The rule that never changes: every number has to be true and something you could explain in an interview. A rough honest number ("about 40 calls a day") beats a precise invented one.
Four kinds of numbers almost everyone has
- People: how many customers, patients, employees or coworkers you served, managed or trained.
- Volume: calls a day, orders a week, claims a month, invoices, appointments, tickets.
- Money: the size of the budget, sales, accounts or payroll you handled.
- Time and accuracy: how fast you turned things around, how often you hit a deadline, how few errors you made.
Before and after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Responsible for payroll processing. | Ran biweekly payroll for about 1,200 employees across 4 states, with every cycle reconciled before release. |
| Answered phones and helped customers. | Handled about 60 customer calls a day, resolving most on the first call. |
| Managed the front desk. | Ran check-in and scheduling for a 6-provider practice seeing about 120 patients a day. |
| Sold products to business customers. | Managed 85 small-business accounts and opened 22 new ones in a year. |
| Trained new employees. | Trained 15 new hires on point-of-sale and opening procedures. |
Examples are illustrations, not real people.
How to find your numbers
- Think about a normal day or week, then multiply. Fifty orders a day is about 250 a week.
- Check old performance reviews, sales reports, emails about targets, or your manager's thank-you notes.
- When you're not sure, say "about" or use a range you'd stand behind.
- Leave out anything confidential, like client names or exact revenue, if your employer would mind.
The formula
Action verb + what you did + a number + the result. For example: "Cut invoice errors by about half by adding a two-step review for every batch."
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