💯 Qual descriptions to highlight you're a superstar

TalentGeist Newsletter

Immediately-actionable career insights for ambitious individuals.

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Nothing beats hard, cold numbers when it comes to highlighting your impact, and standing out vs. your peers — on the resume, during interviews, on your promotion packet, and more. Check out our previous deep-dive here.

But there may be times when you truly do not have any numbers (I say ‘truly’ because in 80%+ of cases when our fellows come to us saying they can’t think of a way to quantify their impact, we walk them through and arrive at something tangible).

In cases like this, rely on QUALITATIVE descriptions. You can also use qual descriptions to complement your quant metrics.

Let’s look at some examples of how to do this well, straight from the profile of candidates who’ve landed jobs at Google, Amazon, Meta, and more.

1) First, highlight your awards and honors; but position it in relative terms.

For example:

❌ Won ‘Most Insightful Project of the Year’

✅ Won ‘Most Insightful Project of the Year’ (out of 100+ project launches).

2) Secondly, highlight leadership / ingenuity. For example:

• You created an operational tool or a strategy roadmap that everyone on your team still uses to this today.

• You presented directly to the C-suite and got approval / accolade for a first-of-its-kind campaign.

For example:

❌ Launched Product X strategy.

✅ Launched first-ever Product X strategy; presented directly to the CEO & won full budget approval to begin execution in 2025.

3) Thirdly, highlight scope expansion. Everyone likes to see that you’ve done well & progressed, especially if you position it in relative terms.

• You won a return offer, when only XX% of your peers were able to.

• You took on responsibilities such as XX, which are often handled by people 3-5 years more senior than you.

• You went from handling projects in just 1 country, to the entire continent.

• You went from IC (individual contributor) to managing a team of XX.

For example:

❌ …..promoted twice

✅ …..promoted twice in 24 months (~6 months ahead of peers)

❌ …..owned Product X launch

✅ …..managed a team of 5 to own Product X launch (the only analyst to do so; took on responsibilities owned by associates 3-5 years more senior).

You get the idea! While qual descriptions are often harder to get right vs. having cold, hard numbers (quant impact), positioning them in the right way (e.g., using relative terms, fleshing out the leadership/ingenuity behind your projects) can still help you stand out and earn that offer and/or promotion.

Until next time,

Vincent (LinkedIn)

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