Summary
How did I improve the usability of my resume?
I started writing this post in the heat of the moment.
As I mentioned earlier, during the preparation, it is certainly natural for a while that when I start solving a task, I will immediately have to write down 3-4 other tasks instead of/in addition to it. This happened to me now too.
We Work Remotely
Yesterday I started registering on the We Work Remotely website. After entering some personal information, the system asked me to upload my resume. Hooray! It’s ready! In the article titled Finding a Job a few posts ago, I wrote that I had updated it and that I had nothing to do with it. The status from a week ago is exactly what will be appropriate.
This is an innocent step, I didn’t even put much thought into it.
This continued until shortly after I pressed the I’m ready button, I received an email from the system. In short, I was notified about how useless my resume was.
Why is my resume useless?
I received a long feedback about the document. At first I thought it was all just a hoax, but I started reading it and realized that it was a pretty serious analysis. Of course, I didn’t take it as a criticism, but as a task to be solved from the very beginning.
I copied the whole thing into a Word document so I could make my own highlights as I read. That way I can create a nicely structured to-do list based on the advice.
I will highlight the most important findings from the summary for me:
- I noticed you didn’t have enough bullet points on your resume. Remember, you want to make it easy for recruiters to quickly get a sense of your achievements – and bullet points help with that and your resume’s overall readability. Your most recent work experiences should typically have 4-6 bullet points.
- Before I move on to the next section, I wanted to add a final note on your template. While your template highlights your work experience, it can likely be better optimized to get past applicant tracking systems (ATS). If you’re not familiar with ATS, they are software that employers use to auto-reject resumes that aren’t a fit – they are a somewhat recent addition to the hiring process, but they’re incredibly popular and 95%+ of Fortune 500 employers use them to screen out resumes.
- Your resume is missing key outcomes throughout the document.
- Your resume needs visual improvement.
- Your resume is missing many keywords and skills.
- Recruiters and hiring managers look for one thing on your resume: impact. Some of your resume’s bullet points come across as weak – they don’t show how you made an impact and should be improved.
- After analyzing a specific paragraph: This is an example of a line that is more of a responsibility, than an actual accomplishment.
- Ultimately, employers want to know what you can do for them – and examples of what you’ve accomplished before help them see that.
- Some of the language used in your resume is weak, which can reduce the impact of your achievements. To improve, focus on making your bullet points more specific and results-oriented. Start with a strong action verb (e.g., “Managed,” “Developed,” or “Implemented”), highlight the specific task you accomplished, and add measurable outcomes. Similarly, I saw commonly used buzzwords, or clichés, like experience, leader, and management. Phrases like these are often a red flag to employers and usually should be removed. Employers want to see objective accomplishments on resumes, not subjective opinions. A commonly overused buzzword is a phrase like ‘hard-working’ – it’s a common one that make employers roll their eyes! Phrases like this one, and the ones you’ve used, are often too vague to communicate any actual value.
- Remember – one of the key elements of a top resume is conciseness.
- Employers use resume screening software, called Applicant Tracking Systems, to auto-reject resumes that don’t seem to have the experience or skills the job requires. Employers use these tools to save time – they don’t want to manually go through every resume, so they use tools to filter out resumes that don’t have specific words on them. For example, if you were applying for a supply chain role, but the phrase ‘supply chain’ wasn’t on your resume, your resume would probably not progress to the next stage (where a recruiter manually reviews it). Most resumes don’t even reach a recruiter.
- Your resume has been analyzed by our ATS, and here are the skills it identified as your strengths. While this list includes a mix of hard and soft skills, along with other keywords, it offers valuable insight into how an ATS interprets your resume.
The solution proposal
It’s a long enough list to make me wonder if there’s really anything to fix in the document. The site also offers suggested solutions:
- 699 USD: Reverse Recruiting: Skip the search, not the opportunity. We apply to 100 jobs and optimize your resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter!
- 349 USD: Career Advancement: An ATS-verified resume, keyword-optimized LinkedIn profile recommendations, and personalized cover letter.
- 249 USD: Career Progression: All the essentials to apply for jobs online, including a keyword-optimized resume, LinkedIn profile recommendations.
- 149 USD: Career Transition A keyword-optimized resume that sets you apart from the competition.
I chose a different solution here.
The solution
I had the following conversation with ChatGPT:
– I have a resume in Word and a related conversion proposal, also in Word. Could you convert my resume based on the proposal file?
– Of course! If you upload both documents, I will look at them and convert your resume based on the proposal. Please upload the files and we can get started!
I will take into account the feedback and suggestions from the second document when converting your resume. I will make the following changes:
- Structure and readability: I will use more bullet points to highlight responsibilities and achievements.
- ATS compatibility: I will convert the resume so that it can pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) screening more easily, i.e. I will include keywords and relevant technical terminology.
- Highlighting results: I will supplement existing responsibilities with results and impacts, with figures if possible.
- Language Improvement: I use stronger action verbs and minimize repetition and filler phrases.
I start making changes and upload the revised version.
After about 1 minute, I have edited my new English CV. I am not working on the Hungarian version yet, it is not really needed right now.
I think the result speaks for itself. Check out the two versions:
Before: schulmann_istvan_CV_ENG_20250118
After: schulmann_istvan_CV_ENG_20250126_
Post-work
I re-uploaded my CV to the linked website. I waited a bit and the new analysis arrived. Based on this, I modified the document again. Since I expected that another analysis would be prepared, I waited again.
The third analysis has now arrived, and it contains almost similar advice and observations as the first time, but it also contains definite positive highlights.
I decided that I will not work with this material anymore.