Build a Resume and LinkedIn Profile That Pass the First Screen
Your résumé has two readers: a parser that reads structure, and a human who reads the top third. This guide fixes both without turning your experience into keyword soup.
Key takeaways
- One column, standard headings, no tables or text boxes.
- Every bullet: action, scope, and a result someone could verify.
- Your LinkedIn headline is a positioning statement, not a job title.
Screening is not looking for the best professional. It is looking for the clearest evidence that you have done this work before. Clarity is the whole game.
structure
The layout that parses cleanly
- Name, one-line title, city, email, LinkedIn — plain text, no header graphics.
- A three-line summary naming the role you are targeting and your two strongest proof points.
- Experience in reverse order, with dates in a consistent format.
- Skills grouped by category, not a 40-item wall.
- Education and certifications last, unless you are early career.
wording
Rewrite bullets around outcomes
A bullet earns its line when a stranger can tell what changed because you were there.
Weak
Responsible for reporting and dashboards for the marketing team.
Stronger
Rebuilt marketing reporting into four dashboards used weekly by 30 people, cutting manual reporting time by roughly 12 hours a month.
Weak
Worked on AI features with engineering.
Stronger
Shipped an AI summarization feature with an evaluation set and review step, reducing support handling time on long tickets by about 20%.
Rewrite these résumé bullets. For each one: - Keep it strictly truthful; ask me for the number if it is missing. - Start with a specific action verb. - Name the scope (team size, volume, systems, audience). - End with a result someone could verify. - Cap it at two lines. BULLETS: [paste 5-8 bullets] TARGET ROLE: [paste the job title and 3 key requirements]
Make your profile searchable and specific
One résumé per role family
Maintain one base document and one tailored version per role family. Rewriting from scratch for every application is how good candidates burn out.
Want help applying this?
Tech Role Accelerators and the Resume & LinkedIn Revamp give you direct, personalized support on the work in this guide.
Next guide
Run a Focused Job Search Instead of Applying Everywhere