Step 5: Apply
IN THIS LESSON
Write your resume for impact.
What’s the impact that you’ve had with each experience? Does your resume capture it? What are the data points? What are the descriptors that capture what you did? Revise your resume with this lens. If you’d like to start with a template, download this resume template.
Here’s a checklist for customizing your resume:
Key words: Pull up the job posting that you are planning to apply for. Print it out. Highlight key words regarding the role. You can also copy the job posting into an AI app like Microsoft Copilot and ask for relevant key words that should be highlighted in your resume. It will result in a list that can help you narrow your focus.
Format: Download the resume template above or search online for a template you like. Ensure that the formatting is basic, so the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) can read it. You can check this by taking your completed draft resume, select copy, then open up another doc, select paste special, paste as unformatted text. If you can read it easily, so can the ATS.
Name: List your name prominently at the top of the page.
Contact info: List your contact information: email address, phone number, LinkedIn profile URL, city and state you live in.
Your email address should be professional, such as name@mail.com, not fancynancy@mail.com. Create a new one if you need to and then be sure to check it. If you are applying to a company that is also an email provider, set up an email with them (i.e. Google, Microsoft, etc.) - it sets a better impression if you’re using their technology.
Create a short URL for your LinkedIn profile, preferably your name by going to your LinkedIn profile, and in the upper right, select edit URL.
Title: Add a title that represents the role that you’re applying for and that represents you, i.e. Program Manager, Chief Technology Officer, etc.
Statement: Provide a statement of your value or a summary of your qualifications as the highlight, the take-away, the key message. If it’s relevant, use some of the job posting key words in your statement. You can use AI to generate ideas and then you can modify to be more authentically yours.
Competencies: Choose your desired template of whether to list competencies or not; I prefer listing competencies in the first third of the resume. If you have the competency, list the competencies that are highlighted on the job posting. Do not misrepresent yourself. Use the same language as the job posting, so the ATS sees the word match and increase your chances of moving your resume to the next step.
Experience: List your most relevant job experiences, including the company title, brief description, role title, role description, and impact statements. You can organize your resume sequentially (my preference) or you can list by expertise, grouping experiences under headers that represent that group of experiences. If you have a few years of experience, summarizing your experiences under groupings may work better as you can pull in experiences from school and volunteering. For example, you can have a header of leadership and then list all relevant leadership experience from school, volunteering, and paid work. This may appear more experienced than if you list one work experience that you’ve had for 2 years.
Impact statement: For each experience, list at least 3 impact statements with verb + what you did + the results and impact. For example: I developed a sales training program that reached 450 people with a satisfaction score of 4.8 out of 5. Use data points to illustrate your impact where possible. If data is unavailable, describe with words such as increased, decreased, improved, etc. Utilize the job posting key words when they align with your experiences.
Education: List your education. You do not need to call out the year you graduated. If you are proud of your GPA, list it.
Certifications/training: List any additional certifications or trainings that you believe are relevant for the role that you’re applying for.
Skills: List any other skills you believe may be relevant to the role, such as speaking additional languages.
Concise: Review the resume for brevity; where can you shorten descriptions? Be concise. Keep to one page for early in career or two pages for seasoned professionals.
Passion: Review your resume for passion, uniqueness, and authenticity. Is your resume unique? What will stand out to the recruiter? Make modifications if it’s not. Take a step back and think about what you really have to offer. What can you highlight and make it pop?
Feedback: Share your draft resume with 3-5 people, colleagues, friends, mentors, coaches, etc. to get their impression or feedback. When asking for feedback, ask for specific feedback, such as, do you think this demonstrates that I’m a technical program manager? Specific feedback requests are more fruitful and actionable.
Are you proud? Revise until you’re proud of it and it represents who you are and how you’re aligned to the role you’re applying for… then move on to writing a compelling cover letter.
Download the PDF below for a checklist to use with each resume.
Congratulations! You now have a customized resume ready to use for applying to roles that are going to help you thrive!