I am a Professional Resume Writer and Career Coach - Here are Some Tips

Hey Folks,

I have written over 200+ professional resumes and have been doing it as a side hustle for about 7 years now. I thought I would take some time to share some wisdom about common mistakes and questions. Before I get inundated with messages - I, unfortunately, do not have time to review your resume for free. However, hopefully, these tips will help.

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Key Mistakes

1) You used a fancy graphic design-heavy template*

Why: Fancy templates break during submission to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), ATS essentially scans your document, turns it into a text file, and then scans those words for specific indicators that the employer is looking for. It also spits out a "report" to the employer that includes the resume (in text format) as well as your answers to the other questions. When you use a fancy template with crazy margins and text on the sides it doesn't translate appropriately in the ATS and what hiring managers see is a bunch of garbage text mushed together. Unless you are 100% a real human is seeing your resume, you should stick with a classic approach.

*unless your industry calls for it (graphic designer, UX designer)

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Suggestion: Use a classic word document with no columns or fancy tables.

Note: this is the error I see made most frequently on this subreddit.

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2) Your resume lists your skills and job functions, not your results.*

Why: Employers want to know what they are getting when they hire you, not what your experience level is. For most jobs, the employer is going to assume you know what you are doing. A small "technical skills" section is usually sufficient to convey your skill level or mastery with hyper-specific industry related products.

Incorrect: Developed Curriculum for 9th-12th Grade Social Studies

Correct: "Developed innovative project-based learning curriculum for school district serving 5000 students, resulting in a mastery pass rate on STARR testing of 98%"

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Suggestion: Each of your resume Bullets should be tied directly to a powerful organizational result. "Past Tense Power Adjective + Action = Result"

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3) You list things in your resume that you are proud of, but that organizations don't care about

Why: For-profit organizations have two goals with hiring: increasing revenue and culture fit. Your resume needs to show that you can make them money and that you will excel in their culture.

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Suggestion: Make sure you can tie all your bullet points in some meaningful way to: reducing costs, improving revenue, getting tangible positive results.

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4) You try too hard to ride old accomplishments

Why: What have you done for me lately? Your last five years of work experience are what really matters, and unless you are going into academia no one cares about what you accomplished in college. If you have fantastic accomplishments two jobs ago but nothing in the last two jobs that is a huge red flag for employers.

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Suggestion: Create a "waterfall" of success, starting with your most recent job and ebbing off into your oldest jobs (e.g 4 bullets for most recent, 3 bullets, 2 bullets, 1 Bullet). Remove any mention of awards or accomplishments during your college years*

*Notable exceptions: national major scholarships (Rhodes, Bill & Melinda Gates), Cum Laude honors

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5) You are overly wordy or use jargon

Why: Chances are the hiring manager has no idea what your jargon means and it may never get to someone who does if you assume the hiring manager is going to take the time to figure it out. Humans have short attention spans and 3+ lines are too many to describe one accomplishment.

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Suggestion: Cut out Jargon, use general language as much as possible while still conveying impact. Bullet points should never exceed two lines.

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Edit: Formatting.