Writing a résumé that reflects your actual worth

A résumé is not a job history. It is a record of judgment — the decisions you made, the problems you inherited, and what changed because you were there.

Begin with outcomes. Before writing a single bullet, list the five things that measurably improved under your care. Revenue, retention, turnaround time, error rates, morale, safety. If you cannot measure it, describe the before and after in plain language.

Then write each bullet in three parts: the situation you found, the action you took, the result that followed. Keep it to two lines. Recruiters read in fragments, not paragraphs.

Remove every phrase that could appear on anyone else's résumé. 'Team player', 'detail-oriented', and 'results-driven' communicate nothing. Replace them with specifics only you could claim.

Finally, read it aloud. If it sounds like you apologizing for taking up space, rewrite it until it sounds like a calm statement of fact.