THE ULTIMATE STAR

RESUME GUIDE
LEARN HOW TO CREATE A STANDOUT RESUME AND
LAND MORE INTERVIEWS

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Contents

01 RESUME HACKS

02 RESUME HACKS EXPLAINED

08 RESUME TEMPLATE
FOR RECENT GRADUATES

11 RESUME TEMPLATE
FOR PROFESSIONALS
 CHAPTER 1

10 Ultimate Resume Hacks

1 KEEP IT CONCISE

2 USE BULLET POINTS

3 FOCUS ON RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

4 MIRROR JOB DESCRIPTION’S LANGUAGE

5 USE POWER VERBS

6 LIST ACHIEVEMENTS, NOT RESPONSIBILITIES

7 QUANTIFY YOUR EXPERIENCE

8 MAKE IT EASY TO UNDERSTAND

9 BE HONEST

10 PROOFREAD AND CHECK FORMATTING

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 CHAPTER 1

1. KEEP IT CONCISE

While ideal resume length causes a lot of debate, I recommend one-page

resumes for corporate jobs.

Shorter resume means that important information is easy to find.

Realistically, recruiters and hiring managers quickly scan through your
resume, focus on your recent experience and tend to not even look at the
second or third page.

Plus, what you list beyond the first page of your resume is often not really
relevant for the job you’re applying for. For example, with 10+ years of
experience, entry-level roles you had right out of university might just not be
relevant; yet, they’re occupying precious real estate on your resume.

If you feel strongly about a longer resume, make sure that everything you
add on there is valuable information about you.

2.USE BULLET POINTS

Every experience you list on your resume should include bullet points, rather
than paragraphs. Realistically, no one is going to read an essay of a resume.

You want to make it easy for the recruiter and hiring manager to find key
information. They will skim through your resume so having your experience
organized in bullet points form is key.

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3.FOCUS ON RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

It’s quite common to change industries and careers in the corporate world. As
a result, some of the experiences on your resume might not necessarily be
relevant to the job you’re targeting today.

It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t include those roles at all. Instead, focus on
parts of those jobs that would be important to the role you’re applying for
now.

Let’s say you were in accounting and then went into sales. If you had client
facing experience in your accounting roles, that would be relevant to a career
in sales so that would be a great point to add. In this vase, go ahead and
add your experience in accounting but highlight the work you did with clients.

Similarly, your accounting expertise might not be that important if you’re

looking to sell consumer goods so don’t include a lot of past experience
details in that case. However, if you’re looking to sell accounting software,
your background will be a bonus so in this case you’d want to add it.

With anything you list on your resume, make sure that it creates a career
path story and is relevant to the job you’re applying to.

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4.MIRROR JOB DESCRIPTION’S LANGUAGE

Your goal is to show the hiring manager that you have the relevant
experience required for the job you’re applying for – and make it easy for
them to find it.

Read the job description carefully and make sure to use similar language in
your resume: a job in marketing might require you to ‘Brief, coordinate and
direct the advertising agencies and media buying group’. If you have
experience in that, make it your bullet point.

5.USE POWER VERBS

Start your resume bullet points with power verbs. These are action verbs that
help you highlight the value you created in each role you had.

Think verbs like manage, lead, create, grow, initiate, increase, reduce,
develop.

Compare:

‘Took care of the day to day operations…’ AND ‘Led day to day operations…’

‘Oversaw 100 accounts…’ AND ‘Managed 100+ accounts…’

‘Worked on marketing plan…’ AND ‘Developed and executed marketing plan…’

This simple change instantly transforms your resume and profile in general.
Use power verbs to show yourself as a manager, a leader, and as someone
who takes initiative.

A full list of power verbs, including my favorites, on thecareerdiet.com under

Free Resources.

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 6.LIST ACHIEVEMENTS, NOT RESPONSIBILITIES

You resume should list your achievements, not responsibilities.

