How Quantifying Your Value Gets You the Job, with Laura Sorg

There’s a particular kind of tired that comes from applying and hearing nothing back. You’ve put in the years and built the experience, but so have most of the people whose applications landed next to yours. Laura Sorg joins Mac to talk about what can help set you apart: the difference you made at work. Maybe you streamlined a process, saved the company money, or retained customers who might have taken their business elsewhere. 

Laura offers some questions to help you determine your greatest accomplishments. What are you most proud of? What was the hardest thing you worked through? For each role, pick the two or three answers that stand out and turn them into bullet points a recruiter can skim in a few seconds. Mention the people who helped you get there to illustrate how you work on a team.

About Our Guest:

• FYDJ Bio: Laura Sorg is the founder of CWIK Talent Services. Her company builds high-performing teams, optimizes processes, and aligns hiring strategies with business goals.

Resources in This Episode:

• Connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 570:

How Quantifying Your Value Gets You the Job, with Laura Sorg

Airdate: September 23, 2026

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

Your credentials matter.

But many of your competitors have the same qualifications.

To stand out, says today’s guest, you need to show employers the difference you made in the past.

Laura Sorg joins us to talk about how quantifying your value gets you the job.

She’s the founder of CWIK Talent Services.

Her company builds high-performing teams, optimizes processes, and aligns hiring strategies with business goals.

Laura joins us from Tigard, Oregon.

Well, let’s get started.

Let’s talk about credentials. Why won’t your credentials alone get you the job? You might have a great degree and all this experience. Why isn’t that enough for employers?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, I think more than ever, the competition in the market is crazy between the amount of applications you see on LinkedIn that instantly happen when there’s a new job posting, and you wanna be able to differentiate yourself.

Just having your credentials as you typically would on your resume is not enough. And I think employers assume someone’s gonna hopefully meet the profile, but what is gonna make you

have that profile, but also make the difference with the organization.

And by articulating that with quantifying what you’ve done from a process improvement, from any sort of cost savings, that type of output that you represent on your resume will help them understand not only do you have the credentials, but you’ve proven in the past that you’ve been successful, demonstrating that with real value to the organization.

Mac Prichard:

Are your credentials alone enough to get you an interview, or are decisions about who gets to talk to the hiring manager being made during the review of applications? In other words, do you have to show results up front before you get an interview?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, you know, I’ve been a recruiter a long time, and I wish there was consistency in that answer. And the reality is, it’s always gonna be circumstantial.

And I know that’s not necessarily what guests on this podcast wanna hear, but due to that, what do you wanna do to make yourself have the highest probability of having that opportunity to get the interview?

It’s making sure that you’re demonstrating everything possible to add your value to the organization or demonstrate your potential value to the organization is probably a better way of saying that.

And therefore, don’t leave anything on the table. Don’t be basic in the sense that you’re just gonna copy and paste your job duties. That’s not gonna be enough to differentiate you.

So really making sure that we’re leaning into keywords that are reflected in that job posting because we all know technology probably has a play in this as we look at the volume of applications and the recruiters that are going through those applications to quantify the top talent.

And then secondly, making sure that you’re able to demonstrate specifics on your resume to make that guessing game less and therefore your probability higher to get that interview in particular.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, so pay attention to keywords, but also pay attention to specific results. In your experience, Laura, what kinds of results do employers care about when they’re reviewing resumes?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, so I always think about there’s an assumption that you’re gonna do your day job, and this comes up often in the performance reviews. So they honestly want to know what you’re doing more than that.

So when you think about what companies care about, they care about process improvement that creates efficiency, process improvement that creates cost savings, process improvement –– I hate to say this –– that potentially reduces heads and allows your team to have larger bandwidth without adding a headcount.

So think about all of those things that will quantify your value to the organization. Another aspect to this is, depending on your role, you could be customer facing, right? And so thinking about how you’ve increased engagement, or you’ve re increased the results of the customer and their satisfaction.

So I think it again comes back to role-specific metrics to some extent, but when you look at it at a baseline, it’s gonna be value add to the organization, an increase in potential market share within the space in which your organization services. Those are the types of metrics that you want to quantify on your resume.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. Efficiency, saving money, increasing profitability, growing market share –– those are things that employers will care about. What about when you’re in your job now? Are there resources available to you that can help you find and share those results?

I’m thinking, for example, of annual performance reviews, but is that a good place to start if you’re not sure w exactly what results might matter to employers?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah. Great, great question. Obviously, performance reviews are something that you should always take seriously, as much as it feels like a check-the-box activity in the moment, right?

And so I think that when it comes to knowing what employers will care about, hopefully you’re in an organization where your department has some sort of KPIs in place. You’d be surprised how many KPIs. Key performance indicators. yeah.

Laura Sorg:

And those are basically metrics that will help the business understand how you or your team is performing against a benchmark expectation. I would say you will be surprised how many organizations don’t actually have KPIs in place, even if they’ve been in business a long time.

