Resume & job-search guides

Specific, honest answers to the questions that actually come up — including the ones where the honest answer is "no tool can do that for you".

How long should a resume be? One page or two depends on years of experience, not on a rule you half-remember. Here is the actual test, plus what to cut when you are over. How to explain an employment gap on your resume A gap you name in one line stops being a question. Here is how to write that line, where to put it, and what to say when it comes up in the interview. Do you need a different resume for every job? Not a different resume — a different top third. What to actually change per application, what to leave alone, and how to do it in twenty minutes. What to leave off your resume A resume is a fixed amount of attention. Everything that does not earn its line is costing you one. Here is what to cut, and why. How to write resume bullet points that get read The difference between a duty and an achievement, shown in real before-and-after rewrites across seven professions. Plus what to do when you have no numbers. What an ATS actually does to your resume Applicant tracking systems do not reject resumes for using the wrong font. Here is what they actually do, what genuinely breaks parsing, and what is myth. Is a cover letter still necessary? A cover letter that restates your resume is wasted effort. One that explains something the resume cannot is worth writing. Here is how to tell which you have. How many jobs should you apply to? Fifty scattershot applications lose to five well-matched ones — but five is not enough. Here is how to find the middle, and how to track it.

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