A list of your responsibilities and a simple ‘responsible for’ or ‘took care of ’ don’t
tell the hiring manager whether you were good or bad at your job – it’s just
something you did.

Instead, show the employer that you’ve excelled at those responsibilities. Your goal
is to highlight all the amazing things you’ve achieved in each of your roles.

Compare:

Responsible for generating and maintaining a solid repeat client list through top-
level customer service.

(Automatically, I think: so, did you generate a repeat client list? Were you good at
customer service? What were the results?)

AND

Increased store sales by 10% in first year by providing outstanding customer service
to generate and maintain a solid repeat client list.

Now a hiring manager sees that you did provide top-level customer service because
you increased sales.

Remember, your resume is a summary of your achievements, not responsibilities.

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7.QUANTIFY YOUR EXPERIENCE

The best way to highlight your achievements is to

quantify them. Aim to have numbers in every (or
most) bullet point you have. Think dollars,
percentages, months, years, etc.

Compare:

Exceeded sales targets by consistently growing

revenues.

AND

Exceeded annual sales targets by 30% in first year,

followed by a 10% increase each following year,
through proactively identifying upsell opportunities
with existing clients.

8.MAKE IT EASY TO UNDERSTAND

Use simple sentence structure and avoid using

vocabulary and abbreviations that are specific to a
particular company you worked for.

You can try giving your resume to a friend or a

family member to read, someone who is not your
colleague and doesn’t know much about your
experience. You want to make sure they understand
most of your resume; they should be able to see your
achievements and that you were good at your jobs,
even if the specifics are not clear to them.

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9.BE HONEST

While I encourage you to focus your results, I urge you to include the
successes you actually achieved. A lie on your resume will always become
evident, at one point or the other.

It’s also important to be transparent about the dates of your employment.

Often candidates only include years and skip months. This might have
happened unintentionally but for the employer this can be a red flag: you’re
either trying to cover up a gap in your employment history (which is not a big
deal in most cases) or show more experience than you actually have.

10.PROOFREAD AND CHECK FORMATTING

Hiring managers skim through resumes, they don’t really read them. However,
what always stands out, even if someone is just giving a resume a quick
glance, is spelling errors and sloppy formatting.

Spend extra time spell-checking your resume. Leave it for a day and read it
again or give it to someone else to read. You’d be surprised how quickly
someone who is reading your resume for the first time will find spelling errors.

Same goes for formatting. Double-check that you’re using consistent font,
font size, spacing and margins all throughout your resume.

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 RESUME TEMPLATE
AND EXAMPLE
RECENT GRADUATE (UNDER 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE)

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 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Country ∙ 1.234.567.8910 ∙ firstname.lastname@gmail.com ∙ LinkedIn

EDUCATION
University Dates
Degree, GPA, Scholarships, Awards City, Country

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company name, What company does Dates
Position City, Country
Use 2-4 bullet points for each position to highlight your accomplishments in each role (sometimes just one bullet
point is acceptable if it was a shorter engagement but aim for 2 min). Your goal is to show that you’re a star at
what you’ve done, not just list your responsibilities.
Each bullet point needs to start with an action verb, followed by an achievement and an explanation how that
achievement was accomplished through what you were doing in your role and your skills. Think about skills you
have developed and skills that are important to for your next role
Aim to include a number in each bullet point. Think percentages, days/ weeks/ months, population or frequency of
your work (i.e. number of customers you worked with daily/ weekly or overall; number of research pieces you
analyzed to create a X number of pages report, etc.)

