Non-Quantifiable Achievements for Resumes

Working on your resume and want to show your impact? Here are two things to remember: 1. Impact is almost never related to keywords in the *job description.* Impact comes from turning around or resolving a business problem. These business problems rarely show up in job descriptions. 2. To show impact, your *accomplishment* needs to be put in the context of the business problem it solved. That is, impact = "<a problem existed>, so <I did a thing>, and <business benefits resulted>." Your resume must show impact for the hiring manager to bring you in for an interview. For example (based on a story from a client I worked with): * Brattle struggled, and failed, to quantitatively assess its investment analysts for years. I led the development of an accurate algorithm and its implementation into an internal tool that helped analysts justify their decisions and provided managers with a tracking tool. This innovation also served as a competitive differentiator, leading to shorter and faster sales cycles. This bullet point: • Sets the context of a meaningful problem ("failure to quantitatively assess its investment analysts") and why it was worth solving. • Shows the business outcome ("decision justification" and "competitive differentiator leading to faster sales") and how it was meaningful. • Implies mastery of many key product management skills - discovery, prioritization, working with developers, etc. Your action: --> Review your resume's bullet points. Is it clear what business problem your accomplishments address? Is it clear why the result was meaningful? Are your bullet points showing your impact? Or are they simply saying, in effect, "I did my job."

Every resume bullet without a metric is a missed opportunity. But here's what stops most job seekers cold: 'I don't have access to the numbers.' 'My role wasn't revenue-focused.' 'I just did my job.' I hear this constantly. And I get it. Want to uncover the metrics hiding in your experience? Teal's Resume Builder helps you quantify your impact → https://lnkd.in/gx4CBxPT But here's the truth: Every role impacts the business. Every. Single. One. You just need to find where. 🎯 Think of it this way—businesses only care about two things: 1️⃣ Making money 2️⃣ Saving money That's it. Everything else ladders up to these two goals. So let's work backwards: 💰 Did you make the company money? • Generated leads → Revenue • Improved customer satisfaction → Retention → Revenue   • Trained new hires → Productivity → Revenue • Created content → Engagement → Revenue See the pattern? You don't need direct sales numbers. 💸 Did you save the company money? • Automated a process → Time saved → Money saved • Reduced errors → Less rework → Money saved • Improved efficiency → Fewer resources needed → Money saved • Prevented issues → Avoided costs → Money saved ⏰ Time saved IS money saved: • 'Reduced report generation from 2 hours to 30 minutes' • 'Eliminated 5 hours of weekly meetings through better documentation' • 'Cut onboarding time by 50% with new training program' But what if you genuinely don't have numbers? Use power words that signal impact: ✅ Improved ✅ Increased   ✅ Enhanced ✅ Streamlined ✅ Optimized ✅ Accelerated ✅ Strengthened Better to say 'Significantly improved customer response time' than 'Answered customer emails.' 🎯 The Resume Formula: Action Verb + What You Did + Impact (Metric or Qualitative) Examples: • 'Redesigned onboarding process, reducing time-to-productivity by 3 weeks' • 'Managed social media strategy, increasing engagement across all platforms' • 'Led cross-functional team through product launch, delivering ahead of schedule' Remember: You're not lying or inflating. You're uncovering the impact that was always there. Every spreadsheet you organized saved someone time. Every process you improved saved money. Every relationship you built drove value. Stop thinking 'I just did my job.' Start thinking 'How did my job impact the business?' The answer is on your resume's next line. 📝 Pro tip: Start a 'wins document' today. Every small achievement, every process improvement, every positive feedback—document it. Future you will thank present you when it's resume update time. Ready to uncover the metrics hiding in your experience? Teal's Resume Builder helps you quantify your impact → https://lnkd.in/gx4CBxPT ♻️ Reshare to help someone make their next job move. 🔔 Follow me for more job search & resume tips.

