How to Write a Strong Resume Without Quantifiable Examples

Nowadays, there seems to be a lot of pressure on job seekers to have quantifiable examples on their resumes. Sure, hiring managers love to see how you increased revenue by 30%, cut costs by 15%, or boosted engagement by 200%, but what if your job didn’t involve numbers? Or what happens if you’re a job seeker with no metrics from your previous job? The truth is, you’re not out of luck. Today, we’re going to show you how to craft a compelling resume that will get you noticed, even without numbers.

Focus on the Impact of Your Work

Numbers are great, but they’re not the only way to demonstrate your contributions. Instead of saying what you did, place the focus on how your work made a difference. Check out these before and after examples of a resume bullet point:

• Before: Managed social media accounts.
• After: Developed and executed social media content that improved brand visibility and increased audience engagement.

Despite lacking metrics, the “after” example shows ownership and results. Here, the hiring manager will see that your work has made an impact. In order to easily identify examples of times when your work had an impact, ask yourself questions like these:

• “Who benefited from my work?”
• “What problem(s) did I solve?”
• “How did my role improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, or teamwork?”

The bottom line is, by emphasizing outcomes you can still prove your value in a meaningful way—even without numbers.

Use Action Words

If you can’t quantify your accomplishments, use strong action words to describe them effectively. The key here is to choose words that showcase leadership, problem-solving, and creativity. For example, instead of saying “Responsible for organizing office files,” say “Streamlined office file system, making information retrieval faster and more efficient.”

Here’s another example: Instead of saying “Helped customers with product questions,” try “Provided expert guidance on products, leading to higher customer satisfaction and repeat business.” Get creative with how you expand upon your descriptions. If you’re having trouble, a thesaurus is a great tool for finding strong action words. The goal here is to craft phrases that show initiative efficiency, and most importantly, impact.

Highlight Skills and Knowledge Gained

Let’s say you’re an entry-level job seeker or you’re switching careers. In either of these scenarios, a great tactic is to highlight the skills you’ve developed rather than just listing job responsibilities. Take a look at these before and after examples:

• Before: Assisted in project coordination.
• After: Developed strong project management and teamwork skills by coordinating multiple deadlines, collaborating with other teams, and ensuring smooth communication between departments.

Even if you weren’t necessarily in charge of the project, something like this will show that you gained relevant experience (and displayed leadership qualities) that can be applied in future roles.

Leverage Positive Feedback

Has a manager, coworker, or customer ever praised your work? Well, now’s the time to flex it. In the absence of quantifiable achievements and fancy numbers, use the positive feedback you’ve received to reinforce your resume. Here are some examples of what this might look like on a resume:

• Recognized by management for outstanding problem-solving in resolving client concerns.
• Praised by customers for exceptional service and product knowledge.
• Received positive performance reviews for strong leadership and communication skills.

Real-world examples like the ones above will add credibility to your resume, and they don’t require numbers or percentages.

Compare Before and After Scenarios

If you’ve ever had a really good idea at work and it improved a process, helped a coworker, or made things more efficient overall, tell a story about it on your resume. For example, instead of saying “Managed office supplies,” say “Implemented an inventory tracking system, preventing shortages and reducing waste.”

Here, you’re showing how your ideas and actions have transformed the workplace. As you can see, this doesn’t necessarily require numbers, but it can still be very effective.

Reference Industry Benchmarks

Another strategy you can use is referencing industry data to give context to your work achievements. Perform an internet search on information about industry-standard performance for your role. Here are some examples of what this might look like on your resume:

• Managed 10+ projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment, aligning with industry best practices for efficiency.
• Wrote weekly blog posts, contributing to content marketing strategies that typically drive 3x higher engagement in our industry.

Place Emphasis on Collaboration and Leadership

Most roles require at least some degree of teamwork, so when you’re lacking in quantifiable examples, focus on how you worked with others and drove results. Check out these examples:

• Led a team of interns through training and onboarding, ensuring a smooth transition and high retention.
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to launch a new process that improved workflow efficiency.

Statements like the ones above will demonstrate leadership qualities and teamwork skills—both of which are valuable to any employer.

Talk About Frequency

If you can’t measure your success in percentages or revenue, try using some frequency-based metrics instead. Here, the goal is to show how often you’ve completed an important task, or how productive you were overall. Take a look at these examples:

• Handled 50+ customer inquiries weekly, ensuring a positive support experience.
• Created 10 training guides to improve onboarding efficiency.
• Managed scheduling for a 20-person department, ensuring seamless operations.

These types of statements will provide further context, and will make your resume more specific and impactful.

Realistically, a lack of quantifiable data shouldn’t hold you back from crafting a strong resume. With the right approach and a little creativity, you’ll be able to sidestep the whole “numbers are all the rage” thing, and put together a nice, effective resume.

Rob Porter is an editor at Vault.