Over the years, I’ve reviewed more than a thousand resumes.

Patterns emerge when you see that many attempts, what works, what fails, and why some open doors while others never get a second glance.

Sitting across from candidates taught me something else: most people don’t lack talent; they lack a map. So I put together a list of Ideas and reminders that might tilt the odds in your favor the next time your story lands on someone’s desk.

Here it is: the best resume tips I’ve gathered, distilled, and shared back with you.

1. Use a professional-looking gmail, outlook, or personal domain email address. Delete your hotmail with extreme prejudice.
2. Skip the “Objective” or “Summary” section. Recruiters don’t read it, and that space is better used for something else.
3. Unless you have 20+ years of experience, keep it to one page. You can do it.
4. Don’t put your full address. “City, State” is enough.
5. Name the file FirstName LastName Resume and stop there. Never submit it as “Final,” “Project Management,” or “2025.”
6. If you’re emailing your resume, always send it as a PDF. Word docs can look broken on someone else’s machine. For online applications that use resume-parsing software, upload the Word doc too if required.
7. Test it: can you skim it in 10 seconds and get the main points? That’s how long most reviewers will give you before they decide yes or no.
8. Use active verbs, not passive ones. “Designed,” “built,” “shipped,” “closed.” Avoid “helped with” or “was part of.”
9. Tailor every resume. Generic resumes get generic results. Adjust bullet points to highlight the specific skills that job ad is asking for. Yes, it’s extra work. Yes, it works.
10. Projects over titles (for juniors). No experience? Showcase projects. GitHub repos, case studies, or personal builds.
11. Don’t over-format. ATS systems choke on tables, headers, text boxes, and logos. Keep it clean, plain text, simple bold/italics, no creative layouts.
12. Section order is strategy. If you’re junior, lead with Skills + Projects. If you’re senior, lead with Experience. Don’t copy generic templates.
13. Always follow up. Applications get buried, it’s not personal. Use a tracking tool (like Streak) to see if your email was opened. If not? That’s your signal to follow up.

Finally, keep in mind that when it comes to resumes & recruitment, a lot is opinion-based. Every single recruiter or HR manager has their own opinion on the resume specifics.

Some of them recommend removing the resume objective section, others think it’s useful.

If you find conflicting opinions on the web, don’t just take either side as gospel – try to understand why they’re recommending something, and how you can use it to your advantage.

…And that’s about it!

Hope you guys found the tips useful 😉

Let me know if you have any questions / feedback / completely disagree with something I wrote. I’d love to hear it.

Best,
Abi