A study by Cultivated Culture found that only 26% of all resumes included five or more metrics, which means it’s a super easy way to stand out amongst the throng of other job seekers. 

One of the most common retorts I hear against metrics is this – “I don’t have any metrics”. 

But I’ll make you a promise right now – you absolutely do. 

When it comes to adding quantitative metrics to your resume, guestimating is your friend, and outright lying is not. 

Here’s my rule of thumb for estimates: If the recruiter were to call your old manager and ask if it’s true that you sold $20K of merchandise in one day, would your old manager laugh? Or would they say “Yes, that’s fair.”?

If the answer is the ladder, then it’s okay to include the metric. 

Another trick for when you’re estimating is to make it clear that it’s an estimate. Here are some examples I’ve used before: 

• Supported an estimated 10K+ end users (This is great for examples with large numbers.)
• Sold upwards of $10K+ in merchandise in a single day (This works well when you remember a high point, such as total sales on Black Friday.)
• Annotated between five and 15 customer phone calls per day (This works well when the work looks different every day, but you’re pretty certain on the averages.)