But Who's Counting?

I've read that it's important when creating a resume to quantify your accomplishments. It doesn't matter if people think you are a good salesperson. It matters that you sold 1000 widgets per year or netted your company half a million dollars. It doesn't matter if you are a good mentor. It matters that your "mentees" received fifteen raises over two years. It doesn't matter that you work until all hours to get the job done. Unless the job has results you can quantify.
 
I have always found this part of resume creation challenging. When I worked as an AD, my ability to work with people and to shuffle scenes for efficiency might have saved the production money, but was never recorded as such. When I work as an editor, my ability to process both the needs of the story and the cutting of the video quickly may mean I get more done in eight hours, but ultimately my work contributes to the same half hour or hour long show. How is it, then, that you quantify creativity and efficiency and work ethic in a field not steeped in numbers?
 
I could argue that a Writer/Director/Editor resume doesn't need to be about numbers. But ultimately, numbers are the common ground on which people compare. No one can measure your work ethic on a piece of paper. Efficiency is subjective, unless it has a figure attached to it. And creativity is really about what you choose to believe.
 
I have spent years trying to turn a career of hard work and coordinating people and making story choices into a set of numbers that a resume reader (human or computerized) can understand. It's not easy, but if it needs to be "by the numbers," I'll have to work harder at counting my accomplishments, and adding up their value.
 
But along with the numbers, I'll be hanging on to the creativity and the work ethic. Because people may be counting up, but they're also counting on.