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Never, never, never, never,
never, never, never, never, never, never, NEVER lie on your resume.
And, if you read our
post on quantification, then you know you should affix accurate
numbers to the achievements on your resumes whenever possible.
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But how do you maintain truth when you don't
have cold, hard figures and you don't have enough data to calculate close
estimates?
Be vague.
But only as much as you need to be. And only in moderation.
And be specific. But only as much as you can prove.
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"Well," I can hear you say with only a
touch of sarcasm, "I'm glad you cleared THAT up!"
Okay, let's assume you teamed with eight others
to manufacture a widget. Let's
further assume you combined three steps of the process. This increased the efficiency and productivity
of your team, right? This also
helped the bottom line, too.
If you have the numbers, you could plug them into
a grammatical formula and have a perfectly viable bullet like:
"Increased departmental efficiency 23%
through introduction of process reduction, thereby increasing per unit
profit margin of widget by $3.24."
(Of course, there are a number of ways you could
write the same thought, but let's run with this example.)
Again - when you don't have the exact figures,
you can estimate (see
Quantification post). But if
you lack the data to compute?
Try something like:
"Increased departmental efficiency by reducing
number of widget production process components, thereby increasing
department productivity and per unit profitability."
In this second example, we've left out numbers,
but were still specific about a few things: efficiency increase, reduction
of steps, increasing productivity, increasing profitability. By leaving numbers out, however, we’ve
added a pinch of vagueness that can easily be explained in an
interview.
Let’s look at another example (that actually came
across my desk last week):
“Optimized purchasing process to reduce inventory
waste, thus saving the company money.”
At first glance, this one may seem too vague. Chances are, you
reread the line. So will most people
– including hiring managers. While
it is vague, it’s not too vague. It shows a logical progression: optimized
process led to reduce waste; reduced waste equals saving money. Linear thought displays discipline –
which will make up for the lack of specifics…when used in moderation.
IN THE
CARAVAN: When you lack cold,
hard figures, be as specific as possible, but add
a touch of vagueness in moderation.
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bSafari.c
The Lion’s Pride: Resumes