5 Resume Mistakes You MUST Avoid (with real examples)!

[@JeffSu]

🕵🏻 Did you catch any mistakes in your resume after watching this video? TIMESTAMPS 00:00 5 Resume Mistakes to Avoid 00:42 Putting Education above Experience 01:52 Not Showing Impact 02:53 Failing to Include Meaningful Metrics 04:32 Not Tailoring Resume for Each Application 05:34 Overlooking the Small Things

[@JeffSu]

@Rehan Siriwardana I think so too :D

[@kymaeryk]

@@JeffSu Hey Jeff. I've found your videos incredibly helpful. About metrics I am having a bit of an issue as I don't have conventional background. I am a former Marine, worked in the security field, and worked with the Kurds to deal with Isis and with things like that either I didn't know or entirely pay attention to the metrics or there weren't any due to the nature of the work. I was wondering if you could perhaps make another video or further break down meaningful metrics in a resume when your job experience may be much more ambiguous or there is no way to measure your direct impact on such macro situations.

[@JeffSu]

@@kymaeryk Again, the effort you put into coming up with metrics are more important than the metrics themselves. To give an extreme example (might sound silly to someone like yourself), "Decreased possibility of security leaks by 50% by doing A, B, C"

[@kymaeryk]

@@JeffSu but wouldn't I have to know that I decreased it by 50% ? But also I think I see now because ever maintaining security would also be considered a metric would it not ?

[@JeffSu]

@@es6544 Hi E S - Easy! Let's take the Uber Driver - they could mention the average rating they received over the past 3 months, and whether that was an improvement when they first started (e.g. +16% increase in rating after I decided to do A, B, C). How many additional rides they drove vs. other drivers (proactive) etc.

[@LARKXHIN]

Recruiters hate reading buzzwords in resumes but also send me nothing but buzzwords in outreach metrics 😂

[@JeffSu]

So I guess we gotta do better than them 😂

[@savannahsmiles1797]

@@JeffSu laziest folks on planet imho, along with HR who screen out the qualified candidates in favor of the do nuffins that meet the quote junk but never show up, can't speak coherently and lack knowledge or credentials.

[@crazyvedio7414]

@@JeffSu can you make cv for me 🙏🙏

[@mcmerry2846]

They are clumsy, hypocrite and incompetent 🤡's

[@counterleo]

@@JeffSu I once saw an offer requiring "perfect written/spoken English". Not "professional", not "excellent proficiency", not "C2 level", no, outright perfect, no less. Only thing is, the job description had mistakes that I spotted as a foreign speaker. I did not apply.

[@easjer]

I'm a job coach in my day job (I review and rewrite resumes for job seekers) and you've nailed a lot of the big things I talk about every single day. Particularly when you speak about including impact, tailoring resumes and prioritizing work experience - you are absolutely correct. However, there are a couple more things I would add: professional summaries and ATS. It is really important to begin a with a brief 1-3 sentence summary overviewing your professional history as it relates to your target job. It is, in fact, the easiest way to keyword target and tailor a job with low effort. Recruiters and hiring managers spend less than a minute on most individual resumes, so summarizing your relevant experience upfront in an elevator pitch helps you gain traction. I've compared to it the thesis statement of your professional career, that you back up with your well rounded, achievement based bullets below. Most employers today utilize some form of ATS (applicant tracking system) to process online applications. Many of these will take a resume and parse it through an internal reader, which converts it to a keyword searchable format and into a universal basic template. You might be surprised by how few hiring manager understand this is happening, but it can absolutely destroy the resume if it's not formatted correctly. Entire sections of data can be eliminated, or mashed together resulting in a resume that is unreadable. Make sure you are optimizing for ATS success with both formatting (plain, not highly formatted, no columns/pictures/tables, left justified with standard section headings) and keyword targeting. Finally, keep things brief. Remember - less than a minute of eyes on during first pass when the bulk of decisions on further review are made. Limit bullet points to 3-5 per position, limit bullet points to a single concept and no more than 2 lines per bullet. The longer it takes to read and understand, the more likely the recruiter starts skimming. When they skim, they miss important things.

[@JeffSu]

Wow these are amazing add-ons Eliza, thank you so much for sharing!! To be honest I've never included a professional summary myself but I know candidates who have found success having a short and concise summary (i.e. without fluffy buzzwords). Thanks again!

[@ricardohornedo3582]

Wow would you like to assist me in perfecting my resume?

[@muneebajmalkhan4245]

Hey Does this mean a even a simple resume created using tables for nicer formatting (Table lines eliminated by changing line width to 0 points) wont get read by the ATS?

[@easjer]

@@muneebajmalkhan4245 It depends on the individual system, but tables can indeed be a culprit in parsing issues. I personally avoid tables or using Canva or similar - it looks lovely, but we know there are big systems that will not parse them correctly.

[@mi-snow9191]

Thank you🙏

[@jennahilton8259]

What I’ve found to be the case is that it really doesn’t matter whether Education or Experience is listed first. It matters that the most relevant part of your background is listed first. Almost all of my previous work has been in retail or other form of customer service, but the position I want to be in is my first job was that of a market researcher. The fact that I was a janitor, a cashier, and a call center rep will not help me get into marketing research. My education is going to be a stronger highlight because my bachelor’s degree proves that I am good at research (major was history), while my master’s (MBA in marketing management) proves that I understand how business works and how to create a market strategy. When I put my experience first, I was never noticed (at least not by reputable companies). When I put my education first, I got more attention. IMO, these hard rules about what to list first on a résumé don’t always work, especially for younger jobseekers/recent graduates trying to start their career. (Edit: added other roles to better prove my point)

[@JeffSu]

Great points, thanks for sharing!! 😁

[@youngjesus5992]

This helped out a whole lot. I'm a welder for my company, but I wanna apply to my company's engineering technician position where AutoCAD is heavily used. My most revalent experience is from high school, where I attended an engineering program and used AutoDesk Inventor and Revit to create models

[@swampsprite9]

Thanks for sharing.

