2024 proven strategies to nail a winning resume and take the guesswork out of an interview

In this article, we will explore what makes a good resumé and LinkedIn profile, first through individual sections, before we put all the pieces together - leading into navigating through the interviewing process successfully.

Behind my passion for Behavioral Science is a drive to understand patterns and systems; because if you do get to understand their limits and rules, you can use this knowledge to formulate intrinsic frameworks that make you a better player of the game, rather than try to force the system to bend to your own rules and preferences (which never works, as proven by anyone's experience).

I've applied this approach successfully to all walks of life, and in the wake of recent transitions in the IT industry, proficient job-hunting has not been an exception: I recently secured an executive position after an intense hiring process, in the middle of massive reductions in force across the board.

I'm sharing here the exact strategies that opened the door to this opportunity and the ones that sealed the deal, and I will walk you through the process step by step so that you get the maximum out of it, in minimal time, and without the guesswork. If this sounds fair, maybe grab a cup of coffee before we get started, as there is much to cover.

The Prime principle: recruiting is an elimination process

If you know anyone working in HR, they will confirm that whenever they are working on filling a req, they have mere seconds to scan through a resumé, and oftentimes, a piece of software (referred to as ATS for Applicant Tracking System) has done some version of early scrutinizing for them, looking at keywords that may match with the job's posting requirements.

With the number of applications per posting, this means that the de-facto recruiting strategy in all industries is to eliminate unfit candidates as quickly and efficiently as possible, in a process that may be missing many details. For this reason, our resumés and LinkedIn pages need to nail all of the aspects of a successful profile as otherwise, things being equal and two candidates tied, whoever offers one too many reasons to be eliminated ends out of the race.

This is especially important when it comes to selecting the content of our resumé and LinkedIn profile: it's not about documenting our entire work life, but about highlighting those experiences that are in line with the job we are applying for, and more widely, with the direction we want our careers to grown in.

It is also about considering how we position our candidature for a job: do we come with solutions to put on the table or are we starting a new chapter where it's more sensible to earn and learn?

You might have heard that attitude primes over competence, and that may apply to starter and unskilled jobs where a company provides training from scratch, but this is less relevant as the position becomes more senior (and we all have examples in mind of very skilled professionals with whom we would not have a meal with but progress in their jobs because of the outcomes they produce).

The key factor is to remember the elimination logic: attitude can definitely be eliminatory, but in many cases will not be sufficient to secure a high-specification job, and the more specialized and valuable a position is, the more overlooked character may be in favor of competence. A good candidate hones both.

Pro-tip #1: a good attitude is expected when you are applying for a job - but in most cases will not be enough to get you the job. It might make you lose it, though, so don't make it an elimination factor.

• Action item: clean up your work history so it offers a congruent narrative.

The "About Me" section

Your "About Me" or executive summary of a resumé and LinkedIn profile should give context about what drives you, reflect on your character and your values, and hint about the direction you are aiming for - you don't need to fill it with keywords, as when and if this section is read, it's more likely to be by a human who is trying to understand who they are dealing with.

More importantly, this section should lay down what we've done (as objectifying as it may be, resumés and LinkedIn profile put the emphasis on what we do, rather than on who we are), but temperament can also be highlighted by walking through where we come from, where we are now and what drives us, along with the successes that have shaped us.

A good practice can reflect on what we have become known for in your professional environment, as this reflects on some of our intrinsic values, our relationship with our peers, and the contributions we are likely to bring to the table. The specific thing not to do, is to speak of ourselves in the third person, as if a journalist or a PA was writing this section for us - it shows a disconnect with reality and potential narcissistic and superiority complex tendencies that will play against us. If we take a peek at Hock Tan's introduction section, one of the most skillful CEOs of our time and a master at his craft, while running his business almost in the shadows and with the power of discretion, we'll notice a well-articulated paragraph, written in the first person perspective, laying down his accomplishments and successes since the very first sentence.

The last sentence of this section could be a more personal one, showing the profile has not been solely optimized for bots and business purposes, showing we are a human, and giving a hint of what kind of human we are.

• Action item: write up a summary of your history so far, including your successes, your current chapter, and the next one - if that applies.

Pro tip #2: your "About you" section can finish with a sentence about what you enjoy doing outside of work. It makes you relatable, shows that you are a human and not over-optimizing your profile for a machine.

