The ATS Reality
75% of resumes are never seen by human eyes. They are parsed by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). If your resume has two columns, complex graphics, and progress bars for your skills, the ATS will fail to read it and instantly reject you.
The XYZ Formula
Google recommends the XYZ formula for bullet points: 'Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].'
- Bad: 'Wrote code for the database.'
- Good: 'Reduced database query time by 40% (X) resulting in 2-second faster page loads (Y), by implementing Redis caching and indexing (Z).'
Kill the Skill Progress Bars
Never put 'JavaScript: 80%'. It makes no sense. Just list your technical skills separated by commas at the top of the resume so the ATS can keyword-match them.