[@Gob_123]

Hi, I’m only 18 so all my work experience is volunteering, retail and working at McDonald’s. Any tips please.

[@avantiiresha6687]

Also some people don’t use any colours which makes their resume plain… you should use the colour on your resume which is similar to the company scheme you are applying for … you can look at their homepage and find out which colour they use on their homepage, that way you would attract their attention immediately when they see your resume and psychological impact would be they start seeing you part of their group already from the beginning.. this is very subtle but effective trick

[@JeffSu]

That's a great tip Avanti, thanks for sharing! 😁

[@CelebrityChannel247]

Will someone keep doing for all jobs? It’s sickening 😢

[@HunSim]

Recruiters make one mistake: they hire those who make better resumes, not do their job better. We are living in the world of the spectacle. Everyone strives to appear to be someone they are not.

[@JeffSu]

That's probably true in some cases!

[@emilgabl9069]

@@JeffSumost cases

[@lindanorris2455]

IN REALITY RESUMES AND CVLS ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OUTDATED.

[@rawpowergroudon1]

@@lindanorris2455 Says you?

[@Smashachu]

It's up to you to convey your ability through a sea of people lying and over conflating their experience. If you can't sell yourself you'll never make it far.

[@TooSmooveWill]

Hi Jeff! Just wanted to let you know that after watching countless videos you’ve made and implementing these strategies, I’ve landed an amazing job offer. I got the official offer letter today. I just wanted to say thank you and let you know that you’re truly helping people with these videos. All the best! Keep up the amazing content 😁

[@JeffSu]

Wow that's SPECTACULAR my friend. Congrats!!! 😁

[@aneeshsrivastava1562]

Its the same for me as well. Jeff provides some really good tips that are hard to find on the internet. Thanks man 🙂

[@JeffSu]

@@aneeshsrivastava1562 Wow 2 success stories in a day, thanks for making my week you two 😁

[@EmmaDee]

This was very nice of you to take the time to thank this young man. He really does present meaningful comment.

[@JeffSu]

@@EmmaDee Thank YOU BOTH

[@Jim-cl5zv]

I just recently came across your videos and I have to say, I don't think people truly appreciate the quality of information that you are sharing with us. In the past month, I have increased the amount of first round interviews I have received thanks to your help. Keep up the great work!

[@JeffSu]

It's okay, comments like yours make my day so I'm happy enough 😁

[@jahualhaq9853]

I have some questions: 1. I’ve been rejected from about 50 interviews. (In the last one they found the excuse that I could have given more examples. There must have been 20 to 30 perfectly given interviews with no feedback at all. The feedback I got from a lot of them is that they went for another candidate). 2. Before the pandemic it only took around 4 interviews to secure a new role 3. I went to a top business school and have half a decade of experience working for blue chip companies 4. *I’ve been given the advice by some corporate operatives that I could still somehow secure a role at a top company even if I’ve been unemployed for half a dozen years* *Is it discrimination? Is it bias because there is money involved? I would just like to know what is going on as I’m being forced to retire early abroad/take a career break in the summer*..

[@rickhall517930]

The employment process is completely broken.

[@JeffSu]

You mean the job search process?

[@danae-wk7sl]

The recruitment process is broken

[@rickhall517930]

@@JeffSu no, the employment process. The whole process is a mess.

[@lindanorris2455]

yes it has. employer wants (5) yr olds who they can pay $3.00 hour and one WHO stil llive under the health care benefits of MOMMY & DADDY!

[@gioyfa]

Great Jeff! 👍 I totally agree with all of your points. Especially the 2nd and 3rd (point to metrics and impact of them), the 4th (about tailoring resume for each job you apply) and off course avoid typos and grammar mistakes that override any skills or experience. What I usually advise friends is: 1) read carefully what the company needs and spot on them in your resume, 2) include metrics and achievements that had meaningful impact on past jobs and 3) include at the bottom of resume a graphic section of 2 rows with 4 skills on each row, based on word cloud generator, so to keep the attention of recruiters.

[@JeffSu]

Perfect additions George! Thank you for sharing your expert advice as well 😁

[@Mr_BUSINESS_24_7]

And how are you going to prove to the interviewer during the interview that your metrics are facts and not just hearsay ?

[@JeffSu]

@@Mr_BUSINESS_24_7 It's a good question! As mentioned in the video, the interviewers (for good or for bad) care more about the effort we put into coming up with meaningful metrics, and not the exact numbers itself. For example let's say my project helped drive 23% more leads, and I say 20% in the interview, it's not going to matter :)

[@flom1951]

@@JeffSu How about you are a recent graduate with no experience?

[@JeffSu]

@@flom1951 Extracurricular activities you participated in, class projects you were involved in etc.

[@สุนวลฉวีเวชสาร]

Stellarcv tailored my CV to match the job requirements.

[@GnomeEU]

Definitely quantity over quality. I remember when I really wanted a job and took several hours Customizing my application. Didn't even get a response. Send 20 generic applications and got a few interviews. You're just a number to them, don't treat them any different than they treat you.

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

[@GnomeEU]

@@JeffSu I guess both approaches have their advantages. AI generated applications are probably the way to go, i you really wanna cheat. Investing too much time in a job application is not efficient imho.

