Guides by role
For each role: the keywords screens look for, the metrics hiring managers recognise, and the interview questions you will actually face — with what each one is really testing.
Customer
Customer Success Manager
Customer success is measured in retained and expanded revenue, so a resume without retention numbers is asking to be skipped. Lead with net revenue retention and book size. If you lack the numbers, reconstruct them honestly — accounts held, renewals closed, escalations resolved.
Data
Data Analyst
Data analyst screens filter hard on SQL and one BI tool, so those must appear verbatim. But the resumes that convert to interviews go further: they show an analysis that changed something. "Built dashboard" is invisible. "Found the churn driver that recovered $400K in ARR" is not.
Engineering
AI Engineer
AI engineering resumes fail on a predictable axis: they read as a list of model vendors and frameworks rather than a record of systems shipped and measured. The field moves fast enough that hiring managers have stopped being impressed by tool familiarity — everyone has called an API. What separates candidates now is evidence of evaluation, cost awareness, and knowing when the answer is not a model at all.
Machine Learning Engineer
Machine learning engineering resumes are most often rejected for stopping at the model. Training a model is the part that gets taught and the part everyone can show; deploying, monitoring, and retraining it is the part employers are hiring for and the part most resumes omit entirely. If your page ends at an accuracy figure, it reads as a data science resume applying to an engineering job.
Software Engineer
Software engineering resumes fail screens for a predictable reason: they list technologies instead of outcomes. An ATS matches your keywords, but the human who reads you next is scanning for scope and impact. The strongest resumes pair a specific system with a number attached to its result.
Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical engineering screens match hard on CAD packages, analysis tools, and standards — list them by name and version family. Then show the manufacturing consequence of your designs: cost per unit, yield, and weight are the numbers hiring managers trust.
Operations
Project Manager
Project manager resumes blur together because the vocabulary is shared and generic. Differentiate with magnitude: budget owned, team size, project value, and delivery record. Methodology certifications get you past filters, but scope numbers get you the interview.
Product
Product Manager
Product manager resumes are the hardest to write because the job is influence, and influence is hard to evidence. The fix is to claim outcomes, not activities. Recruiters skip "managed roadmap"; they stop at "grew activation from 18% to 31% in two quarters".