The Structure of Your Resumé 

Paragraph Section – The 4-1-1 (Informational) - Why Job Descriptions Matter

Think of job descriptions as the answers to the test - a virtual cheat sheet. If a company is telling you exactly what they want, why wouldn’t you tailor your resumé (or cover letter) accordingly? Treat job postings like an SEO brief - align your skills and experiences with what’s being asked for.
What this means is that for each position you have held, my advice is to break them up into a paragraph section and a bullet section. This paragraph section, or the informational section, is what I call the 4-1-1. I often have to explain to the younger generation that we didn’t always have the internet, so you had to dial 411 on your phone and an actual human would answer and provide you information (phone number, address, etc.) on a business you were trying to locate. The paragraphs, or 411 sections, are where we want to have a lengthy summary of each position, ensuring that we are using the appropriate keywords or key phrases from each respective position. This content is what drives the search optimization and is critical to getting past the first hurdle, which is findability. You may have all the right skills and experience, but if it’s not communicated properly on your resumé, you become virtually invisible.
As technology continues to advance, and Ai becomes more instrumental in this search process, this section is probably going to be the most crucial section to increase your chances of having your resumé reviewed. This is especially true if you don’t have the luxury of sending your resumé to an actual person and are submitting it online or posting it on the internet somewhere – job board, professional social media like LinkedIn, etc. Leaving things off or trying to be too brief in this section will mean that your chances of being found will decrease. Even as the tech has become more advanced and improved, a lot of the algorithm boils down to keyword matching.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and proprietary technology are likely going to become better and better at matching what you have on your paper to the needs they have on their paper. Today, it’s not quite as smart as we wish, since it typically won’t be able to infer what technology or tools you used, or what skills you leveraged during your time at that company. And even when it can know that aspect, it won’t know the outcomes that you generated. So, in today’s hiring world, if it’s not written down on paper, it didn’t happen. Until the technology can evolve to infer your skills as well as your impact, it’s going to be comparing and contrasting what you have on your paper to what they have on their paper, so be very vigilant with this section.
Recruiting professionals have many tools at their disposal now and one way or another, whether they are uploading a job description, taking the resumé of the person who used to have the role, or just typing in the keywords they deem most important, this 411 section will 100% drive the number of matches that your resumé can generate. If you have more experience from your career, this section is the easiest to go back and update, as it’s easier to remember, and if not, easier to find, given that you know the title you held. With this in hand, you can do some research and rewrite it to ensure that your description and responsibilities are accurately reflected here.
Typically, when I am giving this advice, people become very concerned about the length of the paragraph that the 411 sections require. I remind them that it’s mainly geared toward the bots, the algorithm, or whatever tech helps you remember that this isn’t what the human is going to read first. This is what will drive your findability because it has all the right keywords for the job. What the human will actually read is the next section that we will discuss.

