Stuart’s Best Resume Hacks
Your resume isn’t a history book, it’s a marketing tool!
Your resume isn’t a record of everything you have ever done. It is a professional marketing document designed to position you for your next opportunity.
The goal is not to list every role, responsibility, or project from the past. The goal is to highlight the experiences, skills, and achievements that demonstrate why you are the right fit for the role you want now.
A strong resume is focused, intentional, and aligned with your career direction. Below are seven practical resume hacks (and a bonus one) to help you sharpen your profile and improve your chances of securing interviews.
1. Write It Yourself. Use AI only as a Tool.
Write your resume yourself. Use AI for ideas, structure, and refinement—but not as a replacement for your voice.
AI can be helpful for generating wording suggestions, organizing content, or identifying gaps. However, your experience, achievements, challenges, and impact must come from you.
No tool understands your professional journey better than you do. Hiring managers want to see authentic insight into your work, not generic language that sounds automated.
Use AI to support your thinking, not to replace it. Your resume should tell your story in your own words.
2. Skip the Kitchen Sink
Do not include everything you have ever done.
Only include your most relevant skills, experiences, and accomplishments for the role you are targeting. A resume that tries to cover multiple unrelated positions often appears unfocused.
Resumes should demonstrate alignment, not range for its own sake.
Focus on showing how your background prepares you for this specific role, rather than listing every past responsibility. Depth and relevance are far more valuable than volume.
3. Write for People, Not Just Machines
Keywords matter. But clarity matters more.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) scan resumes for relevant terms. This makes it important to include appropriate keywords from job descriptions. However, your resume is ultimately read by people.
Write in a way that is easy to follow, logically structured, and clearly communicates your value.
Research shows that a large percentage of roles are filled through referrals, networking, and direct outreach. That means your resume must impress human readers, not just software.
Use keywords wisely, but do not let them bury what makes you distinctive.
4. Keep It Clean and Professional
A simple, well-structured format consistently outperforms flashy templates.
Avoid excessive colors, graphics, unconventional layouts, or complex designs. These often distract from content and can interfere with ATS parsing.
Choose a traditional, modern format with clear headings, consistent spacing, and readable fonts.
Let your experience, achievements, and skills carry the weight. Your resume should reflect professionalism and seriousness of purpose.
5. Highlight Your Brand
Your resume is part of your professional identity.
It should communicate who you are, what you specialize in, and what you are known for. Every section—summary, experience, skills, and education—should reinforce the same core narrative.
Ask yourself:
What do I want employers to remember about me after reading this?
Your resume should consistently reflect your strengths, values, and areas of expertise. Avoid sending mixed signals through unrelated or contradictory content.
Strong resumes tell a coherent story.
6. Use Job Descriptions as a Guide
Find three to four job postings that match your skills and career goals.
Study them carefully. Identify common responsibilities, keywords, and competency requirements across those roles.
Then, align your resume language with this shared terminology—without copying blindly.
Use similar phrasing to describe your experience where it is accurate. This helps your resume resonate with recruiters and hiring managers who are screening for those capabilities.
This approach improves both ATS performance and human readability.
7. Proof, Proof, Proof
Errors reduce credibility.
Use AI and grammar tools to check spelling, grammar, and formatting. However, review every suggested change carefully. Automated tools can sometimes alter meaning or remove nuance.
Once you are confident in your document, ask a strong writer or trusted professional to proofread it.
A polished resume signals attention to detail, professionalism, and seriousness.
Bonus Hack: Less Is More
Everyone will have an opinion about your resume.
Too much feedback from too many people often creates confusion and inconsistency. Conflicting suggestions can dilute your message and weaken your positioning.
Choose two or three trusted reviewers who understand your goals and your industry. Incorporate their feedback thoughtfully.
Quality feedback matters more than quantity.
A strong resume is not about doing more.
It is about showing what matters most.
It is a strategic document that communicates relevance, credibility, and direction. When written with focus and intention, it becomes a powerful tool for opening doors to the opportunities you want.
Invest the time to craft it well. The returns are long-term.
- Stuart Friedman is HR Talent Alliance’s President and Chief Talent Officer
To learn more about crafting your perfect resume and establishing your professional brand, please contact HR Talent Alliance's coaching team at info@HRTalentAlliance.com.
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