Resume That Gets Interviews — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:01] when it comes to writing a resume. The first group spends hours agonizing over every word of their resume, rewriting the same sentence a hundred times. The second group opens chat GBT and lets AI throw something together in 2 minutes.

[00:15] And guess what? Neither one of those résumés gets interviews because whether you overthink it or autogenerate it, both approaches ignore the one thing hiring managers actually care about, alignment. or in simple terms, are you

[00:30] actually a good match? Not your formatting, not fancy wording, just requirements on paper? Because here's one thing you need to know. Being qualified and showing someone that you're qualified are two wildly

[00:44] today, I'm going to show you the simplest method to fix that. A method you can build in 60 seconds, and it's helped my clients land interviews even after months of silence. Now, I've helped thousands of professionals land

[00:59] interviews and offers faster. And before I became a career coach, I was a recruiter reviewing hundreds of résumés a week. And what I can tell you is this. Your resume isn't failing because you're not qualified. It's failing because it's

[01:12] not positioned properly. And that's exactly what we're here to fix. Now, most people write resumes thinking employers care about every little thing that they've done. They create huge documents all about them, but hiring

[01:25] managers don't care. Now, I know what you're thinking. But Lucy, I've got a master's degree in this and I've got a PhD in that. And that's great, but if the subjects are irrelevant, what value is that to the employer? Recruiters,

[01:37] hiring managers, and business leaders all do the same thing when they look at resume for the first time. They scan for patterns. They scan for answers. And they scan for relevance. And if your resume doesn't immediately show them

[01:49] what they're looking for, you get ignored in under 15 seconds. So, let's change that with the simplest and most effective résé hack I've ever used. And effective résé hack I've ever used. And when I say simple, I mean simple. I

[02:02] working in recruitment. So, what would happen is I'd get a job description from a client and be tasked to go find or headunt someone to match all of those requirements. Pretty simple, right? Well, that's what you'd think. But I'd

[02:15] pull out a bunch of résumés from the people who'd applied. And as I ran through them, I'd realized that 99% of the applicants didn't even come close. engineering director with 15 years of experience working in developing

[02:30] countries, for example. And the first thing I'd see would be resumes from project managers, quality assurance managers, highway engineers. Not one of them were titled as a director, and not one of them had 15 years experience.

[02:43] They'd failed before I even got to the long list of other stipulations my long list of other stipulations my client had added. So, look, this is what I want you to do. Before you write any resume, create a T-chart. Grab a blank

[02:56] page, draw a line down the middle, and on the left hand side, label it they want. And then on the right hand side, write I have. Now, you can probably see how it works. And please don't skip this step or hand it over to chat GBT because

[03:10] for some reason AI seems to be terrible at this. And let's face it, there's nobody who knows what you've actually done better than you do. So step one, we're going to fill the left side first. So use five to 10 job descriptions for

[03:25] the role you're targeting. Write down the skills, the systems, the qualifications, the experience, the industry background, KPIs, problems the role solves. Essentially, this column is the cost of entry and what you're going

[03:37] to need to even stand a chance of getting your foot in the door. So, if descriptions and you're sat there thinking, "I've not even done half of this or you don't recognize the systems or terminology they use," don't waste

[03:50] your time. Because if that's the case, I can tell you now, you're not a good fit, and you'd be better off re-evaluating what you should be targeting. Now, I'll maybe cover that in another video, but anyway, once you've done this as

[04:03] thoroughly as possible, now fill the right side step by step. So, here's where you list everything you have that matches. So, achievements, metrics, hard skills, tools, and systems, years of specific industry experience, project

[04:16] with the same type of companies. Again, be as detailed as you can. And then move on to step three, aligning them. So, you don't write bullets about your past. You write bullets that respond to the

[04:29] employer needs. This is the secret. This is why AI generated resumes fall flat. ignored because neither group is matching what they have to what hiring managers actually care about. The T-chart forces you to look at how well

[04:45] you meet the requirements in the same way the employer will. It also makes you rewrite your experience in the employer's language, not yours and definitely not chat GBTS. Now, one of my clients went 6 months with zero call

[04:58] backs. He had great experience and could clearly say that he met 80 to 90% of the requirements for the roles that he was applying for. But unfortunately, his resume wasn't showing it. Now, when we sat down, he was completely baffled. He

[05:11] told me that he'd been using various ré writing tools and they'd all been giving him top ré scores. But when we first ran through the requirements on the T-chart, the penny dropped. I sat there and said, "Okay, so you've used this system,

[05:25] right?" He'd say, "Yeah, for years." But I'd then say, "Okay, but it's not mentioned on your resume once." I'd then say, "And you've worked internationally, managed the AP pack division for a while." But again, I said, "Okay, and

[05:41] where does it say that on your resume?" And he just looked at me blank face. Well, that's this bit, he'd say, pointing out a tiny section that mentions spearheading crossmarket expansions. And this is where I'd have

[05:54] to politely say, "Okay, so you know that was international work, but if the word international isn't there, how does anyone else?" So from that point on, we built his T-chart, rewrote his bullets to match each of the requirements, and

[06:07] within two weeks, he had four interviews lined up. Same experience, different positioning, completely different outcome. So, now that you've aligned what you have with what they need, now you're ready to build a resume that

[06:21] actually gets interviews. And you can do it in five simple steps. Now, step one is to clarify your target. You cannot build a resume that gets interviews until you choose one specific job. That becomes the first part of your headline.

