Quantifying achievements – Page 2

Use performance against target, new accounts, deal sizes in relative terms, growth over time and rankings.

Examples:

• "Met or exceeded quarterly targets in 7 of 8 quarters."
• "Opened 18 new corporate accounts in the hospitality sector in one year."
• "Grew sales in my territory by about a third over two years."
• "Ranked second of 15 sales executives nationally for 2024."
• "Closed the region's largest supply deal of the year."

Use real figures from sales reports. If you share revenue amounts, make sure they are not confidential; proportions and target comparisons are often safer.

Use audience, reach, engagement, leads, conversions and growth over time, with the period and channel.

Examples:

• "Grew the brand's Instagram following from about 8,000 to 25,000 in 18 months."
• "Generated around 600 qualified leads from two trade shows."
• "Improved email open rates over six months through subject line testing."
• "Managed paid campaigns in 4 markets within the agreed monthly budget."
• "Launched 3 product campaigns that each beat their lead targets."

Marketing tools usually record these figures. Use the real data where you can, and do not claim credit for growth caused mainly by other teams or paid media you did not run.

Use hiring volumes, time to fill, employee numbers supported, training delivered, retention changes and policies introduced.

Examples:

• "Filled around 120 frontline roles a year across 6 hotels."
• "Reduced average time to hire from about 6 weeks to 4."
• "Supported a workforce of 900 employees with HR queries and documentation."
• "Delivered induction training to around 300 new joiners a year."
• "Introduced exit interviews that informed 3 new retention initiatives."

Keep individual employee details private, and use approximate figures where HR records are not available to you.

Use volumes, entities, close timelines, accuracy, savings and improvements to reporting.

Examples:

• "Closed the books for 5 entities within 4 working days each month."
• "Processed around 500 supplier invoices a month with very few payment errors."
• "Reconciled 20 bank accounts monthly and cleared old unreconciled items."
• "Recovered duplicate payments from suppliers after a full ledger review."
• "Cut month-end reporting time by about two days by automating schedules in Excel."

Avoid sharing confidential company financials. Proportions and process measures are often more useful than currency amounts anyway.

Use project size, physical scale, team, schedule, safety and quality outcomes.

Examples:

• "Supervised construction of a 22-storey residential tower with 240 apartments."
• "Designed drainage for a 15 km road upgrade."
• "Coordinated 6 subcontractors and around 150 workers on site."
• "Completed the MEP package 2 weeks ahead of the programme."
• "Recorded zero lost-time injuries across 18 months on site."
• "Reduced unplanned machine stoppages by improving the preventive maintenance plan."

Project values can be described in size bands if exact figures are confidential.

Use guest numbers, covers, rooms, events, upselling, ratings and awards.

Examples:

• "Checked in around 120 guests a day at a 400-room hotel."
• "Served up to 300 covers a night in a busy restaurant."
• "Set up and served banquets for events of up to 500 guests."
• "Named in more than 30 positive guest reviews in a year."
• "Increased room upgrade sales at the front desk during my shifts."

Hospitality managers often keep guest review and upsell data, so ask a former supervisor if you are unsure of your figures.

Use customers served, sales targets, transactions, stock, store size and awards.

Examples:

• "Served around 100 customers a day in a busy mall store."
• "Met monthly sales targets for accessories in 10 of 12 months."
• "Balanced the till with no discrepancies across 2 years of shifts."
• "Set up promotional displays for 3 seasonal campaigns."
• "Trained 4 new sales assistants on product knowledge."

If your store displayed staff sales rankings, use them only if you are confident of your position.

Use deliveries, distance, orders picked, equipment, accuracy and safety records.

Examples:

• "Completed around 25 deliveries a day across Sharjah and Ajman."
• "Drove more than 100,000 km with no accidents or traffic violations."
• "Picked about 180 order lines per shift with high accuracy."
• "Loaded and unloaded 4 to 6 containers a day."
• "Worked 3 years without a safety incident."

Simple numbers like these show reliability, which is what employers in these roles care about most.

Combine scale (team, budget, sites) with results (performance, people development, improvements) and a time frame.

