How to write bullet points on a resume

Let's talk about how to write bullet points on a resume.

You've likely seen recommendations about adding metrics, percentages, dollar amounts, etc., in the bulleted lists under your work experience section. And it's true that we want to see numbers and evidence whenever possible. But that's not the complete picture of what we're after.

As a job seeker, your goal is to show how your specific contributions impacted the companies you worked for.

Why were you essential to your employers? What was your ROI as an employee? How did you support your products and services? How did you make your company a better place?

A small trick that I like to use when writing bullet points is asking, "Why does this matter?"

Here's an easy example to demonstrate the point. Let's say, as a marketer, you:

• Pioneered successful podcast launches, authored in-depth industry reports, and championed A/B testing methodologies.

First of all, well done. These are great starting points. Now, let's dig a bit deeper.

1. What were these podcast launches, and what specifically about these launches made them successful?

2. Tell me more about these in-depth industry reports. What was their purpose? Were these lead magnets? Who was the target audience for these industry reports, and why was it important for them to receive these reports?

3. What did your A/B testing do specifically for your company's product or service? Did you improve on pre-existing click-through rates? Did they increase conversion rates? What did the data look like?

As I read your answers, what I want is to start finding reasons to covet you as an employee of my hypothetical company. If I ever needed a marketer, I'd want to be convinced that you should be my marketer. That you're the exact person who could solve my problems and make my company as successful as possible. 

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No, cover letters aren’t dead

No, cover letters aren't dead. 😁 Neither are resumes or CVs.

I can understand the sentiment behind why people think these documents are becoming obsolete. But there isn't a better way to capture a person's professional history than what a blank Word document can offer.

With resumes, you can be as creative as you like in how you arrange your experience, accomplishments, and skills.

With CVs, you can be as complex and detailed as you like with the information you share.

Cover letters are the special differentiators that showcase your critical thinking skills and who you are as a person.

To replace these documents, you'd need to create an entirely new job search ecosystem, with a new way to capture information that aligns with federal and state hiring regulations. What that might look like? I wouldn't know where to begin.

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None of the bullet points had any meaning for me

I spent this evening looking at resumes from job seekers who have been on the market for over a year. Marketers, line managers, project managers, and customer success managers - all saying that they've received 300-500 rejections and counting.

The one thing that stuck out to me, with all of these resumes, regardless of job title, was the bullet points under their work experience. There wasn't a single bullet point that captured my interest as a reader.

I saw metrics and percentages and business terminology. I saw creative font choices and fancy designs for the bulleted lists.

But none of the bullet points had any meaning for me. They weren't saying anything. For one marketer in particular, I sat there, scratching my head, and asked why any of her bullet points mattered at all.

The interesting thing is that these job seekers all worked for impressive employers. The products and services they supported all seemed pretty worthwhile. The companies themselves appeared to be doing well.

So where were these job seekers in the pie? What did their slice look like? And why did it seem like their contributions weren't amounting to anything?

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Not getting interviews for jobs you’re qualified for

3 possible reasons why you missed out on an interview for a job you're qualified for:

1. Your resume looks the same as the other resumes in the pile. Maybe your resume is AI-generated. Maybe your resume is a downloaded template with generic, uninteresting language. Or maybe your resume's language is a one-for-one copy of the job description.

- Deeper Dive: Hiring is an expensive, time-consuming, and emotional task that comes with a lot of risk for employers. When assembling your resume, ask yourself: what needs to go on your resume so that an employer would want to take a risk on you?

2. You set off an auto-reject trigger on an application's pre-screening question. You can sometimes set off these triggers by accident if the question's language isn't clear.

- Deeper Dive: Occasionally, the company is the one who programmed the condition rules incorrectly. Someone clicked on the wrong rule, or typed the wrong number, or made an error when configuring the rules.

3. Your current application was rejected because of problems with your past applications. Every time you apply for a job with any company, your application creates a permanent record in their hiring system. Apply multiple times, and you get multiple records, even when spread out over several years.

- Deeper Dive: On a handful of occasions, my job seekers have seen success with opening new email accounts and getting second phone numbers before applying to companies they've applied to in the past. But it all depends on how a company has set up its qualification process. Why are you being flagged? What notes exist in your candidate profile? Keep in mind that these are questions you might never receive answers to.

