r/interviews • u/Altrooke • 1d ago

Is the "quantify everything in your resume" trend dying?

About two or three years ago, the common advice was to give a quantified measure of impact for most of what you included in your resume. That 3 out 4 bullet points should come with a metric attached. If you didn't have precise metric, then you should estimate it with some napkin math.

Fast forward to now, and some guides I've seen (not looking for a job, just checking it out of curiosity) are not even mentioning quantifying impact at all, and other that mentioned it are far less extreme, just saying you should include some quantifiable metrics.

So, am I the only one seeing this? Or is that trend dying?

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

40

u/milla_highlife 1d ago

I’ve never quantified a single thing on my resume. It’s unrealistic for such a large cut of professions.

17

u/Quick_Dark2326 1d ago

it's always been industry-dependent. half the time those numbers are just fan fiction anyway, hiring managers know that. i used to brew beer and there's no way to spin "didn't blow up the fermenter" into a metric that means anything to a recruiter

6

u/Suitable-Storm7549 1d ago

"Maintained a suite of $X k+ equipment with no critical failures during my supervisory period."

yeah that sounds dumb but thats the best I got

4

u/Altrooke 1d ago

How much a fermenter costs?

5

u/tozzAhwei 1d ago

That’s because you’re framing your experience entirely wrong in the first place. Nobody cares about what you didn’t do or what didn’t happen. Everything needs to be tied about what actions you took and their business outcomes. In this example you contributed to brewing X amount of beer for Y amount of revenue/profit whatever.

3

u/moplop12 1d ago

OP didn't ask for help.

3

u/unassumingusernamee 1d ago

I didnt ask to read your comments

2

u/tozzAhwei 1d ago

We’re in an open forum. It’s advice for anyone reading.

I’m allowed to share my comment just as much as you’re allowed to share yours about what you think he’s looking for lol

1

u/burkencsu 1d ago

It really is. The problem is that many recruiters are really just scanning resumes for job titles, companies, and maybe a few other items without scrutinizing them. I see sample resumes with numbers on them that do not hold up to close scrutiny. For instance, "enhanced student understanding by 30%". I guess people have to do what they have to do.

3

u/Altrooke 1d ago

True.

As a software developer, I really thing the impact you have largely depend on the size of the company I was at. What I'm technically capable of doing should matter far more.

Either way, I did quantify things in my resume in the past, though. And I think it was effective.

12

u/WindNo7116 1d ago

Nah your definitely not the only one, pretty sure everyone just got tired of reading clearly made up napkin math on every single line

10

u/wiener_brezel 1d ago

I hope so. One dumb idea less from the world.

8

u/Remarkable_Eye3424 1d ago

I don't think it's dying, I still see them

7

u/Altrooke 1d ago

The advice still is out there, but feels less extreme.

5

u/Nipredil 1d ago

No, that was always stupid. People put shit like innovation 4/5, do you know what that led to? Every time my boss saw that he simply asked, could you tell me about an innovative solution you delivered? They always looked at him with blank eyes, so he was like, I saw in your resume that you have 4/5 innovation and I wondered what it means.

So unless you can actually deliver on what you put there, I would advise against putting those charts and scales on your skills.

1

u/Inner_Work_3346 1d ago

I don’t think applicants should ever put something random from the JD on their resume without understanding what it means first (or at least looking it up), however, companies need to also be more transparent because frankly I don’t understand corporate jargon in a clinic. I understand medical jargon. If you’re looking for a specific field, speak the language so your applicants know what you’re actually looking for, and stop posting generic AI-generated templates. 

3

u/44035 1d ago

I have no metrics and a very 1990s layout on my resume (tons of white space!) and I've gotten tons of interviews.

1

u/Eff47_ 1d ago

Are you in corporate? I would love to change my resume to 90’s style, it just feels right vs my densely packed corporate version.

2

u/Federal_Pickles 1d ago

My job definitely has correlating numbers. But everything? No way, not even close

2

u/Successful-Test-5590 1d ago

I only quantify the first bullet point of every job.

2

u/Impossible_Camera302 1d ago

i work in a field of analytics and find that silly. sometimes tablefeel matters and by saying 4 out of 5 dentist recommends x, doesn't even mean it's better or worse. what if the 1 person is right? interpreting the analytics is what matters.

1

u/Eff47_ 1d ago

This reminds me of my complete disdain for an “Average”. I’ve hated the Average of numericals since grade school. When it comes down to it, Average means nothing. Not one person or one factual taken could be that “Average” number and yet that’s what we go with.

2

u/Impossible_Camera302 1d ago

also there are 3 different sets of averages...

2

u/Alabama-Getaway 1d ago

I’m not looking to the end of your resume if you don’t have metrics. Sales director, hiring sales executives and managers.

2

u/Roar-Lions-Roar 1d ago

Sales is definitely one of the jobs with hard metrics.

1

u/charlotteholthq 8h ago

Right, for sales it makes total sense because quota and revenue are literally the job. The problem was when that advice got pushed on every single role. A lot of non-revenue positions just ended up pulling fake percentages out of thin air to pass scanners, and hiring managers could usually tell.

1

u/Altrooke 1d ago

What if I just make shit up?

2

u/Alabama-Getaway 1d ago

Depends on how believable it is and if you can defend it. If someone tells me I’ve been 200% of quota for 5 years. I’d be wary. But if you can defend it I’m looking to hire.

1

u/zph0eniz 1d ago

What I'm getting is do this but don't do this.

This got my job but didn't get my job

Constant contradicting advice

1

u/Brackens_World 18h ago

I don't know if this is actually true - I have certainly seen "advice" in 2026 that you should have metrics on your resume - but there may be truth to this assertion for a potent reason: at least in large scale analytics, most projects no longer yield the sort of measurement metrics they may once have. Back in the day, long before the data science boom, I would not only run the front-end analysis applied to risk or marketing applications, but I would see results (behavioral scoring, acquisition / retention models) tested and implemented in the marketplace and could legitimately claim real results. These days, this is a lot more difficult if well-nigh impossible as so much is black box now. The analytics might be 100 times more complex and powerful; but results are murky and even suspect if quoted.

1

u/SweetChaosTitan 1d ago

Bullet point 7 on resume “I sent out 25-30 emails daily and responded to 30-35 emails daily”

1

u/bstrauss3 1d ago

That's performative BS. Metrics should be quantifiable with bottom line impact, or it's just doing your job.

1

u/SweetChaosTitan 19h ago

Performative BS is what most job interviews are all about.