[@al-minbar]

The last time i was working on resume, it took from me a long time, but luckly after watching your i was able to catch few mistakes, thanks a lot.

[@JeffSu]

awesome!

[@leonardmilcin7798]

As a technical interviewer with over quarter century of experience, these are all fantastic points. Good CV is the only way they are going to decide if they want to talk to you or not. I noticed that whether you can or can't be bothered to take care of your CV is a sign of attitude. If you can't put effort to take care of your own CV you are unlikely to put effort into anything. When applying to a company, ask yourself: why would anybody at X care to talk to me? I don't want to hear about the job you were performing. "Performing" is not an accomplishment. When presented with two otherwise equal candidate CVs, one from a developer who "worked" for 5 years and another who has actually been solving problems, who do you think I will want to talk to first? The guy who's biggest accomplishment is he wasn't fired for a long time?

[@JeffSu]

Super happy to hear a technical reviewer vouch for the points brought up in this video! And thank you so much for the additional input. Agreed 100% "working for 5 years" pales in comparison to "solved X problems by doing Y"

[@karl5924]

Pro tip, GTP 4 and upload your CV. Ask for formating, spelling and alignment. Saves you a couple of hours

[@JeffSu]

Great tip!

[@samotivationbysami]

Very useful! Would just add to make sure you use correct spelling, grammar and spacing and check multiple times. How you write on your CV says a lot about you, and how good or bad you would be as potential employee. You don’t want potential employers to think you are unprofessional.

[@JeffSu]

Those are great points Sami!

[@yongfulu8984]

Let’s face it. Being lucky counts more than 50% in your job hunting result. I received three offers in one month, but I admit, it’s mostly luck.

[@JeffSu]

First of all, CONGRATS my friend! 3 offers is AMAZING! And hey don't sell yourself short, I'm sure your experiences / education / proactive-ness contributed to what you call "luck" :)

[@dmitrijmaestro8318]

I agree with you on that. I am an experienced electrical engineer and i wrote about 100 applications for a job. For the most desired jobs i invested up to 4 weeks and 2 hours per day writing the application, i had the relevant skills but i never was invited to an interview. On the other part i once copy pasted 80% content of a previous application and spent like 4 hours editing before sending out for the job i wanted and i easily got the contract 5-6 weeks later. So basically until today i almost only got jobs when i spent the least time for writing the application. So i do understand when you are talking about luck.

[@LP-zc4gy]

I like the tip about metrics. I've been helping someone in my family write a resume and we've managed to shift the writing from job description and responsibilities to "accomplished x as measured by y by doing z". However, we don't have specific numbers or percentages for many of them. Part of the problem is that he often hasn't been privy to that information (such as knowing exactly the revenue or profit for the stores he's worked for) and I believe part of the problem is, he's never seen the value in knowing that information (I've since told him he needs to start getting chummy with his bosses and talking about his performance and store performance so he can include it in resume, but let's see if he does.) So my question is: If you know you had an impact, let's say increased sales because you saw that something you did lead to more people buying a product, but you don't have specific metrics such as "20% increase in sales" or "20% increase in customer volume", how do you remedy that on your resume? Do you leave it as general as "Increased sales"? How bad does that look?

[@JeffSu]

Accurate number > Inaccurate number > An "estimated" number > No number at all 😁

[@basamortua8791]

@@JeffSuah okay, so lie, got it, thanks

[@JeffSu]

@@basamortua8791 Wait wut 😂

[@ManimaranPaneerselvam]

Agree with the comment, we are usually kept in dark about any important metrics

[@eegernades]

​@@JeffSuessentially, estimations, are lies. As most employees aren't privy to corprate or detailed at all about sales metrics. Best to do is estimate, but without any numbers, it's the equivalent to lying.

[@Going2School]

Thank you Jeff for the useful information! I just open a LinkedIn account by following your video tutorial. Currently, I’m confused when I work on my LinkedIn and resume, you just point out the difference between two of those. Although I don’t have full-time experience, I’ll put the work experience on top based on the interview experience and your advice.

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it!! Best of luck my friend 😁

[@bryce262]

All of the resume building classes, professional help, and videos I have watched and this is the first time I have ever heard some emphasize the hyphens. I am a stickler for having things having a uniform look. I have heard all of my teachings speak on formatting but those little details seem to be so easy to miss for most.

[@JeffSu]

Exactly! You probably know this already but oftentimes it's the small things that matter the most 😁

[@bryce262]

@@JeffSu So true!

[@joshuatk59]

A word of caution on trying to over-tailor your CV/Resume, it can backfire if the job post is written by a recruiter who doesn’t 100% know what they’re talking about. Cherry pick which ones are noteworthy, and if possible, have a look at some other ads from the same firm to see which of the requirements are copy/paste. The hiring manager might be interested in things other than your customer-centric approach and team playing shenanigans, for a Data Engineer role working remotely.

[@mcmerry2846]

They want people without personality. If I ever i encountered myself working for HR I would only pick the creative charts.

[@isomarulor]

Agree, I have not been successful. I think I'm in this dilemma of, maximizing ATS keywords-> non-tecnical ATS keywords are mostly buzzwords -> having too many buzzwords -> resume lost all authenticity of who I am & what I can do. but at the same time if I just submit the best resume, I also don't get interview.

[@jacobhubbard9266]

In regards to your first point about putting education above experience, I somewhat disagree though also agree at the same time. It really depends on the situation. If you are a (VERY) recent college graduate or about to graduate college and you don't have a lot of experience (or even relevant experience), then it makes sense to put your education above experience. There are also industries (such as education for example) where education is going to be just as important, if not more so, than your experience so it really depends. It really is a case by case thing. I always make the point to my students that it's about what you want to emphasize and what you can minimize (or even better take out if possible-- e.g., if you're applying for nursing job, it doesn't make sense to put your barista job from your senior year of high school on your resume). The rest I 100% agree with.