Pictures: they matter

When it comes to a resumé, there may be concerns about companies profiling candidates based on race, age, gender and appearance; there also exists a bias that leads to thinking that attractive people are also equally competent and intelligent, and those are (all good) reasons not to include a photograph on a resumé.

Except that not having one is a strong elimination factor, even more so on a LinkedIn page, where either a bad or a generic picture reflects poorly on us, our investment in our careers or in the recruiting process, or exhibits a lack of attention to detail and quality - all of which are reasons enough individually to skip a candidate, in the eyes of a recruiter or hiring manager.

Profile pictures should be professional photographer level, with a soft background where possible (think bokeh) that doesn't distract, is well lit, and you should appear friendly and approachable. This excludes selfies, wedding and vacation pictures, photos with pets or a partner, and poorly cropped pictures.

LinkedIn also provides the ability to personalize the background of our profile page: this is another case where the default picture is detrimental, and the options are wide - from a current employer's background to one that speaks of our location (if tied to it), or style (community working), a quote, or our own personal brand.

• Action item: make an appointment with a photographer to get some portraits done. If you have a friend equipped with 50 to 135 mm lenses, 50 and 85 mm work well, especially when coupled with small apertures (under f/2.8
• Action item: take a minute to personalize your LinkedIn profile background before you come back for some more reading.

Pro tip#3: if you are not sure what to put in your LinkedIn backrgound, a picture of a road leading into the distance always works well.

Pro tip#4: if you dont' have access to a photographer but have some pictures you like and want to enhance, and have access to a recent version of photoshop, you can search for fake bukeh tutorials online (here is an example: https://retutstudio.com/make-fake-bokeh-in-photoshop/). You can turn a picture like this:

into this:

The tagline

Our resumé should always be tailored to the job we're going for. The heading should be our first and last name, followed by the position we are applying to (not our current one, if we are employed).

On our LinkedIn profile, we have quite some leeway for free text, and it's often abused with a multitude of keywords separated by a pipe or vertical bar ("|"). This gives the impression we may not be focused enough, or trying to cast a large net blindly, a mile wide but an inch shallow. I much rather suggest to start with our current job and employer (ex: Support Manager at Company Name) followed by either a couple of key competencies separated by pipes; we get bonus points if we can reflect awards and achievements there (think : award-wining...).

• Action item: take a few minutes to rephrase your LinkedIn tagline around two to three of your core competencies.

Pro-tip #5: you can add a pitch instead of a core competency - this works well in a number of scenarios, including people who offer services. This format works well: "I do core_competency in this_amount_of_time without the_asle_of".

The work experience section

As highlighted previously, our work experience section should be a selection of relevant chapters in our life - this applies equally to a resumé and LinkedIn. Most importantly, this is the place where we show we are an achiever rather than a doer (and yes, hardworking is an attribute of a doer - anyone can be hardworking or expected to work hard, it is part of good character expectations. Hardworking is not a good trait to include anywhere on our CVs and professional profiles).

The format I recommend is to describe the job function in a sentence, and then list our achievements in the role in bullet points. Achievements should be outcomes that are quantifiable either in figures, percentage change, or ranks.

Pro-tip #6: "Ranked #1 in _____ for amount_of_time" works well.

Pro-tip #7: use adverbs (modifiers of a verb) to your advantage to create strong statements: "aggressively reduced execution times by 50%".

Specifically to LinkedIn, each job experience can be filled with skills and keywords - get them endorsed by your network (our LinkedIn profile is our social proof, and what others say about us can move the needle heavily).

The side gig and/or self-employment portion

If we are in a case where we have been self-employed for a period, or we have a side business, it's very important to stick to a compelling and coherent narrative. Having a side gig may feel good for confidence and we might think it reinforces our experience, but from an employer's point of view, it raises questions such as:

• what is the dedication we can expect from this person if they're splitting their time? Are they going to be fully committed to the job they are applying for?
• what is the real degree of competence of a professional who cannot make a living out of their own business, to the extent they need a full-time or alternative job to sustain it?

If we need to add this portion to a LinkedIn profile, then, maybe, the volunteering section makes more sense.

If we have been self-employed, especially in the case of a small/limited company that stood for a sole trader, and we incorporate that as part of our experience because it did build our skillset for a sufficient amount of time, then the exit strategy warrants a line (ex: activity ceased due to relocation - is a good example).

