I’ve been writing resumes for a long, LONG time. While the job market, technology and the way people read resumes have evolved, some fundamentals haven’t.
At the same time, other rules absolutely have changed.
Today’s resume must appeal to recruiters and hiring managers who are short on time, read primarily on screens, and often sort through an enormous number of applicants.
Add AI into the mix, and it’s easy to get distracted by the latest resume hack, tool or trend.
My advice? Focus first on getting the fundamentals right. Here are my 6 resume non-negotiables.
#1 You Need a Clear Target. Period.
One of the most common things I hear from job seekers is that they don’t want to limit themselves and prefer to cast a wide net. They want a resume that can work for several different kinds of roles because they don’t want to get pigeonholed.
I understand the thinking. The problem is that a resume written for everyone often resonates with no one.
When a recruiter or hiring manager opens your resume, they should quickly understand what role you are pursuing and why your background makes sense for it.
This starts with your headline.
If you’re targeting an IT Director role, for instance, say so. Don’t make the reader take the time to figure it out… because chances are they won’t.
The beauty of a resume headline is it can and should be customized based on the opportunity.
Using the IT Director example, if you want to position yourself as an industry specialist, for instance, you might change your headline from “IT Director” to “Financial Services IT Director.”
Being targeted doesn’t mean you’re forever locking yourself into one job. It means you’re making it easy for the person reading your resume to connect the dots.
#2 Your Summary Must Be Fluff-Free
I’ve seen countless resume summaries filled with phrases like:
- 20 Years of Experience
- Results-driven leader
- Strategic thinker
- Excellent communicator
- Proven track record
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these statements.
The problem? They could describe you along with 100s of others.
Your summary has valuable real estate at the top of the page. Use it to tell the reader something they couldn’t say about everyone else.
Instead of saying you have a “strong track record of sales results,” show it.
Maybe you grow territories 30% annually. Perhaps you’ve repeatedly transformed underperforming teams into President’s Club winners. Maybe you’ve been brought into 3 organizations to build teams and functions from scratch.
Those details are unique and most definitely differentiate.
#3 Back Up Your Experience with Data AND Context
Responsibilities tell the reader what you were supposed to do.
Accomplishments tell them how well you did it. The distinction is critical.
Job postings usually articulate responsibilities associated with each role. Your resume needs to tell the reader what happened because you were in the role. Numbers are one of the fastest ways to do this.
- Did you grow revenue? By how much?
- Cut costs? How much did you save?
- Improve efficiency? By what percentage?
- Shorten a process? From how long to how long?
- Build a team? How large?
- Own a P&L? How much?
But numbers alone don’t always tell the whole story. Context gives those numbers meaning.
Growing revenue 25% sounds impressive. Growing revenue 25% when your industry was averaging 12% growth tells a much stronger story.
Likewise, saying you led a team of 150 or managed a $100M P&L immediately gives the reader a sense of your scope.
Here’s another example:
Analyzed CRM data used to grow revenues by 20% in 2024.
versus:
Grew revenues 20% in 12 months, reversing 2 years of sales decline, by analyzing CRM data to uncover an untapped market niche.
The second version does more than provide a number… it tells a story… and stories are more likely to resonate and be remembered.
#4 Every Piece of Content Must Earn Its Place
I’ve said this for years:
Your resume should be a brochure, not a blueprint.
A blueprint contains everything. A brochure contains the information most likely to convince someone to take the next step and offer an interview.
When people write their own resumes, there’s a natural tendency to include everything they’ve ever accomplished. After all, if something was important to you professionally, leaving it out can feel wrong.
This becomes particularly important for job seekers with 20, 25 or 30+ years of experience.
You don’t need to give equal weight to something you accomplished in 2005 as something you accomplished last year. Instead, devote the majority of your resume’s real estate to your recent, relevant experience.
Earlier relevant experience that still adds value can usually be summarized or truncated under an “Additional Experience” header.
Every line should support the story you’re trying to tell.
If it doesn’t, it’s taking valuable space away from something that does.
#5 Use AI Wisely
AI has become an incredible job search tool.
But there’s an important distinction between using AI to help you think and using it to do your thinking and writing for you.
I’m a big fan of the first, and consider AI an invaluable tool for research, analysis and brainstorming. A couple of examples:
- Give it several job postings and ask it to identify recurring qualifications, terminology and business challenges.
- Use it to research a company, industry or role.
- Ask it to measure any revenue or headcount growth, or increase in shareholder value, that occurred during your tenure.
- Ask it to help identify gaps in your resume compared with the requirements appearing repeatedly in your target job postings.
- Use it to brainstorm questions that might help you uncover accomplishments you’ve forgotten.
What I don’t recommend is handing AI your work history and saying:
“Write me a resume.”
Because AI doesn’t inherently know which details from your career matter most, and it doesn’t know the story behind an achievement unless you share it. Without detailed input, it produces language that sounds polished but generic.
I often joke that it says a great deal without saying anything.
#6 Write for Skim AND Screen Reads
I think the term “resume reading” is outdated. For first reads, resume scanning is probably more accurate.
People are busy. Decision-makers often review large volumes of resumes, and unlike years ago, when resumes were routinely printed, today they’re usually reviewed on a screen (it may be mobile).
Because readers read quite differently online, writing must adapt to the fact that when rushed, skim readers jump around and have a tough time absorbing dense paragraphs and long lists or bullets.
Here’s how:
- Keep paragraphs and bullets short (2-3 lines).
- Use white space generously by adding space (I aim for .5 points) in between every bullet or paragraph.
- Front-load the most important part of each sentence, because skim readers don’t always stick around for the end.
- When your list contains more than 5 bullets, break them into sub-categories.
- Avoid burying the lead by making sure the first bullet featured under each role is your most impactful.
The Bottom Line
There is no shortage of advice about resumes. Some of it is useful. Some of it is outdated. And some focuses so heavily on beating technology that it forgets the ultimate goal:
For a human to review your resume and quickly understand why they should reach out.
- That means your resume needs a clear target.
- It needs a summary filled with substance rather than adjectives.
- Your achievements need data, scope and context.
- Every piece of content needs to support the role you’re pursuing.
- AI should make your research and thinking better, not replace your voice.
- Your documents must be written and designed for how people consume information today: quickly and online.
Get those 6 things right, and you’ve gone from writing a resume to creating a career marketing document that makes it easy for the reader to understand where you fit, what you’ve accomplished, and why you might be an ideal person to invite for an interview.
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