The 4 Questions Hiring Managers Use to Evaluate Your Resume (And How to Answer Them)

When a hiring manager does their initial 15-20 second scan of your resume, they’re looking for answers to four specific questions. If they get the answer to these questions, they’ll know you’re a fit for the role and call you for an interview. In today’s article, I’m giving you the exact four questions your resume must answer to be deemed a fit for the role and land the interview. I’m also sharing my favorite resume template that guides the hiring manager’s eyes right to the very answers they want to see. So, let’s jump right in with the first question.

Question #1: What specific role are you targeting?

You would be shocked how many people apply for jobs with a resume that’s geared towards a completely different role. When I’m hiring an executive resume writer, I’ll receive resumes for financial analysts, nutritionists, realtors, and a variety of other unrelated roles. Recruiters want customized resumes and will often reject those that are not tailored to the role they are trying to fill. 

Target Job Title

You connect the dots for the hiring manager when you include the target job title for the role at the top of your resume. This checks the box in their mind that yes, you are applying for this specific role and not any other. We want to check every question box in their mind as they read through your resume. The more boxes you can check for them, the more likely you’re deemed the right fit for the role.

Always opt for clarity over cleverness; otherwise, you’ll confuse your reader.

In my free executive resume template, which you can download here, you’ll see how I’ve structured the resume to include the target job title at the top, making it immediately clear which role you want.

Question #2: What specific results have you achieved that show you’re the right fit for this position?

One thing I repeat often is that you have to connect the dots for hiring managers. They will not connect the dots for you. That means you show them specific results aligned to the specific role you’re targeting. We do this by creating a ‘Significant Accomplishments’ section in the top third of your resume, which lists your three biggest wins most relevant to the target role. 

The Noteworthy Accomplishments Section

When you review the job description, find three of the highest priority requirements for the role then match up three of your past successes and use these in that top section. We do this for two reasons: first, you’re immediately communicating wins, which equal a great and memorable first impression. Second, you’re communicating wins relevant to the target role, which shows you’re the right fit for the role.

Employers will judge your future performance based on your past performance. Your past performance is an indicator of future success. That’s why we select accomplishments that are relevant to the role and show those at the top. We’re communicating to hiring managers that you’re the right person for the job because you’ve been in a similar position before and were successful; therefore, you’ll be successful again. 

Here are some examples of big wins that can be communicated in the top of a resume:

For a position that manages a budget: Optimized $1.2M annual budget, delivering 15% cost savings through strategic vendor negotiations.

For a role where customer satisfaction is the top priority:  Maintained 4.9/5 customer satisfaction score across 500+ interactions.

Question #3: What skills, qualifications, and strengths do you bring, and can you prove them?

To answer this question in a quick 15-second scan of your resume, there are two strategies you can use. The first is to identify the top three hard skills required for the role and include these underneath the target job title from question one. The second is to create a core strengths section. You can see both of these strategies in this free executive resume template download.

The Core Strengths Section

This is one of my favorite questions because it’s easily answerable in a core strengths section in the first third of your resume. The key is to make sure that you’re listing relevant, high-priority, hard skills. Recent studies have found that job seekers, on average, only include 50% of the skills listed in the job posting in their resumes. Yet, these hard skills are the very search terms hiring managers use to screen resumes, search candidate databases, and locate potential candidates on LinkedIn. 

Why the focus on hard skills? Because soft skills are not the search terms hiring managers use to find talent. Candidates are evaluated based on their professional, technical, and academic skills. You can identify the hard skills required for the role by reading the job description. Another way to find them is to copy the job description and paste it into ChatGPT, then ask it to extract all the hard skills from the posting and create a list. 

I love to research, so I would experiment with using Perplexity.ai or Google to pull up recent job postings for your target job title and identify the top 10-15 most frequently mentioned hard skills. You can then make sure that all of these are listed in your resume to ensure that, across the board, you’re including the most commonly required hard skills for the role you’re targeting. This only works if you know your target job title (see question one). Without the answer to this question, you’re a ship lost at sea. No hiring manager will be able to find you because your resume isn’t optimized for a specific position.

I recommend a bulleted keyword section with 12-15 bullets for your hard skill keywords. This makes them easily skimmable and easier to hiring managers to read. Hard to read = won’t be read. So make it easy for them by listing your hard skills in a bulleted list at the top of your resume. If you’re wondering what this looks like in practice, download the executive resume template I created for a ready-made format with a bullet list.

The Personal Branding Statement

It’s important that you not just list skills but that you also show your unique differentiators. Underneath your target job title and three key hard skills, you’ll want to add a personal branding statement. A strong personal branding statement is one that cannot be said about anyone else. It must contain your differentiators.

