Write an Irresistible Resume: 8 Must-Haves!
In this 10‑minute career‑advice video, seasoned entrepreneur Michael Girdley (owner of ~12 businesses and reviewer of over 25,000 resumes) shares eight concrete, high‑impact elements that can make a résumé stand out and push a candidate to the top of the hiring pile. He frames the current job market as increasingly competitive and argues that small, strategic tweaks can create opportunities. The eight must‑haves are: (1) highlighting that you were recruited by former coworkers or managers, (2) using a Challenge‑Activity‑Result (CAR) framework to quantify achievements, (3) stating a precise job objective that filters and signals fit, (4) demonstrating an upward‑right career trajectory with increasing responsibility, (5) including a trusted referral from a known, respected source, (6) showcasing promotions (even internal title changes) to signal recognized performance, (7) avoiding basic résumé errors such as multi‑page length, typos, missing contact info, or unreadable formatting, and (8) ensuring the overall narrative makes logical sense and avoids red‑flags (e.g., repeated job‑hopping due to “bad bosses”). Girdley emphasizes that while not every résumé will contain all items, adding any of these boosts the chance of getting a phone call. He ends with a call to comment and subscribe.
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Alright, so I own about a dozen businesses. I have about 600 people in various capacities that work in these organizations. And over the past 30 years of business, like, I've looked at over 25,000 resumes, like, just tons of them. And this video is all about things that you can put on your resume that will make it stand out. And look, things are getting tough out there. Like, it's harder to find jobs. It's not like it was a few years ago when things were blowing and going. So every little bit helps. And the cool thing is there's some small things that you can do in your resume that will make people like me create opportunities for you as a job candidate. And so let's dig in. Oh, and before we do that, you want to be like a top 1% candidate. Like, these are the things that if you put in your resume, you will just jump to the top of the pile. And look, some of them not everybody can do, but if you can, these are really great. So let's talk about number 1 thing to have on your resume. You were recruited by former coworkers. So basically, this is the idea that for you to get your next job, somebody that saw you work or was your manager or your boss or whatever, they knew you from your previous job and they recruited you to your next job. And that could be a job that you did internally in the company, right? Somebody saw you were really good and they recruited you and promoted you the next rung up the ladder, the new job, or at another company. And almost every time I've recruited somebody who's been amazing, they have this pattern because their coworkers realize they're super amazing and they want them to come work with them at their next job. And I see the people who have that pattern, well, they turn out pretty special. And that's why when I see this, man, I love to see it. So you're looking for opportunities to show this if it's happened to you. That knows you and has worked closely with you can attest to that, and they've recruited you to work at your new job. All right, so let's move on to number 2. Your resume shows clearly what you made happen. So a lot of resumes, they're very nebulous, they don't include details, but the best resumes and the ones that get put to the top of the pile, they're ones that quantify and explain exactly what the candidate made happen. And so for each one of those things, there's 3 steps. Number 1, they list the challenge. For example, we had low customer satisfaction scores. Then the activity. I built a customer satisfaction team and deployed best practices. So they explain what they did, and then they show the results. What happened at the end? Like, our customer satisfaction scores went from 2 to 4, or to X, or whatever you measure that. But anyway, you have this challenge that you faced, what the activity you did was, and how you prove that it works. And you do that over and over in your resume. And the thing is, you, by doing that, prove that you're somebody who gets stuff done. And ultimately, That's what managers and bosses are looking for. They want employees and team members who make things happen. So that's why you follow this rule number 2, you show what you made happen by using the challenge, activity, and results framework. Number 3 great thing on a resume, you say what you want. So, so many times I look at a resume and it's like, "I would like a job." Well, of course your objective is to get a job right at the top of the resume. Everybody knows when you have a resume, you're trying to look for an opportunity. But in specific, if you're able to be as precise as possible at what you want, then on the other side, two things happen. One is you filter out the opportunities that aren't for you, right? If you say, hey, I want to be a cashier at McDonald's, at a fast food restaurant, which, you know, whatever, if your resume says that, kudos to you. But if you say that, then you know precisely that you're not going to get called by a fine dining restaurant to come work there. So the more specific you can be— I want to work at this type of company, in this type of environment, at this stage, like how big is the company, you want to work at a big company or a small company— the more specific you can be, the more honed in you can get to that particular job, and you can filter out stuff that isn't for you when potential employers maybe call you. The other thing is, when you have a specific message like this, it's incredibly powerful for the employer. They look and see what you're doing, and they know specifically what you want, and they're more likely to call somebody that they know already specifically wants what they're offering in terms of job, company size, geography, all that kind of stuff. So be as specific as you can in your objective. I am looking for this type of job, an entry-level job at a tech startup located in San Antonio. That's where I live. Everybody wants to live here, of course, that is between 50 and 100 employees. Be very explicit, and you can use that not only as a path to cut out the things that you don't like, but also clue you in to tell the employer, hey, this person knows exactly what we're offering and they really want it. Okay, number 4, your resume shows an up and to the right trajectory. So this is the idea that great managers, well, and even okay managers, they will look at your resume and see what the career trajectory looks like. Were you getting more and more responsibility? Were you getting more and more skills? Were you growing? Were you getting more and more trusted? Each individual stop that you made in your career. And look, those can be stops that were all inside the same company. And I've seen resumes where somebody spent 25 years at a big corporation and they've had 5, 6, 7 different jobs there, but each one showed that they were a winner, showed that they were somebody that added value, and the company decided to bet on them to do more each