[@JeffSu]

That's a GREAT point Jacob thanks for this comment! It definitely depends on each person's situation (i.e. if you're going for a job in academia and you have a PHD, you probably want that front and center). Thanks for adding on 😁

[@linhnhat5798]

THIS IS SO PRACTICAL! thank you so much!

[@takwoo]

Hi Jeff, these tips are gold. As a career changer, I'm struggling how to put my previous work experience in a not related field in the resume. Could you cover it in your video someday? Thanks!

[@JeffSu]

I get this question a lot: The best way to address that issue is to highlight transferable skills (e.g. project management) that applies to the new role!

[@martinkuliza]

I'm self employed.. If you're changing fields 1. We don't really care about your resume in the first place so don't stress over it 2. We care that YOU ARE HONEST YOU HAVE THE SKILLS WE NEED YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO THE JOB AND YOU WILL ACCEPT THE RATE OF PAY THAT COMES WITHIN OUR BUDGET that's it 3. Now if you must include something, (well you could have been more specific of WHAT YOU USED TO DO vs WHAT YOU WANT TO DO NOW ) but in a nutshell sometimes past experience doesn't transfer, You could have been a geologist and now want to be a hairdresser so nothing transfers in which case you list your personality traites and what a fucking awesome person you are and what you like best about yourself but more importantly tell me why i should hire you in saying that, there is always something that transfers, such as you like to work with people, you are a good communicator or... work well in a team and easily integrate into an existing team or work well unsupervised you can always use those (only make sure they are true) to give you anything further i'd need to know what you did and what you are now doing

[@MlSTA_GREEN]

This was actually a huge help. Sharing your success statistics showed character. My first two interviews were duds, one of the next two has to be a success.

[@JeffSu]

Best of luck!

[@lyaz_15]

Looking for a full-time position as a fresh graduate. Used to be very depressed cuz sometimes I send out 10 resumes and may only get 1 reply. After I saw you send literally 367 cold emails I feel more confident, don't know why😂😂😂 Respect you for your effort and for making career advice content like this. Very helpful for sure!

[@JeffSu]

a 10% response rate is already AMAZING lol. Just remember, you only need 1 job, not 100 :)

[@HealingSymbols4111]

Thank You Jeff for taking the time out of your day to help

[@JeffSu]

The pleasure is all mine 😁

[@matthiasfsa]

Thank you for this! I've made improvements to my CV based on this information.

[@JeffSu]

Awesome to hear! 😁

[@jesualdobraga9963]

Dude, you are killing it, been showing your videos to my team. Amazing content, keep it up please!

[@JeffSu]

Thank you my friend! Let me know what your team thinks 😁

[@vpu2]

Thanks for the feedback, did not think of adding metrics on my resume. I have experience in the finance department so I can include $$$

[@JeffSu]

It's super important! Glad to hear you have numbers to share 😁

[@Hondalover3000]

These types of videos just always makes so much sense. Thanks Jeff.

[@JeffSu]

You're very welcome my friend 😁

[@belkord]

Hey Jeff, I wanted to say thank you so much for your content. Thanks to you, i got way less stress and extremely well prepared for my interview and i aced my dream job lately. Keep it up the great content, you are helping a lot of people. Cheers !

[@JeffSu]

Nice! Congrats!

[@Majorjabroni]

A recruiter told me to not bother applying for high-competition jobs in my area without a grad degree. So now my personal crusade is to prove him wrong 😂 I’ll need to work hard and your tips will help im sure

[@JeffSu]

Oh wtf that sounds like bad advice....you SHOULD prove them wrong!

[@higherlifts420]

300 people applying for 1 job. All those other people have 1 thing you don't

[@Majorjabroni]

@@higherlifts420 real-world experience ended up outperforming academic study. So now Im able to afford a grad degree and Im halfway through already :)

[@Hamromerochannel]

I could tell this is gold. I am downloading this to refine my CV

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it !!

[@samnair2790]

You deserve a million subscribers for your energy and humour and approachable personality

[@JeffSu]

Wait, just 1 million? 😏

[@ShaileshKumarchetty]

Firstly, thanks a ton! Liked your guidance, I really liked what you presented ~3.55... which is 'So what ?', 'So what ?' .... and then comes 'impact' This is very important point, especially for people who want to move from middle management towards senior management.... Advice well taken ! Shailesh ❤

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it!!

[@sarahcatelli4507]

Great advice Jeff - thank you! Point 1, putting experience above education. Would this be applicable to a professional in their first year of full-time work (tech industry) after graduating with a Master's degree (Digital Marketing)? They have over 3 years of past working experience combining internships in the field, part-time work and a side business. Also in reference to this, what are your thoughts on leaving graduation dates off the education section? Can it look a bit inconsistent, eager to hear your thoughts! thanks again.

[@JeffSu]

Hi Sarah - If the Master's Degree is relevant for the role you're applying for, you can leave it up top (the keyword here is relevant). Why would the graduation dates be inconsistent?

[@sarahcatelli4507]

Hi@@JeffSuthanks for the feedback -inconsistent in terms of the formatting when compared to the experience section!

[@JeffSu]

@@sarahcatelli4507 Still a bit hard for me to visualize but I would aim to have the formatting as consistent as possible!

[@shakaibart587]

I'm pretty shocked at how much my resume was backdrawed! Thank you so much!

