When you’re writing your resume, do what a good professional resume writer would do: Ask yourself lots of good questions.

If your work history reads like a series of dry-as-dust job descriptions, ask yourself these questions about each position:

Then ask yourself questions about the individual bullet items in your resume.

Let’s say you’re a training professional and you developed a career advancement program for managers. So what? Did it result in a significant percentage of the participants being promoted? Or get them better ratings in a 360-degree evaluation? If so, that would make it a much more impressive bullet point.

Don’t be daunted if not every question leads to material for the resume. When I’ve written resumes for clients, I’ve asked maybe 50 questions or more, and if 10 of them lead to great material we’re doing really well!

More great questions to ask yourself:

• Do those show up in my resume?
• Do they show up in the first 20 seconds, or only if I patiently read the whole thing?
• What’s the first impression my resume makes, and why?

If you’re shopping for a resume writer, find out how they will ask questions–via a written questionnaire only, or by interviewing you and discussing your answers? A more conversational process usually leads to better communication and better results.

Even if you’re using AI to help draft your resume, give it the best raw materials possible. Your answers to these questions are the raw materials for a resume that works.

Great resumes are made from great questions!  (This post has been updated in 2025.)