How to Prove Your Value in an Interview Without Inventing Numbers

I was chatting with My Drunk Aunt last night and here’s how it went

My Drunk Aunt; I went off grid for a while

Me; What do you mean?

My Drunk Aunt; I left my phone in the other room while it charged

Me;

Anyway…

‘I improved efficiency by 30%’ stops sounding really good the moment you can’t explain where the 30% came from

You know you made things better and somebody told you every interview answer needs a real number and now you’re trying to turn all your good work into a number you pretty much made up

Please don’t panic and please don’t invent a number

Some of your best work helped people make better decisions or stopped customers getting pinballed between teams or gave your manager time to deal with something that actually made a difference

That work still counts and you don’t have to invent a number to prove it so before your next interview take one of your achievements and ask yourself what people could do afterwards they couldn’t do before

Then ask how you know?

You could say;

‘Our team sent every unusual customer request straight to the manager because nobody knew which decisions they could make themselves

I worked with her to set delegation limits and wrote a short guide using real customer cases

Our weekly case reviews then showed the team handling those requests themselves and bringing her the exceptions instead of every single question’

Now I understand what you changed and where you made a difference

You’ve given me something I can ask about instead of a number you’ll spend the next five minutes trying to defend

Use figures when you have them and can explain them and if you give an estimate then call it an estimate and explain what you based it on

If you didn’t measure the time saved you can say that and still explain the change you did see

In our interview coaching I’ll ask how you know the result was real and which part came from the work you did so we can find that evidence you’ve skipped over

That’s where my hiring manager experience helps because I’m listening for enough of the right detail to understand why I’d trust you with similar work

AI can help you describe a result but you still need to check every claim before you put your name to it

Your dog doesn’t report a 42% improvement in household wellbeing when she curls up beside you after your really crappy day

She stays close by and you feel a little bit less alone and the difference matters even if nobody put it in a spreadsheet

That’s The Dog Code in your career

Give people an honest account of what changed because of you and stop assuming your work only matters if you can stick a percentage on it

Your life is not a dress rehearsal so live like someone left the gate open

Explain your experience with confidence


The Dog Code gives you practical ways to stay calm, listen closely and explain your value when the questions get difficult


Explore The Dog Code book and audio