Whenever we talk about quantifying achievements, job candidates come up with these objections: “I don’t know how much money I generated at ABC Shop.” “I can’t remember how much we made in sales.” “How should I know those numbers?” Many people struggle with this due to not keeping track of numbers while in that job. It’s an even bigger struggle for those in roles that aren’t directly tied to revenue generation, such as Design or HR. But here’s the thing: impact can be measured in many different ways besides revenue. Time, quality, customer service, productivity, just to name a few… For instance, if you want to quantify time, you can say “Streamlined [process] which helped save 10 hours per week in manual labor.” To quantify quality, you could say “Implemented a new quality control process and increased accuracy by 15%.” Customer service is another powerful way to show your impact, even if you’re not working in a customer-facing role, such as: “Generated personalized campaign templates, increasing customer satisfaction scores by 10%.” Productivity is a big one, and most people have something in this category that they can quantify. For example, “Hosted a weekly group training and reduced onboarding time from 5 to 3.5 weeks.” Bottom line: ‘quantifiable achievement’ doesn’t always refer to $$$. It’s understandable to make that assumption; we all know how much companies love more revenue. But it’s also why people get stuck when trying to improve their resumes or prepare their interview stories. Next time inspiration doesn’t strike, take inventory of your achievements. I’m certain there’s something that you can quantify that doesn’t have anything to do with money.

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗦𝘄𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘁: 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 I often hear concerns from clients who attend my webinars about being unable to apply metrics to their #resume and #LinkedIn profile accomplishment statements. One attendee wrote to me: "When you talk about accomplishment statements, you emphasize quantified results. I work in an occupation (paramedic) where it’s hard to quantify results with numbers, dollars, and percentages. What do you recommend?" I wrote back, "Don't sweat it, some accomplishment statements can be qualified." What you’re not taught in “resume writing school” is that employers don’t expect you to always provide quantified results—especially if they feel contrived or made up. Not all results are quantifiable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write them as accomplishment statements. For example: 1. You arrived at the scene of an accident within 8 minutes, 90% of the time, which is considered outstanding for a paramedic. But you don’t know these figures. However, your Fire Chief applauded you for your efforts, and you earned an early promotion. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲: 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺’𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 2. Your save rate has been among the top 10% in your city. Again, you don’t know the exact figure. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲: 𝘈𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴—𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢 10-𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥—𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺’𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴. 3. You played a key role in your city’s most volatile emergency, earning recognition from the Mayor for your act of valor, but there’s no applying metrics to this achievement. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲: 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 ‘𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺 5𝘵𝘩,’ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺’𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺. None of these accomplishment statements uses numbers, dollars, or percentages, yet the results are clearly qualified. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: not all action statements end with a positive result, whether quantified or qualified. That doesn’t mean you should exclude them from your resume. What are your thoughts on this topic? Adrienne Tom; Laura Smith-Proulx, Executive Resumes, CCMC, CPRW, NCOPE; Maureen McCann 🇨🇦; Erin Kennedy, MCD, CERW, CRA, CERM, CMRW, CEMC; Virginia Franco #ResumeTips #JobTips #LinkedInUnleased

You don’t need a big title to tell a big story. You just need to know how to tell it. One of the biggest struggles for young professionals, especially those early in their careers, is this: How do you make your experience sound “good enough” on paper… when it doesn’t feel big enough? This struggle is real. ❌Maybe you’ve never led a formal team. ❌Maybe your project wasn’t tied to any KPIs. ❌Maybe no one tracked results, or it didn’t have a budget. So now you’re stuck asking: “How do I quantify something that wasn’t quantified?” like Emediong Nkobowo asked. Or worse “Have I done anything worth putting on my CV?” Take a deep breath because this is where most people get it wrong. 👉Your experience isn’t small. 👉Your framing is. 60% of early-career candidates are overlooked simply because they fail to showcase impact clearly, they are too concentrated on activity. That’s not a skill issue. That’s a storytelling issue. So if you’ve done real work, even if it was informal, unpaid, or solo, here’s how to make it count: ➤ Find the transformation, even if you didn’t track it. Ask: What changed because of what you did? Faster process? Better communication? Happier users? Capture that. ➤ If there’s no number, describe the scale. “Supported 10+ daily customer requests.” “Helped train 3 new team members.” “Managed logistics across 2 departments.” Numbers don’t need to be perfect — they need to be truthful and clear. ➤ Turn tasks into outcomes. Instead of “Posted on Instagram,” say: “Created consistent content that boosted engagement and helped grow followers by 15% over 3 months.” ➤ If you really can’t quantify, qualify. Use actionable verbs and phrases like: “Improved,” “streamlined,” “enhanced,” “contributed to,” “supported high-priority tasks,” or “played a key role in…” I must add however that: 👉It’s not about exaggeration. 👉It’s about elevation. 👉You’re not making things up (ensure you never do). You’re learning to talk about what you actually did in a way that shows you’re thoughtful, intentional, and impact-driven. 👉You’re not bragging. 👉You’re making your work visible because that’s what opens doors. If this helped you see your experience differently. 👇 Drop a comment or ask another question you'd want me to provide an answer to. Tag someone who keeps saying “I’ve not done much.” And repost to remind others: your small project is someone else’s missing proof.

