The resume checks that actually change the outcome

Resume advice is mostly assertion. It is more useful to know what the checker is actually counting, so you can argue with it.

The score is a weighted average

Eleven checks, each worth a fixed number of points, each either passed, half-credited or failed. The weights are not equal, and their ranking is the real advice:

• Quantified results — 15. The heaviest single check: a bullet carrying a number that is not merely a date.
• Standard sections, action verbs, filler phrases — 12 each.
• Length and contact details — 10 each.
• First person, active voice, bullet length, dates — 6 each.
• An online profile link — 5.

Paste a job description and a twelfth check worth 15 is added for keyword overlap. A warning earns half credit, so clearing three warnings is worth about as much as fixing one outright failure.

Numbers are the cheapest points on the page

"Improved build times" and "Cut build times by 40%, from 12 minutes to 7" describe the same work. The second is checkable, memorable, and satisfies the most heavily weighted check on the list. Most people have the numbers and simply never thought to write them down.

Headings are read literally

Parsers look for the words Experience, Education and Skills. "Where I've Been" is charming and invisible. This is the one place where being boring is strictly correct.

Duty-speak is the most common deduction

"Responsible for", "worked on", "assisted with", "team player", "results-driven" — phrases that describe a job description rather than a person. Every one of them occupies space that could hold something only you could have written.

Drop the pronouns, keep the voice active

Resumes use an implied first person: "Led a team of six", not "I led a team of six", and certainly not "A team of six was led by me". The passive voice hides who did the thing, which is the only information the bullet exists to carry.

A template can quietly cost you

Of the six templates in the resume builder, four — Classic, Modern, Compact and Elegant — are single-column with real headings. Sidebar and Banner look better to a person and worse to a parser: a two-column layout can be read in the wrong order, and the sidebar holding your contact details is exactly the part that gets scrambled.

If you know a human is opening it, use the one you like. If it is going into an online form, paste the plain-text download instead — that is the safest thing you can hand a system you cannot see.

What a score cannot tell you

Every check is a heuristic over your own text. There is no model behind it, nothing is uploaded, and a high score means the resume is well-formed — not that it is right for the role. Only work a keyword from a posting into your resume where it is honestly true of you. When the resume is done, the cover letter generator takes it from there.