[@JeffSu]

No problem 😁

[@ThomasStreet93]

When my school's career center reviewed my resume, they said to put my education first. I loved my school so I took that as gospel. However, I got no callbacks. Then I see this video, and realized OF COURSE a school would want their name up first in an alumni's resume. It was such a weird realization.

[@JeffSu]

Hahahahaha well the more you know 😁

[@tomaszstarzZz]

THIS IS GOLD! - show your impact at your past work

[@JeffSu]

Exactly 😁

[@peterdemuth]

Well, what a coincidence... I am writing right now on a new CV and cover letter... and procrastinating on KZbin. So very welcomed video, sir! Thank'. Now I can check out the first video 😁

[@JeffSu]

Must be fate Peter. Let me know how your application goes!! 😁

[@peterdemuth]

@@JeffSu So far, so good. I submitted it today let's see what happens! But it's just the first one... the road is long until I get to 100 like you

[@martinkuliza]

@@peterdemuth What are you applying for ? also peter RE " I submitted it today let's see what happens!" (As a self employed person) You should never leave it to see what happens, You should always have a plan so try to follow this structure 1. Find an available job 2. Know why you are applying or interested 3. Find who the right person is to speak to 4. Get that person on the phone 5. When on the phone (Before the end of the call)... Set an appointment for an interview or another phone appointment or ... establish you are not good fit for each other. The point is... FOLLOW UP and have promised dates for call backs The road should never be long You should have yourself in a role within 1 to 2 weeks Max if you don't, then you're wasting time with time wasters if it's taking Months, my guess is you are applying to agencies and only forms in which case.. yes 3 to 6 months and you'l likely get told "sorry you were unsuccessful this time" if you however have a plan and are following up on promises to call you never have to see WHAT HAPPENS because you know at each step what is happening Let me know if you need any advice

[@Alvin-eq5rc]

Thank you. I think I might have made the same mistake. Sent over 85 applications, 3 virtual interviews but never got the job.

[@JeffSu]

Hey Alvin! If you are landing interviews than your resume might not be the problem! Make sure to check out my playlist on common interview questions and answers!

[@AlberToretto]

What I am actually impressed is that you have had recruiters which provide you with a feedback... That's something I have never had. U.U

[@JeffSu]

Hahha depends on the recruiter!

[@tomhas4442]

These are amazing tips, thanks for sharing! I find it really hard to tailor for each potential employer. In europe the cover letter is very important and you can get away with a worse CV. However these tips still apply. Results and impact > Methods and responsibilities

[@JeffSu]

For sure! 😁

[@totallysawthat]

The education part is dependent on the industry you’re going to. Recruiters will not even consider you if you don’t have a state or national license for some jobs. Your job experience is irrelevant if you don’t make it clear you have these licenses or certificate because some companies require you have them and some don’t.

[@JeffSu]

That's a great point! Thanks for sharing!

[@z.k.7472]

My personal opinion is that the “impact based” job descriptions are awful when you’re looking for a tech employee. Of course it’s good to know what the project goal and results were, but I also would like to get a feel for the day-to-day - technologies used, team structure, etc.

[@JeffSu]

It's a fair point, thanks for sharing!

[@Christiana-J]

The "So what" method is a wow! It's very similar to the idea of asking "Why" five times to identify the root cause of a problem 🤔

[@JeffSu]

Yes! It's basically the same concept 😁

[@Christiana-J]

@@JeffSu I learnt the “5 Why” concept from Coursera Data Analytics course 😀 still very amazed we can ask more “so what” to dive into impacts and quantify our tasks!

[@kobibr9362]

I find metrics on a resume to be self centric. In a modern word those metrics are the result of team work (at least in the tech world). An analyst evaluatse the needs, an architect the specs, a devs de-risk the tasks, tasks are groomed(questions are asked to the analysts,/architects/system designers), the stories are voted. The sprint starts. The devs take development tasks. Each task must be reviewed by 2 others devs. Everything is deployed to QA and tested by system designers and testers. The app goes through pen tester's hands. Documentation has to be written/completed both by dev, architects, managers before each deployment to prod. The app is deployed. Fixes may be necessary. Some features may be pulled out for future deployments. So yes, tell me you did something in the app that ended up with an increase of 5% in customer satisfaction and I will ask where was your team when your was doing that. You never worked in a team?

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for sharing your perspective! The way I see it, since the resume is about you, you can talk about your impact. During the interview, you should mention what did the team achieved, and how you contributed to that overall impact :)

[@kobibr9362]

