10 Resume Tips That Actually Work: A Recruiter's Guide

I'm going to be direct with you. Most resume advice you read online is useless. "Use action verbs." "Keep it to one page." "Proofread carefully." None of this is wrong, but it's so generic that it doesn't help anyone.

After 15 years of recruiting at Fortune 500 companies, I've developed a different perspective. I've seen which resumes get callbacks and which get ignored. The patterns are clear — and they're not what most career advice suggests 😏

Here are 10 resume tips that actually make a difference. Not theoretical best practices. Actual strategies that change outcomes.

This is the biggest mistake I see, and it happens in 80% of resumes. Candidates describe what they were supposed to do at each job instead of what they actually accomplished.

The problem version: "Responsible for managing social media accounts and creating content for marketing campaigns."

The version that gets calls: "Rebuilt social media strategy from scratch, growing engaged audience from 8K to 67K in 14 months and driving $180K in attributed revenue through organic content alone."

The first tells me your job title. The second tells me your capability. I already know what marketing managers do — I need to know what YOU accomplished 💡

Action: Go through every bullet on your resume. Does it describe a duty or prove a result? Rewrite every duty as an achievement.

According to research on hiring decisions, resumes with quantified achievements receive 40% more interview requests than those without. Numbers make claims believable.

Without numbers: "Improved customer satisfaction"

With numbers: "Improved customer satisfaction scores from 72% to 94% over 6 months by redesigning the support ticket workflow"

You have more numbers than you think. Consider:

• Team sizes you worked with or led
• Budget amounts you managed or influenced
• Percentage improvements in any metric
• Revenue generated or costs saved
• Timeline achievements (ahead of schedule, faster than before)
• Volume metrics (customers served, projects delivered, tickets resolved)

Even estimates work. "Approximately 30% improvement" is far stronger than "significant improvement."

Action: Add at least one number to every experience bullet on your resume.

A generic resume sent to 100 jobs will underperform a tailored resume sent to 30 jobs. I've watched this play out thousands of times.

The tailoring doesn't require rewriting your entire resume. It requires strategic adjustments:

Step 1: Read the job posting and identify the 5 most important requirements.

Step 2: Check that your resume contains those exact terms (if you have those skills).

Step 3: Reorder your bullet points so the most relevant achievements appear first.

Step 4: Adjust your summary to directly address the role's priorities.

Step 5: Rename your file: FirstName_LastName_CompanyName.pdf

This takes 15-20 minutes per application. That investment dramatically changes results 😉

For detailed tailoring strategies, see our guide on creating targeted resumes.

Recruiters spend an average of 6-8 seconds on their first look at your resume. In that time, we're scanning for:

• Your current job title and company
• Your previous job title and company
• Keywords that match the role
• Red flags (gaps, job-hopping, formatting issues)

Your resume needs to pass this scan. That means:

Visual hierarchy: Can I identify each section in under 2 seconds? Are job titles clearly visible?

Relevant information first: Is your most impressive, relevant experience prominent?

Clean formatting: Does anything create friction (dense text blocks, inconsistent formatting, tiny fonts)?

Action: Print your resume and look at it for exactly 6 seconds. Then look away. What do you remember? That's what the recruiter will remember.

Over 90% of large companies use Applicant Tracking Systems to filter resumes. Your resume needs to pass automated screening before a human sees it.

The basics that matter:

• Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills)
• Save as PDF with selectable text
• Avoid tables, graphics, and multi-column layouts
• Include keywords from the job posting (naturally, not stuffed)
• Use standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Garamond)

The simple test: Copy your resume and paste it into a plain text editor. If the content appears in order and makes sense, you're fine. If it's jumbled, fix your formatting.

But here's what most advice misses: ATS systems are just the first filter. A human still makes the hiring decision. Don't sacrifice readability for keyword optimization 🚀

The professional summary at the top of your resume should answer one question: "Why should I keep reading?"

Weak summary (tells me nothing): "Dedicated professional with strong communication skills seeking challenging opportunity to leverage experience and grow career."

Strong summary (tells me exactly who you are): "Operations Manager with 8 years streamlining logistics for e-commerce companies. Reduced fulfillment costs by $1.4M at [Company] while improving delivery times by 23%. Seeking to bring operational excellence expertise to a high-growth environment."

