The document provides guidelines for writing a resume that will stand out to hiring managers. It recommends following the 5-15-45 rule by including a headline that grabs attention in 5 seconds, an accomplishments summary in 15 seconds, and more details in the 45 second section. Key tips include using keywords from the job description, quantifying accomplishments, and having sections that reinforce each other to make a strong overall impression on the reader.

1. One of the hardest things about writing a résumé that stands out is game theory. You’re
improving your résumé, but all the people you’re competing with are also improving theirs. So
here are a few general guidelines for résumé writing in today’s job market.
Always write a résumé with hiring managers’ and recruiters’ needs in mind. They’re swamped
and they often find reading résumés tedious. They’ll appreciate you for making their jobs a little
easier, and you’ll begin the relationship by demonstrating that you can help them. In order to get
their attention and show that you’re the best person for the job within 20 seconds, you can:
1. Follow what I call the 5-15-45 rule. Give the résumé three main sections. The
numbers pertain to the seconds it takes to read them. The first section is a headline that
grabs attention. Don’t just write “Résumé” or a generic job title like people did back in
the 1990s. Instead, come up with a brand statement—one or two sentences that say why
you’re uniquely qualified for the job.
2. Put a summary section in the top half of the first page with a bulleted list of 3 to 5 of your
accomplishments that best fit the requirements in the job description. This is the 15-
second section. Include facts about things you did for your past employers that are similar
to what the hiring company is looking for.
3. Put a few words in bold. See how that sentence stands out? Highlight words and phrases
in the summary’s list that are emphasized in the job description. This helps managers
who are flooded with résumés. Your résumé will stand out by taking them by the hand
and leading them through your main selling points.
4. Build for comfort as well as for speed. I’ve recently heard recruiters say that an attractive
design makes a big difference. They get so many résumés that reading them is often
tiring. So you can score points by making your résumé more inviting. There are many
ways to do this, but here are three of the most effective:
 Use white space generously. Wall-to-wall text burdens readers.
 Be classical. Make your résumé symmetrical, and pay close attention to the top so that
your name, contact info, headline, and summary comprise an attractive design. Those
ancient Greeks knew what they were doing when they developed their temple
architecture. The handsome capitals and roof pediments made their sacred buildings
statelier.
 Be even more classical. Many books about résumé writing include samples with tables,
shading, dialog boxes, and cute markers (instead of plain old bullets) to itemize lists.
Those résumés are pretty, but these books are outdated because many applicant tracking
systems can’t read these features. Some of these features can even make them
misinterpret the data. Keep your formatting simple. Your résumé still has to look better
than the others, but use taste and understatement.
Here are a few more tips:
1. Avoid standardized templates. If you found out that all of the other six applicants wore
the same off-the-rack suit to the interview would you wear it too? This is how standard
designs from online résumé building tools, and résumé writers who use templates, often
appear to managers and recruiters. A customized design that’s a little more attractive,

2. which complements your unique selling points without being flashy, will be
greatly appreciated.
2. Most résumés are first screened by an applicant tracking software system (ATS) so that
7.2 out of 10 résumés aren’t even seen by human beings. It’s thus crucial to intelligently
put keywords in yours. Newer ATS’s are able to process the context around keywords.
For example, they can read the dates of employment when you put a keyword under a
company in your résumé’s employment section. They can conclude from this that you
had that many years’ experience with it. So if you had five years’ experience doing
something that the job description lists, include that in your résumé’s employment
section—don’t just put it in a separate list of skills.
3. Another key point about keywords: You can’t predict the words that a recruiter will use
for the search. Customer support, customer care, and technical support often mean the
same thing. A recruiter could type any of these terms in the search box. A good bet is to
use the same words that are in the job description, but that’s still only a bet. So use
several synonyms in your résumé (newer ATS’s can process synonyms, like lawyer and
attorney). Some ATS’s rank résumés by the number of relevant keywords, so use many
(but never keyword stuff because ATS’s can detect all the tricks that hide keywords from
human eyes–like using white and super-small fonts–and they’ll automatically disqualify
you).
If you think including a lot of keywords contradicts the importance of using white space
liberally, you’re right. You’re dealing with multiple needs when you write a résumé. It has to be
attractive and easy for people to read, yet it must convey all the relevant information about you,
and it has to have all the appropriate keywords to pass the ATS’s initial screening. A résumé is
one of the hardest documents to write well.
That 15-second section is crucial, but so is the 45-second part. If the manager is still interested
after reading the former, he or she will look for more details in the latter. So say more about your
accomplishments to validate the points in your summary. Both sections thus support each other.
The first is a quick synopsis and the second backs up its claims. So instead of repeating the
summary’s points, add more details that will both flesh out and reinforce them in the manager’s
mind.
Here are a few things that will strengthen your 45-second section:
1. Prioritize your accomplishments and state the most important one first. I’ve seen people
applying for C-level positions list a VP-level accomplishment first. I worked with a client
who was looking for a CEO position, and the first accomplishment he mentioned was
about organizing a department in his company. I told him, “That’s great if you’re
applying for a VP position, but you need something bigger here.” I then asked him a lot
of questions about CEO-level accomplishments, like what he did to build an entire
company, and what impact he had on an industry.
2. Know your worth. At the other end of the seniority chain, I worked with a person who
had just gotten a Ph.D. in chemistry. He was worried about not having any experience, so
I asked him about his university research. Did he manage a lab? Did he manage a budget?
Did he complete any projects under budget? Did he finish them ahead of schedule? Did

