You’ve sent out enough applications to start wondering whether the problem is you.

Usually, it isn’t.

It’s hard to see your own work clearly. You did it every day, so it feels normal. The hard project you led feels like “just my job.” The team you helped feels like “just being helpful.”

Everything you did yourself feels ordinary. That is the whole trouble.

Better words won’t fix it.

When a resume isn’t working, the usual advice is to change the words: stronger verbs, more keywords, a better summary.

But most resumes don’t have a writing problem. They have a missing problem. The best work isn’t written badly. It isn’t written at all.

One resume. One job. Three things it wasn’t saying.

Everything here comes from a real resume: the earlier versions, and the one Tellwell helped make. It belongs to someone with twelve years in enterprise IT. He wanted a junior project manager job at a company that makes images and video with AI.

On paper, he looked like an engineer.

Most tools ask: how can this sentence sound better?

Tellwell asks: what did you actually do?

He led a team. His resume said “training.”

The job asks for · 1–2 years of project coordination

The posting wanted project coordination. His resume never used the word. It said he ran training sessions, and training reads as teaching.

So Tellwell asked about the team around those sessions: who was on it, where they worked, who gave them their work. The answer was a distributed team that he brought on, kept on schedule, and answered for to clients in the US.

Before

“Conducted training sessions for junior team members on best practices, programming techniques, and automation requirements…”

After

“Coordinated a distributed, partly offshore engineering team — interviewing and onboarding new members, assigning and tracking work, managing schedules and dependencies, communicating status to US-based clients, and maintaining accountability for delivery outcomes.”

He had years of project coordination. He just called it something else.

His job title hid the job.

The job asks for · keeping people updated on project status

A recruiter reads the title first. It tells them what kind of person they are looking at, and they read everything below it through that.

His title said engineer. So his work keeping clients and managers informed read as an engineer being helpful, not as the job itself. The work was already on the page. It was pointed the wrong way.

Before

The top of the resume said Senior Software Engineer, followed by a list of programming languages. Lower down, it also said:

“Acted as primary technical point of contact, communicating timelines, trade-offs, and risks to non-technical stakeholders.”

After

The top now says Project & Delivery Coordination, and the summary says:

“Experienced tracking work, managing priorities and dependencies, communicating status to stakeholders, and keeping delivery on track.”

A reader believes the title first. Now the title matches the work he did.

“AI” was one word in a list. He had built AI products.

The job asks for · a good understanding of generative AI tools

The job asked for a real understanding of AI tools. His resume had the word once, between programming languages. A word in a list is a claim, and readers skim past claims.

Tellwell asked what he had actually built with AI. The answer was three real projects, and none of them were on the page.

Before

One word in a list of skills, at the bottom of page two:

“…Swift, OpenAI, AR & AI Development…”

After

Its own section, with real work in it. A writing app on the App Store that uses on-device AI. An AI tool that checks professional credentials for a client. A tool that compares job descriptions to candidates using AI.

He didn't need to claim AI skills. He needed to show them.

None of these details were on his old resume. So where did they come from?

Then Tellwell read it again. And again.

A first draft is never the last. Tellwell checks every version against the job, the way a recruiter would, and fixes what doesn’t fit.

01
The bullets
The work is all there, but it’s described as engineering. Ask about the team, the schedule and the client, and use his answers.
02
The summary
The bullets now say coordinator. The summary still says senior engineer. A recruiter reads the top first. Change what the summary points at, not the facts.
03
The first line
The title under his name still disagrees with everything below it. Fix it, so the top three lines tell the same story.

Same twelve years, now pointed at this job:

“Technology and delivery professional with 12+ years coordinating complex technical work across distributed teams, enterprise clients, and AI product development.”

He didn’t hide his experience. The resume now shows what that experience proves for this job.

You don’t need to look smaller. You need to look like a fit.

Every detail came from him: the offshore team, the onboarding, the four thousand hours saved each month. Tellwell asked the questions, and he already knew the answers. Nothing was invented.

The strongest version of your experience that you can stand behind.

See what yours isn’t saying

Then it named the obvious question.

He has twelve years of experience. This is a junior job. Any recruiter will notice in a few seconds.

Tellwell didn’t hide that. It said: answer the question yourself, first, in one sentence. Then move on. Tellwell’s cover letter opens with it:

I know I’m coming to this role from a slightly unusual direction. But I think my background could be a great fit for your team.

And it ends:

I think it’s a good fit. I’d enjoy talking about why.

The job also mentions cars and motorsport. Nothing in his history connects to that, and Tellwell said so. Not every gap can be closed with better words. Some you just name, honestly.

A gap is not a “no.” It’s a distance. But it has to be honest, or nothing else on this page means anything.

Your resume has a story like this in it.

Add it with the job you want. In about a minute, see what it isn’t saying.

Start with your resume

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