To find your personal branding statement, you can ask yourself:

• What do others say about me?
• What am I known for?
• How do I get results that are different from others?
• What unique combinations of skills and strengths do I possess?
• What themes are present across my career history?
• What successes do I repeat no matter where I go or who I work for?

Here are two examples of two different personal branding statements for a content marketer:

Revenue-focused content strategist who consistently turns audience insights into content that converts, known for creating full-funnel content ecosystems that increased qualified leads by 25% while reducing content production costs.

Strategic storyteller who translates complex data into compelling narratives that increased engagement by 43% across B2B platforms, combining journalistic precision with SEO expertise to create content that both resonates with humans and ranks with algorithms.

Each one focuses on their strengths, unique differentiators, and the needs of their target company. For one company, revenue, full funnel content, and qualified leads were essential needs. For another company, increased engagement and SEO expertise were important. 

A personal branding statement needs to be a unique blend of your differentiators and how they align to meet the needs of the company. 

In the top third of your resume you should answer the top three questions hiring managers: what position are you targeting, what results show you’re a fit for THIS role, and what skills/qualifications show you’re the best fit for this position and can you prove them. 

The proof element comes into play when you add metrics. Use metrics, data, and figures to cement in the hiring manager’s mind that these results are repeatable and verifiable.

The more specific you are, the more believable your results.

Question #4: Can you provide specific achievements you’ve delivered in the past that indicate you can deliver them in the future?

The previous four questions can and should be answered in the top third of your resume. Now we dive into the experience section of your resume to answer question number four. To answer this question you need to write results-focused resume bullets that spotlight the specific achievements you’ve delivered in the past. Choose achievements that directly relate to the needs, problems, and goals of the position.

Results-Focused Resume Bullets

I want to remind you again that employers will judge your future performance based on your past performance. So the way you convey your past performance will help them judge your future success with their company.

Within each resume bullet, you want to add metrics, data, and figures to prove that your results are repeatable and verifiable. 87% of job seekers get this wrong because they assume if they didn’t generate revenue, then they have no numbers.

But hiring managers don’t care what you were “responsible for.” They care about what you actually delivered. The difference between a resume that gets deleted and one that gets interviews: Proof.

Most resumes say:

“Managed a team”

“Improved processes”

“Handled projects”

Top candidates say:

“Directed a 15-person team across 3 departments in 2 locations.”

You could even be more specific about which teams, departments, and locations. 

“Streamlined reporting process from 5 hours to 30 minutes, saving 18 hours monthly”

I’d make this bullet even more specific by adding HOW you streamlined reporting.

“Managed 6 concurrent projects ranging from $50K-$250K with 8+ stakeholders each”

This bullet can be expanded on by adding more context. 

The above three examples use size, time, and scale to add metrics to their resumes. You can also use frequency, volume, quality, complexity, and resources to help you quantify and add numeric proof to your resume.

Here are a few more to help you:

Frequency Tip: Don’t just say “conducted training”

Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly sessions?

Number of participants per session?

Total people trained?

Example: “Led bi-weekly training for 25+ new hires, upskilling 300+ employees annually.”

Volume Tip: Don’t just say “managed communications”

How many platforms?

Size of audience reached?

Frequency of updates?

Example: “Managed content across 5 social platforms, reaching 50K+ followers with 3 daily updates.”

Quality Tip: Don’t just say “received positive feedback”

What was your satisfaction score?

Customer retention rate?

Performance ranking?

Example: “Maintained 4.9/5 customer satisfaction score across 500+ interactions.”

Complexity Tip: Don’t just say “handled multiple priorities”

Number of concurrent tasks?

Success rate?

Deadline performance?

Example: “Coordinated 12 simultaneous deliverables with 95% on-time completion rate.”

Resource Tip: Don’t just say “managed budget”

Size of budget?

Cost savings?

Resource optimization?

Example: “Optimized $1.2M annual budget, delivering 15% cost savings through strategic vendor negotiations.”

OK, so here is your challenge for today. I want you to open your resume (or download this free executive resume template), pick any bullet point, and ask yourself, “Where are the numbers?”

If you can’t find them, neither can hiring managers.

Sound overwhelming? I’ve got you covered.

I’m sharing my executive resume template – the same one chosen by an Ivy League university and 3 top business schools for their official resume guidebooks.

The results speak for themselves. I’ve had job seekers get:

– 7 interviews in 10 days

– $20K average salary increases

– Success where other paid services couldn’t deliver

And, it’s not just a pretty format. The template comes with 10 emails from me, teaching you exactly what to write in each section of the resume template. And, yes it is 100% ATS-compatible. I’ve had more than 43,317 job seekers use it with 400+ applicant tracking systems without any issues. 

Ready to transform your job search? Grab your free copy of the template here: https://greatresumesfast.com/free-executive-resume-template/

No strings attached – just my commitment to helping you land your next role faster.

Whenever you’re ready,

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