Examples:

• "Led a team of 22 across 3 shifts, keeping the store within its labour budget."
• "Promoted 4 team members to supervisor roles in two years."
• "Lowered staff turnover in the department over 18 months by introducing regular one-to-ones."
• "Raised the branch from bottom half to top 5 of 30 branches for customer feedback."
• "Delivered the annual operating plan within the approved budget for 3 consecutive years."

Choose results that your own leadership influenced, and be ready to explain what you did to achieve them.

Focus on business-wide scale and results: revenue or cost in proportion, growth, market expansion, people and transformation.

Examples:

• "Led a business unit of 1,200 employees across 5 countries."
• "Grew regional revenue by about half over four years."
• "Returned a loss-making division to profit within 2 years."
• "Opened 12 new locations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait."
• "Cut the operating cost base by roughly a tenth while maintaining service levels."

At this level, readers expect strategic outcomes. Describe currency amounts only if they are public or non-confidential, and otherwise use proportions and scale.

Use project size, team, schedule, budget performance, scope and outcomes.

Examples:

• "Delivered 6 office fit-out projects, each between 2,000 and 5,000 square metres."
• "Led a cross-functional team of 14 for an ERP roll-out across 3 countries."
• "Completed the project 3 weeks ahead of schedule and within the approved budget."
• "Managed a portfolio of 9 concurrent IT projects."
• "Reduced change orders by tightening scope sign-off at the design stage."

If budget figures are confidential, write "within approved budget" or describe size bands.

Use projects delivered, clients served, audience reached, usability results and production speed.

Examples:

• "Designed brand identities for 15 small businesses."
• "Produced around 40 social media graphics a week for 3 brands."
• "Redesigned a sign-up flow, and the client reported more completed sign-ups after launch."
• "Created a template library that cut design turnaround for routine posts from 2 days to same day."
• "Illustrated 4 children's books published by a regional publisher."

Creative results are not always measured. Where they are not, use volume, clients, deadlines and recognition.

Use data size, reports built, time saved, users of your dashboards and decisions influenced.

Examples:

• "Built 12 Power BI dashboards used by around 80 managers."
• "Automated 5 weekly reports, saving the team about a day of work each week."
• "Analysed 3 years of sales data to identify slow-moving stock, leading to a range review."
• "Cleaned and merged customer data from 4 systems into one reporting database."
• "Answered around 20 ad hoc data requests a month from finance and operations."

Show the business decision your analysis supported, not only the technical work.

Use site size, patrols, people managed, incidents handled and attendance or safety records.

Examples:

• "Patrolled a 60,000 square metre mall and car park on rotating shifts."
• "Monitored 80 CCTV cameras from the control room."
• "Managed access for around 1,000 staff and visitors a day."
• "Responded to and reported around 15 incidents a month."
• "Perfect attendance across 2 years of night shifts."

Security employers value reliability and vigilance, so attendance and incident handling numbers are especially useful.

Use covers, menu items, staff trained, food cost or waste changes and inspection results.

Examples:

• "Prepared food for around 250 covers a night across lunch and dinner."
• "Developed 8 new dishes for a seasonal menu."
• "Reduced food waste by adjusting prep quantities to booking levels."
• "Trained 4 commis chefs on recipes and plating standards."
• "Passed every municipality food safety inspection over 3 years."

If you helped manage food costs, describe the change in proportion or in words rather than giving amounts.

Use visitors, calls, appointments, systems and improvements to the front desk.

Examples:

• "Welcomed around 80 patients a day and managed check-in and payments."
• "Answered about 100 calls a day on a multi-line switchboard."
• "Scheduled appointments for 6 doctors."
• "Cut patient waiting time at check-in by preparing files the day before."
• "Handled insurance approvals for around 30 patients a day."

These numbers show how busy and organised your front desk was, which is what employers want to see.

Use prescriptions or samples processed, tests run, error rates, audits passed and training delivered.

Examples:

• "Dispensed and checked around 250 prescriptions a day."
• "Counselled about 30 patients a day on new medications."
• "Processed around 400 samples a shift in clinical chemistry."
• "Supported 2 successful laboratory accreditation audits."
• "Reduced expired stock by improving rotation and ordering."

