WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT ON YOUR RESUME: DATA
Ok, I know this is a funky title and when I saw this on a T-shirt while at the gym I would have laughed out loud if I hadn’t been fighting just to breath as I huffed and puffed in spin class. But as I thought about it, it was spot on! People put bacon on just about everything these days, and data IS the new bacon when it comes to work. It’s also the new bacon in the interview.
As you salivate over the newest maple bacon donut on your way to work today, realize that a hiring manager will salivate equally when you can produce quantifiable data to drive your point home while sharing your experiences in an interview. It can literally wow your audience.
EMPLOYERS RELY ON DATA FOR AN OBJECTIVE HIRING PROCESS
Mind you, the days of in-person interview may be cut short due to a growing trend among employers, especially large corporations: using data to maximize talent management. They apply much research in the quest to only use questionnaires, work examples, and other data while hiring to avoid the unconscious bias found in the in-person interview equation. Stay on top of this research so that you are aware of what is important to employers in an interview and how you are measured in the future. In the meantime, know what qualifies you for a job most, based upon what to include in your resume.
Here is where I get blank stares when coaching on how to prepare your interview answers so let me break this down.
EXAMPLES OF DATA TO PUT ON YOUR RESUME
When putting your resume together, you were most likely asked to think strategically and state how your efforts within a prior role mattered to the organization –
Did sales closures increase? By how much? (3%? 7% 20%)
Did your performance reviews improve over time? By how much? (from rating of all 4s to all 5s? That’s a 20% increase in performance approval)
Did your projects make the clients happy? All the time? (That’s 100% satisfaction when your work was involved)
How many projects did you get to participate in? (1? 3?) What percentage of the overall projects your department worked on did you help with? (you worked on 1 out of 5 = 20% of projects that received 100% client satisfaction).
You get the picture.
Data is How to Get the Job
The reason bacon is now on almost everything is that it has been proven – statistically – to increase sales. It is considered a recent fad. That fad may stay and become stable or move onto a new food fad– either way, bacon has long been called the meats version of salt – providing flavor in unexpected places for enjoyment. Just like bacon, data seasons your interview answers with flavor that is truly enjoyed by the audience who needs to hear it.
What gets you the job offer is awareness of your contributions and proof that what you provide matters. Just saying you did magnificent work doesn’t cut it anymore. Prove it! If you can take the time to understand how to communicate and prove it with data, you are ahead of the others coming in the door for the same interview. There used to be an old saying – making bacon – which meant working for pay. Today, in the interviews, you need to stand out with data. Earning your bacon depends upon it.
For more tips on How to prepare for the interview, grab these 11 tips that interviewers expect but will never tell you. To get in touch with Carole, please schedule a quick call or reach out via email carole@relevant-insight.com
Interviews fall short if you don’t learn how to be relevant, both in understanding your own success and how it aligns with the job you want (and what the company wants from you). Interviewing UP shows you how to stop reaching for canned answers and start rising to the occasion with relevant information.