Company name, What company does Dates

Position City, Country
For each bullet point, think about the following questions: What scope of work you dealt with? (one customer
request a day? 10 a day? 10 a week?) What was the result of your work? What skills did you learn or improved
(that are relevant to your next role)?
Proofread and check editing. Make sure to use past tense for past experiences and present tense for your current
experience

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Company name, What company does Dates
Position City, Country
As someone early in your career, you might need to include school project, pro-bono work or volunteer work. Add
them in a separate section and use the same bullet point structure as in your work experience above

PERSONAL
For each bullet point, think about the following questions: What scope of work you dealt with? (one customer
request a day? 10 a day? 10 a week?) What was the result of your work? What skills did you learn or improved
(that are relevant to your next role)?
Proofread and check editing. Make sure to use past tense for past experiences and present tense for your current
experience

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 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Country ∙ 1.234.567.8910 ∙ firstname.lastname@gmail.com ∙ LinkedIn
EDUCATION
University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 2020
MEd, Educational Leadership and Policy, GPA: 3.97/4.00
University of British Columbia 2018
BMgt, Management, Dean's Honour Roll
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company Name 05/2020 – 11/2020
Analyst Remote – Ottawa, ON
Signed a $4 million contract with one of Canada’s largest manufacturer within the first month of employment
Secured a supplier deal for 10,000 units for client’s order in 2 days through market research and negotiation
Processed large volume of data in short period, in preparation of documentation for tenders, patents and reports
Structured and organized client’s procurement and supply chain procedures by creating a data-worksheet
University Name 08/2019 – 03/2020
Policy Consultant Remote – Astana, Kazakhstan
Researched, compiled and analyzed existing data on international policies and reforms in education
administration to be incorporated in the local institutional, academic and legislative context
Provided monthly reports with strategic recommendations on policy development directly to the Vice-President

Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan 05/2019 – 07/2019

Policy Intern Astana, Kazakhstan
Researched and revised an employee training policy under World Bank's "Skills and Jobs" qualification standards
Coordinated exchange study programs between 15 regional universities and industrial professional associations
Launched a new study program for over 20 applicants in 2 weeks by networking with international science
centers
Served as a central correspondence communication channel for an international forum with over 1000
participants
University of British Columbia 01/2018 – 05/2018
Teaching Assistant Kelowna, BC
Assisted the professor in course instructing for over 100 students and oversaw the Learning Management System
Led weekly one-on-one office hours, providing sufficient feedback on course content, assignments and tests
Company Name 01/2018 – 05/2018
Marketing Proposal – Capstone Project Kelowna, BC
Created a strategic action plan, including thorough industry and market analysis in the e-commerce segment; the
recommendations were accepted and implemented by the client within a few months
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

University of Toronto, OISE Mentorship Program 08/2020 – Present

Alumni Mentor Remote – Toronto, ON
Mentoring two newly enrolled students by providing weekly academic, professional and moral support
Engaging in university student community development by attending weekly sessions, workshops and webinars
PERSONAL

Avid traveler (have been to over 20 countries), participated in five international student exchange programs

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RESUME TEMPLATE
AND EXAMPLE
PROFESSIONAL (3+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE)

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 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Country ∙ 1.234.567.8910 ∙ firstname.lastname@gmail.com ∙ LinkedIn

Summarize your experience, mentioning what type of professional you are, how much experience you bring and what
your specialty is (i.e. digital marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in telecom and banking sectors).
Highlight your key career focus and what’s important for a professional in your field to have (i.e. proven track record
planning and launching marketing campaigns with budgets of over $100k). 2-3 sentences max. This section is optional
and makes most sense if you have 10+ years of experience to sum it up or if you’re changing careers to highlight
relevant skills and experience.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Company name, What company does Dates
Position City, Country
Use 2-5 bullet points for each position to highlight your accomplishments in each role. Your goal is to show that
you’re a star at what you’ve done, not just list your responsibilities
Each bullet point needs to start with an action verb, followed by an achievement and an explanation how that
achievement was accomplished through what you were doing in your role and your skills. Think about skills you
have developed and skills that are important to for your next role
Aim to include a number in each bullet point. Think percentages, days/ weeks/ months, population or frequency of
your work (i.e. number of customers you worked with daily/ weekly or overall; number of research pieces you
analyzed to create a X number of pages report, etc.).