The #1 mistake candidates make on their resume/CV that stops them from landing interviews: Using the resume to describe what they DID, instead of what they ACHIEVED. Here is an example of a PMM resume bullet: 👉 Partnered with cross-functional stakeholders, including product managers, to execute impactful product launches across regions. This kinda sounds great, right? But it actually is not. Because EVERY single PMM with any launch experience is going to state the exact same thing. It also does not show HOW you did it and why it mattered. Instead, your resume needs to STAND OUT and make it easy for recruiters/HM to trust your credibility to give you an interview. To do that, you need to add more detail and show impact. So this is the formula you can use instead for each bullet: ✅ WHAT - state what activity you did. This should line up with the requirements on the JD ✅ HOW - describe how you accomplished that activity, which shows your expertise and adds important details to provide credibility ✅ IMPACT - what results did this lead to? Having quantifiable results is great but they are not necessary. Your impact could also be satisfaction achieved, how other people received it, or any other qualitative measure. So this is how I advise PMMs in my job search program to rewrite that bullet: ❌ Before:  Partnered with cross-functional stakeholders including product managers, to execute impactful product launches across regions. ✅ After: Led a tier 1 global product launch by validating strategic readiness through customer research, creating the positioning and messaging, crafting the promotional strategy across channels, and owning all field team enablement and communication, generating $XXM in revenue within 3 months of launch, exceeding the launch target by 15%. This is the breakdown: ✅ WHAT: tier 1 global product launch ✅ HOW - validating strategic readiness through customer research, creating the positioning and messaging, crafting the promotional strategy across channels, and owning all field team enablement and communication ✅ IMPACT - $XXM in revenue within 3 months of launch, exceeding the launch target by 15% When you have 3-5 bullets like this for each role, you will significantly increase the chance of your resume being selected. Plus, when you describe HOW you did it, you will increase your keyword relevance in a genuine and effective way, instead of random keyword stuffing. 👋 If you would like an editable version of my sample resume with instructions inside, please comment RESUME below, and I will DM it to you! #resumetips #jobsearch #productmarketing #tech #interviewtips

I've reviewed and rewritten corporate resumes for transitioning service members and fellow Veterans that had an entire awards section that looked something like this on their resume: 🏅 MSM 🏅 DMSM 🏅 BSM 🏅 ARCOM 🏅 AAM 🏅 NCM 🏅 NAM 🏅 GWOT 🏅 NDSM 🏅 AFSM 🏅 .……and about 15 more. Meanwhile, the civilian recruiter thinks: "I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at." 😂 Yes, I KNOW, those awards represent incredible accomplishments, sacrifice, and years of service. But your corporate resume isn't the place to make civilian recruiters decipher military alphabet soup. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with including a few relevant awards on your resume. The common mistake Veterans and transitioning service members make is listing the medal instead of showing the accomplishment that earned it. Don't tell recruiters/ hiring managers you earned a NAM. Tell them what you did to earn the NAM. Don't tell them you received an MSM. Tell them about the multimillion-dollar program you led, the team you managed, or the process you improved. Just listing your awards tell the recruiter/hiring manager you were recognized for something. Your accomplishments tell employers why they should hire you. Your resume isn't your shadow box; it’s your marketing brochure. Question for my military network: Did your very first civilian resume have an awards section full of acronyms, with no accomplishments explaining what you did or why you earned them? Be honest. 😅 I’ll see you in the comments section 🍿🥤 Maloney out! ✌️