Creating Impact in the Ai Era

Bullet Section – The 9-1-1 (Sensational) - How Results Drive Interviews

The second main aspect of your resumé is the bullet section, or the sensational items. I call this the 9-1-1. This section must be intentionally metric-driven and the only bullets on your resume. In contrast to what we might call the somewhat boring stuff in the 411 sections; this should present the sensational and exciting outcomes you’ve accomplished. This is your chance to showcase the impact you have had on your team or organization. The bullets try to accomplish a ying-yang balance, as you first have a lengthy paragraph that the “bots” will read, then followed by these more concrete outcomes section, which the human will focus on.
Hiring managers don’t just want to know what you did, they want to know what happened because of what you did. A bullet should never read, Managed a sales team, as this doesn’t provide anything sensational. It’s merely informational. Consider saying something like, Led a sales team that increased revenue by 35% in 12 months. Numbers sell. And they invite you to tell a story.
It’s believed that most hiring managers spend mere seconds when they first look at your resumé and make a judgment about your candidacy. You want to have this ying-yang balance because the reader will instinctively bypass that large paragraph section that the “bots” liked and draw their eyes to the bullets that highlight what you accomplished. We need to move away from too many bullets everywhere simply because it feels comfortable to give the reader bite-sized reading. Naturally, we want to help the reader by using the bullets, but these bullets are strategic and not just there to aid the reader.
This section is what you want to consider as the outcome of your work. It’s not the paragraph section that describes what you do, but rather the result of what you did. The best version of how to present a bullet is the following advice shared by Laszlo Bock, a former Google senior vice president of personnel operations, which helped individuals get noticed and hired by the Google team:
“Accomplished (x) as measured by (y), by doing (z).”
You don’t have to follow this exact format every time, but the construct is super helpful to drive the impact that we’re seeking. In fact, if you just followed this flow for every bullet, it might get a little bit boring. As long as you have the accomplishment (x) and the measurement (y) in the bullet, that is what is going to be most important. You want to highlight what you bring to the table, and you want to make sure you quantify that success somehow.
I find that two different analogies help job seekers understand the core difference between these two sections. My hope is that one of these might help you understand the general construct of this approach so you can evaluate your own career and come up with these items for each of your previously held positions.
First, let’s consider a position in professional sports, such as football, as statistics are a natural and common aspect. Now I know football players are typically recruited directly based on their on-field performance, but I hope this example sheds light on the differences between their “job description” or 411 section and their “accomplishments” or 911 section.
Their 411 section for this position might look like this:
“Experienced NFL player with a proven track record of competing at the highest level of professional football. Demonstrated excellence in key areas such as passing, catching, tackling, and blocking, with a strong understanding of complex playbooks, strategies, and in-game adjustments. Maintained peak physical condition through intensive, year-round training focused on strength, speed, agility, and endurance. Successfully contributed to team performance by executing plays with precision, collaborating closely with teammates and coaching staff, and performing under high-pressure conditions. Participated in team meetings, film study, and practice sessions, while also representing the organization at media appearances, community events, and promotional functions. Committed to upholding league standards, demonstrating professionalism, and continuously striving for excellence both on and off the field.”
It should be clear how this paragraph section will be able to capture the keywords when someone is searching for a person who can complete these tasks: excellence in passing, catching, tackling, blocking, understanding of complex playbooks and strategies, in-game adjustments, peak physical condition, year-round training, strength, speed, agility, endurance, collaborating with teammates and coaches, perform under high-pressure conditions, represent the organization at media appearances, community events, promotional functions, league standards, excellence off and on the field. This section captures the numerous duties that the professional football player must perform and is essentially equivalent to a reworded job description.
Now, if they were a running back, their 911 section could look something like this:
• Ranked number 3 out of the 74 starting running backs in the league with 1500+ yards rushing for the regular season.
• Had the second highest redzone conversion (45%) for touchdowns of all running backs in the league.
• Helped drive merchandise sales increase of 35% through community engagement, social media presence, and on-field performance.
The bulleted items capture the impact that they had on the team by performing the duties in their paragraph section. Every item here is quantified, shows value, and invites the person reviewing the resumé to want to know how they were able to accomplish those items.
Now, let’s consider a professional baker. This person’s paragraph section might look something like this:
“Production Baker skilled in preparing a wide range of cakes and specialty desserts, ensuring consistent quality, freshness, and presentation. Responsibilities have included mixing dough, preparing fillings such as chocolate ganache and caramel sauce, and decorating cakes with precision and creativity. Proficient in operating commercial kitchen equipment, including mixers, blenders, and dough sheeters, with a strong understanding of food safety and sanitation standards. Known for excellent time management, the ability to perform under pressure, and contributing positively to team environments. Flexible with early morning shifts and supported by formal culinary training.”
If you were to go to a job posting for a professional baker, you would likely see the following keywords: prepare cakes and desserts, ensure consistent quality, ensure freshness, presentation of baked items, creativity, precision, operating commercial kitchen equipment, mixers, blenders, dough sheeters, food safety, sanitation standards, time management, perform under pressure, team environments, early morning shifts, culinary training. These keywords are elements of that 411 section that will drive this individual to being found for professional baking roles, as their job descriptions require candidates to be able to do these kinds of things.
Their 911 section could consist of bullets such as these:
• Revamped menu items and created new recipes that resulted in a 20% increase in store sales.
• Implemented quality control procedures that improved product consistency and reduced waste by 25%.
• Created visually stunning custom cakes that were awarded “Best of 2025” by The Knot magazine.
Again, the keywords and your ability to be found are going to be driven by those longer paragraph sections and the reader’s interest in talking with you is going to be driven by the bullet section. The paragraph is the 411 and informational. The bullets are the 911 and are sensational. I hope this helps drive home the distinction between the content of the 411 and 911 sections.
The easiest part to get right quickly is the 411 section, as you can more easily rewrite a job description. Even if it’s for older positions you held, thanks to the troves of information available to us on the internet, this is an accomplishable task. The most challenging part of this exercise is to come up with your 911, because this is something that most of us are not accustomed to tracking, but it’s the paradigm shift you need to take your career to the next level.