How every résumé and cover letter example on this site is made and checked

Every example on this site follows the same method. Writing it out on each page would repeat the same explanation a hundred times, so it lives here, and each example keeps its space for what is particular to the job: what a hiring manager in that field looks for, which lines carry the weight, and how the document changes as a career grows.

An invented person, written out in full

Each example starts with a person who does not exist. They have a name, a headline, dated roles at invented employers, a skills list and, where the job calls for it, qualifications with years. The figures in their lines are chosen to show what a strong line in that job looks like: a caseload with a number, a close measured in days, a pipeline with a conversion rate. They are illustrations, and every page says so near the top.

The document is complete on purpose. A fragment would show a phrase; a whole résumé shows how the parts sit together, which is what most people get wrong.

Read by the same import you would use

The example is handed to the free résumé builder as plain text, through the same import an uploaded PDF or Word file goes through. The review screen shows each field it found beside the line it came from, before anything reaches the editor. The readers are fixed rules, one per kind of section, and where they are unsure they ask a question instead of guessing.

Each example quotes what the review printed for it: how many readers were involved, how many dated roles it found, and which sections it recognised.

Scored by the ATS checker, then by the writing check

The same document then goes through the free ATS checker. The score is a weighted sum of three parts, with limits that stop a thin document from looking ready, and the report prints its own arithmetic. How the ATS score is calculated sets that out in full.

A second reading, the writing check, asks how the document is written: whether lines open with an action verb, stay a readable length, avoid buzzwords and use a consistent tense. Two of its rules can pull against each other on a current role, since one looks for past-tense action verbs and the other expects the present tense for work that has not ended. Most examples are written in the past tense throughout and lose those points openly, which is the commoner convention.

Scores are re-measured when the checker changes, and each example gives the date its figures were taken.

Cover letters: evidence in, letter out

A cover letter example starts from a posting and a set of numbered evidence lines for the invented person. That evidence is loaded into the free cover letter builder, and the letter it writes is quoted in full. Each sentence is either one of the person's own evidence lines or one of the builder's connecting sentences, and the builder lists which is which beside each paragraph. What evidence tracing looks like shows that list in the product.

The builder drafts in one plain, direct voice. It writes the connecting sentences and the subject line; the evidence is your own lines, in the order the posting makes them matter. Where the posting asks for something the evidence does not show, the letter says so in one factual sentence and claims nothing.

Designs, and the door on each page

Examples are shown in different designs to show the range of the résumé design gallery. A design changes the paper, never the words, so any example reads the same in any design. Several of the letter examples pair a letter design with a matching résumé layout; that pairing is chosen on these pages and is not something the builder does for you.

Each example has a door. On a résumé example it opens the builder with the example loaded and labelled as an example, and nothing is saved until you accept it. On a letter example it loads the role, the company, the posting and the evidence into the cover letter builder, and writes nothing until you press Draft from résumé and then Create new draft.

What to take from an example

Take the structure: the order of sections, the shape of a line, the grouping of skills, the balance between volume and result. Leave the sentences, because they describe somebody else. The fastest way to use one is to open it, replace each line with a true line of your own, and check the result on the ATS checker before you download it free as PDF or Word.