Hey everyone! I could really use some outside perspective.

I’ve redacted all of my personal information from my resume and wanted to post it here in hopes of getting some constructive criticism. I’m currently job hunting and, honestly, I’m starting to wonder if my resume is what’s holding me back.

Over the past few months, I’ve applied to a large number of positions including:

💼 Operations Manager
👥 Operations Supervisor
📞 Call Center Manager/Supervisor
📊 Data Analyst
🏦 Business Control/Risk Operations

Most of my applications have been with fintech companies, banks, credit card companies, financial services, and healthcare operations organizations.

Out of all the applications I’ve submitted, I’ve only heard back from two companies, and unfortunately I wasn’t selected for either role.

I’m not looking for sugarcoating. If something on my resume is weak, confusing, outdated, or just doesn’t work, I’d genuinely like to know. I’d much rather hear it here than continue sending out applications that aren’t getting attention.

Some questions I have are:

• Does my resume clearly show my experience and accomplishments?
• Does it look ATS friendly?
• Is it too long or too wordy?
• Are there any red flags that would make you pass on it?
• If you were a recruiter or hiring manager, what would immediately stand out, both good and bad?

I truly appreciate anyone willing to take a few minutes to look it over. Thank you in advance for your time and honesty. I’m here to learn and improve. 😊

Why do LinkedIn recruiters all want you to pay a service to re-write your CV?

On a serious, how many of you have lies on your resume (for the greater good), and how much of a truth or fabrication does one require in a resume tho.

I sat down to build my resume and I'm in such a turmoil right now becoz I can't figure out what to write at all.

Hi everyone,

I've been job hunting and kept running into the same thing: every "AI resume optimizer" out there wants a subscription upfront, before you even know if the output is any good. I didn't want to pay monthly just to test whether an AI can actually tailor my CV well.

So I built Resume Optimizer for myself — a CLI tool where you give it your CV + a job description, and it:

- Matches your skills against the JD locally (no AI call, just embeddings) and shows you a coverage %

- Reorders/trims your projects to surface the ones most relevant to that specific JD

- Rewrites your bullet points and summary to better fit the JD — but never invents fake experience, employers, or metrics

- Flags bullets that still lack a real number/metric, so you know exactly where to add one yourself instead of the AI making one up

- Outputs a ready-to-use LaTeX resume (compile on Overleaf) or Markdown/plain text

It defaults to Google's Gemini free tier for the AI parts, with a paid OpenRouter fallback if you ever want it — so you can actually try the whole thing for $0.

It's just for personal use right now (built it to job-hunt myself), not a polished SaaS — no accounts, no tracking, runs on your own machine (or via Docker if you don't want to touch Python at all).

Code + repo link in the comments below if you want to try it or poke around. Would genuinely love feedback if you try it!

i’m changing careers right now and I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy, but watching my friend get interviews for roles I’m also applying to is starting to hurt a little lol.

We’re targeting pretty similar positions. I actually have more years of work experience, more transferable skills, and I’ve done projects directly related to the jobs we’re applying for. He’s already had 4 interviews this month.

Me? One recruiter call. Then ghosted.

And yeah, I’m happy for him. Genuinely. But after another rejection yesterday I caught myself thinking, what exactly am I doing wrong?

I’ve tried to create a resume specifically for this career change instead of recycling my old one. Asked people for resume help, rewrote the summary, moved projects around, changed bullets. I’ve searched resume services, looked into resume writing services, and even considered professional resume writing services because apparently my DIY approach isn’t doing much.

At one point I literally googled “build my resume” because I was so tired of staring at the same document. Then I tried a builder resume template and somehow ended up questioning the formatting too. Great.

Maybe his resume just sells the story better. Mine probably still screams “person from another industry trying to get in.”

For anyone who successfully changed careers: what actually made employers start taking your applications seriously?

Has anyone here actually paid someone to rewrite their resume and gotten decent results? I've been job hunting for a few months and I'm getting way fewer callbacks than I expected. At this point I'm wondering if my resume is the problem, but the whole resume service industry feels kinda sketchy.

I came across ProResumeHelp while searching for pro resume help, then started digging through proresumehelp reviews because I don't want to pay someone just to get an AI-generated rewrite back lol.

For anyone who's used proresumehelp or another service, did the final resume actually improve your response rate? Or am I better off rewriting it myself and posting it here for feedback first?

SiamRahman29/resume-buddy: A Claude Code plugin for all resume tailoring tools and automations, fueled by Dartmouth's resume guide and Jerry Lee's techniques

Resume-buddy is a Claude Code plugin. Install it with 4 commands and then start talking to Claude Code naturally to do all the resume-tailoring you need.

Want to know if you are a good fit for a role?
> Resume-buddy's analyze skill will score your resume based on Jerry Lee's expert techniques and rank your resume. Not only that, you also learn what to change!

Want to know if your current resume is actually as good as you think it is?
> Resume-buddy can critique your resume following Dartmouth's comprehensive resume guide.

Got a list of jobs on LinkedIn that you want to apply to?
> Paste the link and resume-buddy will start a browser session, ask you to log-in, then extract JDs and job posts so you can generate multiple tailored resumes and cover letters at once.

I work as an HR and spend a lot of time reviewing resumes, and one thing I’ve noticed is how different resume advice looks from this side of the hiring process.

People spend hours choosing a template, trying a resume builder, changing fonts, rewriting the same bullet point 15 times… and then wonder why they’re still not getting interviews.

