The Blog
Practical resume advice for real applications. No thought-leadership fluff.
· 9 min readOne Resume for Every Job Is Killing Your Applications
Here's what to do instead — and why almost nobody does it, even though everyone knows better
Sending the same resume to fifty postings feels efficient, but it's the single biggest reason good candidates hear nothing back. Here's what real tailoring looks like, why almost no one does it well, and how to fix that in about ten minutes.
· 9 min readThe 7-Second Rule
What recruiters actually look at in those first few seconds, and how to win them
Recruiters don't read your resume top to bottom on the first pass — their eyes jump to a handful of fixed spots in the first few seconds, and if those spots don't answer the right questions, you never get a second look. Here's what the eye-tracking data actually shows, and how to make sure the right things sit where the eyes land.
· 9 min readNumbers That Make Recruiters Stop Scrolling
Turning Duties Into Results
Two candidates apply for the same job with the same experience. One gets the interview. The difference usually isn't skill — it's that one of them wrote down what happened when they used it.
· 9 min readThe Keyword Playbook
Getting Past the Robot Gatekeepers Without Sounding Like One
White-font keyword lists still show up in resumes in 2026, and they still get people rejected. Here's how keyword matching actually works inside an ATS, and how to win it honestly.
· 8 min readHow ATS Systems Actually Read Your Resume
What happens in the 60 seconds after you hit submit — and why it decides whether a human ever sees your resume at all
Your resume doesn't get rejected by a human who skimmed it and shrugged — it gets mangled by a parser before anyone sees it. Here's exactly what that parser does, and how to write bullets that survive it.
· 8 min readGet Free Tailored Resumes
The plain resume that ranks beats the pretty one
The software reading your resume doesn't care if it's pretty — it cares if it matches. Try Penny Resume free and see what tailoring actually does.