You’ve spent hours formatting your résumé. You’ve triple-checked grammar, obsessed over fonts, and hunted for the perfect action verbs. So why is your inbox still empty?

Because perfect résumés don’t get jobs. Positioned ones do.

Here’s the truth: hiring managers and recruiters don’t hire résumés. They hire people who solve problems. When your résumé is focused on polish instead of positioning, you’re missing the entire point.

Polishing is about surface-level perfection. It focuses on how the résumé looks.

Positioning is about strategic storytelling. It focuses on how well the résumé communicates value to a specific audience.

So, how do you position instead of polish?

1. Get Clear on Your Value
What do you bring to the table? Not just what you’ve done, but the problems you solve, the outcomes you drive, and the unique strengths you leverage. This clarity is foundational.

2. Know Your Target
A generic résumé tries to speak to everyone and ends up speaking to no one. Positioning means tailoring your narrative to a specific role, industry, or employer.

3. Tell a Story That Screams “Fit”
Your experience should build a case: here’s the problem, here’s how I solved it, and here’s the result. Connect the dots for the reader so they don’t have to.

4. Be Strategic With Every Bullet
Each line should earn its place. Is it showcasing your strengths? Is it relevant to your target? If not, it’s fluff.

A well-positioned résumé doesn’t just say "I can do the job" — it makes the reader believe you're already doing it somewhere else and doing it well.

Stop treating your résumé like a masterpiece. Start treating it like a sales pitch.

Curt Skene
FOUNDER
CNC-Community.com