to use terms such as ‘approximately’ or ‘estimated’ to avoid misrepresentation). A recruiter or hiring manager can verify data from past employers to confirm the candidate’s capabilities. This information builds a stronger case for hire for the applicant and makes interviews easier because the information is richer from which to develop questions. 

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, editing, publishing, and print-on-demand consulting.  Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit her website at www.dboyerconsulting.com.