Happy new year! I hope you’re pumped for 2026. Let’s jump right into it:
I reviewed three resumes last week week. All from talented professionals spiraling over the same worry:
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“Is one page too short?”
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“Will they think I’m hiding something?”
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“Should I bulk this up to look more substantial?”
Here’s what I told them: Stop.
Your resume gets evaluated at two levels.
Level one: the ATS scans for keywords. A robot counting matches. It doesn’t care about page count.
Level two: human recruiters scanning your last three roles. Looking for one thing: Why you’re the right fit right now?
Everything else is noise.
Last month, I worked with someone who had 12 years of experience
We kept it their resume to one page. Three roles. Specific metrics. Clear outcomes.
Two weeks later they landed four interviews.
No fancy graphics. No creative layouts. No tables that break ATS parsers.
Just clean sections with the right keywords and easy to scan.
Being concise forces ruthlessness.
Every line earns its spot. No filler or generic “managed cross-functional teams” that could describe anyone.
One page isn’t sacred. But it’s a forcing function. Makes you choose your most impressive, relevant wins.
✂️ Use AI to help you cut:
“Here’s my two-page resume and three job descriptions I’m targeting. Help me identify which bullets are most relevant to these roles and which I should cut. Focus on keeping only achievements with measurable impact from my last three roles. Remove anything generic or from roles older than 8 years unless truly exceptional.”
🪚 Then sharpen what’s left:
“Review this streamlined resume against these job descriptions. Ensure I’m using the exact keywords from the postings while keeping the language natural and scannable. Flag any bullets that feel like filler.”
Ask yourself:
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Does this communicate my value in 10 seconds?
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Can a recruiter see how my recent work solves their problem right now?
Most people pad resumes with jobs from eight years ago. Responsibilities no one cares about anymore.
Instead, you’re being strategic. Trust the tight approach. Use AI to make it tighter. Keep the format clean so ATSs can parse it.
That’s what gets you past robots and in front of humans.
🔦 Spotlight: Toptal
🔬 Deep research is the secret to standing out in your application, cover letter, and interviews. Every newsletter, I’ll do that research for you with one company with open roles from this newsletter, so you can skip the work and improve your application.
🏢 What they do:
Platform connecting clients with highly skilled remote freelancers and professionals
📍 Headquarters:
Work from Anywhere, Remote
👤 Employee count:
5980
📈 Employee growth:
2% YoY growth (5879 → 5980 employees)
🗒️ Company reviews:
3.6/5 ⭐ rating (750 reviews) | 61% CEO approval
💸 Funding stage:
Seed
⚔️ Competitors:
Upwork, Fiverr, Arc, Gun.io, MarketerHire
📓 Three key initiatives:
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HireGlobal: A global hiring, payroll, and compliance platform positioned as a cost-effective solution leveraging Toptal’s global payroll experience ($/contractor payments background) to help companies hire worldwide Source: Toptal About / HireGlobal pages
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TechResume: A premium career services offering (resume creation, LinkedIn optimization, 1:1 coaching) targeting tech professionals Source: Toptal About / TechResume pages
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Toptal Marketing: Dedicated marketing practice and acquisition of Growth Collective to deliver on-demand marketing talent and end-to-end marketing services (launched at Cannes Lions 2024) Source: Toptal Press Center (press release)
✈️ Remote work stance:
Toptal is a fully remote company! 🌎 Operating as a distributed global organization for over a decade, Toptal employs more than 4,000 people across 100+ countries with no physical offices. Their policy emphasizes flexibility with their careers page stating, “Work wherever, on your terms. Being a fully-remote workforce means that all you need is wifi and a laptop,” though employees must generally have English fluency and work hours that overlap with US Eastern Time.
🤖 Featured AI Tool: Notion for Job Search Management
Find and insert an image with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini logos all together here into the newsletter
Look, I used to hate managing my job search in Google Docs.
Everything was scattered across different folders. Trying to use Gemini was painful.
Then I started using Notion for my job search, and it actually made sense:
Everything in one place.
Easy to make things look good without fighting the formatting.
Here’s what changed my mind: Notion AI used to be pretty bad. Like, unusable bad. I ignored it for a long time.
But they’ve seriously upgraded it. Now I actually use it all the time.
Here’s how you can quickly get started:
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One “Job Search” page with databases for Companies, Applications, and Networking Contacts
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Use Notion AI to draft cover letters and prep interview talking points
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Templates for company research so I’m not starting from scratch each time
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AI search across everything when I need to find something fast
The AI search is the part that surprised me. Being able to pull up notes from a conversation I had three weeks ago or find that company research I did? Way faster than digging through Google Drive folders.
If you’re managing your job search across a bunch of scattered docs and losing track of things, give Notion a shot. The free version does everything you need to get started.