What is resume health?
“Resume health” is a practical way to judge whether your resume is easy to scan, credible, and clearly demonstrates impact. It’s what makes a recruiter think: “I understand what you did, and it matters.”
Signals of a healthy resume
- • Strong structure (titles, dates, bullets) and scannable layout
- • Evidence-based bullets with metrics (impact, scope, scale)
- • Clear ownership: what you built, improved, or shipped
- • Consistent, specific language (tools, systems, users)
Common reasons health is low
- • Bullets read like responsibilities, not outcomes
- • Vague claims ("improved performance") without proof
- • Missing context (team size, scope, constraints)
- • Skill lists without corresponding evidence
How to improve resume health (fast)
- 1) Rewrite bullets as outcomes. Use a simple pattern: Did X → using Y → resulting in Z.
- 2) Add metrics that show scope. Users, latency, uptime, cost, throughput, delivery time, quality — anything measurable.
- 3) Make ownership explicit. Replace “helped” with the specific thing you owned (designed, implemented, led, launched).
- 4) Remove fluff. If a line doesn’t add proof, delete or rewrite it.
Example rewrite
Before
Improved database performance and optimized queries.
After
Optimized Postgres query plans and indexes for high-traffic endpoints, reducing p95 latency by 38% and cutting database CPU by 22%.