Resume Writing Tips Backed by Hiring Data

Ronald Bass · 1 min read · May 9, 2026

A resume has one job, to get you past the first screen, and the problem is that most resumes fail at that job because they are written as a history rather than a pitch. The hiring data is clear about what works, the first screen is short, often under a minute, and the resume that wins is scannable, specific, and quantified, not a paragraph-per-role autobiography.The data on what hiring managers look for is consistent, they scan for the role, the tenure, and the measurable results, and the resumes that pass are the ones where the impact jumps out in the first few words of each bullet. The quantified bullet is the single highest-leverage change, because a line that says increased sales by twenty percent beats one that says responsible for sales, and the numbers give the reader something concrete to remember you by, which is the entire goal of a first screen.The formatting rules follow from how resumes are actually read, which is quickly and often by software first, so the layout