When I shared my thoughts on the biggest mistakes people make on their resume, it sparked a lot of conversation. Like, a LOT. In particular, folks had quite a bit to say about how to demonstrate impact on your resume. One major question that came up: What if you don't have access to data or metrics? This might happen if you don’t work at that company anymore, if you were/are a consultant or freelancer, or if you are very siloed from the team that holds the business metrics (like a writer who doesn’t have access to traffic or revenue data). A few ideas: 1️⃣ Focus on how your success in that role was measured. How do/did you and your manager know that you’re doing a good job? What did you talk about in your annual review? Maybe it’s volume of deliverables, or on-time delivery, or quality of work as determined by X. Some totally made-up examples: - Project managed up to 10 cross-functional initiatives per month, ensuring on-time delivery to clients - Wrote or edited 3-5 high-quality, deeply reported articles per week 2️⃣ Use a proxy metric or larger business metric that you DO have access to. An example I used previously is that if you’re an affiliate e-commerce writer, you may not have revenue data on every story you worked on, but you probably know about the big company successes that your work contributed to, e.g. “Wrote 45 Black Friday shopping posts, contributing to the highest-ever BFCM revenue sitewide.” Think about what data you can gather from third-party tools, as well. If you can’t access exact traffic numbers from your old company, you might be able to use Similarweb or Ahrefs to ballpark how much traffic grew as a result of your work. 3️⃣ Narrate the impact in words instead of numbers. This is especially useful if you’re talking about something that’s difficult to quantify, such as demonstrating soft skills. It also helps introduce some variety into the writing — a resume that’s just a wall of numbers is actually tough to skim and read. For example, here’s a bullet point I have on my own resume: “Recognized as a key culture carrier and influential leader org-wide, with content team engagement scores among the company’s highest.” I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you demonstrate impact on your resume, with or without numbers? *Just want to know how to add more numbers to your resume? Check the comments for a helpful article!

I had a candidate apply for a senior manager role last year. Fifteen years of EHS experience. Good companies. The right background on paper. But I read the resume twice trying to find something to hold onto. "Responsible for managing EHS compliance program." "Responsible for conducting facility audits." "Responsible for training development." No numbers. No outcomes. No sense of what any of those programs looked like before he got there or after. I told myself the interview might tell a different story. It didn't. Fifteen years of experience, and every answer was the same. The roles he'd held. The companies he'd worked for. What he'd been responsible for. He couldn't tell me what he'd changed, what he'd built, or what was different because he'd been there. We passed. I've thought about that candidate more than once. Fifteen years is a long career. The odds that he'd done nothing worth quantifying are basically zero. Somewhere in that experience was probably something like - Reduced recordable incident rate by 40% over two years by rebuilding the hazard observation program from scratch. Identified 23 SPCC deficiencies across 6 facilities and managed corrective action to closure in 90 days. Developed a groundwater monitoring program across 12 wells, reducing sampling costs 30% through optimized network design. He just never said it and he didn't know how to tell/sell his story. Your resume isn't a job description. It's an argument that you're the best candidate for the role. If you can't quantify it, at least tell me what changed because you were there. What did the program look like before you? What did it look like after? "Responsible for" describes everyone who ever held that job. What you actually did is yours alone. -- If you're an EHS or environmental professional who knows you've done strong work but can't figure out how to make a resume show it, follow along or send me a connection request. This is something I can help you think through.

I've most certainly lost count of how many AE resumes I've reviewed, but one thing has become crystal clear: how you frame your accomplishments matters. Here are 4 common resume phrases to reconsider, and how to transform them for maximum impact: 1️⃣ Ditch the passive  🚫 Responsible for... This tells hiring teams what you were supposed to do, not what you achieved. ✨ Instead: Lead with dynamic action verbs showcasing your ownership and concrete results. Think 'led,' 'architected,' 'drove,' 'implemented,' etc followed by a measurable outcome. Such as: 🚀 Led a sales team of 5 to exceed targets by 18% in H1'24 2️⃣ Move beyond vague claims  🚫 Team player 🚫 Detail-oriented These are qualities you demonstrate, not just state. ✨ Instead: Provide specific examples where you embodied these traits. Such as: 🚀 Collaborated with marketing on a targeted campaign that increased MQL -> SQL conversion by 22% (Shows teamwork and results) 3️⃣ Replace buzzwords with evidence  🚫 Results-driven 🚫 Go-getter Your entire resume should scream 'results-driven'   ✨ Instead: Let your achievements speak for themselves by quantifying your impact directly. Such as: 🚀 Increased ACV by $17K within 6 months by introducing a value-based selling methodology 4️⃣ Substantiate your skills 🚫 Great communicator 🚫 Self-starter Anyone can say these. Show us how you applied these skills. ✨ Instead: Describe situations where your communication led to a positive outcome or your initiative solved a problem. Such as: 🚀 Proactively developed a new cold outreach cadence that improved reply rates by 27% and was adopted team-wide Focus on tangible actions/measurable results - it’s one of the elements of your resume that catches our eye! ('Ours' meaning 'us recruiters' - not Elise and I!)