Approaching Your Resume with Clarity

Before we launch into a topic most of us finding daunting, our resume, let’s build up our confidence first by reviewing all of the steps you’ve covered during this job search reset. Together, we covered:

• Organizing your priorities

• Cleaned up your digital footprint and email addresses

• Started thinking about visibility online

• Started gathering work spaces

That’s an impressive list! These activities help you prepare for the actual application and engagement with opportunity and part of that is sharpening up your resume. For many of us, polishing up our CVs can fill us with dread. Immediate thoughts can be, “I haven’t touched this document in years!” or “I don’t even know where to get started.” Take a breath. This week is not about re-writing your resume document from scratch. This week it’s about reviewing your resume within a concrete structure.

Start with a Checklist

Instead of immediately starting to write, begin with something grounded: a checklist. I love the feeling of accomplishment and start most of my days with a checklist. Crossing off each item builds my confidence and helps ensure that my path is clear. When you review your resume, here are items to check:

• Is my contact information current and professional? One way to modernize your resume is to remove your full and complete home address. You can remove street address and simply leave “city/state.”

• Is my Career Summary clearly aligned with where I’m headed and to current jobs?

• Are my bullet points focused on impact as opposed to responsibilities?

• Is the format clean and easy to scan?

• Does this document reflect who I am today, not who I was five years ago?

This week it’s not about perfecting and optimizing every line. Today, it’s about noticing what items or sections for your resume document need attention. That’s progress and progress is a win.

Shift from “What I Did” to “What I Changed”

Resumes have shifted over the past two to three years to focus less on your career’s historical narrative to how your work moved the needle for your group or organization. When you see your content highlighting tasks, lift yourself out of task mode and into outcome mode. What did those tasks help the business accomplish? How did those tasks improve revenue, efficiency, or make your boss’ life better? Don’t worry about making it pretty. Make a list on paper or within a new document.

Resumes not are not a job description but instead, evidence of professional value.

Use Tools Thoughtfully

As much as we push against AI being part of the hiring process it’s important to embrace AI a bit as part of your writing tools. Machines are talking to machines so use bits and pieces of AI to your advantage. For me, I use AI’s quick pace of formulating etherial “What If…?” content ideas into actionable content and marketing programs. We can use AI to help you use the tool strategically to help you get over the hurdle in crafting your initial resume content.

Instead of simply “asking” AI to “write my resume summary,” for example, you can use a prompt such as this:

“Act as a professional resume strategist. I am targeting a role as [insert target job title] in the [industry] space. Based on the information below, write a compelling 3–4 sentence professional summary that positions me as a strong fit for this role.

Emphasize measurable results, transferable skills, and leadership strengths. Avoid generic phrases like ‘results-driven professional.’ Use clear, confident language that sounds natural and human, not overly corporate or robotic.

Here is my background: [Paste 3–5 key accomplishments, years of experience, industries worked in, and core strengths.]

Here is the job description I’m targeting: [Paste relevant portion of job description.]”

Think of using AI to help you as a starting point, not where you end up.

A Reminder on Timing and Action

Your resume does not have to be “done” or “perfect” before you move forward in a search. As a recruiter, I don’t presume that candidates that I’m referred to, connecting with, or recruiting have a totally buttoned-up, perfectly done resume. Resumes are a constant work-in-progress, one that responds fluidly as your professional arc and projects shift. Simply taking a pass to update your resume to make sure the document is timely and modernized is an excellent first start and a great way to build confidence.

One thing I love the most is writing resumes to best tell my clients’ stories and I’m always here to help if your resume feels overwhelming, but I’ve also created a free, downloadable audio tool to be right there with you as walk through your most current resume to make sure it’s modern and ready to go. You can listen to that, here.

One thing at a time. You’ve got this!