Over the past few years, I have helped 25-30 people with their resumes – mostly friends and family but some strangers who were capable but needed help with this first step. As a manager, I have also reviewed 100’s of resumes. All of the resumes I have written follow a set of guidelines. I would like to share some of the guidelines in this post to help others that may be looking to refresh their own resume or those who may need help but cannot afford the price of a professional resume writer.  Once you have some practice, resume writing is not all that difficult. Here are the guidelines:

Write your resume with your future job in mind.

• If you want to be an engineer, but do not have any professional experience, most bullets should be about how your current and prior jobs would make you a good engineer. This may require some “out of the box” thinking if you are making a career switch but certain aspects of your current/prior roles will almost always fit into a different industry. Think about qualities required in your desired role (following requirements, designing, teamwork, financial knowledge, etc.) and search for those qualities in your current/prior roles. Remove bullets that are irrelevant.

Each bullet should at least say what you did and how or why you did it.

• I’m trying not to be too strict here because each bullet is unique, but my golden rule is to have each of my bullets tell a story. Basically, you did something….okay, that’s nice but how did you do it or, even better – why did you do that? Here’s an example
  • Generated potential threat vectors using existing methodologies to apply in both threat modeling and penetration testing.
    (This says what I did, [Generated threat vectors], how I did it [using existing methodologies] and why I did it [To use in threat modeling and penetration testing]).

If you have “Power Bullets” such as, “Increased Sales by 10%” or “Decreased errors by 25%“, tell your story.

• I like to call any bullet where stats or numbers are thrown out a “Power Bullet.” These bullets try to showcase some of your biggest achievements. However, by throwing out these numbers without any context – it looks like a lie. When writing these types of bullets, add 2 sentences as a sub-bullet as to what you did. These 2 sentences should say what you did and how you did it (and if you can, answering ‘why’ you did it doesn’t hurt either). This may take a little practice to keep it down to 2 sentences. Here is an example:
  • Reduced product delivery time by 25%
    • Created a new process to host all software in the cloud. The initiative has been shown to decrease the amount of time it takes to deliver a product to a customer by 25%.

Be mindful of the order of your bullets.

• Your first draft of your resume may just be a brain dump of bullets and that’s ok… but the final draft should have the bullets under each job structured for the reader. Hiring managers are probably reading through many resumes. Think about it – if you are reading 10+ in a row you are probably skimming some of the content. Note the order of bullets you want under each job. If you want to be a manager, your “manager” bullets should be at the top.  Tips: think about sneaking in a font size up on bullets you want read or bolding words, etc. You can even have someone else read your resume, ask them: What do you notice first?

If you know the exact job or company you want to work for, use key words from their job description.

• Most people are not sure where they want to work exactly, but if you know that you want to work at Apple or SpaceX, pick several of their job descriptions and note the key words. Each company asks for knowledge of particular tools or qualities they are looking for. Use some of these words in your resume to your advantage.

Always keep your resume up to date!

• Often, I see those who are most desperate for resume help are those who have been with a company for a long time and did not expect to suddenly lose their job. Keeping your resume up to date will add that extra layer of insurance that if something ever happens (such as covid putting your company out of business), you’ll have a resume you can use immediately. I recommend revisiting your resume every 6-9 months (or even every time you accomplish something big at work).

Use present tense for your current responsibilities and past tense for prior roles.

• This is one of the more common questions, but anything you currently do at your job is in present tense and anything you no longer do is past.

Limit the number of bullets to 4-6 in your current role and subtract 1-2 bullets for each prior role.

• For your current role, you want to showcase between 4-6 typically. The only exception to this rule is if a prior role matches what you are applying for next. After that, try to subtract 1-2 bullets for older roles. Basically, hiring managers do not need to see 6 bullets for a role you did 10 years ago unless its relevant to what you are applying for.

Thanks for visiting, these are my personal guidelines for resume writing. I hope they help you, and good luck in your search!

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