​@@JeffSu I have 6+ years experiences as a dev and let me expose some realities. The impact of a dev (talking about devs in big companies) is to get the application delivered in prod on time (on every project you work on). Do you have to innovate to do this? No, just stick to the plan (code, test, review, iterate). It is that simple 95% of the time. You don't get to choose that target/KPI that will be chased. That is the marketing team job. You don't even get to talk to that team. That is the Product owner’s job. Your role is to write lines of code that conform to the specifications and are maintainable every day. Even as front-end developer often you still don’t get the opportunity to imagine and design the UI, instead, the boss or the product owner provides you with their vision made on tools like Figma or Excel, and often the design will look outdated. You are expected to implement that design and be proud of it. Innovation is rarely possible even during innovation days, as no one likes to see you build an entire app in four days and do better than what employees have been doing for years. If you question security or performance in enterprise apps, you may be marked as a troublemaker. Recruiters will use phrases like 'challenging environment,' 'committed candidates,' 'goal-driven,' 'fast-paced,' and 'capable of analyzing complex systems' that are used to make the experience look epic. Here is the translation of those: Our code is crap. It is pretty much all legacy code, and we cannot change it because it will break something somewhere and we don’t know where it will break yet. We are expecting you to jerry rig the shit out of this monstrosity and to love doing that knowing it will bring no value to your professional experience because who would be crazy enough to build a new app using this methodology (no technical docs - no full test coverage) and this tech stack (that was hidden in the job description - yeah we forgot to put the version of the framework on the job description (the version and tech is pretty much toasted) - we only talked about the cool stuff during the interview - which you will not touch because we have no budget for that. Also, the reason this code looks complicated is because it hurts your eyes to see so much criminal code, and everyone leaves after a year. So, no one has enough experience with the code base, that is why no one understands the code, I wish good luck on understanding the code base. Ask to much question and we will mark you as needy because we too don’t understand what you don’t understand. If you critique our code, that one guy that does not code will defend it more than he would defend his mum’s honor. It is not that this job requires a senior dev to understand it. It is just badly coded, and no one wants to work on it for longer than that. It is hard to do get any impact out of it than the expected one (doing your job). I have been doing this for 6+ years now. When I am looking for a new job, I just skip past the recruiters and manager and only contact and respond to tech leads because we share a reality that does not have to contain any bling (it is what it is). I understand them, they understand me. We both know quickly if I am a good fit (no time lost). I get that this type of resume would make sense for a commercial, but lately, I have seen more of this kind of resumes from dev profiles and it worries me that they think that they should mention that they did something special and then when we deconstruct it during the interview, it is not that special. One guys was honest and just told me he thought it would do better with recruiters, I just had to applause his courage to say it and defended his application because he was a capable candidate even without the bling.

[@colbycarson1365]

what sections do you always include on a resume and how do you decide to order them? example: experience goes before education, what about certifications or volunteer work? next question, what's your advice for showing a career change on the resume? in this case, better to list the jobs but only have context for the relevant new field or have a summary at the top highlighting the benefits of the transition?

[@JeffSu]

The rest are just personal preference. I don't like including a summary since it's usually too "fluffy"

[@twal3]

This cements my deep, deep reverence for connections...especially nepotism.

[@JeffSu]

lol

[@rudeboyrg]

It's challenging to tailor resumes these days as many companies want you to fill out an online application and / or upload your resume. They have that one resume you uploaded on file, and that resume is used for all job applications with the company. You can't send out different resumes to different various positions within that company. As a result you are forced to make a bloated, generic resume sent to everyone rather than several targeted resumes sent to individual hiring managers for each position.

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I know the feeling believe me haha. What I used to do was to try to network and find the hiring manager first (via LinkedIn for example), and even though I would submit a "generic" resume in their portal, I would also send a tailored one if I could find the hiring manager and/or recruiter

[@mcmerry2846]

99.999999999999999999% of the applications won't reach the HR office... Regardless of how good they are

[@AxGryndr]

The way it was put to me is a recruiter in a high demand job is getting hundreds of applications that they need to filter down to a handful of candidates to actually have interview. You don't want to give them any reason, no matter how small, to put your resume in the round bin (trash). Consistent formatting then tells the recruiter that you have attention to detail that others may lack.

[@JeffSu]

Exactly! Great point Jerimiah 😁

[@lidorcohen3113]

Hey jeff, love your videos! I've watched both this and your original resume video and 3 things that I'm just not quite able to figure out are: 1. as a computer engineering student, I've never had any internships and I'm actually trying to get into one, so how can I use "Measurable Metrics" when I have none? I've only done projects as part of my coursework, and a lot of the time most people got high grades so there's nothing to use there. 2. for a student, wouldn't you agree that education should be put higher than experience? since students usually don't have any real-world experience, the education metric is one a hiring manager will look for. (he'll want to know also what courses I've completed so far) 3. the word cloud generator sounds great in theory but for tech jobs I am not really getting something I can use, maybe because the roles are so very different

[@JeffSu]

Hi Lidor - 1. "I averaged 89% in my CS class, which is 8% higher than class average" 2. Yup for students and fresh grads education can be placed first 3. That's why you need to find 10+ similar job descriptions for word cloud to work Best of luck!

[@kevinesorelleazangue8360]

Hello Jeff Thank you for this video. I catched several mistakes on my resume after watching this video. Yours content is awesome. Wish you the best!

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it!! This way the recruiter / hiring manager won't be seeing those mistakes 😁

[@HeahMinAn]

+1 Going to upgrade my resume🙂

[@LauraGreenheck]

Some recruiters put the applications through a spell check and immediately throw out those that have typos before even looking at them! So important to check grammar and spelling.

[@JeffSu]

Great point!!

[@glammom415]

This not only help me with resume but also with doing my annual self review. Thank u

[@JeffSu]

Love how leveraging the concepts here for your own use case! Let me know how it goes 😁

[@sl995]

Hi Jeff, what about some supportive role that doesn’t have much quantifiable metrics? For example, an in house legal counsel, their main role will be negotiating, vetting & drafting contracts and anticipating risk to prevent financial losses. Feel like for this type of professional role, too much emphasis on the numbers & achievements does not sound appropriate & a little bit of bragging 🤔

[@JeffSu]

"Negotiated and closed 10 partnership contracts last quarter, representing a 11% QoQ in number of cases closed. Reduced negotiation time from industry/firm average of 3 months to 2 by doing XYZ" "...closed contracts represented a 50% hedge against financial losses in sector A" That doesn't sound too baggy right? You're simply stating facts/assumptions. S L - So basically this is exactly what I was talking about. Any role has quantifiable metrics. Good luck!

[@kate8160]

Responding to the first argument, that’s why you have the title of the section! If an HR wanna see the work experience first, she/he can easily do so by finding that section. Also, I don’t think that a good education would ever be useless to read for any job… doesn’t make any sense

[@JeffSu]

Not useless, just less important vs. real world experiences 😁

[@seaburn8529]

This is so helpful. Thank you so much for explaining how to quantify experience when you’re not on that side of the employer!