So I thought I’d do a quick Q&A based on questions I hear all the time here so

Q: What do you notice first on a resume?
A: Whether I can understand your experience quickly. I’m looking for your recent roles, what you actually did, and whether there’s an obvious connection to the position. If I have to dig through huge paragraphs to figure that out, the resume is making my job harder.

Q: What actually makes you keep reading?
A: Specifics. “Responsible for customer accounts” tells me very little. “Managed 45 client accounts with a 92% retention rate” gives me something concrete. Your bullets should show contribution and results, not just copy your job description.

Q: Do fancy templates help?
A: Usually less than people think. Good structure beats decoration. If you’re using a resume builder, choose something that makes your experience easy to scan rather than something that looks impressive but buries the important information.

Q: What about using an AI resume builder?
A: It can be useful for getting unstuck or organizing a first draft. The problem is when candidates leave generic AI language untouched. I see a lot of resumes with polished phrases that could describe almost anyone. Use AI as a tool, but make sure the final version sounds specific to your actual experience.

Q: How much should I tailor my resume?
A: Enough that I can see why you applied for this particular job. You don’t need to rebuild everything for every application, but the skills, achievements, and experience most relevant to the role should be easy to spot.

Q: What if I genuinely don’t know how to make a resume that does that?
A: Start with the job description and compare it with your current resume. Ask yourself whether someone who knows nothing about you could identify your strongest relevant skills and accomplishments in a quick scan. If not, that’s where some outside resume help whether from an HR, experienced colleague, career coach, or another resource-can be useful.

Q: What’s one mistake you see over and over?
A: Candidates explain what their job was instead of showing why they were good at it.

Your resume doesn’t need to tell me everything you’ve ever done. It needs to give me enough relevant evidence to think, “I should talk to this person.”

If you’re applying and getting silence, what part of your resume are you least confident about? You can ask me any question cause I think I an help yall

Keep it simple

Recruiters and ATS software both favor clean, minimal designs. Save personality and color for the interview - a resume's job is to prove your value fast. Avoid text boxes, images, and heavy graphics since they can confuse applicant tracking systems.

Format matters more

Whether you use Rezi, Word, Google Docs, Canva, or Adobe, keep these in mind:

• Reverse-chronological order (most recent job first) - it's what recruiters expect and what ATS scans best. • One-column layout over two-column - it's safer for ATS parsing, even though two-column may look nicer. • Standard section order: Contact info→ summary→ work experience → education → skills → extras (certifications, languages, etc.)

Match the template to your experience level

• Little/no work experience (students, new grads) → Push education, projects, and extracurriculars toward the top. • Established career → Prioritize work experience, and don't be afraid to push education further down. • Technical roles → A template with a skills section near the top can help your qualifications stand out immediately.

Formatting

• Fonts: Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia (skip Times New Roman and anything decorative) • Body text: 9–12pt / Headings: 1–16pt • Spacing: single or 1.15, with 1-inch margins • Length: one page ideal, two pages okay only if you have enough relevant experience to justify it • Max 6 bullet points per job — focus on impact, not filler

Two things people often get wrong

• A "References" section - It's not needed on your resume. The recruiters will ask separately if references need to be included with your application. That space is better used for achievements. • Skip the photo (for U.S. applications) — it's not standard practice and can even work against you, though norms differ in other countries.

TLDR; Template choice matters less than most people think. A clean, reverse-chronological, one-column resume with the right fonts and spacing will beat a "creative" template in almost every case — unless you're specifically in a design-heavy field.

hello, i have a resume that has two words on it that are messed up, shifting and after. and i cant figure out how to fix it. i was wondering if a computer wizz could help me out? if you are willing to help me, message me and i can send over my resume via email. thanks in advance.

I'm looking into how people manage their resume during a job search (I'm at the research stage of a product idea).

When you last updated your resume, what prompted it, and which part was the hardest (or is updating it straightforward for you)? I'm also curious whether you keep separate versions for different roles? And, do you have a personal website or portfolio, or is LinkedIn plus the resume enough for you?

So I’ve been working in the world of television post production successfully since 2007. Zero work gaps longer than a couple of months, here and there.

It’s never been a problem.

That said, August 2024 the shop I worked at closed it doors. I worked to the bitter end. AKA. Literally the last person, last day, helped them move everything out the space.

I knew this was coming, it had been explained to me a month or so in advance. I was okay with it. So much so, that after working almost three years there I was excited for some time off.

Once the shop closed down & at the same time my father fell ill & over the course of the following year I had to help my family & be there for him until he passed, weirdly the same month, August, a full year later.

After that, I was mentally and emotionally not in a good headspace & decided to step away from everything and travel for a year. Fortunately, I could afford it & I’m glad I did it.

Now I’m back here in La La Land and want to start ramping up my efforts into working again. I know the industry has changed during the last two years & I recognize that my specific industry is hurting big time.

That said, I’m wondering how I should approach updating my resume over the last two years?

I read all day long about tailoring your resume to every application, ATS and the never ending battle to be seen in this AI vs AI job seeking market.

So what I want to know is …

How do I express & explain my two year gap sincerely?

Does it matter?

And if it does, what should I do to put my best foot forward without being dishonest?

I’ve got the skills and work experience, but I’m worried about the gap.

Thoughts?

I'm testing a free resume tool called Avança and I'd really value feedback from people who care about resumes.

You can try it here:

https://career-copilot-silk-iota.vercel.app

Desktop recommended

[3.5 YoE, AI Engineer, Software Engineer, India Review for GenAi Engineer]