Accuracy is central in these roles, so error-free periods and audit results are especially strong evidence.

Use shipment volumes, SKUs, suppliers, lead times, stock accuracy and cost changes.

Examples:

• "Coordinated around 50 import shipments a month from 8 countries."
• "Managed stock for 1,200 SKUs across 2 warehouses."
• "Shortened supplier lead times for key items from about 6 weeks to 4."
• "Improved stock accuracy after introducing weekly cycle counts."
• "Negotiated freight rates with 5 forwarders, lowering the cost per container."

Most of these figures appear in your ERP or reports. Where you cannot check them, use rounded estimates with "about".

Use listings, deals closed, client numbers, communities covered and repeat business.

Examples:

• "Managed around 40 active listings across 2 communities."
• "Closed 35 rental and 12 sale transactions in 2024."
• "Built a client base where most new business came from referrals."
• "Conducted about 15 property viewings a week."
• "Renewed most of my managed tenancies with existing tenants."

Use figures from your agency's records where possible, and give the time period so the numbers make sense.

Use the number of matters, documents, deadlines met and processes improved, without naming clients.

Examples:

• "Supported 3 partners on around 25 active corporate matters."
• "Reviewed more than 2,000 documents during a due diligence exercise."
• "Prepared and filed around 40 court submissions a month, all before deadlines."
• "Built a deadline tracker that the litigation team now uses for all cases."
• "Drafted first versions of about 10 commercial contracts a month for lawyer review."

Confidentiality is essential, so keep numbers general and leave out any client details.

Count the people helped, events run, volunteers coordinated, hours given and funds or items collected.

Examples:

• "Coordinated 30 volunteers at monthly community clean-ups."
• "Served meals to around 200 people each week at a community kitchen."
• "Collected and sorted 1,500 donated books for a school library."
• "Tutored 5 children for 2 hours a week over a school year."
• "Helped raise funds for a children's charity through a sponsored walk with 120 participants."

Volunteer numbers are as valid as paid work numbers, as long as they are accurate.

Use the number of clients, projects, repeat business, deadlines and results your clients shared with you.

Examples:

• "Completed more than 60 projects for 25 clients over 4 years."
• "Kept 4 clients on monthly retainers for over 2 years."
• "Delivered all projects on or before the agreed deadline."
• "Wrote 150 articles for B2B technology clients."
• "Maintained a 5-star average rating across 80 reviews on a freelance platform."

Client results, such as more sales or traffic, are good to mention only if the client shared them with you.

Multiply the saving by the number of weeks and people affected, and state the calculation basis clearly if the figure looks large.

Example:

• Your change saved about 2 hours a week for each of 5 team members.
• That is about 10 hours a week, or roughly 450 to 500 hours a year (allowing for holidays).

How to write it:

• "Automated the daily stock report, saving the team about 10 hours a week."
• Or: "...saving an estimated 450 hours a year across the team."

The weekly figure is often more believable, because it is easy to picture. Use the yearly figure only if your calculation is sound and you can explain it.

Use what you remember about your typical workload and team, and check any old documents you still have. Older roles need fewer numbers anyway, so focus on one or two reliable ones.

Ideas:

• Team size and reporting lines, which are easy to remember.
• Number of branches, clients or products you dealt with.
• Old appraisal letters, certificates, awards or reference letters.
• Old emails in a personal account, if you shared reports or praise.
• Former colleagues who can help you recall facts.

Example: "Supervised 6 cashiers in a supermarket branch serving a busy residential area." This is easy to confirm and does not rely on exact sales data.

Yes, and it is a good idea. A former manager or colleague may remember figures or have access to reports, and checking makes your resume more accurate.

How to ask:

• Be specific: "Do you remember roughly how many new accounts we opened in 2023?"
• Explain why: you are updating your resume and want to be accurate.
• Accept rough answers and use "about" in your bullet.

This also helps later. If that person gives you a reference, your figures will match what they say. Never ask anyone to confirm a number you know is wrong.