[@JeffSu]

No problem my friend! Best of luck with the job search 😁

[@guscrossing]

I believe some experiences are much easier to quantify and explain impact than others. There're a ton of work that needs to be done that doesn't make any presentable impact other than it's neat and keep the company running. Say you are in sales you can write your sales number and increase and help acquire how many new clients, but if you are in accounting what in the world would you write? You spot a numerical error and saved the company a billion dollars?? If your job doesn't entail a lot of initiatives and changes the impact can hardly be explained.

[@JeffSu]

Easy: Removed 1 step from Cash Flow report preparation process by adopting new formula/tool, resulting in 25 man hours saved per quarter 😁 (just an example of course. But there's always a quantifiable metric)

[@jerimas]

You're the man, Jeff. Thank you for the detail and passion behind these videos!

[@JeffSu]

Thank you my friend! Glad to have you here 😁

[@aimanzahid1]

I admire your efforts for covering this . I have a question for freshly graduate medical students /doctors ..how can they fullfill point 3,4&5. Hope so,you understand my question..Looking foward for your reply. Thank you for your time:)

[@JeffSu]

What do you mean points 3 4 5?

[@D.A_1988]

I could write "I cured cancer" on my resume, and I would still get denied

[@JeffSu]

Right, because you'd be lying

[@davesomeone4059]

​@JeffSu now he's not gonna give you the cure. Good job dude.

[@JeffSu]

@@davesomeone4059 LOL

[@PWoods-j6p]

Why was this so funny 😭😭😭

[@iamyasmeen1999]

Watched so many videos and this was by far the most helpful when it comes to the literal content of the resume

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it my friend 😁

[@benc2798]

We had two candidates applied for a job. The first one whose resume showed every achievement and honor programs he had in highschool and college, but only 2 years old working experience. The second one only had two years of college but showed a lot of projects and achievement in his 10 years of working experience. Eventually we went for the second one and very happy with our decision. I am not saying college is useless, but employers shouldn't focus on what AP class someone had or famous school he/she went, unless you only look for newly graduated candidates.

[@JeffSu]

Great point Ben! Thanks so much for sharing 😁

[@sanjeen2503]

come on, it's a no-brainer. BTW, 10 yr work exp will obviously command higher salary.

[@TacosYBurritos8P]

Eventually? Someone putting hs achievements is an automatic decline.

[@elena79rus]

Actually college IS useless.

[@ora.artwork]

I would like to thank you very much for your informative and helpful advice, as it has been very useful to me in my job search.

[@JeffSu]

No problem 😁

[@the_flushjackson]

Jeff - any thoughts on work history details on the resume? Should you include details up to 10 years back, 15 years back - also would you list the company and job title(s) for the older work experience or leave it completely off the resume?

[@JeffSu]

Focus on relevant experience, and prioritize recent experiences 😁

[@MESSIMAHJJL1233]

omg what a process, i'm actually in the process of job application and watching this video i know you're on point but i'm just so overwhelmed hearing this. I have used chatgpt and resume apps to make my cv beautiful but it was all bullshit. Omg it's such a process i feel like crying

[@JeffSu]

One step at a time my friend!

[@iwan2443]

Love to watch your passion explaining everything in this content🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 Thank you

[@JeffSu]

Ah I was worried I'd come off as too nerdy, but glad you enjoy it!!

[@Savirezz]

I made a mistake for a long time, confusing Resumes to CVs (which is way too lengthy). If I were an HR manager, I would stop reading after seeing the ridiculously long "biography" instead of the actual relevant experience.

[@JeffSu]

Great point!

[@MatthewEaton]

This is all very true and something I can do today to make a difference. Thank you for making this video, it was at the right time and quite needed!

[@JeffSu]

No problem Matthew 😁

[@katrinahudsoncamp]

I've found these tips really helpful. I believe I write much better resumes now. Thank you

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it Katrina 😁

[@likeawind24]

2:18 seems so important!

[@JeffSu]

It is!

[@Mr.DMZ.]

I will say from experience when it comes to interviewing people, the majority of times we don't have enough time to look at the resumes of the people we are interviewing as our main duties take priority .We take what HR gives us and really depend on the interviewee to tell and sell us their history and knowledge. Sometimes I'm able to find 30 minutes of free time when we are doing quarterly hires to look at the panel. Anyways! Prep your resume well as many times the people who are interviewing you haven't even touched your resume. It's sitting unread in their in-box

[@JCCreatorStudio]

Thank you, Jeff! Say if we happen to work as self employed as in own business for some period and they are closely related to our core professional interest, how best to put or not put them in our resume?

[@JeffSu]

You definitely should because the skills you learn from being self employed are EXTREMELY transferable!

[@lovellmendez2207]

So I'm in a pickle. I didn't know how important metrics was as a newbie and my managers always only told me 'great job, keep up the good work' without actual telling me the impact I made. So how am I going to use metrics?

[@JeffSu]

Go ask your manager or other teams, or find industry benchmarks 😁

[@tee228]

5:42 the bottom dash on the left is shorter and *bold* and the dash on bottom right is also short. Do NOT say you pay great "Attention to Detail" in your resume if you didn't catch these 😂

[@JeffSu]

LOL

[@yolow69]

Excellent information! I’m revising my resume today ! Thanks!!!

[@JeffSu]

You're very welcome 😁

[@tonnytrumpet734]

Oh yes, I internshipped and helped company make 33 billion dollars in 2024

[@JeffSu]

Nice, which one?

