You know that sinking feeling when you've applied to 50 jobs and heard nothing back? Not even a "thanks, but no thanks" email?

You're not alone. And chances are, you've already turned to Reddit at 2am, desperately searching for answers about why your resume seems to disappear into a black hole.

After looking through thousands of posts across r/resumes, r/jobs, and r/CareerGuidance, three questions keep coming up over and over again. And honestly? They're probably the same questions keeping you up at night.

This is the question that's practically screaming from every second Reddit post in 2025.

Here's why everyone's worried: over 70% of resumes never make it past Applicant Tracking Systems to a human recruiter. That's not a typo. Seven out of ten applications get filtered out before anyone with a pulse even sees them.

The panic is real. People are asking:

What's actually happening:

ATS software scans your resume for keywords, relevant experience, and proper formatting. When it can't read your fancy design or parse your information correctly, it simply ranks you lower. And lower ranked resumes? They never see the light of day.

The truth is, you don't need a boring resume. You need a smart resume that speaks both robot and human.

What works in 2025:

Think about it this way: your resume needs to be neutral enough to pass the robots, and compelling enough to impress the humans.

This one's a close second, and it's causing serious frustration.

You've seen the advice everywhere: "Use metrics!" "Quantify your results!" "Show the impact!"

But what if you're not in sales? What if your role doesn't have obvious numbers attached to it? What if you genuinely can't remember the exact figures from three years ago?

Here's what's really going on:

Recruiters aren't just being difficult. Numbers genuinely make their job easier. When they're comparing 200 candidates, specific achievements help them quickly work out who can actually deliver results.

A resume that says "Responsible for teaching students" tells them nothing. A resume that says "Taught 28 Year 9 students daily, improving class average from 62% to 78% over two terms" tells them you can handle a classroom and get results.

The psychology behind it:

Our brains trust concrete information over vague claims. "Improved student outcomes" could mean anything. "Increased Year 12 pass rates from 81% to 94% through targeted intervention programs" creates a clear picture of your value. Same with "Optimised the data pipeline" versus "Reduced ETL processing time from 6 hours to 45 minutes, enabling daily instead of weekly reporting."

What you can actually quantify (even if you think you can't):

Even if you don't have exact figures, you can estimate. "Taught approximately 120 students across 5 classes per week" is infinitely better than "Taught multiple classes regularly." Same goes for "Reduced database query time by approximately 40%" versus "Improved system performance."

Still drawing a blank? Here's something to try: think about what would happen if you stopped doing your job tomorrow. What would pile up? What would go wrong? Those are your quantifiable impacts.

Welcome to the resume debate that will never die.

The anxiety around this is real. Early career teachers worry that one page makes them look inexperienced. Software engineers with a few years under their belt stress that two pages looks like they're trying too hard. Principals and senior data professionals wonder if three pages is finally acceptable (spoiler: it's not).

Here's what the data actually shows: Resumes between 475 and 600 words earn double the interviews compared to longer or shorter versions. That sweet spot usually translates to one full page for early career teachers or junior developers, and a tight two pages for experienced principals, senior engineers, or lead analysts with 10 plus years of experience.

But here's what Reddit users are really asking beneath this question: "Am I including the right stuff, or am I wasting space on things that don't matter?"

The real issue isn't length. It's relevance.

Your resume should be long enough to show you're qualified, and short enough to keep their attention. That's it.

What actually matters in 2025:

Think of your resume like a highlight reel, not a complete autobiography. Nobody wants to watch all 90 minutes of the match. They want to see the goals.

Notice something?

All three of these questions stem from the same root anxiety: "What if I'm doing this wrong and that's why I'm not getting interviews?"

And you know what? That's a completely valid concern.

But here's what's interesting: these aren't actually resume problems. They're clarity problems.

When you're clear on what the job requires, ATS optimisation becomes straightforward (you just mirror their language). When you're clear on your actual impact, quantifying achievements gets easier. When you're clear on what's relevant, the one page versus two page debate sorts itself out.

If you've been on Reddit asking these questions, you're already ahead of most job seekers. You're doing the research. You're trying to improve. You're not just sending the same resume to 100 jobs and hoping for magic.

That matters.

But here's the thing about DIY resume writing: it's a bit like cutting your own hair. Sure, you can do it. And with the right guidance, you might even do a decent job. But you're also working with limited perspective, and you can't see the back of your own head.

Sometimes you need a different approach:

Option 1: The DIY Route If you're the type who likes to roll up your sleeves and figure things out yourself, my DIY resume templates can give you that ATS-friendly structure and help you avoid the common pitfalls that get resumes auto-rejected. You'll still do the heavy lifting, but at least you're working with a solid foundation.

Option 2: The Done for You Approach If you're tired of guessing, and you'd rather have someone who's literally done this thousands of times handle it, my done for you resume and LinkedIn package might be worth considering. Especially if you've been applying for months without traction, or you're going for a role that could significantly change your income.

Think about it this way: How much is your time worth? How much could that next role pay you? If you could save 40 hours of resume tweaking and land interviews 6 weeks sooner, what's the maths on that?

The top three questions on Reddit in 2025 aren't really about resume formatting, metrics, or page length.

They're about this: "How do I stop being invisible in the job market?"

And the answer is simpler than you think: Make it easy for people to say yes to you. Speak the language of both the robots and the humans. Show clear evidence of your value. Cut everything that doesn't move you closer to an interview.

Your resume isn't a historical document. It's a marketing tool. And like any good marketing, it should make the next step feel obvious.

So whether you're on Reddit at 2am right now, or you've been putting off fixing your resume for the third month in a row, here's your sign: the best time to fix your resume was before you started applying. The second best time is right now.

Still stuck on how to make your resume work for you instead of against you? Head to thejob.club to see how I can help, whether you want to DIY it with smart templates, or have the whole thing done for you.