What is the XYZ resume formula?
It is a template for one resume bullet: "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]." X is the result, Y is the number that shows its size, and Z is what you did to get there. The formula moves a bullet from describing your duties to describing what changed because of your work.
Laszlo Bock set it out in his LinkedIn post "My Personal Formula for a Winning Resume," dated September 29, 2014, when he was SVP of People Operations at Google. California State University, Los Angeles hosts a copy of the post. In it, Bock explains the formula as: "start with an active verb, numerically measure what you accomplished, provide a baseline for comparison, and detail what you did to achieve your goal."
His main example compares two descriptions of the same work. The first reads "Studied financial performance of companies and made investment recommendations." The second reads "Improved portfolio performance by 12% ($1.2M) over one year by refining cost of capital calculations for information-poor markets and re-weighting portfolio based on resulting valuations."
Bock says the dollar figure "anticipates the reviewer's question about whether 12% is a big deal or not." That is the job of the baseline. A percentage alone can mean a small win on a small base, so a second number gives it scale.
Who uses the XYZ formula?
Bock wrote it while he led People Operations at Google. Google staff repeated it later. A 2018 CNBC article reported that a Google software engineer and a recruiter shared the formula in a company-sponsored YouTube video. University career centres, including Auburn's accountancy school, have taught it to students since.
The CNBC article by Ruth Umoh, dated August 16, 2018, gives the wording from that video as "Accomplished X, as measured by Y, by doing Z." One example in it turns "Won second place in Hackathon" into "Won second place out of 50 teams in Hackathon with standout productivity tool." The "out of 50 teams" part is the Y.
Dorothy Dickmann's 2017 post for Auburn University's Harbert College of Business, a better resume formula, credits the formula to Bock as "former SVP of People Operations at Google." She adds a warning: "Neither Bock nor I are suggesting that you copy and paste this formula into your resume 15 times." The formula is a check on each bullet, and the wording can change.
How do you write an XYZ bullet step by step?
Start from one thing you did, then answer three questions about it: what changed, how much, and how you did it. Write the result first with an active verb, add the number and a comparison, and finish with the method. Then read it aloud and cut every word that doesn't add a fact.
| Part | Question to ask | Made-up example |
|---|---|---|
| X, the result | What changed because of my work? | Cut invoice errors |
| Y, the measure | By how much, compared to what? | from 9% to 2% of invoices over six months |
| Z, the method | What did I do to cause it? | by adding a two-step check to the billing template |
| Full bullet | Read all three together | Cut invoice errors from 9% to 2% over six months by adding a two-step check to the billing template |
The order can change once the parts are there. "Added a two-step check to the billing template, cutting invoice errors from 9% to 2% in six months" holds the same three facts. Varying the order across bullets keeps the page from sounding like one sentence repeated.
What are some XYZ resume formula examples?
Here are made-up before and after pairs for different jobs. The numbers are invented for illustration only. Replace every figure with one from your own records, and drop any bullet you can't back with a fact. A bullet you can't explain in an interview will hurt you more than a plain one.
- Retail (made-up example). Before: "Responsible for store displays." After: "Raised weekend sales of seasonal stock by about 15% over three months by moving displays to the entrance and changing them weekly."
- Customer support (made-up example). Before: "Answered customer tickets." After: "Cut average first reply time from 9 hours to 2 by sorting the queue by product and writing 12 saved replies for the most common questions."
- Software developer (made-up example). Before: "Worked on the checkout page." After: "Reduced checkout page load time from 4.1 to 1.8 seconds by lazy-loading images and removing two unused scripts."
- Teacher (made-up example). Before: "Taught grade 8 math." After: "Raised the share of my grade 8 students passing the provincial math test from 61% to 74% in one year by adding weekly ten-minute review quizzes."
- Administrative assistant (made-up example). Before: "Managed calendars." After: "Scheduled 40 to 50 meetings a week for three executives with no double bookings in 2025 by moving the team to one shared calendar."
- Sales (made-up example). Before: "Handled small business accounts." After: "Grew a book of 60 small business accounts by $180,000 in annual revenue by calling every account each quarter to review usage."
- Student (made-up example). Before: "Treasurer of the hiking club." After: "Managed a $4,000 club budget and cut gear rental costs by 30% by negotiating a group rate with a local outfitter."
- Warehouse (made-up example). Before: "Picked and packed orders." After: "Picked an average of 140 orders per shift against a team target of 110, with two errors in six months, by batching orders by aisle."
Bock's own post has a version of the last idea. He writes that "Served 85 customers per day with 100% accuracy" sounds good even for a grocery cashier, and better with "compared to an average of 70 customers at 90% accuracy for my peers." His rule: "Providing data helps. Making it meaningful with a comparison helps even more."
What if your work doesn't have numbers?
Most work has something you can count, even if nobody tracked it. Think of volume, frequency, time saved, people served, budget, team size, or a before and after. Use an honest estimate marked with "about," or describe the scope in words. Never invent a figure to fill the Y.
MIT's Career Advising and Professional Development office says the same in its career toolkit on resumes. It tells students to quantify results when they can, and it also says not to worry if exact figures aren't available. In that case, it suggests focusing on your role and the positive outcome.
Counting options that work for many jobs include how many people, how often, how much money, how much time and how many items. A comparison, such as "against a team target" or "the first in the office to," can stand in for a number. The page on what to do when your resume has no numbers has more ways to find them.
When is the XYZ formula the wrong tool?
Skip it when the honest answer to "what changed?" is nothing yet, such as a project still running. Skip it for team results you only contributed to, unless you say "as a team member," as Bock does in one example. And skip it when it makes a bullet longer than two lines.
MIT's toolkit offers another order, Project, Action, Result, or PAR. It also suggests starting with an action verb, saying what you did and naming the outcome. That is close to XYZ without forcing a number into every line, which suits early-career resumes.
Too many XYZ bullets in a row also read as a template. Mix in a few short lines that state scope, such as "Supported 14 field offices across Ontario," and keep the full formula for your two or three strongest results per job. The guide to resume bullet points covers the other kinds.
How do you keep XYZ bullets honest?
Only write a number you can explain in the interview: where it came from, over what period, and what you did versus the team. If the figure is an estimate, say "about." If it was a team result, say so.
A simple test is to read each bullet and ask, "Could I tell the story behind this in a minute?" If the answer is no, cut the number or the bullet. The page on how to tailor a resume without lying covers this test for each job you apply to, and the master resume guide shows how to keep every fact in one place first.
The same bullet usually becomes an interview answer. The guide to what is your biggest achievement shows how to turn your best XYZ line into a spoken story. To check your bullets against a real posting, the free resume optimizer rewrites the lines that matter for the job and keeps your facts. Prept's tailored resumes are written only from facts you confirmed, which is the same rule this formula needs.