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5 books for professionals interested in advancing their careers

5 books that I recommend to every professional interested in advancing their career:

1. Umesh Ramakrishnan - There's No Elevator to the Top: A Leading Headhunter Shares the Advancement Strategies of the World's Most Successful Executives

"There are a million handbooks on how to be a CEO. Most of them are just opinions."

"They also unanimously cautioned managers about changing their colors and beliefs to suit the office politics of the day. That's a prescription for failure, since there will come a day in which that individual looks in the mirror and discovers that he or she has lost a sense of self."

2. Stephen Cope - The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling

"In many cases, perhaps even in most cases, the discernment of dharma is a difficult, even agonizing process. It is only born out of our wrestling matches with doubt, with conflict, and with despair."

"In the cultivation of dharma, there is nothing more important than understanding what conditions are needed, and relentlessly creating them."

3. Cal Newport - So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

"If you want to identify a mission for your working life, therefore, you must first get to the cutting edge - the only place where these missions become visible."

"There's something liberating about the craftsman mindset: it asks you to leave behind self-centered concerns about whether your job is 'just right,' and instead put your head down and plug away at getting really damn good."

4. George Leonard - Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

"The truth begins to sink in. Going for mastery in this sport isn't going to bring you the quick rewards you had hoped for. There's a seemingly endless road ahead of you with numerous setbacks along the way and - most important - plenty of time on the plateau, where long hours of diligent practice gain you no apparent progress at all."

5. Donald Asher - Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn't, and Why: 12 Things You'd Better Do If You Want to Get Ahead

"Skills do not separate the very successful from the merely successful; strategy does."

"Employers are not rewarding strong performers for their past contributions; they are investing in their future contributions."

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LinkedIn’s “Top Applicant” feature

I've never been a big fan of LinkedIn's "Top Applicant" feature. The main reason: employers don't have any control over who sees the top applicant alert.

It sets up this terrible, ugly expectation from the start that because you're a top applicant, you're going to be guaranteed an interview, or a phone screening, or some kind of interaction from the employer.

Then, when the rejection message arrives, the disappointment hits twice as hard and mingles with confusion, frustration, and bitterness over the seemingly failed promise of the alert.

If you see the top applicant alert, it usually means that there's something about your profile's content that aligns with the content of the job posting. It could be related to location. It could be related to certain skills or keywords. But it's not something that guarantees a specific, positive interaction from an employer.

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Don’t close the tab on Workday or Greenhouse

This past year, I've seen many posts from job seekers saying that whenever they're asked to type out their work history after uploading a resume, they close the tab.

And while it's emotionally satisfying to do this, and while it can feel so pointless to type out your work history, I want to strongly discourage you from skipping these applications.

If you close the tab on these applications, you're closing the door to at least half of all corporate opportunities. Larger organizations and Fortune 500 companies use Workday or Greenhouse almost exclusively.

Easy Apply might seem like a solution, but it's estimated that no more than ~13% of Easy Apply applicants receive any kind of interview callback. I've even seen estimates that argue the real number is less than 2%.

In addition, the likelihood of falling for a job scam increases when an "employer" uses free or super-low-cost hiring software that doesn't require any secondary data input. You're essentially giving your data away.

Stick to the Workday and Greenhouse applications, even if it does take extra work. Don't waste your time on easy-seeming solutions. Always protect your personal information online.

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“Get people to take me seriously”

Imagine being one of fewer than 100 specialists in a specific branch of space materials science worldwide. But in spite of your expertise, brilliance, and portfolio filled with famous names, nobody is giving you a call for an interview.

This was the situation for a job seeker who came to work with me last year.

Before we hopped on a call, I looked through his job search material, amazed and a bit star-struck by everything he'd accomplished. His portfolio was a bit messy, and sure, he could polish the language on his resume and cover letter. But for a hiring decision-maker with a trained eye, these things shouldn't be that big of an issue.

Then the day of the call came. I put on a blouse, added a bit of makeup, and sat in the dining room. 10 minutes late to the call, my job seeker arrived.

