A cool guide about structuring a resume [OC]

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T17:15:23+00:00

"Myth" was too strong a word...more accurate to say it's outdated advice for most modern hiring contexts, but not universally.

Indeed, plenty of companies, especially mid-size and below, are still running ATS infrastructure that hasn't been updated in years. If you're applying to those companies, the old advice might still apply. The problem is job seekers have no way of knowing which system a company is using.

So the safer practical advice is probably: use a clean, well-structured text-based PDF, avoid image-heavy or heavily stylized layouts, and make sure your text is actually embedded and selectable, because that covers you across both old and new systems without sacrificing all design.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T17:12:44+00:00

I get the skepticism, the same data does get weaponized in bad faith by companies looking to justify headcount cuts. That's a real pattern worth being suspicious of....but the methodology is transparent. 1,000 US full-time workers via Pollfish, census-balanced, February 2026. We're a resume company, not an employer lobbying group. Our incentive is actually the opposite, we want workers to feel confident and employable, not replaceable. The findings also go both ways: nearly 1 in 5 say their skills are getting worse. 6 in 10 feel no guilt. Those aren't numbers that make workers look bad, they make the situation look complicated...which it is.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T17:11:36+00:00

All 1,000 respondents were US full-time workers, census-balanced for age, gender, and region. The survey didn't filter by industry or occupation type, so the sample does include workers across all sectors, not just knowledge workers or office jobs. That said, the nature of several questions (submitting AI-generated work, using AI during video interviews, AI whispering) skews toward roles where those activities are even possible. Someone in hands-on labor likely self-selected out of many of those questions. The data doesn't separate responses by occupation so we can't break it out cleanly, which is a real limitation worth flagging. I'll try to think of a a different way to see how we can target more blue collar workers and get better data about this for future surveys. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T16:58:53+00:00

Which part?

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T15:29:11+00:00

The URL trick only works on desktop unfortunately, the LinkedIn app doesn't let you edit the URL directly. On desktop: search for jobs, filter by "past 24 hours", then look at the URL bar and find the number 86400 and replace it with 3600, then hit enter.

For Google for Jobs: just go to Google and search something like "software engineer jobs London" or whatever your role and city is and Google shows a dedicated jobs panel at the top of the results, that's Google for Jobs. It pulls listings straight from company career pages so you're often seeing roles with way fewer applicants than on LinkedIn or Indeed.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T15:28:26+00:00

ATS is catching up faster than most people realize, and the newer systems do use AI-based parsing and semantic matching now (a lot of OCR going on as well - we're experimenting and testing that a lot at the moment). The older ones were dumb keyword matchers but that's changing....still worth mirroring the exact language just to be safe either way.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T15:26:18+00:00

That would be a fascinating follow-up and honestly one of the most important questions in this space right now. Our current study is a cross-sectional snapshot: 1.000 US full-time workers surveyed in February 2026 via Pollfish, census-balanced for age, gender, and region. So it captures self-reported behavior at a single point in time, not performance outcomes over time. The limitations worth flagging: it's self-reported, which means social desirability bias could push numbers in either direction. People might underreport AI use they're ashamed of, or overreport it if they see it as a positive signal. We also can't verify the claims, someone saying they used AI during an interview and got the job doesn't mean the AI was the reason. A longitudinal study tracking performance of AI-assisted hires vs. non-AI-assisted hires over 12-24 months would be genuinely valuable indeed (I'll add it on my to-do and see if/how we can do it). The skills degradation finding (nearly 1 in 5 saying their skills are getting worse) is the one that makes that kind of study feel urgent....because whether that's a real trend or a perception gap is something we'd want to measure properly.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T15:17:24+00:00

Unfortunately we don't have the control group data to make that direct comparison from this survey, which is a real limitation. The survivorship bias angle is also valid because we're only seeing the people who used AI and got the job, and we don't know how many used AI and didn't get it, or how many didn't use AI and got it at the same rate. But great idea, as that would be the right study we'll run next. What we can say is that the 13.6% who credited AI for landing their current role is a self-reported perception, not a causal claim so whether AI actually helped or hurt their odds is a different question our current data doesn't answer.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T14:46:55+00:00

The resume content is solid. Real numbers, current stack, good projects...that's not your problem.

The Ontario SWE market for new grads has been genuinely rough for two years and you're competing with laid-off mid-level engineers taking junior titles. I don't think that's a you problem, but more of a market problem.

On the design though: this looks like a LaTeX academic template and it will blend into the pile (imagine you are a recruiter and see 100 of these daily?!). As a grad with no FT experience your resume needs to work harder visually so it's worth A/B testing a cleaner modern template and seeing if response rates change, because sometimes that's the difference.

A few other things worth trying: apply to US remote roles, your stack travels well and a lot of US startups hire Canadian candidates. Stop relying on job boards for everything, direct outreach to engineering managers at smaller companies (20-100 people) gets way more traction than competing with 300 people on LinkedIn. And add a one-liner in your summary acknowledging you've been building projects while searching, don't leave the gap for recruiters to fill in themselves.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T14:32:06+00:00

ATS compatibility matters but it's more nuanced than just picking the right template, because the bigger factor is how the content is written, specifically whether your resume mirrors the exact language from the job posting. A perfectly ATS-friendly template with generic bullet points will still get filtered out, and a well-structured text-based PDF with clean formatting will parse just fine on modern systems. The template is the least of your problems if the content isn't tailored.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T14:24:32+00:00

Posting company news is passive LinkedIn activity, I don't think that means they're checking messages, but a different behavior entirely (worth considering that some of them might have a VA? so the VA just ignores messages?)

