Why else do think professional sports teams draft players with impressive statistics? Or the top colleges consider grade point averages for admission? Or why smart employers look for and staff their companies with people with a track record of measurable results?

By not doing so they risk allowing intangibles such as style, appearance and the gift of gab – sizzle over substance – to overly influence those important selection decisions. 

In my years as a corporate recruiter, I often encountered salespeople who were able to talk a good game by highlighting their work activities in general, vague terms: “I call on key customers in major markets.” 

What impressed me more and what I was looking to hear were those statements that quantified one’s accomplishments: “I increased sales revenue by 45 percent annually over a three-year period.” 

Whether it’s on your resume or in an interview, look for opportunities to inject numbers that are relevant, substantive and impressive.  And while it should be relatively easy to identify individual accomplishments for those in sales or marketing, those in supporting professions may have to defer to broader organizational metrics to make their points. 

A human resources manager, for example, may wish to cite the impact an employee retention program he initiated had on lowering overall turnover from 34 percent to 18 percent. A finance manager, on the other hand, might highlight how his outsourcing initiative led to annual cost savings of $250,000.

 If your work experience includes employers with large market share, revenues, headcount, transactions, etc., referencing them can infer impressive complexity and scope.  This is particularly true if the employer is not well-known.

While skills, experience and education are also important, your demonstrated ability to get measurable results will add significant credibility to your qualifications.

And that quantification can go a long way.

Despite the angst it might cause you at this stage, the answer to that question is yes.   Here are a few important guidelines to keep in mind should your job search progress to this point:

1)      You increase your chances of getting what you want by being positive, appreciative of the employer’s consideration and reiterating your interest in the employer and the challenges the job offers. If you act arrogant or unreasonable, the offer could be revoked and you would be back at Square 1

2)      When asking for more pay, explain your request in terms that are both sensible and reasonable. For instance, “Overall, this is a very nice offer but there’s only one area where I hope there could be some flexibility. At my last job, I was earning $80,000 a year and I was hoping that the offer would be closer to that amount. Is there any chance that part of the offer could be enhanced so I won’t have to play catch-up?”

3)      For non-monetary items such as vacation vesting, don’t be afraid to tug at the heart strings by injecting a personal element to your request: “Since we’ve already planned our family vacation, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to break my children’s hearts by having to cancel it. Is there any chance my vacation allowance could be immediately vested so I won’t have to be the bad guy?

While the safest approach is to simply accept the job offer unconditionally, many employers are prepared – and expect – to negotiate the initial offer. Your success will largely depend on how you ask for the things that matter most to you.

And that has created an interesting dilemma for recruiters and hiring managers who often reject those applicants as being overqualified.

As a former recruiter for some of the world’s largest companies, I understand their quandary. I, too, rarely hired overqualified candidates, particularly if it meant offering them less money than they previously earned.

The exceptions were those applicants who succeeded in convincing me they wanted a job for reasons other than the paycheck. In contrast to openly sharing purely financial motives – “I really need this job to save my house from foreclosure” – successful candidates told me why the job appealed to them on a more intrinsic level.

For instance, I once interviewed an elderly gentleman for a mid-level management job on my staff. Because he had once held bigger positions than the one I had available, I was concerned he would jump ship once a more lucrative or challenging opportunity came along.

When I asked him to explain his interest, he replied:

“Well, I’ve tried retirement and, quite frankly, I’m just not very good at it. While I’ve learned a lot in my career that can be of immediate value to you, from a personal standpoint I really miss the sense of purpose I get from helping others.

Not only did I hire him but he stayed with the company long after I had moved on.

The point is, if you are willing to take a lesser job than your career history suggests, be certain to share your applicable skills, experiences, interests and motives so that the recruiter or hiring manager understands money isn’t the primary reason for wanting the job.

During the interview process with one prospective candidate, I brought an abrupt halt to his employment candidacy because he declined to answer one of my standard questions: “What are your compensation expectations?” 

Why so fast on the rejection trigger? 

Because I simply wasn’t willing to risk wasting my time or the time of others’ in the organization without knowing if we even had a chance of making a job offer he would accept. 

If the candidate feared being  rejected because his compensation requirements were too high, he could have avoided the issue by saying he was looking for compensation that was “fair and represented a win/win” for the both company and himself. 

While that wouldn’t have gotten him off the hook, I would have considered it a nice first try and pressed him again for a specific dollar amount.  At that point, he then should have provided me with a range spanning from his bare minimum to what he really hoped to earn and adding “It really depends on the responsibilities and scope of the position.” 

In most cases, that would have given me a general idea of whether we were even in the same ballpark.

So, while I was prepared to give that person some latitude as to how to answer the compensation question, a flat-out refusal clearly wasn’t one of those options.

When the question of compensation comes up in the interview, respond accordingly. The right response could be a win-win for both of you.

I love using quotes to help make a point and I frequently share this one, which is attributed to the U.S. Navy SEALs, when preparing my clients for interviews.  It’s also one I wish someone had shared with me before my first on-campus interview as a graduate student at Michigan State University. 