And mainly that’s because not every department is forced necessarily to quantify their performance that way. I think of HR probably as a department historically, although I don’t like to believe that’s true, that we’ve made a lot of change in the business to have strong metrics in place these days, but that might be a historical department that struggles to have traditional KPIs, right?

So making sure that if your business doesn’t have that in place or your manager does not have that expectation of you, there are a lot of resources now with AI that you can put in to, let’s say, Claude or Co-pilot or whatnot and say this is my role, this is what I do for the organization, what would be some key performance indicators or metrics that I should keep in mind to understand my or my team’s performance?

And then the next question is, if that’s what I feel is valuable to measure my performance against, what data do I have available to me that I can therefore track in a spreadsheet throughout the year to be able to articulate that piece of information to my leader and therefore showcase my value in a performance review as well as on a resume.

Mac Prichard:

So this should be a career-long habit, shouldn’t it? Not just when you’re looking for work, but when you’re preparing for your annual review or asking for a promotion or a salary increase, shouldn’t it?

Laura Sorg:

Exactly. I think this is something, and not to get gender specific, but I do think it’s something I’m passionate about, is that in many cases, engineering, for example, tends to have more males versus females, and they tend to have roles that have specific metrics in place that they tend to lean into on their resume.

And so I think any employee that is either employed today or looking for future employment and also is maybe in a role that is not typically measured by metrics, should find a way to measure themselves whether or not the organization is asking them to do that.

So Mac, just to take one step back to one of your earlier questions, another area of opportunity to measure is project work.

And so I often think about the world of technology today and that a lot of us have to be a part of an implementation or be someone that’s a subject matter expert in an area for a system implementation.

So that would be another specific callout, maybe not a traditional metric, but a special contribution that would differentiate you that you would also therefore want to highlight on your resume as well.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. Well, you’ve mentioned resumes several times, and that is an important place to show your value. Talk to us, Laura, about how you do that and how many metrics you need and what is gonna matter most to the person who might only be looking at your resume for seven seconds.

Laura Sorg:

One hundred percent. And I work with a l a lot of different hiring managers. I have a lot of different perspectives on resumes. And you’d be surprised. And I don’t necessarily always agree with those.

So thankfully, you tend to, in large organizations, have a buffer between hiring managers, which is your recruiter, and to your point, those recruiters are spending seconds reviewing a resume, and also they’re paid to spend the time to find the candidate.

So they may actually be more lenient in talking to folks that maybe aren’t as, let’s say, specific or aligned to the role. But back to your question, I think it’s important to not have a laundry list of information on your resume. You hear, like, the one-pager, the two-pager rule. I don’t necessarily think that has to be true, but what I will tell you is bullet point format is critical.

I will admit I’ve been a recruiter for over a decade, and I don’t like reading resumes. I will skim resumes and look at a bullet point, and that’s the information that I really need. So, between looking at your job title, I will say I think it’s important to potentially change that without feeling like you’re misleading if it’s not a market-understandable job title, right?

So many companies will ultimately call someone something unique in their organization, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the market and the general title. So I think giving yourself some liberty, if needed, to adapt that or have your title within the organization and then in parentheses next to that, what the parallel to that would be in the marketplace.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. All right. Let’s pause. We’re gonna take a break, so hold that thought. We’ll return to talking specifically about resumes, but we’re also gonna continue our conversation with Laura Sorg about how quantifying your value gets you the job.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Laura Sorg. She’s the founder of CWIK Talent Services.

Her company builds high-performing teams, optimizes processes, and aligns hiring strategies with business goals. And she joins us from Tigard, Oregon.

Now, Laura, I interrupted you. You were making a point about resumes in our first segment, and you talked about thinking about length and emphasizing results and giving yourself the flexibility to change or adjust your title.

What other points would you like to add about how audience members can communicate or quantify their value in their resume?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, I think the last point I’ll make is back to the bullet point format. I think it’s critical to have a section that talks about accomplishments, right? And I think that’s a great place to input these metrics or projects that you were a part of or any of those specific highlights for you as an individual that’s gonna differentiate you.

So in each of your work history sections, just make sure that you do have that snippet there of those bullet points in particular for those accomplishments.

Mac Prichard:

And less is more, isn’t it? Sometimes people feel they gotta pack everything in, but when you’re reviewing these resumes, are you just looking for one or two key results?

Laura Sorg:

Yes, I could not say that enough, right? Let’s focus on the top two, three at most that are gonna differentiate you. I actually have a hiring manager I work with who’s like, “If it’s more than two pages, I don’t even want to consider them.”

So again, that is not everyone, but back to your point, making sure that you’re simplifying it and identifying what’s most critical to highlight for each role.

Mac Prichard:

Another step you encourage people to take to quantify the value or show the value they made at work is to ask yourself what difference you made and what questions do you recommend people ask themselves in order to quantify their value?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think back to your point: asking yourself those questions and getting honest with yourself is really important, especially when you’re in the market looking for jobs, right?

