A strong resume is more than a list of dates and titles. It is a strategic marketing tool designed to show an employer exactly how your skills can solve their problems and to provide evidence of what you have achieved. Your resume is a 'living document' that will grow as you gain new skills and hit new milestones.

Writing your resume builds directly on your work in the Define and Plan stages. In those stages, you identified your core identity and your career goals. Now, you are translating that clarity into evidence. By using insights from your earlier work, you can highlight specific achievements that demonstrate your readiness for the role you are targeting. A resume is the document that backs everything up.

To be effective, your resume must speak to two different audiences at the same time: people and technology.

• Recruiters and hiring managers (who often decide whether to interview you in 7 seconds or less) look for clarity, relevance, and impact.

• In many companies, a human is not the first person to see your resume. Computer programs called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) first filter candidates based on keywords, formatting, and fonts.

A successful resume speaks to both humans and AI without sounding generic or robotic.

Note: Because ATS technology changes rapidly, we put our ATS tip sheet on Blackboard rather than in this textbook. This enables you to always have access to the most up-to-date insights for your ATS-friendly resume and cover letter.

As you read this chapter, think about: If you were a busy hiring manager and this resume landed on your desk right now, would it convince you to interview yourself in 7 seconds or less?

A successful resume also builds credibility. It takes the 'proud moments' (achievements) and strengths you identified in the Define stage and turns them into powerful impact statements.  

How to Begin

Preparing a tailored resume is more manageable when you break it down into these simple steps.

Step 1: Analyze the job posting.

Determine if the role described aligns with your experience. Ask yourself:

• Can I realistically perform 65-70% of the requirements on day one?

• Am I up to the challenge of learning the remaining 30-35%?

• If I don't have the exact requirements noted in the job posting, do I have transferable skills and experience?

If you meet these criteria, you are a strong candidate.  

Step 2: Collect your facts.

Begin by writing down all of your past jobs, your education and certifications, volunteer projects, hobbies, and school courses and projects. Next, compile your work from the Define stage, specifically your list of strengths, brand statement, and conversation starter. Having this information in one place makes it easy to pick the best and most relevant facts to share with a recruiter or hiring manager.

Step 3: Build your first draft.

Organize the sections of your resume. Add contact information (email, telephone number, and LinkedIn URL) and decide on the order of your sections, including Professional Summary, Skills, Experience, and Education/Training. The order depends on whether or not you are just entering or re-entering the job market, transitioning from another industry, or looking for work in the same industry. For example, if you are changing careers, re-entering the job market, or are entering the job market for the first time, begin with your Professional Summary followed by Relevant Skills, Education/Training, and Experience.

Professional Summary. A Professional Summary is more than just an introduction. If written well, it will motivate recruiters and hiring managers to read your resume, not just glance at it. An appealing Professional Summary does not repeat your bullet points or use industry buzzwords to talk about your value. A strong summary connects the dots between where you are going and where you have been. It provides the clear, authentic ‘why’ you have been working on during the past few weeks that makes a human reader want to learn more about you. We encourage you to incorporate parts of your branding statement and conversation starter into your Professional Summary.

Technical and Professional (Human) Skills. Employers look for a balance of skills to be sure you can not only do the job but also work well on their team. Technical skills are abilities you have gained through education, certifications, or hands-on experience, like Python programming, medical coding, or welding. Professional (non-technical) Skills or Human Skills describe how you work. They include your ability to communicate clearly, solve problems, and collaborates. These skills often enable you to perform above and beyond the basic job description and are highly transferable between industries. They are a very important part of your ‘package’.

Experience. Companies hire based on proof, not words. They read your resume to determine whether or not you can actually do the job and if you can deliver results. Bullet points, more appropriately called impact statements, are the bones of your resume. More specifically, they are your accomplishments. When writing impact statements, more often than not, we confuse job duties or responsibilities with accomplishments. Job duties and responsibilities tell employers what you can do. Impact statements show employers what you are capable of achieving.

