Career Story Refresh: Clear Clutter & Highlight What Matters
Tired of feeling stuck with your resume and cover letter? This post walks you through refreshing your career story by removing outdated language, emphasizing your real skills, and using Hardly’s smart tools to streamline your job search. Your story evolves. Make sure your application materials do too!
1. Clean Up What's Collecting Dust
Let’s start by clearing out what’s no longer working. We want your career story to be told and catch the attention of those who need to hear it.
For my young professionals out there, keep your resume clean and clear with a one page maximum.
The same goes for your cover letter. It’s tempting to fit every experience into your resume — believe me, I’ve been there and done that. In the words of one of my former teachers, you don’t want the person reading it to be in a bad mood because it’s too long. When it’s too long, most people will skip through it even faster. That’s not ideal.
💡 Career experts agree; cover letters aren’t always required, but a strong one can make all the difference in your job search.
For everyone else, it’s always good to keep the most recent and relevant experiences on your resume and highlight specific instances in your cover letters. Understandably, some people have significant gaps in time in their professional careers. In those cases, prioritize relevant experiences. If there happen to be other jobs or professional experiences since then that can be highlighted, let that job you had straight after your last year of school take a backseat.
Now that we’ve got the main bullet points in place, it’s time to make sure that your resume sounds sleek and modern.
Here are some examples of tired and dated sentence phrases:
- “Responsible for handling customer inquiries." (Translation: I answered lots and lots of phone calls.)
- “Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite. (Every office job ever.)
- “Hard worker with a positive attitude.” (Yawn.)
- “Participated in team meetings and contributed ideas.” (Basically, I showed up.)
These tired phrases are holding your career story hostage. It’s time to kick them to the curb and make space for what really counts. We’ll give an example about how to revitalize phrases like this in the next section, so keep reading.
2. Keep the Gems
What’s still working for you? That introduction might have been collecting dust for a few years, but at one point it accurately described your abilities and career story. Take the tone or a certain word and refresh it.
🕰 Have you always been good with time-management? Update the wording so that strength finally gets the credit it deserves.
Before (dusty old intro):“I am a detail-oriented professional with strong time-management skills and a commitment to teamwork.”
After (much better):“A natural multitasker who thrives in fast-paced environments, I balance deadlines, projects, and collaboration with ease. Busy days become my success stories” (a perfect segue to an example of such a success story)
Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with the first introduction. It gets the job done with no extra fluff. In full transparency, the AI that reads it first won’t notice anything amiss. The only thing missing?
(It’s kind of important.)
It’s your voice. Once your resume and cover letter make it past the initial rounds, which it will, a real person will be scanning cover letter after cover letter. You want to make it stick in their minds. This is your chance to stand out in a clean and memorable way! Make it count.
For more on how to make your resume and cover letter ATS-friendly, click here.
3. Rewrite the Script
I have an even easier solution for you.
Imagine not going through your cover letter and resume and rewriting every little thing about your career.
You don’t have to imagine it. With Hardly, input your old cover letter and resume along with some key words about what you want your new cover letter or resume to sound like into our cover letter and resume builders. Within minutes, you’ll have a brand-new, clutter-free, and ATS-friendly cover letter and resume ready to submit.
Worried about tone? You don’t have to be. Our AI enhances all text to sound exactly how you want it to. And guess what? All of Hardly’s tools are customizable to your needs. Use what you want, leave behind what you don’t.
4. Clear the Way for Change
Here’s your Hardly toolkit:
- Resume Builder – Match resumes to job descriptions instantly so you can apply with confidence and clarity. Hardly tailors the structure and content to position you for success.
- Cover Letter Builder – You can pick any job description, and generate a cohesive and polished cover letter within seconds that tells your career story. Enhance the cover letter with Hardly’s AI button.
- Job Application Tracker – Track applications, identify next steps, and coach with confidence using Hardly’s real-time job tracking tool
- Interview Practice Tool – Hardly’s Interview Practice Tool helps job seekers like you get ready for interviews by practicing responses and improving their delivery. It is an excellent tool to simulate the basic interview process.
- Messaging – Stay connected with quick, secure messages, all within the platform.
Assessments – Use built-in assessments to identify strengths, gaps, and job readiness.
Final Thoughts
Your career story is not fixed. It grows as you do. Whether you are just starting out or re-entering the workforce after time away, you already have what you need. What matters now is how you tell it.
Clear the clutter. Say what you mean. Let Hardly help you bring your next chapter into focus.