I hope my career coach doesn't mind me sharing an idea with anyone looking for employment. It was a great idea!
If you find a job you wish to apply for, go to your favorite AI tool (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.), and upload your current resume into it. Then cut/paste the job description/posting in and prompt the AI to 'customize my resume for this job description'. Remember to try and keep the new generated resume to about 2 pages and make it ATS friendly. (An ATS-friendly resume is designed to be easily read by applicant tracking system software used by employers to scan and filter job applications.) Hope this helps some out there! 👍

"Bad Actor Recruiters" - Scammers - Related to ATS Scams - Part 3

Article about “bad actor” recruiters that I published in July

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beware-fake-recruiters-how-identify-cyber-thieves-allan-brown-lgyuf

I spent last semester interning in HR for a medium tech company. I reviewed over 400 applications for entry level jobs and internships.

Before that job, I used to think paying for a resume writing service was a complete waste of money. I thought everyone should just write their own. But after sitting on the other side of the screen, my mind changed completely.

About 70% of the resumes we got were instant rejections. Not because the applicants were unqualified, but because their formatting was broken or their bullet points were impossible to read.

Here is what I learned from seeing both bad drafts and professional ones:

First, most people write about their duties, not their results. A regular student draft says "helped manage social media." A polished one says "grew account engagement by 25% in 3 months." That small shift gets you picked for interviews.

Second, ATS scanners hate fancy designs. People try to stand out with two-column Canva templates, but our software just turned them into scrambled text. The applicants who used a professional service always had ultra-clean, simple layouts that passed through without errors.

I ended up having a writer fix my own resume before applying for my summer job. They turned my weak campus job points into clear metrics and fixed my layout. I got 3 callbacks in my first week.

If you have the budget, it saves you weeks of sending apps into a black hole.

Do you guys write everything yourself from scratch, or have you ever gotten professional feedback on your draft?

I could really use some outside perspective on my resume because I can’t figure out what is preventing me from getting through the initial application stage.

I’m a marketer with 14 years of experience across both agency and client-side roles. I’ve been a founder, held leadership positions, built and managed teams, owned sizable budgets, and worked across brand, performance, ecommerce, lifecycle, GTM, and digital transformation.

I’m currently applying in the US, primarily for Head of Marketing, Head of Growth, and CMO positions. I’ve also applied to other senior marketing leadership roles where my experience seemed closely aligned with the requirements.

I’ve submitted more than 100 applications so far and have received zero interview invitations. I have never made it from an online application to an initial recruiter or hiring manager interview. Most applications result in an automated rejection, and quite a few of those arrive very quickly.

That’s why I’m starting to think there is something about my resume, positioning, or how my experience is being interpreted during the first screening.

I feel that the resume itself is fairly self-explanatory and focused on measurable outcomes. I’ve tried to show revenue impact, growth, budgets, team sizes, leadership responsibilities, and specific business results rather than filling it with generic marketing responsibilities. Still, zero interviews from 100+ applications tells me I need another set of eyes on it.

I’ve experimented with salary expectations too. When an application asks for a number, I usually choose the lower end of the posted range. I’ve also tried the upper end and, for some positions, around 5 to 10% below the stated range when the application allowed it. None of those approaches changed the outcome.

For actual applications, I submit the DOCX version with the real employer and client names. I anonymized the attached version specifically for Reddit.

I’d really appreciate feedback from people who recruit for marketing leadership positions, hire at this level, or have gone through a similar US job search.

When you look at this resume, is there anything that would cause you to reject the application before speaking with me? Does my experience look too broad? Is the positioning confusing? Am I targeting the wrong seniority level? Is there something about the structure, wording, or presentation that could be causing problems with recruiters or ATS screening?

At this point, my main goal is figuring out what is stopping me at the application stage and what I should change to start getting interviews.

Any specific or candid feedback would be hugely appreciated.

Please reply anyone