[@tonnytrumpet734]

@@JeffSu Red Hat, but it was just $14.6 billion I lied

[@tiffanywilliams8589]

Thank you for posting this. The Word Cloud is genius!! I will start using that today!

[@JeffSu]

Good luck Tiffany! Let me know how it goes 😁

[@lp2932]

Please Jeff (or anybody) cover the NDA topic in resume writing? How do you list quantifiable results when such items as; sales dollars, growth ect, or even the companies or projects worked on are under a non-disclosure? It's common in some tech sectors, government/federal contracts. Especially concerned with LinkedIn.

[@JeffSu]

You can round the numbers and not disclose the actual client. You can say "Fortune 500 Food and beverage client"

[@bubbernub651]

Pretty quick and really helpful for what to look at and think about. Examples were helpful, thank you!

[@JeffSu]

Glad to hear it

[@sarahrshawki]

okay this gave me the motivation to sit myself down and really clean up!!! ive been searching for good guidance and finally found it. Huge shout out to @jeffsu !

[@JeffSu]

Awesome to hear that sarah!!! Best of luck 😁

[@sarahrshawki]

@@JeffSu Thank you!

[@theresa2040]

Okay, but what should I do when I don´t have a lot of experience and I am fresh out of university?

[@chucknin1491]

I hire People all the time. Very high tech firm with extreme technical requirements. If we are hiring anyone with novice experience The first section I look at is education. A quality school and excelent GPA is 100% necessary. After about 8 years experience experience starts to matter more. With our requirements relevant experience is all that matters. For high end professional jobs resumes should be bespoke for the position.

[@JeffSu]

Thanks for sharing your perspective! 😁

[@SolomonTibbey]

exactly

[@alimfuzzy]

When was going for new roles i had a process, i would breakdown the job ad, bullet point by the key take aways and then write my experience specifically for those. And usually bolded the word in the sentence that highlights that requirement. I also did other stuff like company research. Looking at reviews of the company from former employees, etc. Because this gives you good questions for the interview. Ive always got an interview for every job i did this with. My job prep is usually 5 one note pages long.

[@JeffSu]

Those are some AWESOME tips my friend! Thanks for sharing 😁

[@mr.tuckers2848]

I came here to learn what are the best font sizes and fonts to use in a resume but came away with more knowledge that what I came searching for. Time to update my 30 year old resume.

[@JeffSu]

That's what I love to hear!!! 😁

[@lukedagger5757]

Starting off your career as an 18 year old, what would you recommend in a resume for someone young, with little work experience trying to put their foot in the door?

[@JeffSu]

Build up a personal portfolio, share any and all learnings in a public space, and network 😁

[@beegulbeegul4239]

Real usable information and a short amount of time! Thank you!

[@JeffSu]

No problem 😁

[@lyaz_15]

Thank you Jeff for your amazing content. Just watch your video about resumes and LinkedIn, concise and helpful information for fresh graduates like me to avoid mistakes that could be ignored. BTW thanks for providing the Chinese subtitle.😊😊😊

[@JeffSu]

No problem! Glad you found this helpful and glad the Chinese subtitles were put to good use! 😁

[@fireket]

Thanks for the clear examples about making more meaningful metrics, Jeff

[@JeffSu]

No problem!

[@JohnVianneyPatron]

I sent my resume to the resume writing service of the two largest professional services recruiters in the UK and it was £££. Strange thing is that their advice was completely contradictory. I don't really think recruiters have a systematic cognitive approach but just scan a resume for keywords, looking for a reason to reject the candidate.

[@JeffSu]

That's true John! That's what it's best to follow a framework and adapt as needed 😁

[@布目陽菜]

I'm so glad you shared this, it's exactly what I needed!

[@andreward8510]

I can give anyone a few good tips. If you've got rare achievements mentioned on your CV (say passing a CFA level 1 and 2 exams) it does not really matter how you structure your CV. You can write it on toilet paper, its not the organisation of things on it what matters, hidden gems is what most employees are after.

[@JeffSu]

I would agree partially there Andre! If the formatting and presentation was off though, the reader might never get a chance to see those amazing credentials 😁

[@raghavansrinivas1379]

Just in time when i am looking for a job

[@JeffSu]

Nice! Let me know how it goes Raghavan 😁

[@onlinesaidasa9105]

Namaste The automated applicant tracking systems find it easier to parse and read word documents compared to pdf's Hence better to use word document format so that the hiring manager may pick up your resume based on keywords. PDF format can be used when mailing individuals as it opens in the same format irrespective of windows version while word document may have format changes based on individuals version Thanks Thanks

[@JeffSu]

Those are great points!

[@dinvin7012]

Jeff, your content is invaluable and your confidence is tremendously inspiring! Can’t thank you enough! 💫

[@JeffSu]

You're very very welcome Din

[@johndavis48076]

I just updated my resume today and I caught that I had different sized hyphens! Gold star for me! ⭐️

[@JeffSu]

Woohoooo nice!

[@christophersi1535]

Hi Jeff, love your content - I’m a long time subscriber. From my experience being on interview panels in various industries, just ‘showing impact’ and ‘showing metrics’ may not be sufficient. Often we want to know a candidate’s role in the company - the actual day to day tasks - especially for technical roles or roles with the same title but varying in duties.

[@JeffSu]

Hi Christopher! Glad to hear you're still here haha 😁 Definitely agree with your points; I'm assuming the candidates will have an opportunity to share during the interview process?

[@anthonys4494]

"So what" is having me go back and review my teaching resume. Thanks bruddah.

[@JeffSu]

No problem! Yes it's a great little trick to prompt us to think of the actual tangible impact!