You need to know who you are. And what I would say is: what are you most proud of over the last year, two years?

And if you’ve been somewhere, let’s say 10 years or a long period of time, in each role, for example, what are you most proud of in your accomplishments? What was the hardest challenge you faced that you were able to overcome? What was the biggest impact on the organization that you and your team accomplished?

So I think those types of questions and asking yourself that based on a period of time or in a specific role is gonna help you quantify that for your resume as well as for your interview and feeling confident about the value that you, in particular, add.

Mac Prichard:

If you’ve got several stories or examples you could share, how do you pick the one that you think is gonna be most effective?

Laura Sorg:

You know, I always think that highlighting something that demonstrates either the biggest impact to the organization or the thing that meant the most to you.

And the reason I say that I like the latter probably more is because it’s personal and it also therefore demonstrates who you are as an individual because I think it’s critical when you’re looking to find a job that you don’t become something that’s not authentic to who you are because therefore that match is not gonna be the right fit long term.

So when you’re able to lean into something that you’re passionate about and that demonstrates an accomplishment that you personally care about, you’re gonna probably, through that dialogue, share more about who you are and what your values are, and if that therefore mirrors what that manager or that organization cares about as well.

Mac Prichard:

How have you seen people make that connection, as they prepare an example, so that they can say this matters not only to me, but aligns with what is important to this employer?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, I’ll give you a personal example. I think one thing that usually comes to mind for me is I was in a situation where I came on board, and they wanted to let go of an individual within the team.

And I took the time to lean into that conversation and be direct, but also give them the tools. And it wasn’t easy, but it was probably the best success story. And that’s something I personally care about.

And I think through that I’m demonstrating that I care to have transparency with my team members. I care to work with them and not blindside them when it comes to letting them go from a performance perspective.

So if I were to go into an organization that didn’t see that value, that probably isn’t gonna be the right fit for me. So I think that type of conversation and that demonstration of something I accomplished or did, although not easy, shows a lot of what that organization will like or not like when it comes to hiring me as a potential candidate.

Mac Prichard:

And it’s a good reminder that when you’re a candidate, you have choices and you’re more likely to thrive in a place that aligns with your values, aren’t you?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, a hundred percent. I tell people that it’s not worth compromising at all. I mean, granted, we all need to get paid, right? But you have choices; you need to make sure that you’re making the right moves and you’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you.

Mac Prichard:

You mentioned working as part of a team. I know that one of the steps you recommend when people are quantifying their results and showing the value that they created is not to make it all about you. Why why is it important, Laura, to both show to to to show some humility when you’re talking about your results?

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, I always think that there is a cultural element at play of being hungry and humble, right? And part of it is showing that you drive success, but that you bring people along with you.

And that can be reflected in commenting about others and how you couldn’t have done this without the support of your team, or that I couldn’t have done this without leveraging relationships cross-functionally. So I think when we talk about our successes, being able to speak to the other people within that story, you can still take credit, right?

For being the glue or the instigator or whatever, that those little terminology and word choices are critical to just be able to demonstrate what you’ve driven versus what you tactfully did. But I think the conversation is around the people that you pulled along the way to get there and accomplish something.

Mac Prichard:

What do employers think when someone makes the story about what they accomplished at their last job all about them? Is that a turn-off?

Laura Sorg:

I will say, mm, in most cases, yes. In the event it’s not, I would question whether that’s the right culture you want to be a part of, right? And maybe then everyone has a place that’s the right place for them. And maybe if that’s how you lead, then that works well, right?

Back to what we were just talking about a minute ago. But I would say in most cases, people want to understand the way of working that every company has, so many commitments to work cross-functionally. That it is important that you know how to work with your team or other teams to be effective in what you do.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a great conversation, Laura. Now tell us what’s next for you.

Laura Sorg:

Yeah, I mean, for me, I’m loving owning my own business. It’s been a roller coaster in a great way. And I hope to continue to do that and, you know, maybe grow along the way with some great clients and get a chance to work with some great candidates too.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. I know our audience can learn more about you and your company by visiting the Quick Talent Services website. That URL is CWIKtalentservices.com.

And you also invite audience members to connect with you on LinkedIn. And when you do reach out to Laura on LinkedIn, hope you’ll mention you heard or saw her on Find Your Dream Job.

Now, Laura, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want our audience to remember about how quantifying your value gets you the job?

Laura Sorg:

I think the one thing that resonates with me the most that I hope all of you think about is it’s not just about when you’re looking for a job that you need to make sure that you’re finding ways to measure yourself at work continuously.

And again, whether or not your manager expects you to do that, you should be able to demonstrate that yourself for your own performance and for your own future path in your career.

Mac Prichard:

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job.

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Have a question or a suggestion? Email me at mac@macslist.org, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media and creates our transcripts.

Our sound engineer and editor is Megan Hattie Stahl. Our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.

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