The strong version gives me: your specialty (operations/logistics), your level (8 years), your proof points (cost reduction, delivery improvement), and your goal (high-growth company).

Action: Rewrite your summary to include your title, years of experience, one or two quantified achievements, and what you're looking for.

I see two common mistakes with skills sections:

Mistake 1: Listing every skill you've ever touched (overwhelming, looks like padding)

Mistake 2: Listing vague skills without proof ("team player," "detail-oriented")

The right approach:

List 8-12 skills that are:

• Relevant to your target role
• Defensible in an interview
• Demonstrated somewhere in your experience section

Organize them by category: Technical: SQL, Python, Salesforce, Google Analytics Methodologies: Agile, Scrum, Six Sigma Languages: Spanish (fluent), French (conversational)

For more on skill selection, see our resume skills guide 💡

Every bullet in your experience section should follow this structure:

Action Verb + What You Did + Measurable Result

Examples:

"Redesigned onboarding process, reducing new hire ramp-up time from 8 weeks to 5 weeks and improving 90-day retention by 18%."

"Negotiated vendor contracts across 3 categories, saving $340K annually while maintaining service quality."

"Led cross-functional team of 12 through product launch, delivering 2 weeks ahead of schedule and achieving 140% of first-quarter revenue target."

Notice the pattern: strong verb, specific action, quantified outcome. This formula works for any role at any level.

Action: Rewrite your experience bullets using this formula. If a bullet doesn't show a result, either add one or consider cutting it.

Where you put education depends on your career stage:

Recent graduates (0-3 years): Education can go near the top, especially if you attended a well-known institution or have relevant coursework.

Mid-career (3-10 years): Education goes after experience. Include degree, institution, and graduation year.

Senior professionals (10+ years): Education is minimal. Graduation year is optional (can trigger age bias). Focus on certifications if they're more relevant.

What to include:

• Degree and major
• Institution name
• Graduation year (optional for older graduates)
• GPA only if impressive (3.5+) and recent (within 5 years)
• Relevant certifications with dates

What to skip:

• High school (unless you're a current student)
• Irrelevant coursework
• Expired or outdated certifications 😅

After spending hours on your resume, you're too close to see its problems. Fresh perspective is essential.

Ask someone to review with specific questions:

• "What job do you think I'm applying for?"
• "What are my three biggest strengths based on this?"
• "Is anything confusing or unclear?"
• "What would make you want to interview me?"

If they struggle to answer, your resume isn't communicating clearly.

Professional review can also help. A skilled resume reviewer will catch issues you've missed and help you articulate value you didn't know you had.

For a comprehensive self-review, use our resume checklist.

After reviewing tens of thousands of resumes, these mistakes cause the most damage:

Typos and grammatical errors: One might be forgiven. Two or more suggests carelessness. Proofread, then have someone else proofread.

Outdated contact information: I've tried to call strong candidates and reached wrong numbers. Verify your contact info works.

Dense text blocks: Recruiters skim. Long paragraphs get skipped. Use bullets, keep them to 1-2 lines maximum.

Inconsistent formatting: If job titles are bolded in one section, bold them everywhere. Inconsistency looks sloppy.

Irrelevant information: That summer job from 2008 doesn't belong on your resume if you're a senior professional. Edit ruthlessly.

For a full list of pitfalls, see our guide on common resume mistakes.

Resume advice is everywhere, but results matter more than theory. These 10 tips come from watching what actually works in real hiring processes.

The essentials:

1. Achievements over duties — prove what you accomplished, not what you were supposed to do
2. Quantify everything — numbers make claims credible
3. Tailor every application — 15 minutes of customization changes outcomes
4. Pass the 6-second scan — visual hierarchy and relevant content first
5. Beat ATS basics — but don't sacrifice readability
6. Pitch, don't describe — your summary should sell, not summarize
7. Strategic skills — quality over quantity, relevance over comprehensiveness
8. Formula for bullets — Action + What + Result
9. Education in context — placement depends on career stage
10. External perspective — you're too close to see your own mistakes

The candidates who follow these tips don't just write better resumes. They get more interviews. And interviews are where jobs are won.

CVTOWORK provides templates and tools that help you implement these tips effectively. The structure is built in — you bring the achievements.

Now look at your current resume. How many of these tips are you actually following? 🚀