Resume Advice for Experienced Professionals: What’s Changed and What Hasn’t

Julia Toothacre explains how experienced professionals should approach a resume when they have not had to formally apply for a job in several years. She breaks down what has changed in hiring, what has remained largely the same, and how your resume should change depending on whether you want a lateral move, advancement, a career change, or a step back from leadership. She also covers ATS systems, LinkedIn, resume length, career history, accomplishments, tailoring, and practical ways to use AI without losing your professional voice.

If you have been with the same company for several years or have not had to formally apply for a job since before 2020, updating your resume may feel like the obvious place to begin a job search. Julia Toothacre recommends starting somewhere else: with what you are actually trying to do next.

The resume that supports a move into leadership should not necessarily look like the resume you would use for another version of your current position. A significant career change requires a different emphasis on transferable skills and terminology, while someone intentionally stepping back from management may need to position their experience differently again. Your direction determines what belongs on the page.

Julia also explains why the job market needs to be part of that decision. Hiring conditions can vary significantly by industry, function, level, and specialization. A lack of interviews does not automatically mean your resume is the problem. It may indicate a highly competitive market, a mismatch between your background and the positions you are targeting, or simply a longer hiring process than you experienced during an earlier job search.

Some elements of the hiring process have changed significantly. Online applications and applicant tracking systems are now standard in many organizations, LinkedIn plays a larger role in how employers evaluate professional presence, and AI has created new tools for analyzing job descriptions and developing resume content.

Julia pushes back, however, on much of the popular advice about “beating” an ATS. She recommends using terminology that is recognizable in your field, aligning your skills and experience with the type of role you want, and keeping formatting straightforward rather than relying on tricks such as keyword stuffing or elaborate graphics.

The fundamentals of a strong resume have changed much less. A resume still needs to explain what you have done, what you are good at, and why your experience makes sense for the role. For experienced professionals, that means focusing less on routine tasks and more on accomplishments, results, decision-making, leadership, ownership, and the impact of the work.

Julia also explains why an experienced professional should not simply add new positions to an old resume. Older content needs to be audited based on whether it still supports the direction of the career. Work that mattered eight or ten years ago may no longer deserve the same amount of space, while experience from an earlier role may become relevant again if it demonstrates leadership, strategy, or another skill needed for the next move.

The episode addresses several recurring resume questions, including whether a resume can be two pages, how far back to go, whether graduation dates should be included, and how much tailoring is necessary. Julia recommends thinking in terms of job types rather than creating an entirely new resume for every application. A management-focused resume, for example, may need to emphasize different accomplishments than a resume used for individual contributor roles.

Julia also discusses how AI can be useful without handing over the entire resume-writing process. Rather than asking AI to rewrite a complete resume, she recommends using it to compare job descriptions, identify recurring skills, ask questions that help uncover relevant experience, improve existing bullet points, and evaluate the finished document from the perspective of a recruiter or hiring manager. The more context you provide, the more likely the result will still sound like you.

The central idea throughout the episode is that your resume is a marketing document for the professional you are now and the work you want next. It does not need to preserve every responsibility or position from your career. It needs to give the person reading it a clear understanding of your current level, your relevant experience, and the value you could bring to the role you are pursuing.

What Julia Discusses

• Why updating your old resume should not be the first step
• How to position a resume for a lateral move, promotion, career change, or intentional step back
• Why the realities of your industry and job market matter before changing your resume
• What applicant tracking systems actually change about resume writing
• Why accomplishments, results, and professional growth matter more than job descriptions
• How much career history experienced professionals should include
• When a two-page resume is appropriate
• Why you should tailor by role type rather than rewrite the resume for every opening
• How LinkedIn should support and expand the professional story in your resume
• How to use AI for analysis, questioning, and editing without creating generic resume language