[06:36] Now, sure, you might find that some companies label things slightly different. And that's where tailoring comes in. If the job is the same, essentially you just use the same title. The job description does and this

[06:49] becomes the theme of your entire resume. It determines what stays and what gets removed. This is the foundation. Then along with your job title, I then add how many years of relevant experience you have in that field, any niche

[07:03] expertise and specific skills so that your headline alone labels you as a perfect fit. Now once done you move to step two building your professional summary and top third of your resume strategically. Now look this is the most

[07:17] important real estate on your resume. This is where the decision is made. Now professional summary should be a mini version of your entire resume and match the job description so well that there's almost no need to read further. So

[07:31] here's how you're going to achieve that. Firstly, you need to create instant clarity. So here's my suggestion. Build your summary using four to five short bullets or sentences that directly match the core requirements from your teacher

[07:45] or specific job description. So for example, let's say the common request is for an engineering director with 10 years experience in the construction sector, high value, high-rise project experience, national and international

[07:57] exposure. And they mention specific systems or contract frameworks like systems or contract frameworks like Fidic, NEC, Prima Vera P6, AutoCAD, Revit or SAP. Now, if you have those things, your summary should clearly

[08:09] reflect them. So, instead of writing a vague paragraph about being motivated, hardworking, or strategic, you break their requirements into simple matching bullets, one bullet per requirement. And here's what that looks like visually.

[08:21] So, 12 years delivering high-v value construction projects across national and international markets. Led 25 plus high-rise development projects, each high-rise development projects, each individually valued between 150 and 500

[08:33] million. extensive experience working under FIDIC and NEC contract frameworks and so on. Now, do you see how that creates an instant match? There's no arguing about it. They want something you highlight you've got it. Now, you

[08:46] will also need to back this up with the summary and bullets for each of your roles listed as they read through your resume, but you will have them hooked. And of course, if you prefer, you can create a short paragraph that explains

[08:58] the same thing. So, something like this. engineering director with 12 years experience delivering high-V value construction projects across national and international markets. Proven leadership running multiple high-rise

[09:10] developments valued between 150 and 500 million with extensive expertise working under Fidic and NEC contract frameworks. Highly skilled in Prima Vera P6, AutoCAD and Rebbit with a strong track record leading multiddisciplinary teams and

[09:26] consistently delivering complex builds ahead of schedule and within budget. Either way is completely fine. It just needs to clearly highlight you're a match and be easy to read. Which brings me nicely onto my next point about

[09:38] visual simplicity. So, by this I simply mean that you should aim to ensure that your resume is easy to skim, has clean spacing, and doesn't contain huge walls of text, and cuts out any filler language. Look, when hiring managers

[09:52] scan your resume, they might even be viewing it via mobile or tablet, and they're asking four questions. Who are you? What do you bring? Can you prove it? And are you relevant to this role? And the top third must answer all four

[10:06] instantly. Now crack this and the rest is easy. Okay, so now you need to build your employers, give an overview of their size and nature and insert employment dates and fill an overview of

[10:20] what you achieved in each role. Now when you're doing this, lead with impact, not results. So instead of saying responsible for managing client accounts, instead what's better to say is grew key accounts by 18% generating

[10:35] 450k in annual revenue. The human brain is wired to notice change particularly when tied to numbers. So where possible, you should show the difference. Now if you need help with that, you can grab 100 plus examples of how to add

[10:49] quantifiable metrics to your resume below this video. I'll pin the link to grab the download in the comments. It's free. But also keep your T-chart in mind at all times. If it's not in the they need column, then there's probably no

[11:03] point adding it to your resume. Now, the last step is to futureproof your story. Your resume shouldn't reflect where you've been. It should reflect where you're going. Position yourself for the next role. Highlight potential, not just

[11:17] history. Tie your achievements to the outcomes companies are not only trying to achieve this year, but next year, too. That's how you'll stand out. And you know, another one of my clients followed this exact process. So, she

[11:29] clarified her target, built the T-chart, aligned her resume, and instead of applying online, she emailed the CEO directly with a tailored resume. She landed an interview the next day, got an offer in less than 48 hours, and started

[11:44] saying this will happen every time, but when your resume is aligned with what they need and you speak to the right people who have the power to make the hiring decisions, opportunities can turn around fast. So, to recap, here's your

[11:59] simple resume formula. T-chart top third, results, relevance, future process and you include these things, your resume will not only tick the boxes when going through the ATS, but when it lands on the desk of a real person,

[12:14] they'll be able to instantly say, "Let's get this person in for an interview." So, yeah, give it a try and I can guarantee that you'll have more success than you ever have, even if all of your attempts have failed in the past. And if

[12:27] step, I'll leave the link to my one-to-one coaching program in the description. But for now, go build your T-chart. It will completely change how you write your resume. And if you enjoyed this video, you should go take a

[12:40] look at this video where I share an overview of the strategy used by my client who had that 48 hour success. I'll see you there.