This free resume critique is intended to give you an honest, straightforward assessment and some suggestions to help in your job search. I’m able to offer insight into how you compare to other job seekers competing for the same positions because I personally review hundreds of resumes each month. Visual Presentation and Organization The look and feel of your document do not convey “experience” as much as your actual accomplishments do. Your resume is the first impression a potential employer has of you. Treat it like your personal marketing tool. Using bullets to highlight important information is helpful, but in your specific case, you should consider using a few less. It can be hard to narrow in on the most pertinent information when there are too many bullets. Size and type of bullets are also a consideration. Although seemingly minor, visual impact of a resume is the key to ensuring that an employer reads it thoroughly. Resume Writing Your career summary is not as strong as it should be. This is a key component to compel the hiring manager to keep reading. Improve your career summary to define you as a professional and cover those areas most relevant to your career level and job target. Based on how the resume is phrased, you could be perceived as a “doer,” as opposed to an “achiever.” A few too many of your job descriptions are task-based and not results-based. This means that they tell you what you did, instead of what you achieved. This is a common misstep for non-professional resume writers. To be effective and create excitement a good resume aids the hiring executive envisage you delivering similar achievements at his or her company. Here are some examples of task-based sentences in your resume: • “Work on school projects and lead teams” • “Teach students and assign them new projects” Employers want to learn about your previous achievements and specifically how you’ve helped make an impact. More importantly, they want to know how you are going to make a significant difference at their organization. In reading your resume, I did not find the kind of active language that would bring your work to life. Instead, I saw passive words and non-action verbs. Phrases like “Prepare” and “maintain” are monotonous, overused, and add little value to your resume. Strong action verbs, used with engaging language to outline outstanding achievements, are essential parts of a soundly-built resume. Now, let’s see how to put this into practice. Here’s a real life sample taken from a former client’s resume. By changing the language, we helped to enhance the perception of the job-seeker. • Passive language / Doing: “Negotiated contracts with vendors” • Action language / Achieving: “Slashed payroll/benefits administration costs 30% by negotiating pricing and fees, while ensuring the continuation and enhancements of services.” An adjustment like this makes a big improvement. A regular review of every word and sentence in your resume is an important thing to do, especially if you’re the only one looking at it. Hiring managers are looking for an excuse to eliminate you as a candidate. You may not be able to see awkward phrases and grammatical errors if you’ve already spent too much time with your own resume. Digital Readiness Your resume is saved in PDF format. 19% of resumes look like yours. While this may make viewing consistent for recruiters, some older Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) might not be able to correctly parse this. You might want to consider converting your document to a Microsoft Word file. 98% of resumes are smaller than yours, so you might want to trim down pieces that make the file bigger. Sometimes, this is as simple as standardizing fonts for formatting. RESUME FILE SIZE, COMPARED TO OTHERS 226 KB Resume Scan Test Results 93% of all Hiring Managers use resume scanning software calledapplicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter candidates from the application pool. To illustrate how you stand up to the automation, I passed your resume through the very same software that Hiring Managers use to filter the real talent from the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of candidates that apply for a single open position. Learn more What the Tracking Systems think of you as an Applicant Hiring Managers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to automatically designate a Best Fit based on your experience level and the kinds of keywords spread throughout your resume. The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will also assign a weighted score to Key Skills