I made 300+ hiring decisions before I ever rebuilt a resume for a client, and that order shaped everything. I write resumes for the reader I used to be: tired, skeptical, forty resumes deep before lunch.
Every resume I build passes two tests before it ships. The worse-coworker test: if a weaker peer with your same title could have written the sentence, it gets rewritten, because a sentence anyone could claim proves nothing about you. The skeptical-interviewer test: every claim survives someone saying “prove it.”
The nine moves
- Declare what you are in one line so the reader never deduces it.
- Fix the structure before the sentences; moving your degree up or retitling a role you’ve earned outranks any word choice.
- Make every bullet carry an artifact, an audience by title, and an outcome.
- Mine the small numbers nobody brags about. “Search rank up 3 positions” convinces in a way “significantly improved visibility” never will.
- Use nouns that could be attached to an email: a memo, a model, a questionnaire.
- Delete weak material instead of polishing it. Old roles earn one line, not four.
- Make yourself the grammatical subject: “selected as one of 12,” not “one of 12 chosen to participate.”
- Treat hygiene as credibility, down to unpacking “Microsoft Office Suite” into the programs recruiters search.
- Keep your real vocabulary. The proper names of your programs and systems are how you get found.
Before and after
Before: “Inform company-wide strategic recommendations by conducting thorough internal research.”
After: “Produce 2 to 3 monthly, executive-ready strategic analyses, equipping the company President and the SVP of Strategy with recommendations on growth opportunities and cost-saving levers.”
Same job. The rewrite names the object, the audience, and the outcome, and its only number is a small, honest one. That bullet now survives “prove it” with room to spare.
One last rule I hold on every resume: I round clients’ numbers down. If the true figure is 5 million, the page says “over 4 million.” A resume that under-claims turns every interview question into a chance to over-deliver.
Want help applying these moves to your own resume? Visit my free resources page or book a free strategy call.