Résumé Checklist

Every bullet starts with a strong action verb, not a weak lead-in. "Led," "built," "reduced" — not "responsible for" or "worked on."

No repeated leading words across bullets or sections. If three bullets in a row start with "managed," rewrite two of them.

No personal pronouns. Résumé bullets are implied first-person, "I" and "my" should never appear.

Consistent tense. Past roles in past tense, your current role in present tense, no mixing within a section.

Cut filler words that don't add information: "various," "successfully," "responsible for," "helped with."

Every bullet has a number or a concrete result where one honestly exists. A count, a percentage, a dollar figure, a timeframe. "Reduced deploy time by 40%," not "improved deploy process."

Bullets describe outcomes, not just duties. What changed because you did the work, not just a list of tasks.

Every number on the page, you can actually defend if asked to explain it in an interview.

Keywords from the job posting appear naturally where they're true, not stuffed in where they aren't.

One page, unless you have a specific, strong reason for two.

Consistent formatting throughout: one date format, one bullet style, one font, consistent spacing between sections.

No orphaned lines — a single word wrapping alone onto its own line at the end of a bullet.

Saved as a simple, ATS-readable format (plain PDF from a standard layout) unless you know the specific system accepts something fancier. No text boxes, no tables that trap key content, no icons standing in for words.

Contact info is current and the file name is professional, not "resume_final_v3_FINAL.pdf".

Read it out loud. Awkward phrasing is much easier to hear than to see.

Someone else has proofread it. You will not catch your own typos, you've read it too many times.

It's been re-read after a day away, not sent the same night you finished it.