I want to say this as politely as possible, because I could tell from the beginning that my job seeker was a really good guy who cared about his work. But his presence was so overwhelming, so chaotic, and even a bit alarming that I had to stop the call halfway.

I addressed him by his first name, told him that I didn't want to come across as rude or unkind, and asked, "Is this how you usually act when you're on a call with a potential employer?"

He laughed, told me that he knew exactly what I was talking about, and said that he always had a big personality.

I finally understood where the source of the problem was, and so we developed a strategy to change how people perceived him. The game was "executive presence at all times." In his words, the game was, "get people to take me seriously."

We rewrote his resume and cover letter template, and we redesigned his portfolio. Then I coached this man every evening for a week straight, adjusting his interview answers and appearance. The energy that I wanted him to exude was that of someone in complete control of their life. That any employer, customer, or colleague could approach him and know that they were in safe, expert-level hands.

He ultimately landed a job with a former employer and negotiated a pay bump of ~$15,000 from his previous base salary. He and I became buddies, and it's with his blessing that I share today's post with you all.

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The most significant salary increase of all time

A big part of my job is helping my job seekers negotiate the highest possible salaries. The most significant increase a client ever achieved was $64,000 in 2022. She went from making $101K to $165K.

A note that's worth sharing: it can sometimes be difficult to create meaningful metrics from my client data. My clients come from various geographic regions, hold many different titles, and have built careers across various industries. A tech VP from San Francisco is going to have a different salary experience than a scientist from North Carolina, for example.

But I still keep up with these numbers, because there's value in comparing what my clients gain versus their initial investment in working with me.

My $64,000 client was a senior project manager for the pharmaceutical industry. She and I had a very similar career experience: a former scientist who worked her way into the project management team. Her dream was to work in tech. She specifically wanted to be a customer success manager.

What we did:

1. We changed the entire tone and positioning of her resume to make her the "customer whisperer." We completely reframed her project management experience to highlight her client-facing achievements.

2. We emphasized her role as the bridge between the lab, her organization, and her customers' organizations. We added two powerful career stories directly onto her resume.

3. We reached out to just over 120 CSM professionals across California, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. We gave them her new resume and asked them to keep an eye out for future openings with their team.

She ultimately landed a remote role with a tech company that services the pharmaceutical industry. She negotiated a salary of $165K along with benefits and terms for annual bonuses. She still works there today.

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The failed promise of AI resumes

I've been talking to my customer today about the potential of AI resumes in 2023, and how it was supposed to be a game-changer for job seekers.

It's such a tempting technology. It's completely free. You input an old resume with a few easy prompts. And out pops a new, ready-to-go resume.

My customer just reached his 1-year anniversary of being unemployed, and he secured zero (zero!!!) interviews this past year. He told me today how he would regularly receive rejection emails almost as fast as he'd apply to jobs. Being rejected was now something he came to expect.

At the end of the day, what did AI do for him? What did that year do for his confidence?

What's especially frustrating is that my customer is a really good guy who understands his industry, knows the game backwards and forwards, and has an outstanding track record to prove his value.

But AI hid all his brilliance. Hiring decision-makers weren't able to see it.

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Write a resume that will make you look outstanding to every reader

How to write a resume that will make you look outstanding to every person who reads it:

1. Start by understanding that the game you're playing is a game of status and desirability. We want to be impressed with what we're reading. We aren't interested in the mediocre.

2. Think about all the ways that you could impress your reader. What are your big career achievements? Why do those achievements matter?

3. Write your resume with confidence. Don't shrink the language, and never give away your power with wishy-washy language. Own that you've done important work for every company you've worked for.

🌊 Deeper Dive: Practice the art of walking in your expertise without caring if a single person acknowledges you. That kind of energy can be deeply attractive to readers: the self-assuredness of a person who knows exactly who they are.

4. Avoid using flashy, gimmicky templates for your resume. Stick to designs an executive would use: clean, simple lines with a dignified font. Let the reader know that you're someone to be taken seriously.

5. Page length isn't important, but relevance is. From beginning to end, let every line of your resume mean something.

🌟 Pro-Tip: The best resumes, just like the best stories, capture your interest from the first line and never let the interest drop until the end. Give as much attention to the older jobs as you give the most recent jobs on your resume. Show that you've always been an opportunity-creating individual.