What is even more important is to thoroughly think about the title we give ourselves, in order not to discredit our persona: one should only mention being CEO of a company when said entity has an executive structure (CEO of oneself doesn't fool anyone and immediately eliminates us). For smaller structures, General Manager or Company Director are appropriate; for unipersonal structures, "Principal at MyCompany", or "Principal (job function)" are very good options, as are Freelance and Self-employed, which are very respectable.

The education section

Unless we're freshly out of college, or our most recent qualification is within a year and from a very prestigious institution, we should probably omit dates in this section. For one, our education may be obsolete, and more importantly, if we have extensive work experience, it is much more relevant to our aspirations than our diplomas. I myself have gone through a very arduous curriculum with extremely strict admission rules, only to hear after 8 years, on graduation day, that the qualification I obtained didn't make me "good at my craft", it just enabled me to exercise (and with caution) - just like a novice driver, we get a permit to drive, but it doesn't make us a good one.

The education section on a profile is best suited on a low real estate section, either after the work experience section or at the bottom of the left column on a two-column design.

Recommendations and endorsements

As mentioned earlier, our LinkedIn profile is our main source of social proof. Whether it opens the door to a job opportunity (generally by being head-hunted by a recruiter) or complements a resumé we're sending over as part of applying for a position (maybe also posted in the network), our recommendations and endorsement speak higher and better of us than we could - provided they are well written.

In the absence of third-party referrals, what we say about others and how we say it goes a long way to reflect what kind of individual we are, and there is a lot of value to endorsing others - we should spend time putting together the best recommendations we can, keeping in mind that what we say, good or bad, about others, is by extension attributed to our persona by those who listen.

It's important to keep the recommendations organic, and if possible, one way only (exchanges are very obvious). If we receive a recommendation that is subpar (ex: "I've always found so and so to be a good peer"), let's work with that person to get more out of the exercise - they might not be the strongest at wording, and if so, maybe we could go over their LinkedIn profile and help them run all the points we are now, in exchange of rewording their endorsement.

Pro-tip #8: a good strategy is to work with three people: A endorses B, B endorses C, C endorses A.

A resumé's structure

While our LinkedIn profile might be somewhat of a static document with slow changes over time as our career progresses, our resumé should be a fluid document that is specifically tailored to each and every one of our job applications. For this reason alone, our resumé should not be downloadable from our LinkedIn profile as it won't meet the tactical requirements of any position opening.

Two-column templates have become very popular as they satisfy the requirements we are outlining, while providing ease of reading to the human eye and still being compliant with ATS.

This is the format I go for, and I aim for two pages maximum:

The left column is our most valued real estate in the document - it's the hot spot where important pieces will naturally be highlighted, and we use this section exclusively to reflect the key strengths that apply to a job: we can find them in every req posting as the core requirements for the position. We transfer as many of them as it applies (it's never going to be a 100% match, and that is fine), with minimal rewording, as this is a section ATS will be scanning and looking for keyword matches.

This is also the reason we use the job's posting position title as a tagline under our first and last name, while the "About Me" section serves as a greeting and provides context on us, before we delve directly into our career progression and its highlights and achievements.

We close the document with our education summary, without dates unless pertinent (refer to prior explanation).

• Action item: rewrite your resumé using this framework so you can personalize it easily for any job offer that attracts your attention.

Pro-tip #9: Canva.com offers a wide selection of two-column templates. Pick one that is easy on the eye, clear, but still sets you appart from plain resumés.

Navigating the interview process - and taking the guesswork out of it

Once a resumé or a LinkedIn page opens the door to the interview process, the same elimination rationale will continue to drive the narrative forward.

The first step usually involves a recruiter, and no matter how friendly his or her questions are (and the same applies to successive stages), they are meant to find a reason not to proceed further. If you think of it in terms of probability, there are many more chances to find reasons to disqualify a person than otherwise, therefore it's a much more efficient and speedier way to conduct business.

If we pass the first set of elimination questions, we will irremediably end up being asked about our salary aspirations; if we hear this question, it means that we have raised enough interest to be eligible for the next round of interviews, provided we fit in the budget allocated for the position, which at this stage is the ultimate elimination criteria. One should never answer with a figure, but with a range, and put it in context. A good answer could use the following elements: "A professional with my experience could expect between this and this much for a similar position in a similar company size and industry; I would need to know more about the role itself, the company culture, and direction, to understand where I would fit in that range, and I'm hoping to achieve this when I have a chance to speak with the hiring manager(s)".

