Job Search Tips: How to Make Facts and Figures Speak More Loudly on Your Resume

Politicians learned a long time ago that there are many different ways to present facts, particularly when numbers are involved. While you shouldn't desire to emulate the more deceptive examples employed by public officials over the years, job seekers can nonetheless learn a great deal from any group of people who keep their jobs largely by offering facts only if they can do so in a way that flatters them.

How to Use Figures to Your Advantage on a Resume

Finding the Hidden Numbers
Figures almost always add power and credibility to what you claim on your resume. And in business, just about everything comes down to numbers. Let's say you built a new PowerPoint template for creating client presentations. How much time did it save you and your colleagues? How much is their time worth per hour? How many presentations per year does your department put together? Do the math and you'll probably come up with a pretty impressive figure for your resume. You can do this same process for anything, no matter how mundane it may seem. Think hard. Even rearranging office furniture can save time, which saves money, which deserves a little bragging.

Put it Into Ballpark Figures
In most cases, the more detailed a figure is the better it looks on your resume. But you can't always determine a precise amount, so just do the best you can and don't sweat it. It's perfectly acceptable to list a safe, lower estimate and state it in terms like, "At least $5000 a year," or "$5000+ per year," or "Approximately $5000 annually."

Choose Your Time and Terms
Any fact can be presented a number of different ways on a resume. Sometimes it's best to show a figure as a percentage of something. Other times it's best to present an accomplishment in terms of hours of labor saved. Or you might be better putting it into dollars. For instance, if you saved two hours of labor per day on a task and your employees make ten dollars per hour, you could say "Cut man-hour requirements by 25%," or "Saved $100 in labor costs per week," or "Reduced labor costs by $5000 a year," or "Cut labor requirements by 500 hours per year." Try all variations and pick which sounds most believably impressive.