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How to negotiate for the highest salary in a range

I specialize in salary negotiations, and my clients see their salaries increase by an average of USD $8,500. Today, I want to talk about how exactly my clients are able to negotiate these higher salaries.

1. It all starts with the resume. That's where the meat of the negotiation comes from. We begin with the assumption that my client is going to go for the highest salary listed in the range, and then we ask what an employee with that highest salary looks like on paper.

2. We impress from the very beginning with our attention to detail and our thoughtful application answers, even down to the design of the resume and cover letter template. If we're aiming for a middle manager role, we look like a director. If we're aiming for a director role, we look like a VP.

3. We put our entire focus on adding value and increasing ROI. I'll sometimes ask my clients to think about the many ways they've generated revenue for their companies, above and beyond their JD, and how much income they've brought in compared to the salaries they received.

Once we've established how our applications are going to look and sound, and after we've stripped away the emotional energy of the negotiation by showing our value on paper, we declare our salary.

We don't need to prove ourselves further, because our resume and application have already done the heavy lifting for us. And we don't give our power away by saying we'll accept anything within a range. We tell the interviewer exactly what we want, and then we stop talking. We give our interviewer calm, quiet, and unhurried breathing space to make their decision.

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Ways a resume can be helpful outside of a job search

I've been thinking about the times when a customer asked me to write a resume for reasons other than starting a job search. Resumes can do a surprising amount of heavy lifting.

1. Want to join the board of directors for a non-profit? I once had a customer reach out specifically for a resume that would impress the leadership of a green energy non-profit. Every member of the board would be receiving a copy of his resume ahead of their vote.

2. Interested in volunteering as a mentor for a youth leadership program? Mentors are often required to apply to these programs with an up-to-date resume. They'll go through a formal interview process, just like with a regular job. They'll need to show how their experience could be beneficial to future mentees.

3. It's happened several times to my customers where they were recommended for a promotion or a professional opportunity because of the resume they used to join their organization. A manager or HR leader would pull up the older resume already on file, and then they'd reach out to my customer with the news.

4. We often forget that resumes are legal documents and can be used to protect against liability. Legal teams can submit resumes in court to establish credibility or demonstrate character. Anyone who's ever been in divorce court knows the importance of an accurate and up-to-date resume.

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What’s on my mind this evening

1. I think about the AI-generated resumes my customers have given me since ChatGPT first arrived on the scene. With all of those projects, we've had to go back to first principles before starting a brand-new, from-scratch resume.

2. I sometimes think that we (as a society) have forgotten the whole point of interpersonal communication. It was always about humans speaking to humans, and receiving ideas from humans. AI talking to AI can only be performative. Nothing gets solved. Nothing gets hashed out or broken down or digested.

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The hardest job search

1. Apply to 100 jobs on LinkedIn.
2. Start with the Easy Apply jobs.
3. Leave the Workday jobs for last.
4. Let AI write your resume.
5. Let AI write your application answers.
6. Ignore the optional cover letters.
7. Rinse and repeat the next day.

This is the process that many job seekers follow. But this is also the process that performs the worst across the board: for getting callbacks, for avoiding scams, for time invested in a job search.

So why do so many job seekers commit to this process?

1. It's easy to do. You can mindlessly apply to as many jobs as are available, and you never need to think about your situation.

2. It feels productive. It feels good to say that you apply to 100 jobs each day. It shows that you're hardworking and dedicated.

3. It gives you something to blame. After all, it's not your fault that the job search isn't working. Look at how much work you're putting in, every single day, for weeks and months and maybe even years.

I have a tremendous amount of compassion for my job seekers. More compassion than I can express with words alone.

And if this is the path that you've chosen, I want you to feel my words through this screen. There's a better way to do your job search.

It will require different muscles than you're used to using. It might feel uncomfortable at first, especially if you aren't used to putting yourself in front of others.

But the results make it worthwhile.

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Job Searching in 2026

Job searches have always evolved with the times. The strategies I recommended in 2015 were different from what I recommended in 2021. And now they're changing again in 2026.

