Why you need numbers on your CV
Hello!
Let me start out with a question today – which of the following 2 lines would catch your attention on someone's CV?
"Led a pricing programme for a leading European retailer"
"£4.2m year 1 margin improvement realised via re-pricing for a European retailer"
Same project. Same outcome. Same person delivering it. But a hiring manager scanning your CV may not even read the first one. They'll definitely read the second one.
----
I place CEOs. Trust me when I say that no matter your seniority, your CV matters.
If you've heard me talk about CVs before, you'll know the #1 thing I bang on about: people don't read your CV, they scan it (for about 8 seconds on the first pass).
Which is exactly why numbers matter so much...
1/ Numbers break the pattern. In a sea of prose, a number – esp. a currency symbol – is what snags the eye mid-scan. A £ or $ makes the reader stop, take notice, and give your CV more than the usual 8 seconds. That's the whole point: turning a scan into actual attention.
2/ Numbers give you credibility. To a sceptical reader, prose reads as claims; numbers read as evidence. "Drove significant margin improvement" is an assertion. "£4.2m margin improvement in year one" is an objective result. And from the fact that you put it on your CV, they'll know it's real.
----
2 implications for your CV
1/ Quantify everything you can – ideally things like revenue, profit, margin, cost (in £/$/€) but also think of things like team sizes, budgets, timeframes, growth rates. There are innumerable ways to quantify your impact (AI will be a useful helper).
2/ Put your strongest numbers where the eye goes first: the top few lines and the left-hand side of the page. If you only have 2 impact numbers on your CV, make sure they're at the top.
----
The fact that numbers stand out to hiring managers is one of 10 behaviours I see every time I'm in the room for interview decisions (which happens a lot).
I've put all 10 behaviours – and what each one means for how you craft your CV – into the article below. If you're not 100% confident in your CV (and especially if it covers 2 pages rather than 1), take a look!
All the best,
Rich & the OUB team