3. he supervise anyone? Did he schedule tasks? Did he make decisions about purchasing
equipment? He answered “Yes” to almost every question, so we crafted a résumé that
made it seem that he had two years’ experience.
3. Think even more about your worth. Do you lack the buzzwords in the job description?
This can sometimes be worked around. I helped a technical writer who had been laid off
from a computer company that he was with for 15 years. It had a proprietary operating
system, so he never had a chance to work with systems most employers looked for, like
UNIX and Windows. But I realized that the system he had learned was as complex as
UNIX. So he had many skills that transferred to other jobs. He learned a complex
operating system. He wrote manuals that simplified it for users. He planned entire sets of
manuals. He worked closely with engineers while planning the doc sets. He
also developed writing and formatting standards for the whole publications department.
On the surface, he didn’t seem like a fit, but he actually had 95% of what employers
needed and he got a job in 5 weeks.
4. Quantify. The amount of information online is increasingly exponentially, so more
managers have strong mathematical backgrounds. Today many are gearheads, always
thinking about numbers on the job and off. So if you quantify what you did, you’re
speaking their language. You’re also grounding your claims about your accomplishments
in facts. But be precise with numbers—getting caught making a numerical error or a
sloppy estimate can immediately disqualify you. Contact your past employers and verify
the numbers if you need to.
5. Be musical. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony begins with just four notes. But he varied them
throughout the work so that they add up to a riveting drama about the struggles and the
ultimate triumph of a life well-lived. Of course we’re not writing symphonies here, but a
well-written résumé is in their most classic form. It begins with an opening statement
(your brand statement in the headline) and then develops it in several sections so that the
reader remembers it long after he/she puts it down. Your résumé’s sections (the headline,
the summary, the employment section, and any extra sections which include your
education, key skills, or personal interests) should comprise a logical sequence and
reinforce each other in a way that strengthens the manager’s impression that you’re the
best fit. You can use different keywords in different sections to increase your chance of
being noticed by resume tracking systems, and to avoid boring the reader—music can
please both machines and humans!
6. Seal the deal. I often like to include a closing statement at the bottom. It reinforces the
brand statement in the 5-second section, but it says it in a different way. It’s sometimes a
bit more personal, like a cover letter. It climaxes the document with a call to action, and if
it’s written well, it can get a few more of those gears in the manager’s head turning so
that he/she will invite you for an interview. A closing statement also gives aesthetical
balance to your résumé by complementing your headline. It’s logically related to it, not
only by verbally reinforcing it, but also by providing a visual base.
Résumé writing is rapidly becoming more challenging. More people are using the same
professional services and distributing their résumés in more places online. Also, the websites that
provide online résumé building tools are multiplying, and many of them allow a résumé to be put
on several job sites, and linked with many social media sites. So it’s increasingly common to
need to be noticed among thousands of applicants rather than a few dozen. Please make sure

4. that you constantly improve your résumé, compare it with your competition, and keep up with
changes in ATS technology (ATS’s have recently changed so that many formerly
effective résumé writing techniques will hurt you now—I’ve mentioned only a couple out of
many). Never take anything for granted. Résumé writing is more complex than it has ever been–
it’s now necessary to hire a professional with many skills.