The 15-minute resume check before you apply

Check facts before phrasing

Open the version you intend to submit. Verify employer names, role titles, dates, qualification status, email, and portfolio links against your own records. Remove leftover placeholders and comments. If AI helped rewrite a passage, inspect every technology, number, and achievement it introduced. A polished sentence is not evidence.

Connect three requirements to evidence

Choose three central responsibilities from the posting. For each, find an example that explains what you did and in what context. A keyword in the skills list may not be enough. Move relevant evidence higher when it is buried. If you lack the experience, keep the gap honest rather than adding an unsupported claim.

Requirement: validate incoming data. Evidence: added input checks to a reporting workflow and documented how the team handled rejected records.

Inspect the file the employer receives

Export the requested format and open the result. Check page breaks, bullet alignment, links, and text size. Copy the exported text into a plain-text editor and inspect the reading order. This is a useful diagnostic, not proof that every hiring system will parse the file identically.

Save a traceable version

Use a neutral filename such as Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf. Save the submitted version and posting link in your private application tracker. Stop polishing once the document is accurate, readable, and relevant; prepare an example you can discuss if a screening call follows.