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.
How To Own Your Growth At Every Stage
Growth isn’t a straight line to the top. It also isn’t defined by job titles or degrees.
Growth begins the moment you decide to move forward.
If you’re working with a workforce development center to find your next step, growth might mean rebuilding your confidence or figuring out how to talk about everything you’ve learned outside of a traditional job. It might mean navigating a completely new direction. And no matter where you are in your journey, Hardly is here to help you take that next step.
Who Are The People Utilizing Workforce Development Centers?
- Recent High School Graduates
- Someone looking to pivot into a different industry
- Veterans readjusting to the job climate
- The ones who decided to forgo the college experience for real world experience
- Formerly incarcerated individuals
- Displaced workers
- Anyone rethinking what meaningful work looks like for them
- Parents getting back into the workforce after years
Everyone’s path is different, and that’s the point. Every experience teaches you something worth bringing to your next role.
The First Stage
This section is mostly for our high school graduates, but this advice applies to anyone without a degree looking further their careers without one.
Many of the most successful business men and women in the world don’t have a college degree. Their success didn’t come from a diploma. It came from the skills they built and the way they showed up.
Career success today depends far more on real-world experience than formal education. Every experience you have had has impacted you, whether that’s positively or negatively. It’s up to you to figure out how to channel the growth that each experience has sparked in you into your next steps.
Working in retail or at your local diner has value. It means you know how to work with people, even in difficult situations. If you had a side hustle in high school, it shows entrepreneurship and the ability to take risks responsibly. Volunteering at your local nursing home shows compassion, willingness to give back to the community, and most importantly, dedication.
These experiences matter and important to build true character alongside your foundation. You’ve already built the skills you need. Now it’s time to make sure employers see them.
Hardly works hand-in-hand with workforce development centers. Our tools, like our resume builder, help you tell your story clearly and professionally. If your experience doesn’t look traditional, that’s okay. Tell us where you’ve been, and we’ll help you present it in the best way possible.
Reentering The Workforce
Coming back to work after time away can feel overwhelming. Whether you’ve been raising a family, serving in the military, or navigating a major life change, reentering the workforce requires courage and support.
For some, it’s been years since they’ve had to update a resume or apply for a job. For others, like formerly incarcerated individuals, the gap in employment might feel like a wall. And for veterans, the transition into civilian life can be jarring.
You’ve developed highly valuable skills that aren’t always written in the language employers expect to see. These types of skills could never have been gained by someone in academia. That’s your advantage. You have lived a different life, and have grown skills that are necessary for our society.
If you’ve kept people safe, followed detailed protocols, or learned how to make fast decisions in unpredictable environments, you already have what so many employers are looking for. Adaptability. Leadership. Attention to detail. Teamwork.
Can you work well in a high-pressure environment? The question doesn’t even need to be asked with certain jobs under your belt.
The key is helping employers recognize those strengths. That is what Hardly does best. Our resume and cover letter builders help you translate your story into a format employers understand. And this time, you don’t have to spend hours staring at a blank screen.
Pivoting To A New Industry
The job search is grueling, especially when you’re trying to pivot into a new field without a traditional background.
It’s a time filled with uncertainty.
You apply to dozens of jobs, rewrite your resume over and over, tailor your cover letters and still hear nothing back. Eventually, it starts to feel personal. But it’s not.
Rejections left and right are NOT a commentary on the value you can bring to the table. Forbes states that 70% of people are finding it harder to get a job this year than in years past. You’re not imagining things. The market is tough.
Hardly lets you update your resume as you grow, build custom cover letters for every job you apply to, and track all your applications in one place. We help you stay organized and focused so your effort doesn’t go to waste. Our tools make your growth visible to employers.
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, right?
Action Steps
Here’s a few steps to get you started:
1. Use Hardly’s resume builder to tell your story clearly and confidently.
A well-crafted resume is your first impression. Use our tools to highlight your strengths, your experiences, and your goals in a way that speaks to employers.
2. Track your applications with the job tracker.
Staying organized during your job search helps you stay focused. Hardly’s job tracker lets you see where you have applied, follow up with confidence, and celebrate each small win.
3. Set one new growth goal each week.
Small goals lead to big changes. Whether it is updating one section of your resume, learning a new digital tool, or attending a workshop, consistent progress builds momentum.
4. Keep showing up.
Growth is not about having everything figured out. It is about taking one step at a time, no matter what stage you are in.
Hardly makes those steps easier. We are here to help you stay on track and own your growth with clarity and purpose.