Dressed in my brand new business suit and feeling upbeat, I confidently greeted the corporate recruiter and took my seat.  After a few moments exchanging pleasantries, I was soon over my head and being battered about like a sailor on the doomed ship S.S. Central America! 

What happened?  Very simply, I overlooked a critical and universal ingredient for success in virtually all endeavors – adequate preparation.  While I had thoroughly researched the company, I had not anticipated and prepared how to respond to some basic interviewing questions.  As a result, I was simply unable to offer thoughtful, concise and impactful responses.  I guess I thought a combination of spontaneity and charm would be enough to ace the interview.  I was badly mistaken.

After I blew the interview, I drafted a long list of possible questions and spent countless hours developing and practicing my answers.  Throughout my career, I have used this same approach and studied for every interview with the same focus and diligence as if it were a final exam. 

Thank goodness I was only a college kid interviewing for a job and not a Navy SEAL in battle.

The encounter was memorable not only because it was the first time I met Bill Marriott but also because it was first time I was called upon to literally deliver an elevator speech.  While I recall sharing something fairly relevant about some recent union organizing activity at our newly opened LaGuardia airport hotel, I knew I could have just as easily said something really nonsensical and embarrassing.  After we exited a few a moments later, I took a sigh of relief and committed to myself that I would be much better prepared for any future such encounters with influential people in the company.

Now imagine you are applying for a corporate marketing job with Marriott and you happen to be riding in the same elevator with a department manager who is escorting you to your interview.  If he or she asks, “So what do you do?” how would you respond before the doors opened?  Both of these scenarios illustrate the importance of the concept known as the “elevator speech.”

Of course, elevator speeches are not confined to dialogue that only takes place in elevators.  They are intended for job fairs, networking events and even social activities.  For the purposes of a job search, you should always be prepared to give a 30-second statement that briefly highlights your skills, experience and career interests in favorable, yet not overly boastful, terms. For instance, an effective response to the question asked by the department manager above may go something like:

“I am a brand marketing manager.  While most of my career has been in the consumer products industry with companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, I most recently worked at American Express on a new financial services product they plan to roll out to their premier customers.  Right now, I’m very interested in pursuing opportunities that would leverage my skills and experience in the travel and hospitality industries.”

Regardless of your profession, your elevator speech should showcase your talents and be sufficiently open-ended so as to potentially expand your career opportunities into an appropriately broad range of professions or industries.  If it’s too narrowly focused (e.g., “I’m a hotel sales manager”), you may miss out on opportunities where your skill sets are potentially transferable.  If it’s too broad (e.g., “I’m a people person”), it comes across as too ambiguous or whimsical and risks diminishing your candidacy.

At this time, I recommend you take a moment and grab a blank sheet of paper and draft your 30-second elevator speech.  While it may seem awkward and silly, I also encourage you to practice your speech in front of a mirror or a video camera until you feel comfortable with not only the content of your remarks, but also your delivery style.  As with any step in the job search process, there’s simply no substitute for practice and preparation and that includes your elevator speech.

It really depends on how much relevant work experience you have.  If you have less than three years of professional-level experience or if you have changed your career objective and you are now pursuing a field that matches your education but not your work experience, I’d recommend you insert your educational credentials on the first page right beneath the Professional Objective & Profile.  If you have been in the workplace longer than three years, it’s generally best to reference your education at the end of the resume.  Just be sure your work experience truly complements your education and doesn’t detract from your overall qualifications.  For instance, if you are seeking management positions but your jobs have all been at hourly jobs, your soon-to-be-earned MBA should get top billing.

How do you handle putting temp jobs on the resume?  I have had six temp jobs since being laid off.

Treat them all as one experience under the job title of  Contracting Assignments and use one time reference to capture them all (e.g., 2008 to Present).  Depending on your actual responsibilities, begin the “job” description with something like, “Delivered critical project management support in various contract and temporary assignments.  Responsibilities included . . .” In interviews, be prepared to provide a list of the six temporary assignments and the durations of each assignment.  Chances are, however, you will only need to verbally summarize who they were.

What is the strategy when an online application asks minimum salary requirements? The box has to be filled and you do not know the range of the role applying for. You risk the chance of putting in a salary that’s too high or too low.

Use a conservative number that is less than what you really want but not so low you’d never consider accepting it.  For instance, if you are used to making $60,000 and that’s the figure you really want, you may want to enter $45,000.  It’s still in the ballpark and may help you get an interview – which is precisely what you want.  That’s because if you do well in the interviewing process, most employers are willing to negotiate a higher salary for the right candidate (I once received an offer with a salary that was 33% more than what the headhunter told me the employer was willing to pay for the position).  If you disqualify yourself too soon by inserting a salary requirement that is too high, however, you’ll never get that chance.   

If you end up receiving an offer for the salary amount you submitted, don’t feel like you are under any obligation to accept it.  If the employer questions why you are asking for a higher salary, simply and politely explain that through the interviewing process you learned the role and the responsibilities are greater than what you understood from the online job posting.