Pro-tip #10: I've used these variations very succesfully in my career: "Since this is an approved req, can I ask what the salary range for it, is?" and: "I know you have to ask that question and that my answer is going to be a range, which is not ideal for you. So I'll give you my current compensation figures and you can tell me what the approved salary range is, and based on that we can both decide if it makes sense to continue any further". (The last one works better for horizontal moves and/or senior positions).

Once we pass the recruiter exam, the next steps are going to be rounds of interviews with hiring managers, sometimes on a one-to-one basis, sometimes with a panel. Each round should expose us to more senior decision-makers and we should be very smart about how we reference previous exchanges within the organization: some questions or affirmations can only be made in a certain order.

But before we explore these statements in more detail, let's have a peek at interviewing practices. You may have heard of the STAR interview method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. It's a response framework for questions asking about concrete examples in a candidate's past. This approach assumes that past behavior is a good predictor for future one, and has long been debunked (for once, it's not an accurate measure of potential, amongst many other flows), but is still prevalent in the field and has a place to help identify and measure the "solutions" a prospective professional carries with them.

The questions asked may sound like: “Describe a situation where,” “Tell me about a time you had to,” or “Share an example of when you.” The expectation then is to clearly establish a situation, the task given, the actions taken to overcome any obstacles or challenges, and the outcome - which is expected to be positive, or a success.

Pro-tip #11: cherry picking the positive from the negative, or being selective in any way, is engrained in human nature, and makes us bad professionals. By definition, being selective means we ignore part of the situation and are not able to factor all of it in our decision making process, leading to not learning from the areas we have ignored. This is why the same people keep making the same mistakes. Don't be one of these people.

Pro-tip #12: however, during an interview process, it's not about how competent a professional you are in daily life, it's about how well you can represent your successes. You have to play to "positivism" card to win at this hand of the game, and the STAR method is a good approach to articulate any or most answers, irrelevant of the asking framework.

The questions we are asked tend to be a good reflection of the caliber of the hiring manager(s), and we should keep this in mind when assessing our own fit for a role. Back to my experience, the smartest interviewers asked the right questions, and as challenging as they were, they were also the deciding factor for me to step forward: "Tell me about your successes" (this implies that professional life is made up of challenges and successes, without taking from one or the other, and implicitly assumes we learned from the challenges to find our ways into successes, and asks about that journey). "What have you built with your own hands?". "How would you solve this problem..."

If and when we get the last type of question, a situational one, it's our queue to understand we are making a good impression: we are being judged not on what we have done, but on our capacity. Talent comes in many shapes and forms, and we, just as hiring managers, are going to lean towards those we have some sort of affinity with; in that sense, as intrinsic beings, we are all special and unique, but the outputs we produce - funneled through who we are and how we do things - either meet or don't meet certain criteria. Once they leave the sphere of our persona, they become static, more binary, items that are either fit for purpose or not (and that's why sometimes our best isn't good enough). If we are not given an opportunity to be judged on our performance, we ought to ask for it: it will serve both the hiring company and ourselves best to ultimately decide if we are a good fit AND can do the job.

Here is what Mélanie O'Donovan , who has had a stellar career, has to say about the interviewing process, in a very complementary manner to what we've explored and as an eye opener from someone who started in the front line and has gone all the way to the top of the executive ladder, and therefore knows well all the steps of the way, on what matters to her:

Do you have any questions for us?

Either out of courtesy or because we did well, the interviewer will close their round of questions by asking us if we have any for them - this is where we come back to the point of asking the right questions in the right order.

We always ask questions - not asking questions is a disqualifier on its own. Even if we didn't do well, we'll still be given an opportunity to ask questions, and we should take it.

The questions we ask are going to be very different depending on whom we are speaking with. To a recruiter, if going for a senior position, a good one may be: "Can you walk me through the rationale of seeking an external candidate for this role, rather than taking advantage of the internal pool who is already familiar with the company, its processes, its culture?"

For the first round of interviews with a hiring manager, I like to ask: "You're obviously looking for a very specific profile - could you share some of the problems you're trying to solution with this role?"