Growth Looks Different on Everyone
Here’s a fun fact about me: I’m a perfectionist at heart. However, being perfect is not what growth is about. We’re all running the same race but from different places. Your next step will look different from mine. The most important thing to keep in mind is that we’re both moving forward.
Feeling sad? Take a step forward. Feeling tired? Take another step forward.
Each step forward facilitates more growth and more character.
You have to own each step.
Hardly has your back every step of the way.
You Don't Need A Degree To Succeed, Just Skills
Today, employers are looking for skills over degrees.
Ask around. Chances are someone in your circle took an untraditional route from high school to their now successful career. If you don’t know someone like that yet, Hardly is here to help you become that person or support others.
The Job Market
The job market is challenging, even on its best day. You scroll through LinkedIn or Indeed and see job postings with qualifications for entry-level jobs like this:
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, or related field
- 5+ Years of relevant experience in digital marketing
- Proven track record of managing multi-million dollar ad campaigns
- Expertise in Google Analytics, SEO/SEM, CRM platforms, and Adobe Creative Suite
- Demonstrated leadership and team management skills
- Must be available to work nights, weekends, and holidays
- Salary: $40,000/year
That overwhelming spreadsheet of applications rejection emails and recruiter names that I know you have (don’t worry, we’ve all been there) can be simplified with an effortless job tracker designed by Hardly to keep you organized and focused.
Let’s dive into why skills are outweighing degrees these days.
When Everyone's Skills Look The Same on Paper
Some fields like medicine, law, or engineering will always require formal education and hard skills. That’s fair. In recent years, many qualified people have gravitated toward other paths, like those in the trades or other fields like marketing, business, entrepreneurship, and design.
The downside for hiring professionals? Thousands of applicants look nearly identical on paper. They have the same:
degree.
internships.
cover letter rewritten over and over to fit the qualifications.
How do you stand out and differentiate yourself when everyone checks the same boxes?
Skills Speak Louder Than Diplomas
Employers are shifting their focus from just degrees to actual experience. It’s heartening to see employers begin to focus on hiring the right skills, drive, and passion. Instead of where you went to school, they want to know what you can do.
What have you built, led, designed, managed, or solved? Experience and demonstrated capabilities are what matter in today’s job market. Hardly’s resume builder helps you highlight your skills clearly and use the right keywords to catch recruiters’ attention.
Companies like Google, IBM, and Delta have already removed degree requirements for many roles. Likewise, more are following, because they’ve realized what we’ve always believed:
💡 Your experience matters more than a diploma.
Organizations are finally starting to recognize that traditional education is not the only path to job readiness.
This change didn’t happen overnight. It’s driven by many factors. Here are the top 2 overall factors:
Technology Evolution
Tech evolves faster than most college programs, so degrees can become outdated in record time. Many new job positions today didn’t exist 10 years ago. Equity and access have become central conversations. College isn’t affordable or accessible for everyone. Employers are realizing that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not.
Changing Nature Of Work
Freelancing gig work side hustles remote jobs and entrepreneurship have expanded how people develop and prove their skills. Someone who started a small business managed a family schedule or ran social media for a nonprofit might bring more relevant experience than a recent graduate without hands-on training.
Why This Shift Is Happening
Skills-first hiring also changes how we think about career paths. Gone are the days of climbing one narrow ladder for forty years. Today’s workforce is built on pivots, growth, and reinvention. You can move between industries, start over in a new city, or explore a different role without returning to school each time. That freedom can feel intimidating but it is also incredibly empowering. Your career doesn’t need to follow anyone else’s template. You are allowed to build it your way.
More than anything, this movement puts the spotlight back on people. It recognizes that value does not come from a piece of paper. It comes from action. Value comes from showing up, figuring things out, making progress and learning as you go. That mindset matters more than a transcript ever could.
Let's Talk About the Trades
Electricians, welders, plumbers, and carpenters are all professionals with serious skill sets, and their work is more essential than ever. These are smart, valuable, and often high-paying career paths that deserve the same level of respect as any corporate job. People in the trades build and maintain the world we all rely on. And right now, there is real opportunity. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, skilled trades are among the industries most impacted by the labor shortage, which means demand is high and growing.
Hardly was built with that in mind. Whether you are fixing engines, framing houses, designing websites, or running your own landscaping business, your work has real impact.
Final Words
Hardly helps you turn hands-on experience into language that speaks to employers. Whether you have been working for twenty years or you are just starting out, Hardly makes it easier to identify your skills, frame your story, and stay organized throughout your search. You don’t need a business degree to prove that you are capable and ready. You just need the right words.