More and more you will see CV advice centres using stats and numerical figures. Recruiters find that they stand out and help them quickly and easily see how you make a tangible difference in the workplace. And it’s not just for the CFO or sales team; it applies to office support jobs, too. But when your day seems to involve the same sort of tasks day after day, and you can’t just use the business bottom line as your own, what should you do?
Everyone has numbers
If you work in sales then you’ll know your metrics better than your favourite TV show. You’ve got clear quotas and your quantifiable achievements are the bread and butter of your daily working life. It makes translating things to your CV easier.
If you work in customer service, you should also have some pretty handy figures at your disposal. Logging into your CRM tool should help you track your success and your rankings against others. You can use this data to sell yourself.
But what if you don’t have these automatic numerical interpretations of how you make a difference? You’re going to have to get a bit more savvy.
What can you measure?
Your day may consist of repeated admin tasks, for example. The trick is pinpointing why you are doing them. Consider:
- How does a particular task save money? How much does it save?
- Does this task save time? Have I made changes? If so, how long did it take before and how long does it take now?
- If I didn’t do this task, what would happen?
- Has the wider team or company grown? How much and in what terms?
- If you’re a leader, what is your staff retention like?
- How many clients or customers do you interact with now compared to one year ago?
- Have you successfully negotiated savings with a supplier?
Questions like these can start to reveal some of the figures that demonstrate the tangible and quantifiable difference you make to the business. It may take a little more research and calculation, but it is possible.
Be prepared to share
Writing a CV is about blowing your own trumpet, and that’s okay. It’s rarely down to one person to create savings or cut time spent on tasks. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the glory or shout about your part in it.
Be prepared to use team achievements and highlight your role in them. For example, as a PA it is perfectly acceptable to share that X amount of new business was brought in by your executive, who you supported in this. It demonstrates your integral importance.
If your role, no matter how little, contributed to a bigger success, pull some numbers from it for your CV. Using figures in this way will resonate with the hiring manager. Indeed, many recruiters are now arguing that if something can’t be quantified, it probably doesn’t have a place on your CV.
The basic premise
In the world of business, you should be either making or saving your company money. Figure out how to demonstrate this in numbers and you’ll have a compelling CV.
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