how to tweak your resume.
As a recruiter, reviewing resumes took up more screen time than I’d like to admit. But the accumulated insights are quite the catch—so here we go. The info nuggets below work across industries, although they were mostly collected in the tech-y, creative, scale-up space. There’s so much advice on the web on how your resume should look. I wouldn’t recommend starting from scratch every time you spot something new. A quick audit based on the bullets below is a great start—and then tweak what’s needed. Do whatever works for you.
Make it yours. Your resume is about you —so make sure it reflects your values and maybe your personality, too. Whether you use the words in your bio to get things across or a design-y layout is up to you. Let the recruiter know what you care about and what awesome qualities you could bring to the company. If you feel warm and fuzzy looking at your resume, you are much more likely to want to share it with everyone.
Job ads are your inspo. Recruiters are notoriously overwhelmed and pressured to keep their conversion rates high. Help them out: use their job ads as a blueprint for your resume and showcase how your past experience matches the requirements. When recruiters notice the match, it ups their confidence that you could make it through the hiring process (and improve their data)—so your chances for an interview increase exponentially. Having a few versions of your resume ready will likely do the trick (plus, there are some handy AI tools that can help with this).
It’s all about the impact. Can you concisely break down the projects you owned in your last role and highlight how they contributed to the company’s goals? This works wonders during an interview but equally in a resume. It’s less about listing all the tasks you had and more about mentioning what outcomes you delivered and how. Quantify when possible and show how resourceful you are (how you partner up and influence stakeholders by visualizing data, for example, and how this leads to implementing lasting change for different teams).
Show your enthusiasm. Admittedly, cover letters are not a thing across industries. But sometimes, you want to share something more than your one-page resume. Maybe a portfolio, even if not required? Or a note about that time you [insert anecdote about the company you are applying for]. Maybe you’d like to share a case about that project you led (and that really matches the expectations for the role—just in case they didn’t catch that from your resume). That’s okay—don’t hold back on showing your interest and how proactive you are.
Last-minute LinkedIn appreciation. Last but not least, adapt your LinkedIn profile to the tweaks you made to your resume. Feel free to copy-paste all of the content to create consistency—no need to be extra creative here. After a few years in recruitment, it felt like my brain was formatted according to a LinkedIn page—and sometimes, I just wanted to check if someone was a real person. So recruiters will likely look at your profile. There’s no need to post and connect as if it’s your full-time job (unless it is), but make sure it looks tidy and complete.
about the author:
Hi there! I'm Silja, the founder of the wholesome growth club, an inclusive hub for career coaching with a soft spot for introverts and perfectionists. I’m an Amsterdam-based expat, but I love connecting with people worldwide. With a background in recruiting, I know the struggle of crafting a career path that feels truly yours. At the wholesome growth club, we're all about fostering sustainable growth, meaningful engagement, and authentic connections. Our blog is dedicated to making coaching accessible and sharing insights to approach work and life with an extra dose of confidence, slow productivity, and self-compassion. If you are curious to make things happen for yourself, get in touch—we offer personalized coaching journeys that will get you closer to your (dreamy) goals in no time.
