r/critiquemyresume

Been in UX design for 6 years. Portfolio is solid, my work has shipped at two companies you've definitely heard of. Last year I got laid off and figured - okay, job market is rough but I'm experienced, this won't take long. Four months later. 47 applications. 3 first-round interviews. 0 offers. I was losing my mind. My resume looked great to me - clean, structured, had metrics. I even paid for what was advertised as a top cv writing service after month two. They polished the formatting and tightened the language. Looked prettier. Didn't move the needle. Then I tried a different angle - found a cv resume writing service provider that specialized specifically in tech and design roles. Better, but still something felt off. The bullets were clean but generic. Got on a call with a recruiter from a mid-size agency - not to apply anywhere, just a general chat. At some point she asked if she could be blunt. I said please. She said: "Your resume reads like a job description, not like someone who solved problems." Every single bullet I had was basically "Responsible for designing X" or "Led redesign of Y." No tension. No before/after. No sense of what was broken and how I fixed it. Even the cv writing professional service I used hadn't caught this - they optimized the words, not the thinking. I rewrote the whole thing myself that weekend. Reframed every bullet around a problem, an action, a result. One thing I noticed: the executive cv writing service I tried earlier actually had a good structure for this - they just applied it wrong for a mid-level role. I borrowed the format, rewrote the substance. Two weeks after - 5 interviews. One offer. Accepted.

Target role: Senior UX Designer / Lead Designer. Remote-friendly, US market.

And I say this as someone who spent 3 weeks perfecting mine.

Fonts. Keywords. Bullet points. ATS optimization. I obsessed over every single line.

Then I got zero responses.

Here's what actually got me interviews:

→ A LinkedIn profile that told a story, not just listed jobs → Commenting on posts of people I wanted to work with → One DM that said "I noticed X about your company. I have an idea." → Referrals from people I helped for free — before I needed anything

The resume got me through the door maybe 20% of the time.

The other 80%? Someone vouched for me. Or I reached out first. Or I was simply visible when the opportunity appeared.

Hiring managers don't fall in love with resumes. They fall in love with people they already know, like, and trust.

Your resume is just proof you're not lying in the interview.

So if you're sending 100 applications and hearing nothing — stop tweaking your resume.

Start being impossible to ignore.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I finally managed to put together a decent resume and get an interview invitation. AMA
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote three different resumes in an effort to land a job as an IT tester. I’ll admit I didn’t take the first two versions into account because I didn’t get a single response, but I created two resumes using AI and one using a resume-writing service. I noticed a big difference between these three resumes and the HR response to them. I’m ready to share my findings

Let's talk about why cheap resume writing services can destroy job applications faster than you think. 
My first resume through a random resume writing service was a mess. It buried my test automation certifications under buzzwords. I still remember the moment I realized my LinkedIn profile link was broken in the resume the kind of obvious detail that screams "not detail-oriented." Spoiler: the callbacks stopped coming right after that.
Then I switched to a professional resume writing service that actually understood app testing. They rewrote my bullet points to focus on outcomes rather than tasks. They turned my compliance testing work into brandable achievements that aligned with agile workflows.
The difference was immediate. One resume got me zero interviews. The revised one landed me consulting work that paid well enough to quit the projects I was stuck in. For anyone in tech, the best resume writing service means one that understands your industry's hidden vocabulary.

Don't save money on resume writing services or you'll save it in wrong direction. Your resume needs to hit the right notes for your field. If you're serious about mobile app testing, invest in a professional resume writing service that gets it