This is a really strong piece very clear, practical, and honestly closer to product thinking than traditional resume advice.
The idea of a resume as a “landing page with four users” is especially useful. It explains why most resumes fail: people optimize for themselves, not for each reader’s decision-making speed.
The biggest takeaway for me is that clarity beats cleverness at every stage: machines, recruiters, and hiring managers all reward signal, not storytelling fluff.
Also like the reminder that impact > activity. That alone fixes most resumes.
I've read several posts over the years that advice on how to write resumes (and also cover letters) for Software Engineering positions but none comes close to this article in terms of quality and depth, including the FEW that I bookmarked for being really good (they had some information that I've also found in this post, e.g Not using AI to write your professional summary).
Thanks so much for giving us the view from the other side (ATS, recruiters, hiring managers) so as to help us reduce our rounds of shooting in the dark.
Why do you guys still filter on career gaps? Some people have kids, need to take care of an elderly parent, have a severe bout of depression. Some of that is stuff that people are under no obligation to confess to a recruiter because it’s so personal.
Hi Neo, fantastic post! Will share with my students :)
This is a really strong piece very clear, practical, and honestly closer to product thinking than traditional resume advice.
The idea of a resume as a “landing page with four users” is especially useful. It explains why most resumes fail: people optimize for themselves, not for each reader’s decision-making speed.
The biggest takeaway for me is that clarity beats cleverness at every stage: machines, recruiters, and hiring managers all reward signal, not storytelling fluff.
Also like the reminder that impact > activity. That alone fixes most resumes.
Woah! What an in-depth write-up 🙌🙌
I've read several posts over the years that advice on how to write resumes (and also cover letters) for Software Engineering positions but none comes close to this article in terms of quality and depth, including the FEW that I bookmarked for being really good (they had some information that I've also found in this post, e.g Not using AI to write your professional summary).
Thanks so much for giving us the view from the other side (ATS, recruiters, hiring managers) so as to help us reduce our rounds of shooting in the dark.
Most resumes fail for the same reason most products fail, they describe themselves instead of proving they matter.
The ones that convert make the decision easy before anyone has to think about it.
Why do you guys still filter on career gaps? Some people have kids, need to take care of an elderly parent, have a severe bout of depression. Some of that is stuff that people are under no obligation to confess to a recruiter because it’s so personal.
All that might be true but this is not a how to recruit post
(Oops, hit post too soon there)
This is a post designed to help candidates navigate through what is sometimes an unfair recruiting process.
You’re right. I appreciate your article. A lot of practical steps for me to apply in my own search. Was just curious 😅