Chapter 18
Quantifying Impact When You Don't Have Big Numbers
The Numbers Problem International Candidates Face
Walk into any resume workshop and you will hear the same advice: "Quantify your impact." Then comes the example: "Increased revenue by $4.2M" or "Managed a team of 150 engineers." If you have been working at a three-person startup in Bangalore, a university research lab, or a small NGO — those numbers feel impossibly out of reach.
Here is the truth: recruiters do not need Fortune 500 scale numbers. They need evidence of impact. A percentage improvement at a 10-person company is just as valid as one at a 10,000-person company. The technique is not about having big numbers — it is about framing any number in a way that demonstrates cause and effect.