Make Your Case
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
If your resume isn’t getting you the traction you want, the issue usually isn’t your experience…it’s which parts of your experience you’re choosing to spotlight. A resume’s job is to show your relevance quickly. When it doesn’t do that, even the strongest background gets lost in the noise.
A recent resume client came in after leaving a role that completely burned them out. They wanted a healthier environment, better balance, and a path back to work that actually felt good. The challenge wasn’t their experience…it was figuring out how to highlight the parts of their background that supported where they wanted to go next, not where they had been.
Most people arrange their resume by habit. They list everything they did, in the order they did it. But hiring teams don’t read resumes that way. They scan for alignment. They’re trying to understand, within a few seconds, whether your experience connects with what they need.
That’s why the top of each job matters so much. The work that’s most relevant to your target roles needs to go first. Not the tasks you spent the most time on…not the priorities of your old employer…the responsibilities and accomplishments that support the direction you’re moving toward now.
Order shapes clarity. Clarity shapes perception.
But order alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Listing tasks doesn’t show how you work. Demonstrating your experience does. You need to explain the context behind what you did…who you partnered with…how you approached the work…and what changed because of your involvement. That’s what turns generic bullets into relevant experience.
This shift is what helped the client reframe their resume. Once the document reflected the work that actually mattered to their goal roles, and once the context behind that work was clear, everything clicked. Their background read stronger. Their alignment was obvious. And they finally felt ready to move forward with confidence instead of burnout.
When your resume highlights the work that matters most, the reader doesn’t have to dig for your value…it’s already front and center.
Need help making your resume reflect the roles you actually want?
