Personal & Life
Resume Rewrite Workshop: Turn Duties Into Numbers and Get Past the Screen
Intermediate | 1 whiteboard page · Task board: 5 columns (5 parent tasks, 12 subtasks)
Intermediate: Method names appear, but the whiteboard explains the key points. Use the examples as a guide and fill it in, thinking it through for your own situation.
A resume template for people one to five years into their career whose applications keep stalling at the resume screen, built for rewriting duty-style bullet points into achievements with numbers. The whiteboard sets the role you are targeting and who reads the file, takes stock of your work with YWT (what you did, what you learned, what you do next), and holds a rewrite table pairing each old line with its numbered version and the evidence behind it, a fit with the role × size of the result matrix for picking which wins go first, a pre-send checklist, the phrases to avoid and a format for asking someone to review it. The task board runs five columns from Source material to Ready to send, with five parent tasks (the summary, putting numbers on wins, per-employer edits, the outside review and the formatting pass) and 12 subtasks, all unstarted. Lines that end in responsible for turn into achievements with a before and an after, so you stop rewriting the whole resume from scratch for every application.
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Resume Rewrite Workshop
How to use: 1. Set the role and the reader 2. Take stock of your wins 3. Rewrite them with numbers 4. Get a review, then send
1. The One Line This Resume Has to Land (set the role and the reader first)
- This is the one role you are targeting e.g. Customer success at a B2B SaaS company (30-100 staff) Postings that split the job with engineering are out of the base version
- Who reads it, and for how long Recruiting screens it first, then the hiring manager on the team Assume only the top seven lines get read
- How the file is failing now - Passed the screen at 2 of 14 companies (June to August) - 11 lines that end in “responsible for” - 0 lines with a number in them
- The one line (can you say it in 30 seconds?) The renewals lead who cut churn from 12% to 7% in a year
2. Taking Stock of Your Wins (YWT - the colors here are separate from the legend above)
Y - what you did
- Renewal meetings for 60 existing accounts Three years from April 2023, at eight to ten a month
- Built the quote template Rebuilt the format five people in the team use, on my own
- Onboarded three new hires A year of weekly ride-alongs and writing up the steps
W - what you learned
- Churn fell in the year I started reaching out earlier The monthly report still shows the 12% to 7% before and after
- Quotes got faster once the template went out Timing my own ten: 40 minutes down to 15 per quote
- Onboarding can be measured in time Sign-off dates in the training log: four months down to 2.5
T - what you do next
- Move the numbers in W into achievement lines Order them: the situation, what you did, the number, then one line on repeatability (that the same approach travels to the next job)
- Keep going until you have 10 lines Pull the rest of your duties from daily reports and review notes
3. Rewrite Table (old line / line with numbers / evidence)
| Old line (weak) | Line with numbers | Evidence (your notes) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Churn prevention | Responsible for supporting existing accounts No account count, no result | Ran 60 existing accounts and set up renewal meetings three months out Churn 12% to 7% (FY2025) | Monthly churn rate (my own notes) FY2024 12.1% to FY2025 7.3% Rounded to 12% to 7% on the resume |
| Process improvement | Worked on improving our processes Nothing on what was cut, or by how much | Templated the quote document, cutting it from 40 minutes to 15 each About 33 hours saved a month at 80 quotes | Timed ten jobs before the change and ten after Volume confirmed from the internal monthly export |
| Onboarding and handover | Also helped train new hires No headcount, no timeframe, no result | Onboarded three new hires. Time to solo work: four months down to 2.5 Wrote 18 step-by-step guides, now used for handovers | Note the sign-off dates from the training log Record where the guides are stored |
4. Which Wins Go First (fit with the role × size of the result)
Vertical axis: Size of the result (how big the number is) / Horizontal axis: Fit with the role
- Big but far off The number is strong but it does not connect to the role. Keep it out of the top and leave one line for it in the history section.
- Put it up top Ties straight to the requirements and the number is big. Place it right after the summary and tell the same story in interviews.
- Drop it this time Neither close nor big. Leave it off the file and keep it as material for when they ask.
- Back it up below Fits the requirements but the number is small. Add a count or a timeframe and attach it to the role it belongs to.
5. Pre-Send Checklist
- Kept to two pages, with no line running to the edge
- Five or more achievement lines carry a number
- Every one of them has a count, a timeframe, or an amount
- Company names and dates written the same way throughout
- File named Lastname_Resume_202608.pdf
6. Phrases to Avoid
- Lines that end in “responsible for” or “involved in”
- Words you cannot count, like “many” or “significantly”
- Team results written up as if you did them alone
- Confidential figures or internal system names, spelled out
7. How to Ask for a Review
- Ask two people outside the company (one in a similar role, one who has hired). Do not send it to anyone at your current employer
- Ask them whether the top seven lines make it clear what you do
- Give them a deadline three days out
- Add each comment to the matching card and move it back to Rewriting
Task board contents
Source material 17 items
Write your summary
The top seven lines that say what you are. Settle this and choosing which wins go first gets easier.
Pick one target role
Lay out three postings and narrow to a single role (leave split-remit postings out of the base version).
Trim it to 3 lines
Years of experience, what you own, and your headline win - three lines you can read aloud in 30 seconds.
Put numbers on wins
The part that decides the screen. Rewrite the list of duties, one line at a time, into achievements with a before and after.
List 10 duties
Pull ten lines of duties from daily reports and review notes, and lay them out in Y and in Source material.
Gather the evidence
Take the before and after figures from monthly reports and training logs, and keep the source in your own notes.
Rewrite 5+ lines
Rework at least five lines in the pattern from the rewrite table, leaving no line that ends in “responsible for”.
Tailor per employer
Leave the base version alone and build only the edits that sit on top of it. That is what keeps you from rewriting from zero each time.
List what they want
Bullet out the required and the preferred criteria from the posting, lifting the words that overlap with your own wins.
Pick what leads
Place your wins on the matrix and move the two or three in the top right up, right after the summary.
Get an outside read
The step that catches the gaps you read straight past. Run it once before you send anything.
Send the request
Send the request note and the PDF to two people outside the company, with a deadline three days out.
Fix each note
Add each comment to the matching card, move it back to Rewriting, and push it on once it is fixed.
Fix format and typos
Good content still goes unread if the format fights the reader. Fit it to two pages and export a PDF you can send.
Fit it on two pages
Fold your older roles into a summary line and keep the whole file to two pages.
Unify the wording
Line up legal company names, date formats, and number styles, then read the whole thing aloud once.
Export to PDF
Export it as Lastname_Resume_202608.pdf, then open it on another device to check nothing has shifted.
