Frequently Asked Questions

Our resume format has been battle-tested by literally millions of job applicants over the better part of a decade since 2018, and we consistently hear about how it dramatically increases candidates' interview rates.

The reason it works so well is that we personally screened tens of thousands of resumes back when we were recruiters / head hunters (mostly for software and tech jobs, but also for finance, marketing, and sales roles). We recruited for the world's largest banks, hedge funds, and VC-backed startups, plus plenty of normal everyday companies as well.

We know what the job of a screener entails, and to boil it down, it's to make it through a pile of 1,000 resumes in 5 hours (200 per hour = 3 per minute = 1 every 20 seconds!). They're not reading your resume; they're looking for signal so they can make a quick up/down call, ideally in 10 seconds or less. It's our job to give them as much positive signal as possible in those 10 seconds, and to do that we guide their eye to your most important and relevant pieces of information. It's also equally important to not give them any negative signal that makes them iffy: we want a "hell yes, let's get them on the phone" in 10 seconds or less.

1) We're here to help - This is a passion project, not a full-on business. We do this for the love of the game (and that "game" is getting you and your family employer-provided healthcare... great system we've got). We've put our heart and soul into training our AI Builder and think it's an incredible "easy button" for people who want a beautiful resume in seconds, or who are stuck in their own heads about what to write in their bullet points. Job searches can drive even the most sane people crazy, and we want to be a trustworthy oasis in an online sea of recruiting predators.

2) Pay once, use forever - To that end, we don't charge recurring fees: just pay us one time, and you'll have lifetime access to our resume builder, cover letter writer, mock interview tool, and any more tools we release in the future.

3) Google Doc/Word exports - Along with PDF downloads, we also offer a Google Docs export and Word file download, so you can edit your new resume offline and make any special customizations if need be. Other sites usually gatekeep exports or downloads to force you to use their ecosystem only.

4) No-hassle refunds - Not satisfied? Email team@sheetsresume.com and ask for a refund, and you'll get one the same day, no questions asked. We've personally worked with many thousands of job candidates over the years, and we understand how tight money can be during this time in your life. So we genuinely don't want to take money from people who don't get exactly what they need out of our tools. We've built an amazing product and think you'll love it, but no hard feelings if you don't! We literally only do this to help people, not to pay our mortgages.

5) More interviews, guaranteed – if you start using our format and don't see a marked difference in your interview request rate, email us and we'll give you your money back. (Because that's why you're paying us!)

6) Free resources - We have free tools as well. Our famous MS Word resume template found on our site has been used millions of times, and we've never taken a dime for it.

7) Focused on human screeners, not the ATS - Unlike other builders that try to trick ATS systems into passing you through (only to be immediately rejected by the human screener for obvious keyword harvesting), our resume is designed to actually get you on the phone with a company once a human looks at it – we know you can take it from there.

8) People love us - Read through some of our testimonials. Some people are getting $20k pay raises after switching to our resume! It's pretty incredible that we can help so many people this way, and we hope we can help change your life too.

9) More than just resumes - Every membership also comes with unlimited uses of our AI Cover Letters and Mock Interviews

Give it a try! We don't ask for your payment until the very end, so you can see what the final product looks like before buying with confidence.

Our AI Resume Builder has a simple one-time lifetime membership fee of $99 with no recurring payments, with an automatic 50% off student discount for verified .edu email addresses. All memberships include unlimited lifetime usage of the resume builder, our AI Cover Letter Writer (non-members get three free cover letters), and our AI Mock Interview tool.

We offer a full satisfaction guarantee with no-questions-asked refunds if you don't love it. Prior to payment, we let you use the tool to fully build out your whole resume, so you can make an informed decision if it's worth it for you to become a member.

Note: we do offer free memberships for those facing financial hardship, as we all do from time to time – just email colin@sheetsresume.com to request a free membership if you have financial constraints and can't afford a paid membership. We do have ongoing costs associated with engineering, maintenance, bug fixes, data storage, customer care, and security, so we unfortunately can't give the AI Builder away for free en masse like we do our free DIY resume template. Happily, our paid members allow us the financial flexibility to give away these free memberships to those in need of assistance, so we sincerely appreciate every one of our paid members – you're helping others by helping yourself!

The goal of a resume is to get a phone call. Period. It's not to tell your life story; it's not to share everything you've ever done; it's not to answer every question the screener could possibly have. The goal of a resume is to get. on. the. phone.

Once you realize this, you'll realize that you don't need a 3- or even 2-page resume. You can look at it more dispassionately and strategically, and not worry about if it's the perfect representation of your self-worth and value.

A resume isn't a representation of oneself, or your life story, or a perfect encapsulation of a career in an 8x11 format.

A resume is a tool to convince someone on the other end of the screen to get you on the phone for an interview.

That's it. Once you realize that your resume is just a tool to land an interview, you start thinking more clearly about it. Don't worry if you can't fit every detail in; that leaves good stuff to talk about in an interview.

Overall, your resume in 10 seconds or less should flood the screener's brain with a ton of positive signal, and give them absolutely no negative signal to worry about. THAT is how you get an interview.

To that end, we don't recommend summaries because the screener isn't looking for a life story, and it pushes your most important or relevant information down the page. You want to anchor the screener's eyes on the single most impressive thing that's relevant to the role you're applying for, and that's almost never a summary (unless you're changing careers or coming back from a long work absence).

Yes, and we actually upkeep and update our resume format frequently based on our experience in our 1:1 reviews.

Why... why would we do that to you? You're coming to us for advice and guidance, ostensibly because you don't know what works and what doesn't when building a resume. You're literally here because you're looking for answers, not choices. We're the experts, not you, and we've seen literally thousands of different formats over the years. Simply put: our format works, we're sure that it works, and millions of people can testify that it works.