The order is important because on a second round of interviews, whether it is with the same hiring manager, their own managers, or a panel, we can reference it and build upon it: "We already discussed with person X the challenges that this position seeks to address, so I'm familiar with that. I'm interested in understanding your own success criteria for the role, and more generally, how being successful with this company looks like. Do you have an example of somebody is? What does their day look like?"

Sometimes, if we know we won't have additional rounds of interviews, those two questions can be stacked together, in that particular order.

Pro-tip #13: If we didn't do well, asking a question is unlikely to move the needle for us, but asking the right question is a way of finishing on a good note, and this applies to everything in life. Never end on a bad note.

Pro-tip #14: This is the question I suggest we ask when we know we have bombed the interview: "At this stage, I'm sure you have interviewed other, very competent, candidates. Is there any qualities that are important for this role that they have showcased and that I didn't have an opportunity to speak of?"

The Prospecting Strategy and the Power of good will

Perhaps here I need to put a disclaimer and clarify that I haven't had to look for a job in the last 15 years: I've been head-hunted instead, and therefore my personal experience with actively looking for a role is limited. As a matter of fact, I keep pushing back on running my own project/company/NGO because I keep getting proposed roles, which is a good problem to have (it might have to wait until retirement, at this stage). And it's all down to goodwill, which I will come back to in a moment.

LinkedIn offers the possibility of setting oneself as open to work, with the well-known green badge, and offers enticing statistics on how much outreach these profiles have - which I do not doubt. On the other hand, when taking this approach, we also enter the dimension of being a commodity competing against many others, as opposed to working with the process of recruiting, in a market of one, by prospecting based on interests and recommendations.

I recently read an article quoting a recruiter, who, in their own words, said they go to LinkedIn to "search for talent, not unemployed people". The obvious counterargument is that talent doesn't vanish overnight when one loses their position in a company, but it gives a good understanding of the psychology behind high-value job-seeking. For those who are familiar with sales, it's similar to a direct approach - which yields very poor outcomes (ie: "Would you be interested in ..."); as opposed to asking for a reference ("Hi, since you are the type of person who ______, would you know anyone interested in ________. I've just worked with several people who had this ***similar problem*** and solved it in this ***short amount of time*** by doing ***this***, and without ***this effort and sacrifice***, and I have two openings. I value your opinion very highly and was thinking any recommendations coming from you would be a superior match").

The decision to put on the Open-to-Work badge might be down to the amount of pressure we are in to find a job, and there might not be a universal answer - strategies are highly circumstantial. If one can face financial restrictions for a certain amount of time and has a network, or is ready to spend 8 hours a day prospecting, that might take longer but also yield a high-speced offer. But searching for a job from a job, even if it's one that only pays the bills or is a earn and learn opportunity, is an equally valid option that sets fewer constraints, but might require more steps.

• Action item: Bill Todd , a former CEO of smaller companies, shares his wealth of experience on his YouTube channel "The companies expert", including suggestions on how to network when seeking a new role. I thoroughly recommend going through all of his material.

Back to goodwill: as an intangible asset, it's one which works in the long run and for which it is imperative not to keep a track record. You give, give, give, give, and keep giving the best you have until you are asked for something. This has major repercussions on multiple layers, a few ones being that you become an expert in your own right, you are able to output regardless of return over long periods, and become the most sought-after person in times of need, either by people you know or by people you don't know. The last two head-hunters that manifested an interest in my profile (enough to get me to CEO-level interviews) did not know me directly, but some investigation on their side quickly uncovered what decades of goodwill has laid down before and after/for me. I can credit my career opportunities to this factor alone in a very, very large portion.

Pro-tip #15: don't be afraid to give your secrets away. They will fast-track your goodwill, and most people will still reach out to you, the source of knowledge, for implementation help. Because actual experience is part of the equation of transforming knowledge into outcomes, and most people or companies cannot take the risk of getting it wrong when the stakes are high.

Did you know that when you share quality material, even if you are not the source, you are also accruing your goodwill? People will link you to the high-quality material you have made available to them.

• Action item: if you can see how sharing valuable information with complete strangers, without visibility on the outcome, makes you a legend and supercharges your reputation and outcomes, including those of being recruited, why not share this article in and outside of your network? The return will most likely be indirect and when you least expect it, but, as a reference, if my experience is of any value, it'll go beyond your expectations and is well worth the character investment. This is where character may actually be a game-changer, after all. Be a legend.