time and take on more responsibility. Add more value, and maybe get paid more. So that's why you're looking for your resume as much as you can to try to have an up into the right trajectory, because good managers know one thing, which is if I wanna predict how someone's gonna perform when they get into my company, the best thing I need to do is look at the way they've performed before they join it. And if somebody has been growing, adding value, been somebody that's been highly rated at previous employers, and grow to have more responsibility and more dependability for the employer job after job, I can rest assured they're probably gonna do that for me too. So this is a great pattern to have in your resume. And if you can have it, definitely do it. And if you have it, make sure you highlight it as much as you possibly can by showing each job getting more senior, more dependable, and of higher value to your employers. And it'll help you in getting the next one. Okay, let's talk about number 5, include a trusted referral. So this is kind of a tough one, but basically the way this works is if you're trying to get a job at a particular company or a particular place, somebody that that manager or that company knows and trusts refers you in. But not all referrals are created equal. For example, I've had people oftentimes that email me and say, hey, could you refer me into the job? Well, like, that person that emailed me, I don't know them, so I'm not going to give them a very warm referral. I just say, hey, like, here, this resume got passed to me. If you're interested, uh, reach out to them. There's a different type of referral, and it's one where I have worked with somebody in the past, I know they're really good, and I can speak for them, or I know the person who has Speaking well of them, speaks well of them. Anyway, in the middle step, there's a chain of trust there where I'm able to say like, I know this person's an awesome because I'm getting a referral from somebody that I know is awesome. And therefore I'm able to give a strong reference of this person into the job and basically have that level of enthusiasm about them. So this doesn't necessarily show up on your resume, but it shows up in how your resume is presented. Did the resume come in from somebody that is known, trusted, vetted, and thought highly of by the organization? If so, that pushes your resume up to the top again. 'Cause ultimately that's what managers are trying to do. When they interview you, when they look at resumes, all this type of stuff, they're trying to predict, are you going to perform well when you get the job? And the best way I can know that is if somebody else has seen you work in the past and will vouch for it. So this is why trusted referrals, great thing to have on your resume and a great thing to do if you're trying to get a job. Okay, number 6 that you wanna have on your resume, highlight getting promoted, especially when you're inside your company. And even if your title didn't change, it's important to highlight that you did a great job, the company recognized it, recognized that and promoted you to do other stuff. And I've seen people who've been promoted multiple times inside of their company over 5, 10 years inside of an organization, and they never slow down to highlight that in their resume. When you do something great, the company believes in you and sees the value you're adding, and they give you more responsibility and they give you more dependability for the company. Like, highlight that and show it inside of your resume. And especially if it happened multiple times, there is no better sign that somebody's going to do awesome when they come work for me or come work for somebody I know than if they did awesome when they were on a previous job. So highlight that stuff in your resume. Tell that story and it can really help push your resume to the top of the pile. Number 7, your resume needs to avoid basic mistakes. Don't do a multiple-page resume. Ain't nobody needs to read your multiple-page resume. More is not better in this case. Don't do things like have grammatical errors or spelling errors on your resume. Make sure you have contact information. On your resume. I have also seen resumes where they forgot to put their own name on it. Now look, mistakes happen, but slow down and double-check and make sure your resume is complete, free of typos, it's spell-checked, and it's legible. I've also seen resumes where people made the type like so small, like you couldn't even see it. Like, make sure you get the fundamentals right if you want your resume to even get considered, because ultimately, like, the manager or the HR recruiter or whomever, they are judging your capability to put together work on the job by your ability to put together a good-looking one-pager. And it's table stakes for you to get that looking right to open up the door to where you can get pushed to the top of the pile amongst this and all the other things that we're talking about in the video. Keep it brief, specific, and do the job. And ultimately, view your resume as something that is just supposed to get you a phone call. Anything beyond that, they can learn in the interview. But don't feel like you need to tell your whole life story inside the resume. Give them the highlights and give them enough reason to call you, and you'll be much better off than, well, making it too big. Number 8, make sure your resume makes sense. There is a bunch of things that I see in resumes that are just kind of off-putting. For example, you see somebody who has left the last 5 jobs in a row, and every time it was because their boss was a jerk. Uh, I have just seen that story over and over again. And guess what happens when somebody like me sees a resume like that? If the boss was always a jerk for this employee for the past 5 jobs, I'm pretty sure by that point it's probably not the boss. It's possible, But it's probably not. So things like that need to make sure that your story just absolutely makes sense. And you're looking for things to highlight how that story put together. Did you look for win-wins with your bosses and colleagues? Did everything line up in terms of making sense that you're somebody that accomplishes great stuff and that they should call you above all the other candidates? All those things you need to look and step back from your resume, look at the narrative of all those things and say, does it make sense when I read this and put it all together? Would a stranger understand what happened here? And would they be impressed enough to gimme a call? And so those are the things where you can include and make sure you have the steps as part of all that resume process to make sure, well, you look like you move mountains. Look, and finally, not every resume can or will have all these things. And a lot of these things are uncommon for a reason. But if you have them, like, take the easy step and make sure you put them into your resume. Do all of these 8 steps and you can really make sure that, well, when it's time, your resume will get pushed to the top of the pile and that dream job that you want, well, you'll get considered for it, and hopefully you'll get it. Let me know what you think in the comments and subscribe for more. Thanks.
