Author of the post here. Great comments from everybody.
The importance of numbers on your resume comes from a few places:
- Shows you care about the results of your work, rather than just performed the work
- Show that you understand the connection between your work and technical or business outcomes
- Demonstrates your specific capabilities in using your technological skills in delivering results
At this moment in time, the amplitude of accomplishments does not matter. For example, two resumes with the same type of accomplishments, but one has double the numbers of the first, would not mean that one resume is twice as likely to get interviews. Both would be far more likely than a resume without numbers to get interviews.
In a future world where all technical resumes have well-attested numbers, this may shift. We are nowhere near that point yet.
As for accomplishments not being fact-checked. Well, yes, that's true. And that's why a resume can generate you an interview request, but not a job offer. During an interview, particularly behavioral interviews, an employer will dig deeper and want to understand more about the why and how you achieved what you achieved.
The importance of numbers on your resume comes from a few places: - Shows you care about the results of your work, rather than just performed the work - Show that you understand the connection between your work and technical or business outcomes - Demonstrates your specific capabilities in using your technological skills in delivering results
At this moment in time, the amplitude of accomplishments does not matter. For example, two resumes with the same type of accomplishments, but one has double the numbers of the first, would not mean that one resume is twice as likely to get interviews. Both would be far more likely than a resume without numbers to get interviews.
In a future world where all technical resumes have well-attested numbers, this may shift. We are nowhere near that point yet.
As for accomplishments not being fact-checked. Well, yes, that's true. And that's why a resume can generate you an interview request, but not a job offer. During an interview, particularly behavioral interviews, an employer will dig deeper and want to understand more about the why and how you achieved what you achieved.