How to Quantify Resume Achievements in 2025

Using hard numbers when writing your resume is important because numbers are the best way to demonstrate impact at your job and show employers what you’re capable of accomplishing.

We’ll explain everything you need to know to quantify your resume effectively.

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1. Track your work

No matter what industry you work in, you should be tracking your work so you can add those metrics to your resume.

A tracking system effectively shows you how long it takes to do certain tasks, and the more familiar you get with these tasks, the faster you’ll execute them.

You can start tracking your work today.

Make a copy of this spreadsheet template that was used to quantify an illustrator’s resume:

Key things to track:

• Daily tasks
• Time spent on tasks
• People you work with
• Results
• Customer or manager feedback
• Project deadlines
• Quality metrics
• Speed improvements

2. Gather data

Quantifying achievements requires baseline data to show the impact you made over time. Gather baseline data such as:

• Team performance metrics
• Department statistics
• Customer feedback scores
• Project success rates
• Website traffic or sales figures

If these aren’t available, you could check:

• HR reports
• Sales dashboards
• Google Analytics, Google Search Console
• Customer surveys
• Project management tools (Asana, Trello, Monday.com)
• Email performance stats
• CRM software (like Salesforce or HubSpot)
• Social media insights for relevant data

3. Decide which metrics to focus on

Once you’ve collected raw data about your achievements, consider which metrics to focus on.

No matter what industry you work in, most hiring managers want to see achievements related to money, time, workload, and management. Keep reading for quantifiable metrics specific to 12 different industries.

Here are a few metrics that’ll impress hiring managers in just about any industry:

4. Calculate your achievements

To calculate most of these metrics, you need two numbers (the before and after number), and a simple percentage change formula.

No matter what industry you work in, measuring your achievements in percentages provides a clear measure of growth, efficiency, or achievement.

Growth rate

Measuring growth rate demonstrates your ability to drive sustained improvement over time, which is essential for showing progress, consistency, and impact in key areas, like sales or customer base.

Efficiency metrics

Efficiency metrics demonstrate improvements in productivity. Describe methods you used to increase speed or reduce errors.

ROI (Return on Investment)

For ROI, focus on how your work benefited the company financially or operationally, especially if you’ve worked on cost-saving projects.

Patient/customer satisfaction rates

A really useful metric if you work in the service industry, or in nursing or healthcare.

High satisfaction rates reflect the quality of your service and your commitment to enhancing the experience for clients or patients, an important indicator of loyalty and trustworthiness.

Sales metrics

Sales metrics illustrate your direct contribution to revenue and profitability, showcasing your effectiveness in meeting or exceeding sales targets and generating value for the organization.

IT performance metrics

Uptime refers to the percentage of time a system or service is fully operational and available for use, without interruptions.

Measuring IT performance metrics like uptime or response time emphasizes your ability to maintain efficient, reliable systems that support organizational productivity and minimize costly disruptions.

5. Verify your data

You want accuracy but you don’t need exact numbers. Be ready to explain where you got your data from.

Always double-check your data:

• Cross-reference data sources
• Verify time periods
• Look for unusual spikes or drops, patterns or gaps
• Keep notes on how you gathered and calculated your data and document any assumptions made during data collection
• Make a note of seasonal trends or market conditions that might affect data

6. Add the numbers to your resume

To add these numbers to your resume you should:

1. Tailor each number and achievement to fit the specific role
2. Use numerals instead of spelled-out numbers (e.g., 4 not “four”) to make the accomplishments on your resume stand out
3. Change or rearrange the numbers you list based on the job you’re targeting (for example, if the job ad emphasizes management skills, prioritize management-related hard numbers)

Here’s how to quantify resume achievements in every section of your resume:

The best format for your resume

Learn how to pick a resume format that highlights your strengths and downplays your weaknesses by reading our HR-approved guide.

Read Our Guide

In your resume introduction

Your resume introduction is a great place to quantify how many years of experience you have, plus highlight a couple of your most impressive achievements. 