1. When submitting an application for a job, aim to apply via the company's website as often as possible. For larger organizations, you'll most often be inputting information into Workday. If you see a job on LinkedIn, but can't find its twin on the company's career page, assume the job isn't real. If the job poster has an odd-looking profile, with very few connections, or a Gmail address for the contact info, assume the job isn't real.

2. For every application submitted, aim to connect with three employees of the company you're targeting. They could be future colleagues. They could be managers or directors or members of the C-suite. Start a conversation with these people. Get to know them, ask questions. Be open about your job search and your interest in the company.

3. For every application submitted, write one public post on LinkedIn that showcases your expertise. Write about your professional history. Write about the problems you've solved in your career. Write your thoughts on your industry, or share how you troubleshoot challenges, or talk about lessons learned.

Pro-Tip 1: Your new connections will see your posts - take advantage of the visibility! Make yourself as memorable as possible to your future colleagues. Give them a reason to recommend you as a potential employee of their company.

Pro-Tip 2: Some companies reward employees for bringing in referrals. Those companies will give their employees a unique referral link to share with potential candidates. If you tell your new connection about a job you're interested in, they might send over a referral link for that specific job. It can sometimes be worth holding off on submitting an application to see if a referral program exists first.

Find a visual of my approach to job searching in 2026 by clicking on the link here: Gabrielle Turmelle’s Miro Board

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Prediction for the future of hiring

I have a feeling that in another month or so, employers are going to start putting out notices saying they won't allow AI-generated resumes to be submitted with job applications.

LinkedIn sets the tone for modern-day hiring. If they're getting rid of "AI Slop" on the feed, and if they've removed their AI content creation tools from the platform, then Workday and Greenhouse are next in line for these changes.

I'm so glad that I stuck to my intuition when ChatGPT first made its appearance on the internet. I've never used or allowed AI in any part of my business. Every product and message and content piece is written entirely by me.

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How to answer “How do you use AI in your current role?” in an interview

During your next interview, you might be asked, "How do you use AI in your current role?" Here are a few different ways to answer this question.

1. Productivity and performance:

Is your company requiring you to use Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude in your day-to-day activities? Are you expected to track and demonstrate how these AI tools make your work faster or easier or simpler to complete? Talk about this process in the interview. Mention how your KPIs and task metrics improved. Bonus points if you can tell an interesting story about how the AI tools made you more creative in your work.

2. Implementation:

Has leadership instructed you to implement AI tools and track their usage among your team? Bring up your team's pre-AI workflows and post-AI workflows, and share how you guided the team during the transition. Mention how velocity improved or how project delays were reduced. Tell a story about an unexpected improvement or solution that arose within the team.

Pro-Tip: Does the interviewer seem intrigued by your answer? Could that unexpected improvement or solution benefit the company where you're interviewing? Keep the conversation flowing and find out.

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How to answer “Why is there a gap in your resume?” in an interview

I love so much that some of these traditional questions ("Why is there a gap in your resume?") are falling out of favor in the hiring world.

If you ever come across a hiring manager who does ask the question, it might be possible that they're playing from an outdated rule book. They might even be required to ask about employment gaps as part of the company's hiring rules. Whatever the reason, if they do ask the question, the recommended course of action is to answer honestly, but succinctly.

Were you job hunting? Were you on an extended trip? If you don't want to give any personal details, you could even just say, "I needed to step away from my job to handle a personal situation at home," and leave it at that.

The hiring manager isn't going to look for a perfect answer. Instead, they want an answer that's honest, clear, and self-assured.

Being nervous or rambling or telling long-winded stories isn't the strategy to use with this particular question. ;)

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My take on why hiring practices now come with a lot of red tape

I have a bit of a controversial theory on why these frustrating hiring practices have become the norm. The misleading instructions, the abnormally long vetting and interviewing periods. I think that this is all being done to create an additional layer of psychological panic among job seekers, all in a bid to get them to accept a lower salary and/or discourage them from job-hopping if they're offered a job.

The reason why I call it a controversial theory: if you ask any hiring decision-maker how they feel about modern-day hiring, the two big complaints are almost always around "grandiose" salary expectations or the "cost" of hiring, only to lose the candidate six months later. But if you then ask if that's the reason why hiring practices have changed across the board, they start to act a bit squiggly. They'll change gears and start giving you very corporate-friendly answers.

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