Timeless, industry-agnostic advice for every stage of your career. Covering format, writing, ATS strategy, and the mistakes that silently kill applications.
Keep your resume to one page if you have under 10 years of experience. Two pages are acceptable for senior professionals with substantive content to fill them.
Use a clean, single-column layout. Multi-column formats often break ATS parsers and cause your resume to be rejected before a human ever reads it.
Submit as a PDF unless the job posting specifically requests a Word document. PDFs preserve your formatting across all devices and operating systems.
Stick to professional fonts: Calibri, Garamond, Georgia, or Arial at 10–12pt for body text and 14–16pt for your name. Avoid decorative or script fonts.
Use consistent formatting throughout. If you bold one job title, bold all of them. If you use bullet points in one role, use them in every role.
Maintain margins of at least 0.5 inches on all sides. Cramming text to the edges looks desperate and is harder to read.
Use white space strategically. A resume that breathes is easier to scan than a wall of text.
Avoid photos, headshots, logos, icons, and graphics unless you are in a creative field where a portfolio-style resume is the norm.
Do not include borders, tables, text boxes, or headers/footers. These elements break ATS parsing and create invisible gaps in your application.
Save your file as 'FirstName-LastName-Resume.pdf'. Never submit a file named 'Resume_Final_v3_ACTUAL.pdf' — it signals disorganisation.
Start every bullet point with a strong past-tense action verb: Built, Led, Reduced, Increased, Designed, Automated, Launched, Negotiated, Analysed, Delivered.
Quantify your achievements wherever possible. Numbers are specific, credible, and memorable. '40% faster delivery' beats 'improved delivery speed' every time.
Use the formula: Action + Task + Result. Example: 'Redesigned onboarding flow, reducing drop-off rate by 28% and improving activation by 15%'.
Write a professional summary, not an objective statement. Recruiters don't care what you want — they care what you offer. Make it 2–3 lines max.
Never write in first person. Not 'I managed a team' — just 'Managed a cross-functional team of 8 across 3 time zones'.
Permanently ban these phrases from your resume: 'passionate', 'hardworking', 'team player', 'results-driven', 'detail-oriented', 'self-starter', 'dynamic'. They are meaningless filler.
Every bullet should pass the 'So what?' test. If a recruiter reading it would say 'So what?', rewrite it with an outcome or impact.
Keep bullets to one strong idea each. Two-liners are acceptable; three-liners are a warning sign that you need to be more concise.
List your most impressive and relevant bullet points first within each role. Recruiters read top-to-bottom and often stop partway through.
Use industry-standard terminology precisely: 'React.js' not 'ReactJS', 'Power BI' not 'PowerBI', 'JavaScript' not 'Javascript'. Spelling matters for ATS matching.
Include a skills section, but keep it lean. List tools and technologies you can genuinely speak to in an interview. Padding with tools you barely touched backfires.
Don't list 'Microsoft Word' or 'email' as skills. These are baselines, not differentiators.
Group your skills logically: Programming Languages, Frameworks, Cloud Platforms, Tools, Methodologies. It reads faster and looks more professional.
Education goes below experience once you have more than 2 years of work history. Your degree becomes supporting evidence, not the headline.
Don't list your high school if you have a university degree. It adds noise and suggests you're padding your resume.
Include your GPA only if it's above 3.5/4.0 and you graduated within the last 3 years. After that, remove it — it becomes irrelevant.
Add relevant certifications with the issuing organisation and year obtained. A Google cert from 2019 still beats no cert, but a 2024 date is better.
Never include references or 'References available upon request'. It's assumed. That space is better used for another strong bullet point.
Don't include age, date of birth, nationality, gender, marital status, or religion. In most jurisdictions, employers aren't allowed to ask and you aren't required to disclose.
Avoid generic job descriptions. Listing duties tells recruiters what your job was supposed to be — bullets with results tell them what you actually did.
Read the job description carefully and mirror its exact language. If the JD says 'data analysis', use that phrase — not 'analysing data' or 'data analytics'.
Identify the top 5–8 keywords in a job posting (skills, tools, qualifications) and ensure they appear naturally in your resume. ATS scores are partly keyword counts.
Spell out acronyms at least once: 'Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)'. ATS systems may look for the full form, the acronym, or both.
Use a standard section heading vocabulary: Work Experience, Skills, Education, Certifications, Projects. Creative headers like 'My Journey' confuse ATS parsers.
Don't try to game ATS by hiding keywords in white text or tiny fonts. Modern systems detect this and your application will be flagged or rejected automatically.
Never send the same resume to every job. Tailor at minimum your summary, your skills section, and your top 2–3 bullets for each role you apply to.
Apply within 48–72 hours of a job posting going live. Early applicants have significantly higher callback rates before hiring managers are overwhelmed by volume.
Use a master resume with everything, then trim it down for each application. It's faster than building from scratch each time.
Research the company before tailoring. If they mention 'scalability' and 'cloud-first' in their culture page, reflect that language in your resume.
Address gaps proactively if you have them. A freelance project, an online course, or volunteer work during a gap period is far better than blank white space.
If you're changing industries, lead with transferable skills and use a functional summary to bridge the gap. Don't bury your relevance at the bottom.
For career progressions at the same company, list each role separately under the same employer. It shows growth and prevents the appearance of a stagnant tenure.
Include a LinkedIn URL. Ensure it's customised (linkedin.com/in/yourname) and your profile is consistent with your resume. Inconsistencies raise red flags.
If you have a GitHub, portfolio, or published work relevant to the role, include it. A link to a live project is worth five bullet points.
Don't apply for roles where you meet less than 60% of the stated requirements. Job postings are wish lists. Focus your energy on roles where you genuinely fit.
Typos and grammatical errors are instant disqualifiers. Proofread three times, use spellcheck, and have a second person review before you send.
Don't lie or exaggerate. Employers verify employment history, credentials, and references. Discrepancies found after an offer result in immediate rescission and lasting reputation damage.
Don't use a generic email like hotmail.com or a quirky handle from 2009. Use firstname.lastname@gmail.com or a professional custom domain.
Avoid dense paragraph-style job descriptions. Bullet points are easier to scan, especially when a recruiter spends an average of 6–8 seconds on first review.
Don't let your resume sit untouched for years. Review and update it every 6 months, even when you're not actively job seeking. Your next opportunity often arrives unexpectedly.
This resource may be freely shared. Always consult a career professional for personalised advice.