Company name, What company does Dates

Position City, Country
For each bullet point, think about the following questions: What scope of work you dealt with? (one customer
request a day? 10 a day? 10 a week?) What was the result of your work? What skills did you learn or improved
(that are relevant to your next role)?
Proofread and check editing. Make sure to use past tense for past experiences and present tense for your current
experience.
Company name, What company does Dates
Position City, Country
When including a role that was shorter in duration, took place a long time ago, or is not relevant to what you’re
doing now/ want to do next, consider omitting it or only including one bullet point with relevant information

EDUCATION

University Dates
Degree, GPA, Scholarships, Awards City, Country

SKILLS&INTERESTS/PERSONAL

Skills: add hard skills here. Think, skills that can be tested. Languages you speak, technologies
you know (i.e. Spanish, Russian, SQL, advanced Excel). DO NOT include soft skills like
communication or good under pressure. Those need to be clear through your bullet points.
Interests: show that you have stuff going on outside of work and you’re an interesting person

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 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Country ∙ 1.234.567.8910 ∙ firstname.lastname@gmail.com ∙ LinkedIn

Business strategy leader with 10+ years of experience in technology and management consulting. Functional focus on
go-to-market strategies for technology companies. Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams to design
and deliver commercial projects.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
MCKINSEY & COMPANY, Management consulting 2015 – present
Engagement Manager Seattle, USA
Drove end-to-end business transformation program, including product roadmap simplification, realignment of
sales and marketing to strategic products, and services transformation – enabled 30%+ EBITDA growth in 12
months
Conducted end-to-end B2B sales diagnostic and designed go-to-market strategy targeting 5-8% in segment
revenue growth at stagnant market
Led joint client team across marketing, product, lead gen, and sales functions to design and launch end-to-end
new customer acquisition motion worth $50-60M
Designed B2B services expansion strategy: from in-depth B2B use-cases analysis to a short list of strategic
partnership options to engage on target opportunities
Developed SMB acquisition strategy and led joint advanced analytics effort to identify first wave of acquisition
targets and launch field pilot worth up to $50M

ENPHASE ENERGY, Leading solar technology company 2014

Strategy Intern Petaluma, USA
Designed warranty pricing for micro-inverter solar systems via statistical model for unit failures

BOOZ & COMPANY, Management consulting 2010 – 2013

Associate Moscow, Russia
Increased EBITDA by 10% by driving product range optimization and new pricing strategy
Identified $2M worth of new profit opportunities by conducting in-depth portfolio analysis and proposing a new
way of used stock utilization
Developed go-to-market strategy - performed extensive analysis of Russian insurance market, identified priority
segments and products, developed two-year implementation plan

EDUCATION
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 2013 – 2015
Master of Business Administration Stanford, USA
MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY 2003 – 2009
BSc, MSc in Applied Physics and Mathematics – 100% GPA Moscow, Russia

SKILLS&INTERESTS/PERSONAL
Languages: English (fluent), Russian (native)
Interests: High performance driving; Stanford GSB Rugby Club; Powerlifting - college champion

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 Hi, I’m Anna
I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Russia. No one I knew has ever
lived abroad or even traveled much. I didn't grow up with a lot of money and didn't
even speak English fluently until I was in my 20s.
Fast forward to now...
I've lived in 5 countries, 7 cities, went to a competitive business school in Canada on
a scholarship, changed careers twice without starting from the bottom or taking a
pay cut, received multiple 6 figure job offers, and built a successful career in
enterprise sales abroad, while having to speak foreign language every day.
And trust me when I say that this wasn't an easy path.
In between, there were countless job interviews, rejections from my dream jobs, A
LOT of tears and self-doubt, and settling for ok offers.
It took me years to master the job search skills, learn how to be seen as a top
candidate, be sought after by the top employers in the country and hear 'What
would it take for you to come on board?' just 15 minutes into an interview.
Mastering the job search skills changed my life and now I'm on a mission to help
you. Check out how we can work together HERE.
.

anna@thecareerdiet.com

@thecareerdiet

@annabelyaeva

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