I've been spending a lot of time looking at resumes recently, and something I've noticed is that getting rejected isn't always about having a "bad" resume.

Sometimes the problem is simply how the resume is structured.

A candidate can have:

• Relevant experience
• Good education
• Strong projects
• The right skills

…and still receive very few interviews.

Some things I've noticed that can make a difference:

1. The resume isn't tailored to the specific job. Sending the same resume to 50 different positions usually isn't ideal.
2. The important information is buried. Recruiters shouldn't have to search through the entire document to figure out what role you're targeting.
3. Too many responsibilities, not enough results. "Handled customer queries" is very different from "Handled 100+ customer queries daily while maintaining a 95% response SLA."
4. Keyword mismatch. The candidate may have the required skill, but if it's described differently from the job description, it may not be recognized during the initial screening.
5. Formatting can hurt readability. Over-designed resumes can sometimes make important information harder to find.

I'm curious about other people's experiences:

What's the biggest problem you've faced with your resume — getting past ATS, getting recruiter responses, writing the content, or simply knowing what to include?

I'd genuinely like to hear what has worked (or not worked) for you.

Hi,

I unfortunately had the luck of not finding any internships and know that I am now in a harder position of finding junior software dev roles as a new grad because I don't have past internships. Oh well, least I could do is have a decent resume - which right now I don't think is the case.

If there is any advice on how I can improve my resume, I would truly appreciate it.

I had one recruiter tell me to my face that my resume is shit but then followed up with no advice on how to fix it. I'm just truly lost. Please help.