Resume, cover letter and LinkedIn, in the order to do them

The order that saves the most time

1. Build or fix the resume first. The resume builder shows a score while you type and says what to fix. Already have one? Skip to the check.
2. Check it against one real job post. Paste the posting into the ATS resume checker. It lists the skills the post names that your resume does not, and what a parser reads from your file. Fix the resume, not the post.
3. Write the cover letter from the resume, not from scratch. The cover letter generator uses your real results and checks each line. If you already have a letter, the checker marks it paragraph by paragraph.
4. Make LinkedIn say the same job. Recruiters open the profile after the resume. The LinkedIn profile optimizer scores it section by section; the headline and About pages write those two parts.
5. Only if the job asks for one: the portfolio website generator turns the resume into a one-page site you can host anywhere.

Two things people do in the wrong order: they polish LinkedIn before the resume says what job they want, and they write the cover letter before checking the resume against the post. Do the check first; the letter and the profile both borrow from it.

How do you get a resume ready to send?

A resume has one job: get a person to call you. These are the steps in the order that works, from a blank page to a file you can send today.

Start from the job you want, not from your history

Write the target job title at the top of a note before you write anything else. Every line that follows either helps that title or goes lower down. People who start from their history list every task they ever did, and the reader has to guess what they want.

Write each line as a result

A good line says what you did, how, and what changed because of it. "Handled customer emails" tells a reader nothing. "Cut the reply time on customer emails by setting up saved answers for the ten most common questions" tells them how you think. Use your real numbers if you have them; if you do not, describe the change in words.

Keep the layout plain enough for software to read

Many companies put every application through an applicant tracking system first. Parsers read one stream of text, top to bottom. Two columns, tables, text boxes, icons and contact details in the page header can come out jumbled or missing. One column, standard section names like "Experience" and "Education", and dates written the same way every time are safe. A PDF saved as a picture cannot be read at all, so export from the builder rather than scanning or screenshotting. Not sure about your file? Drop it into the checker and look at the "what a parser reads" view.

Tailor in minutes, not in hours

Keep one base resume. For each job, paste the post into the checker, add the skills it names that you really have, and move the most relevant results to the top. Never add a skill you cannot talk about for two minutes; the interview will ask.

Get your dates and totals right

Job forms ask for total years of experience, and the answer has to match the dates on your resume. The work experience calculator adds your jobs, counts overlaps once and lists every gap with its dates, so the number you type is the number a background check will find.

Resume mistakes that cost interviews, and the fix for each

• A summary that could belong to anyone. "Hard-working team player" is on thousands of resumes. Name the role, your level and the one thing you are known for instead.
• Skills listed but never shown. A skill in the list and nowhere in your jobs looks padded. Put each key skill inside at least one result line.
• The same resume sent to every post. Run the post through the checker first; the missing words list is your edit list.
• Old or unrelated jobs taking the top half. Recent and relevant goes first. Older jobs can shrink to one line each.
• A LinkedIn profile that tells a different story. Different titles or dates on the two make a recruiter wonder which one is true. Update both in the same sitting.

What "done" looks like for this step

You are finished here when four things are true. The resume names the job you want in its first lines. The checker shows the post's main skills present and a clean parse. You have a cover letter draft that adds two results the resume only lists. Your LinkedIn headline and About section use the same job title and the same words. Then stop polishing and start finding posts; a resume improves faster from real replies than from another evening of edits.