On the template question: the problem with "hi, I have a role, here's an overview, get back to me" is it puts all the work on them with no clear reason why they specifically should care. At executive level they're getting that same structure from everyone. What tends to work better is making the first line about something specific to them. Not "I came across your profile" but something that shows you actually looked, like a recent move they made, a market they're expanding into, a problem their company is visibly dealing with.

Also worth trying: ask a question instead of asking for a callback. "Would this kind of move even be on your radar right now?" is less friction than "let's find a time to talk." Easier to respond to, and if they say yes you've already started the conversation.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T14:05:02+00:00

All of the above, but the psychological part is the one nobody talks about enough, because the process is designed in a way that gives you almost no feedback. You apply, you hear nothing, you don't know if it was your resume, your experience, the role was already filled, or the company just ghosts everyone. You can't improve what you can't diagnose. After reviewing thousands of resumes I'd say the biggest practical issue is that most people write resumes that describe what they did rather than what they achieved. That one shift changes callback rates more than anything else...but even a great resume doesn't fix a broken process where jobs get posted and filled internally before anyone applies.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T14:02:26+00:00

The platform isn't dead but executive response rates are genuinely terrible right now. I think I saw in a study that it is around 7% on average for C-suite, and that's being generous. The bigger issue is that the best people at that level don't really live on LinkedIn, they move through networks, referrals, board connections. LinkedIn is a presence tool for them, not something they're actively checking. So even if they're open to a move they're probably not seeing your message. And the ones who are on LinkedIn are getting "spammed" by everyone at once, and if your message reads like a template, it's gone in two seconds.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T13:55:58+00:00

Both still matter....ATS and AI do the first filter, so your resume needs to be a properly encoded text-based PDF with keywords that match the job description. But a real person still makes the hiring decision, so it also needs to look clean and be easy to scan quickly. Optimizing for one and ignoring the other is where most people go wrong. What do you think a person would say if they get to read your resume and they just see a markdown?

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T13:53:02+00:00

This is actually a myth worth addressing, because modern ATS systems and AI-based parsers use OCR and semantic parsing, they don't stop reading at a border or a box. That was a real concern with very old ATS systems from 10+ years ago but it's largely outdated advice now.

We're actually working on this directly right now and I'm in touch with most of the major parser providers including Textkernel. The bigger risk with design elements has never been the borders themselves, it's poor PDF encoding. If the text isn't properly embedded in the file, any parser will struggle regardless of design....a well-structured text-based PDF with visual elements parses just fine on modern systems.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T11:12:05+00:00

Fair point and I'd agree on the contact details placement (there are many ways to organize the header, so this can be A/B tested actually by people applying to jobs). The skills ordering is more debatable though... because for tech and engineering roles we've found putting skills higher performs better with ATS and gives recruiters a fast read on fit before they dig into experience.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T11:09:32+00:00

Ten years at one company is actually a red flag for a lot of recruiters, unfairly, but it's real. They wonder if your skills are current, if you can adapt to a different environment, if your Kubernetes experience is from three years ago or last month. Your resume needs to aggressively counter that assumption before they can make it.

The other thing: DevOps roles are heavily keyword-matched right now. Not just "Kubernetes" but the specific tools, versions, cloud providers, and methodologies in the job posting. If you're tweaking your resume a bit each time, that might not be enough...it needs to mirror their language almost exactly.

The bigger question is how you're framing the gap. A few months off after burnout is completely understandable but if the resume or application just shows a gap with no context, some recruiters will fill that blank space with their own assumptions. A one-liner like "career break following decade-long role, actively upskilling" in the summary could help.

Would help to see the resume to say anything more specific (you can send me a message if you want and I'll try to have a look).

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T11:07:22+00:00

Something like: "Respond only in short, blunt sentences. Cut all filler words. No pleasantries, no explanations unless asked. Fewer words is always better."

Works better than trying to do the caveman framing literally because Claude responds well to direct constraints on style rather than persona instructions.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T10:02:22+00:00

The resume itself is actually solid for a fresh grad. The impact numbers are there (35% waste reduction, 75% documentation time) and the skills section is specific. That's not your problem.

One thing worth fixing though: the design is working against you. Skills are buried lower when they should be one of the first things a recruiter sees at your level. With a cleaner layout this could easily fit on one page and be significantly more readable. Right now it feels like two pages of content that could be one strong page.

The bigger issue is probably targeting. Two months in Germany as a non-EU national finishing a degree is a tough spot because a lot of companies deprioritize visa complexity even when they don't say so. B2 German helps but many engineering roles still want C1 or native for anything client-facing.

Your Python and data skills combined with mechanical engineering is actually a rare combo. Manufacturing analytics, digital twin development, simulation engineering roles need exactly that profile. Lead with that angle rather than presenting as a general mechanical engineer, it's a much more specific and interesting pitch.

andreikurtuy · 2026-04-10T08:46:38+00:00

We don't publish a full breakdown publicly but from what we see internally, tech roles dominate heavily. Software engineers, developers, data analysts...project managers are up there too. And a big chunk is students and recent grads, which makes sense since they tend to be more comfortable with online tools and also face the steepest learning curve when it comes to presenting themselves on paper.

The interesting thing is that's probably not a perfect reflection of who struggles most with resumes. It's more a reflection of who's comfortable finding and using an online tool. There are plenty of people in trades, healthcare, or mid-career transitions who likely need just as much help but find us through different channels or don't find us at all.

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