I just got home from a trip to Houston for a friend's baby shower. There was a keg, 40 pounds of brisket, and about seven dogs running around. It was awesome... which is not something I ever expected to say about a baby shower.
It checked the usual boxes — celebrated the parents, brought people together, had way too much food. But it did it in a way that felt like them, not like a Pinterest template.
That's actually a pretty good framework for thinking about your resume. The structure is mostly decided for you — contact info, experience, education. But how you present it? That's where most people play it safe, and it's exactly where you shouldn't.
The Mindset Shift
Most resumes describe what someone did.
Good resumes describe the outcomes you delivered.
Great ones tell a story that shows you can do it again.
Hiring managers aren’t reading your resume to learn your job history. They’re scanning for evidence that you’ll deliver results in their environment. Your resume needs to answer their unspoken question: How do I know this person will actually perform?
What They’re Scanning For
Outcomes, not activities.
“Increased customer retention by 23%” beats “Responsible for customer success programs.”
Specificity.
Numbers, tools, timeframes, scope. Vague claims get skipped. Specific claims get remembered.
How you work, not just what you did.
Resumes almost always use generic language. Break the pattern and use language that paints a picture of how you work.
Language Swaps
Here’s the difference between generic and compelling:
Before: “Managed a team of 5” After: “Led a team of 5 that shipped [specific outcome] in [timeframe]”
Before: “Worked on marketing campaigns” After: “Designed and executed email campaign that generated $140K in pipeline over 6 weeks”
The second versions don’t just claim competence. They prove it.
Make sure you use the same terms and acronyms where you can too. If a job description uses different terminology than you normally would (ARR instead of EACV, KPIs instead of OKRs, customer instead of client etc.) consider matching your language to theirs.
The Pattern
For each bullet point, try this structure:
[Action verb] + [what you did] + [specific outcome or impact]
Examples: - “Rebuilt onboarding flow, reducing time-to-first-value from 14 days to 3” - “Led migration to new CRM, training 12 team members with zero productivity loss” - “Created documentation system adopted by 40-person engineering team”
Not everything has a number attached. That’s fine. But everything should have a result — even if the result is qualitative (“improved clarity,” “reduced confusion,” “enabled faster decisions”).
AI to Enhance - Not Spam
Use AI to audit your resume. Use this prompt:
Audit and improve my resume for this specific role.
JOB DESCRIPTION: [paste job description here]
MY RESUME: [paste resume here or reference attachment]
METHODOLOGY TO APPLY: Great bullets follow this pattern: [Action verb] + [what you did] + [specific outcome]
• Prioritize OUTCOMES over activities
• Be SPECIFIC: numbers, percentages, timeframes, tools, team sizes
• Show HOW I WORK: ownership, autonomy, collaboration, problem solving etc.
• MATCH TERMINOLOGY from the job description (if they say "clients," I say "clients")
IMPORTANT: Do NOT invent metrics or details I haven't provided. If a bullet would be stronger with a specific number, percentage, timeframe, or tool that isn't in my resume, ask me for that information instead of making it up. Use [ASK: what was the team size?] or [ASK: what % improvement?] as placeholders so I can fill in accurate details.
Please provide:
- THE STORY — Summarize the narrative my resume tells in relation to this role. Am I a direct fit? A career pivoter with transferable skills? Someone light on experience but demonstrating fast learning? What's my best "angle" for this position, and is my resume making that case clearly?
- RATING — Rate each bullet: STRONG / NEEDS WORK / WEAK
- ALIGNMENT — Identify what this job emphasizes and which of my bullets already demonstrate it
- REWRITES — Rewrite my 5 weakest bullets, showing BEFORE → AFTER with explanation
- TERMINOLOGY — Flag any language I should change to match theirs
- GAPS — Tell me what's missing. What would make a hiring manager want to talk to me?
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10 tailored applications beat 50 generic ones.
Yeah, it's going to suck when you spend time customizing a resume and still get ghosted. No matter how good you get, that's still going to happen sometimes.
But here's the thing — you'll actually spend less total time and get better results. The trick is focusing on improving your process instead of fixating on each individual outcome.
Use outcomes as your measuring stick, improve your process and good things will happen. Promise.