When everyone’s résumé sounds impressive, nobody stands out

AI can make anyone sound qualified. Employers want proof you actually are

It has never been easier to produce a polished résumé. That’s becoming a problem for job seekers.

Recruiters and hiring managers are confronted with résumés filled with the same polished language, familiar buzzwords and carefully optimized descriptions. “Results-driven leader.” “Strategic thinker.” “Innovative problem solver.” “Proven track record.”

Your challenge isn’t simply to convince an employer that you’re qualified. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of applicants may be qualified. Your résumé and LinkedIn profile need to give the person reviewing them a reason to stop and think, “I want to know more about this person.”

Being qualified gets you into the pile. Creating curiosity gives an employer a reason to pull you out of it.

Too many job seekers treat their résumé and LinkedIn profile as storage units. They shoehorn in every duty they’ve performed, every tool they’ve used and every corporate buzzword they think will get them past the software employers use to screen applications.

Then they hope recruiters and hiring managers will sift through all that clutter and figure out why they’re worth contacting.

They won’t.

Your résumé and LinkedIn profile are sales documents with one purpose: getting you into a conversation with someone who might hire you.

Start with clarity. Make it immediately obvious what you do, what problems you solve and where you create value. Don’t force a recruiter to study your work history to figure out where you fit.

Then give them evidence. “Managed a team” tells me almost nothing. “Led a 12-person sales team that increased annual revenue by 18 per cent” tells me what you were responsible for and what happened because you were responsible for it.

The second statement creates a question in my mind: How did you increase revenue by 18 per cent?

Questions create curiosity, and curiosity creates conversations.

Look through your résumé for similar opportunities. If you increased revenue, by how much? If you reduced costs, what did you save? If you improved productivity, what changed? If you inherited a struggling operation, what condition was it in when you arrived and what condition was it in when you left?

Not every accomplishment, of course, can be measured in dollars or percentages. The point is to provide concrete evidence of what changed because of your work.

Your strongest accomplishment shouldn’t be buried halfway down page two. Put one of your best near the top of your résumé and give the reader a reason to keep going.

Your headline shouldn’t simply repeat your job title. Thousands of people may have the same title. Use that valuable space to tell people what you actually do and the kind of value you create.

Your LinkedIn “About” section is also an opportunity to sound like a human being. AI is remarkably good at producing grammatically correct, professional-sounding corporate language. That means sounding polished no longer makes you stand out.

Sounding like yourself can.

I’m not suggesting you fill your LinkedIn profile with jokes, personal confessions or contrived attempts to sound different. But if your “About” section could be copied onto 500 other profiles without anyone noticing, it isn’t helping you.

Your résumé requires a different kind of discipline. Ruthlessly remove routine duties. Employers already have a reasonable idea of what accountants, salespeople, project managers and customer service representatives do. What they don’t know is how you did those jobs differently or particularly well.

Think of your résumé as a movie trailer. A trailer doesn’t show you every scene. It selects moments that make you curious enough to want the rest of the story.

Not everything you’ve done deserves space simply because you did it. A 15-year career can’t and shouldn’t be presented in exhaustive detail. Choose accomplishments, experiences and examples that make an employer want to ask questions.

LinkedIn gives you even more opportunities to provide those conversation starters. Published work, presentations, project summaries and case studies can demonstrate what you’re capable of rather than simply asking people to believe your claims.

Above all, stop confusing completeness with persuasiveness. You can have a beautifully formatted résumé containing every appropriate keyword, carefully tailored to the position and free of spelling and grammatical errors. You can have a LinkedIn profile that checks every box career coaches tell you to check.

None of that guarantees anyone will remember you.

You can’t control how many people apply for a job, how employers screen applicants or how much AI-generated content lands in a recruiter’s inbox.

Before sending another application, read your résumé as if you were the hiring manager.

Does anything make you stop?
Does anything surprise you?
Does anything make you want to ask a question?

If not, more polish isn’t the answer.

In a job market increasingly filled with polished, AI-assisted applications, give employers something worth being curious about: credible evidence of what you’ve accomplished and a clear sense of the person behind it.

Your résumé doesn’t need more polish. It needs more you.

Nick Kossovan is a syndicated columnist and career expert with over 20 years of experience in the corporate hiring landscape. He specializes in providing pragmatic, unsweetened advice on career navigation, workplace dynamics, and professional growth.