Once you understand the goal of a resume is to get an interview – nothing more, nothing less – it follows that there would be one optimal way to format it to achieve that goal, and infinite suboptimal ways. We believe based on the results we've seen over a decade that our format is optimal, and guides the reader's eye to everything they need to see to have a positive reaction in ten seconds or less.

In short, any resume builder website that offers more than one format for you to choose from is simply marketing to you, not actually helping you. In our opinion, they shouldn't in good conscience allow you to browse formats and pick the layout that "speaks" to you. There will necessarily be differences in interview rates amongst formats, so what if you pick a format that gets fewer interviews relative to another? What's the point of allowing you to select that suboptimal format instead of just recommending the best one? How does that help you? It doesn't. Like browsing sneakers with 20 different colors to choose from, offering multiple options simply manipulates you to be more comfortable paying for your "personalized" resume from their website. It increases their conversion rate, at the cost of your interview rate.

Not us. You can relax knowing that we don't have other formatting options because there's literally no point in offering them for you to select from.

We know what works; it's this.

If you have the relevant skills, you will get past an ATS, even one "powered by AI." We try to explain to our clients that the ATS isn't the "great filter" when it comes to your interview prospects: the human screener is. This is because every ATS has the incentive to never block qualified candidates, so it errs on the side of inclusion . A human screener, on the other hand, has the incentive not to get yelled at by their boss for scheduling interviews with unqualified idiots (to use boss speak), so they err on the side of exclusion and are extremely harsh when judging resumes. No relevant title? Gone. Any negative signals? Gone. 4-page resume? Gone. Typo? Gone. Can't skim your resume quickly? Gone. Using quadrants instead of left-right, top-down formatting? Gone. Any colors besides black and white? You guessed it, gone.

Screeners are shallow, superficial people (we are talking about our past selves, so it's cool for us to say this). Imagine a 23-year-old hyped up on too much coffee, who doesn't actually understand the job they're screening for, barely making enough to pay for rent, going cross-eyed from staring at 12-point font and bullet points all day. Unfortunately, these are the arbiters deciding who gets on the phone with the hiring manager. You may think you've written a masterpiece of a resume, but we guarantee that nobody's reading it like you imagine they are.

In short, don't worry about the ATS; your relevant skills and titles will pass you through any AI screen for any job you're remotely qualified for. Worry about impressing the human who has to schedule an interview with you.

Our resume format works well in the USA, Canada, the EU, the UK (no longer part of the EU, sorry lads), India, Asia, Australia, Central and South America... we could go on. For some nations, we know it is customary to include certain things that we don't have in our preferred format (like headshots in some countries). So while it does indeed work everywhere, it is USA-centric, and you may want to adjust 1-2 things to localize for your country's CV customs.

Why yes, you can! What a perfectly worded question, thank you for asking it that way. Simply "Name Your Resume" for your current resume iteration, and it will save automatically to your file system. Your file system will store every resume version you've ever made and named, and you can access it by clicking "Open."

For example, you can create an initial overarching "Master Resume" version, and then duplicate it as many times as you need to for various job applications with different requirements. With our file system, you can have a main resume version that you can use to apply anywhere, but still tailor it for individual applications.

Once you create a master file, you can then create a brand new resume by clicking "New" to start a new version. You can then start from scratch, or, click "Duplicate Current Resume" to duplicate the current file and make slight variations, and then name and save that version.

To access all your resume versions, go to "My Resume" and click "Open" to search for the specific resume you want to open to either download or edit it.

Remember: when you submit your resume for a job, we recommend naming it simply "FirstName LastName Resume" – nothing fancy, and don't include role titles or dates.

We recommend changing very little: basically, just your current or past job titles, perhaps your first bullet point (your "anchor"), and maybe your listed skills in the Skills section (you may even just want to reorder skills depending on which of your skills each individual job prioritizes the highest). Don't change too much from job to job: you'll drive yourself insane.

"Change my title? Is that even legal?!"

Yep – much like the points in Who's Line Is It Anyway?, titles are made up and don't matter. You should make your titles better match the roles you're applying to (without eerily matching it identically). Of course, make sure not to misrepresent yourself.

For example, if your current role is "Software Engineer," and you're applying for a "Front-End Engineer" role, and you do indeed do front-end engineering, perhaps consider changing your title to "Front-End Software Engineer." There is absolutely no harm in doing this, but it will signal to the screener that you absolutely can do (and are doing) this job.

"Don't companies care?!"

No. They won't find out, and even if they do, honestly, as long as your resume title is close to what your title really is – and accurately represents what you do – they're gonna move forward with an offer. They don't talk to your current company's references until they're ready to make an offer at the finish line, and an extra or missing word in your title isn't going to make them balk at that stage.*

(*Disclaimer: 99% of the time. Take the risks you're personally comfortable with.)

Yes, we offer both student and military discounts when signing up for a lifetime membership. Our student discount is applied automatically for anyone who signs up with a verified .edu email address, and our military / veteran discount is selectable at checkout.

For those who urgently need our tools but who can’t afford a membership, please email colin@sheetsresume.com to request a temporary free membership. We’re very grateful that our paid members allow us the financial ability to give away our services to those in need during a job hunt.

If you are a career center, NGO, nonprofit, university, training center, or other mission-driven career-focused organization, we are happy to partner with you to help your people. We offer special pricing and features for organizations who need many logins, and please just contact us at team@sheetsresume.com with your particular details and needs.

What a nice question to ask. Yes, we actually donate 0.5% of our revenue (not profit, which is always just zeroed-out by creative accountants) to cutting-edge carbon removal projects via our partnership with Stripe Climate.