This is an example of a resume summary with eye-catching hard numbers from a customer service representative resume:

In your work experience section

Add hard numbers wherever possible to your resume’s work experience section, like so:

In your education section

If you’re an experienced applicant, all you need to do to quantify your resume’s education section is list your GPA (but only if it’s 3.6 or higher) because employers will just glance at it to be sure you’ve met their minimum requirements.

But if you’re writing a resume with no experience, your education section is the perfect place to quantify the skills you’ve learned in school or while participating in extracurricular activities.

Examples of how to quantify your resume

Here are 12 industry-specific examples to reference when quantifying your resume:

Accommodation and food service

Here are some metrics to track on your hotel general manager resume, your server resume, or your fast food resume:

• Table turnover rate
• Customer satisfaction score
• Food cost savings
• Average check amount

Healthcare and social assistance

Here are some metrics to add to your nursing resume, pharmacist resume or medical resume:

• Patient satisfaction scores
• Wait times
• Treatment success rates
• Chart completion time
• Reduced re-admission rates

Retail

If you’re updating your retail resume these are the metrics to track:

• Sales growth percentages
• Customer satisfaction/retention rate
• Average transaction value
• Inventory turnover
• Employee retention

HR, IT, tech, and office support

These metrics are most applicable to you if you work in office support, tech, or HR:

• Ticket resolution time
• Customer satisfaction
• System uptime
• Project completion rates
• Recruitment process duration
• Employee turnover reduction

Manufacturing

Calculate these metrics if you work in manufacturing:

• Production rate
• Waste reduction
• Cost savings
• Downtime reduction

Education

These are some metrics to calculate if you want to impress hiring managers in education:

• Student improvement percentages
• Test score increases
• Graduation rate
• Attendance rate improvements

Transportation and warehousing

Focus on finding out these metrics if you work in transportation and warehousing:

• Delivery time reduction
• Fuel cost savings
• Inventory accuracy rate
• Order fulfillment speed

Sample resume with quantification

This resume example is quantified from top to bottom:

Download Quantified Resume Example (MS Word)

Why this resume works

1. Quantifiable metrics show impact: The resume highlights achievements with clear, measurable outcomes, such as handling “90+ calls daily,” achieving an “85% customer satisfaction rating (15% higher than the company average),” and reducing cancellations by 5%.
2. Specific skills and tools show expertise: The candidate specifies familiarity with tools like Kayako and Zendesk, alongside technical proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace. These details add credibility and align with skills often required in customer service roles.
3. Wide range of achievements reflect versatility: The resume balances a range of accomplishments, from training new employees to memorizing “120+ company products and services,” and resolving technical issues at a “90% rate.”

Frequently asked questions about how to quantify resume achievements

We’ve answered some of your most common questions about how to quantify achievements on your resume:

How many accomplishments should I add?

Include 2-3 quantified achievements for each role. Focus on your most impressive metrics.

How do I quantify resume achievements if I don’t have access to metrics or tools?

If you don’t have direct access to metrics, try these alternative data sources:

• Public metrics: Check public data like app store ratings, social media follower counts, public review scores, company website traffic (SimilarWeb), comments and likes
• Personal task logs: Keep records of completed tasks, screenshots of dashboards, weekly reports, emails and archives, and document feedback
• Project milestones: Track project progress along with your daily task log
• Email confirmations: Use emails as evidence of completed work

What should I keep a record of to add achievements to my resume?

If you don’t have numbers or official data, you can still track these easily accessible metrics by keeping a record of:

• Number of people/projects managed
• Time saved
• Tasks completed per day/week
• Customer feedback scores
• Team size
• Budget managed

What to say if I don’t have numbers from my previous jobs?

If you don’t have specific numbers from previous jobs, you can use estimates to convey the impact of your work.

In cases where data is unavailable, focus on the methods and impact of your contributions. Phrases like “significantly improved,” “substantially reduced,” and “consistently optimized” add weight and credibility to your achievements, even without exact numbers.