Regardless of industry, job title, or experience level, which sections should every resume include?

And which sections are optional and should only be added when relevant?

Interested in hearing your opinions and real world experience especially from people who review resumes regularly.

I took the advice of many people, mostly making my resume ATS compatible. I used a splash of AI to make sure it passed all of its checks. I also took other advice of highlighting my results and achievements.

Now I feel like my resume is getting buried with all the noise. I got 2 interviews + some recruiter calls with my previous resume. With this new format, same amount of resumes sent, I'm not hearing back anything except rejections.

This resume looks, sounds, and feels like 99% of other resumes out there, there's nothing special about it.

Background

I have ~8 years experience as a product manager in tech. It isn't my ideal industry anymore (I'd actually like to go for gov't or a utility in a tech or operational focused role), but given the nature of the economy, changing industry and roles at once is ineffective.

I got laid off earlier this year, and since then I've been doing a variety things to pay the bills - everything from private consulting to dog walking to Instacart/DoorDashing. I've also been doing some admin work for my wife's business.

I'm a generalist and have a pretty broad understanding of different domains in SaaS and e-commerce. The reason for the shift, if it's at all relevant to this thread, is because I simply enjoy (and am better) at the operational aspects than the visionary parts of product development.

On my resume - I haven't had it reviewed yet. Yes, I did use AI to help with phrasing, but made some adjustments after the output (flow was I wrote --> asked AI to review and improve --> reviewed and modified on my own)

Goals

I'm looking to pivot into a product operations or program management role, and am specifically applying for fully remote or hybrid roles in the San Francisco Bay Area - not willing to relocate. Also, no visa issues as I'm a US citizen.

Challenges

I've applied for a few positions in product operations, program management, and strategy & ops. I've gotten 2 interviews in strategy & ops over the past 7 months, but never made it past the panel. I wasn't targeting the S&O roles specifically - it was just one of those "sounds interesting, I'll just throw my resume in).

The challenges I'm facing and would love feedback/guidance on are:

1. How do I frame my resume from my product management background to a product operations / program management role, and what do I need to change about my content?
2. How do I write an effective summary that a) conveys the career change and b) how my experience can be valuable?
3. Guidance on the competencies and tools section, and how I can make it appear less spammy. My intent is to highlight the skillset I have that are relevant to the job, but also assume it's used by the ATS to match fit.
4. How do I get recruiters to not write me off when they see 0 product operations experience, but years of product management?
5. Note: The most recent 2 Sr. PM roles are at the same company.

Hi all! I am a Senior Front-End Engineer (React, Next.js, TypeScript), now a Tech Lead of a small team. I want to apply for Senior Frontend and Frontend Tech Lead roles in the US (remote or onsite).

Please review my resume. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I quit my last job for a long list of reasons after only staying there for 6 months. It was actually the first place I worked and I hesitantly returned because I was given a more senior title and promised more responsibilities, but it ended up being mostly the same responsibilities as before and I don't feel like I gained any management experience because I was the only employee for most of my time there and I had very little support from my boss. I quit because it was a completely dysfunctional environment and I was dealing with unbearable stress and anxiety. I really wish I'd thought through that decision more, though, because now, 2 months and 36 applications later, I've only had 3 phone screenings and 1 interview. There's much more to the story than my resume tells, but basically my career has been a series of disappointments and bad career decisions since getting laid off from an amazing job last March. I'm worried that my resume makes me look like a job hopper, but the reality is that I desperately want a nice, stable nonprofit role where I can learn and grow for years to come. Any advice or guidance would be welcomed, because I'm feeling really discouraged and wondering if I'll ever be able to achieve my career dreams after getting knocked down over and over again!

Im a final year engineering student from India, but Im struggling to land interviews. Would really appreciate some honest feedback and guidance on what I can improve.

I just left my job and I'm trying to create a new resume by following some of the advice I've seen here in this subreddit. I haven't had to create a resume in quite a while and it seems like such a different beast than what I remember now that AI is basically everywhere and analyzing everything.

I won't include my first rendition of my resume, but it was like 4 pages long and included literally all of my work experience since I got out of the Army in 2016. I revised my resume to only include the most recent and relevant jobs that I've held.

My current resume is now 2 pages long and I hope that is acceptable, because I really don't know how I can sell myself on one page without omitting some details I think are helpful. The first two images above are my first shot at an ATS friendly resume, but after reading some reviews on this subreddit I thought maybe it was too wordy, so pictures 3 + 4 above are another revision I did where I tried to make it less wordy and then combined the work experience of my Tier 4 and Payments Product positions since they were at the same company.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,

I graduated with a finance degree in 2024 and have been in my current job as a business analyst since October 2025. I am hoping to get some sort of job in finance eventually and am looking for tups on how to fix up my resume. Any advice is appreciated.

I am looking for feedback for my resume. I have been applying to jobs for months now but can't even break into an interview. My last role was a one year contract with a Senior Data Scientist title but technically I am a junior. I acted as a one man data department building full system from zero to analytics for a start up.

Open to all feedback to help.

How do I show this progression on a resume so that it passes easily through ATS, auto-filled applications, etc.?

Expert Support Consultant | March 2019 - July 2021
Senior Support Consultant | March 2016 - March 2019
Support Consultant | March 2014 - March 2016
Associate Support Consultant | September 2012 - March 2014

Served as Team Lead (2017-2021)

I've tried putting just my latest title but had 2012-2021 and then stated over the 9 years I progressed from Associate to Expert and Team Lead. Does that come across as misleading? Do I list them in a row like this? I feel like this layout doesn't translate well through ATS and auto-fill applications. This was all at the same company so separating it into 4 different roles doesn't feel right.

I'd really like a supervisor, team lead, or manager role but my "team lead" experience, while doing all the job duties of an associate manager, was not an official title. How can I quickly convey that I have this leadership experience without it getting lost in a bullet under my job title (which alone doesn't convey leadership experience)?

Thanks for any help!

I recently finished university with my MSc in Visual Computing and am now looking for jobs as a C++ software engineer, more specifically in the field of computer graphics & GPGPU programming. I have sent out about 40 applications to junior/graduate positions aswell as up to 2YoE roles with no interviews so far.

I am aware that my CV is not packed with experience, I would simply like to ask for advice on how I could better present myself, the work and projects I have done so far, such that I at least get the chance to proof myself in an interview. Thanks!

I am open to relocation!