Guides
How resumes are actually read in 2026.
Plain, specific guides to tailoring, keywords, formatting and ATS parsing — written from the rules our own scorer uses, with no folklore and no invented statistics.
Start here · Tailoring
How to tailor your resume to a job description (without lying)
A step-by-step method for tailoring a resume to a specific posting: read it like a parser, map every requirement to evidence, and change the least you can.
Read the guide
- Tailoring means making a true resume speak to one posting — not rewriting your history to fit it.
- Split the posting into required and preferred, and find the evidence for each requirement in what you have done.
- Reorder before you rewrite: move the right skills and bullets up first, then change words only where you must.
- Put key skills in experience bullets, not just a skills list — a bullet counts for roughly twice as much (1× vs 0.55×).
Applicant tracking systems
What the software does with your file, and how to be found in it.
What is an ATS? How applicant tracking systems actually read your resume
What an applicant tracking system does with your resume, step by step: parsing, search, filters and the recruiter on the other side — and what really goes wrong.
8 min read
Resume keywords: how to find them and where to put them
How to pull the right keywords from a job description, which ones matter, and why where a keyword appears on your resume matters as much as whether it does.
8 min read
Writing
Bullets, numbers, verbs and summaries that hold a reader.
How to quantify your resume bullet points — even without obvious numbers
Six kinds of number almost every job produces, how to find them when you think you have none, and why an honest range beats an invented figure.
8 min read
Resume action verbs: what to write instead of “responsible for”
The weak openers recruiters skim past, more than 90 strong action verbs grouped by what you actually did, and the tense rule most resumes get wrong.
6 min read
How to write a resume summary (with examples)
A three-part formula for a resume summary recruiters actually read, examples for every career stage, and the mistakes that make one easy to skip.
7 min read
Format
Layout, length and files — the rules that matter and the myths that do not.
ATS-friendly resume format: the rules that actually matter
Nine formatting rules that decide whether an applicant tracking system can read your resume — one column, real text, standard headings — and the myths you can ignore.
8 min read
PDF or Word: which resume format should you send?
When a PDF resume is the right choice, when Word is, how to tell if your PDF will parse, and how to name the file so a recruiter can find it again.
5 min read
How long should a resume be? One page or two
A simple rule for resume length based on years of experience, what to cut when you are over, and the formatting tricks that make it worse.
5 min read
AI
Using it without putting an untrue line on the page.
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