Impact statements answer the questions:

• What did I do that was above and beyond expectations?

• Did I win any awards or receive recognition?

• What problems did I solve?

We recommend using the WHO impact statement structure to write effective bullet points.

• What: Define the task, project, or responsibility.

• How: Describe the skills, strategies, or actions.

• Outcomes: Quantify or qualify the results or impact.

In the Experience section, list your most recent experience first. Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb. Incorporate quantifiable (e.g., 20 percent) or qualifiable (e.g., twofold or increased) 'measurables’ in as many impact statements as possible. Aim for at least one impact statement with a ‘measurable’, per experience.

Education. Include not only college degrees but also certifications and training (e.g., LinkedIn or Coursera courses). Recent graduates may also list relevant coursework and school projects.

Employers describe their ideal candidate in the job description. They rarely find that person and expect tradeoffs. Many strong candidates disqualify themselves prematurely. Employers don’t expect perfection. They expect potential plus competence.

While it is tempting to let GenAI write your resume, we recommend first drafting the content yourself. Putting your own accomplishments into words is a powerful way to recognize your value. If you let a machine build your resume from scratch, you risk losing the ‘why’ behind your career journey and the ‘unique’ you uncovered in the Define stage.

Use GenAI as a polishing tool, not a ghostwriter. Once your facts are down, let GenAI help you refine your grammar or adjust your tone. Remember: recruiters want to hire a human, not an algorithm. Nowadays, they can easily spot the difference between an authentic voice and a generic, GenAI-generated document. Therefore, if you notice your resume is full of words like spearheaded, leveraged, fostered, or optimized, you might be depending too much on GenAI. Go back to your own vocabulary to sound authentic, not like a chatbot.

Writing a weak Professional Summary. Your Professional Summary is what hiring managers and recruiters read first because it is at the top of your resume. Prepare it carefully and thoughtfully. First impressions matter.

Spending too much space on describing older jobs. Unless they are relevant to the existing role, employers care more about what you did most recently. Use only a couple of bullet points for older jobs if they are not relevant.

Too many visuals. Graphics, fancy fonts, and photos often confuse ATS software, which can result in your resume being rejected before a human even sees it. Simple is best. However, if you are in a creative field like graphic design, we recommend having two resumes: a clean and simple ATS-friendly resume as well as an easily readable resume with intentional typography and hierarchy, strategic use of white space, and technical precision like consistent alignment and formatting.

Not including or minimizing internships, school projects, and volunteer positions. As we have said before, your value is defined by the work you did, not the paycheck you received. Whether it happened in a classroom, in a volunteer role, or in an internship, the skills you gained and the problems you solved are real professional evidence. If you made an impact, it belongs on your resume.

Not proofreading.  Spelling errors and grammatical mistakes look unprofessional. If possible, get someone else to read your resume when you are finished.

Before you apply, look at the job's must-haves. Use your job guides from the Define stage to make sure this job actually fits your career priorities and your North Star.

Present your experience and education without drawing attention to age by positioning yourself as a strong candidate based on skills and knowledge rather than the number of years of experience. For example, avoid terms such as 20+ years of experience. Replace these kinds of phrases with “senior-level experience in accounting”. If you graduated more than 10-15 years ago, list the degree and institution without the graduation year.

The length of your resume depends on several factors, including how long you have worked and the job you are targeting. Candidates with minimal work history may cover essentials on one page. Two pages are often the max for people with more than five years of work experience. Senior-level executives and people in occupations that require more details will need a longer resume.

​While it is essential to align your resume with a company's priorities (e.g., keywords), a referral from your professional community (in an email or on LinkedIn under Recommendations) can often help your resume bypass the ATS filter.

Moving away from a simple list of tasks and focusing on your actual accomplishments enables you to  transform your resume from a generic document into an impactful story of success and potential. In this case, you are showing employers exactly what you are capable of achieving. This tailored approach provides the hard proof to back up your brand statement and conversation starter, helps you pass the ATS filter, and ultimately opens the door to the interview.