Even if you reply with a low minimum salary and it turns out to be non-negotiable, there may be other things that will make the position attractive such as the benefits, bonuses, commissions, working conditions, commute, hours, etc.  Unless you first get an interview, you may never find out about these things.

How can I make my resume more attractive if I am trying to relocate to Orlando?

If you are concerned employers may not want to hire someone from outside the area, you may want to ask any friends or family living in Orlando if you can use their home address on your resume (if necessary, you can always explain that it’s your temporary residence).  If you feel that’s stretching the truth, on the cover letter mention you are in the process of relocating to Orlando.  Either way, prospective employers will know you don’t expect relocation assistance – which few employers are willing to offer in this economy, anyway.

The more you can convey you are already established in Orlando (or soon will be), the less likely your actual location will prompt employers to disqualify you as a job candidate.

Does it make a difference to apply through a Web site like Hcareers as opposed to applying through a company’s Web site?

It shouldn’t make a difference, but the best bet is to apply on both Web sites. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

When I was looking to fill positions in my corporate jobs, I generally had job openings first posted on my employer’s Web site and then on job boards if I didn’t get a sufficient supply of qualified candidates.  Not only did I never “penalize” anyone for posting their resume on both sites, but sometimes the same resume would end up on my desk from one source but not the other.  What that implies is one of their two submissions had been rejected and had it not been for their decision to post their resume on both sites, I would have never seen it.

Do people really look at executive resumes submitted online (i.e. Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.)?

Actually, they do.  In today’s economy, many hiring managers and HR departments are sourcing executive job candidates through job boards and their employer’s Web sites versus through executive search firms.  While search firms are popular when the labor market is tight, there’s such a tremendous supply of unemployed executive talent that many cost-conscious employers are opting to conduct the searches themselves rather than pay placement fees that can easily run into six-figures for a single executive job opening.  In addition, many search firms routinely post job openings on CareerBuilder and Monster when sourcing job candidates for their clients. 

While CareerBuilder and Monster are the two biggest job boards based on the number of postings, The Ladders (www.theladders.com) specializes in executive job postings.  Unlike the other two, you must pay a fee to apply for the jobs they have listed.  Another job board worth checking out is www.indeed.com.  Indeed conveniently pulls the job openings listed on other job boards as well as from employer Web sites so that you don’t have to go to multiple sites in search of a job that may be of interest to you.

I worked in two positions at one company; the older one was longer and more impressive. Can I put this first?

It really depends on how much more impressive the former job was and how long you were in the most recent position.  Generally, you want to stay with the chronological order unless you were in a position for a very short time and it was more transitional in nature (for instance, a project or temporary role).  If the less impressive position was clearly a demotion, consider not listing the job title in the same place as the former role and instead reference in the text section where you cite your experience, responsibilities and accomplishments.  For instance, if you were the President of a division and subsequently moved into a Vice President of Sales role, the very last line or bullet point in that section may read something like, “Assigned to sales leadership role responsible for driving revenue growth by 18% in new product category.”

The challenge here is you need to be truthful so you will need to reference your last job somewhere in the space where you are describing your duties with the employer.  At the same time, you don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to a position you’d rather not spend much time talking about.  An exception is if you were in the position for a very short period of time (e.g., less than three or four months).  For instance, in my upcoming book, Job Search Skills from the Reluctant Expert, I share how I referenced events after a re-organization prompted me to leave one company where I was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for a smaller role as the Global Vice President of Talent Management for another.  After working 20 days with my new employer, a worldwide restructuring resulted in the elimination of my job and the entire global team.

Rather than include such a short stint on my resume and risk it diverting valuable interviewing time away from more relevant experiences, I would mention the job in interviews by simply saying, “I didn’t even bother putting it on my resume as I was there such a short time.”  By always bringing up the job in the interviews and including it on the application, I was able to focus the interviewer on what was important (i.e., my previous positions) while protecting myself from potential claims the omission was somehow dishonest.

While the best time to discuss your pay requirements is when you have determined the prospective employer is truly serious about preparing an offer, you may not have that option.  For instance, if you are asked early in the interviewing process what you are expecting to earn, you may want to try to reverse the inquiry by asking, “Would you mind giving me an idea of the range for the position?”  Unless the range is significantly below what you would accept, you should let them know it seems fair given what you know about the job so far.  If the attempt to reverse the question is unsuccessful, offer a range spanning from your bare minimum to what you really hope to get and add, “It really depends on the responsibilities and scope of the position.”  You can get a sense for what represents a competitive range for your job and profession by going to websites such as monster.salary.com, cbsalary.com and payscale.com. 

However, never refuse to provide specific details about your current or previous compensation plan!  Doing so risks coming across as arrogant or combative and it could result in the abrupt end of your candidacy.  I have literally ended interviews on the spot when candidates refused to answer this question.  Why?  I simply wasn’t going to risk wasting my time or others in the organization unless I thought we had a good chance of ultimately making an offer the candidate would accept.