Blind ReadGet your read

Example read · fictional profile

Dana’s read · Sep 28, 2026

Dana, here’s how a recruiter reads your resume in the first 30 seconds.

You read between Director and Senior Director.

You read here

between Director and Senior Director

You’re targeting

Senior Director – VP

The 30-second verdict

Your resume shows a strong operational foundation that peaked at the Director level with clear team and budget ownership, followed by a consulting stint and a current role that reads more like a senior individual contributor despite the elevated title.

I would screen you for a Director of Operations role. While your current title is Senior Director, the bullets describe running workstreams and writing decks without mentioning a team or budget, making me rely entirely on your earlier Kelso tenure to prove your leadership scale.

This is a read of your resume, not of you. Where something is missing here, it’s missing from the document — we can’t see what you haven’t written down.

Why you read that way

What points to Senior DirectorHolds you up

Your current Senior Director title and cross-departmental planning scope.

What keeps it at DirectorPulls down

Your current role reads as an individual contributor, with tasks like writing decks and running single workstreams, lacking any mention of a team or budget.

This is not us hedging. Your resume carries real signals of both rungs — so that is what we report.

What to fix first

  1. 01Clarify your leadership scope in your current role to support the Senior Director title.
  2. 02Specify your exact deliverables in the consulting projects to show independent value.
  3. 03Add the financial or efficiency outcomes of your operational improvements.

Each fix is explained in detail below.

The six dimensions

The six things a recruiter weighs on a first pass, whether they’d name them or not.

  • Working for you — This helps you get the call.
  • Mixed signals — Some lines help, some undercut it. Worth tightening.
  • Holding you back — This is likely costing you callbacks.
  • Context only — How you’re being categorized, not a judgment.
  • Perceived functionContext only
    Business and Supply Chain Operations

    The job family I’d file you under, the first sort I make.

    Your career is firmly rooted in operational efficiency, logistics, and process improvement.

    What I’m seeing

    Titles like Director of Operations and Supply Chain Analyst, with work focused on WMS migrations, vendor consolidation, and capacity planning.

    From your resume

    “Director of Operations — Kelso Medical Supply, Evanston, IL”
    “Senior Analyst, Supply Chain — Verrick Logistics, Chicago, IL”

    What this costs you

    Nothing; your functional home is clear.

  • Perceived levelMixed signals
    Peaked at Director, currently individual contributor (IC)

    The seniority your resume earns, whatever title you hold.

    You have proven Director-level scope in the past, but your current Senior Director role reads as a step down in actual authority.

    What I’m seeing

    A past role with 11 reports and a $6.2M budget, followed by a current role that lists no team, no budget, and individual contributor (IC)-level tasks like writing decks.

    From your resume

    “Owned a $6.2M operating budget and held it flat for three consecutive years.”
    “Wrote the weekly operating review deck for the executive team.”

    What this costs you

    A screener will likely down-level your current title and evaluate you for Director roles based on your older experience.

  • Scope signalsMixed signals
    Clear historically, absent recently

    The scale of what you owned: people, users, sites, decisions. Evidence I can check.

    You quantified your reach well at Kelso, but your current role lacks any scale metrics beyond department counts.

    What I’m seeing

    Strong historical metrics like 11 reports and 3 distribution centers, but your current role only mentions four departments and a reduction to 24 suppliers without financial or headcount scale.

    From your resume

    “Led the WMS migration that moved 3 distribution centers onto one system.”
    “Built the quarterly planning process now used by four departments.”

    What this costs you

    It leaves a reader guessing about the actual size and complexity of your current mandate.

  • TrajectoryMixed signals
    Climbing, then a lateral step

    Whether your moves read as steady progress, a plateau or a step back.

    Your progression at Kelso was excellent, but the transition through consulting into a title-inflated current role breaks the upward momentum.

    What I’m seeing

    A clear promotion from Operations Manager to Director, followed by a consulting gap and a Senior Director role that lacks leadership evidence.

    From your resume

    “Director of Operations — Kelso Medical Supply, Evanston, IL”
    “Independent Consultant — Ellis Advisory, Chicago, IL”

    What this costs you

    It prompts questions about why you left a strong Director role for consulting and whether your current role is truly a step up.

  • Accomplishment qualityWorking for you
    Concrete and operational

    Whether your results are specific and measured, or read as a list of duties.

    When you own a project, you do a good job of stating the baseline and the result.

    What I’m seeing

    Clear before-and-after metrics, such as cutting order-to-ship time and reducing supplier lists.

    From your resume

    “Cut order-to-ship time from 3.4 days to 1.9 days.”
    “Ran the vendor consolidation workstream, reducing the supplier list from 61 to 24.”

    What this costs you

    Nothing; these are solid, believable operational wins.

  • Hesitation triggersHolding you back
    Title inflation and missing team

    The one thing most likely to make me pause, or pass.

    The stark contrast between your current Senior Director title and the individual contributor work described beneath it is the main issue.

    What I’m seeing

    A Senior Director who is writing the weekly deck and running a single workstream, with no mention of direct reports or budget.

    From your resume

    “Wrote the weekly operating review deck for the executive team.”

    What this costs you

    It makes a screener discount your current title and rely entirely on your past roles to gauge your true level.

The fixes in detail

01

Level gap

A Senior Director writing decks and running a single workstream sounds like an individual contributor.

From your resume

“Wrote the weekly operating review deck for the executive team.”

If you have it

If you own the executive review process and dictate its content, change the verb to reflect ownership rather than administrative delivery. If you have a team doing the analysis, mention them.

Rewrite

Prepared the weekly operating review deck for the executive team.

If you don’t

If you are an individual contributor in this role, rely on your Kelso experience to prove your management chops, and frame this role as a high-level strategic individual contributor (IC) position.

02

Ownership unclear

'Supported... as part of a four-person team' makes me wonder what you actually delivered here.

From your resume

“Supported a payer contract renegotiation as part of a four-person team.”

If you have it

If you owned a specific piece of this renegotiation—like the financial modeling or the contract redlining—name your exact contribution.

Rewrite

Supported payer contract renegotiation within a four-person team.

If you don’t

If you were just a general extra set of hands, keep it as is, but know it reads as junior support work.

03

Unquantified impact

You reduced the supplier list, but what was the business value of doing that?

From your resume

“Ran the vendor consolidation workstream, reducing the supplier list from 61 to 24.”

If you have it

If reducing the supplier list saved a specific dollar amount or cut processing time, add that metric to show the financial outcome of the consolidation.

Rewrite

Coordinated a vendor consolidation workstream, reducing the supplier list from 61 to 24.

If you don’t

If you don't have the savings data, the reduction in raw supplier count still shows operational cleanup.

Against your target levels

  • Senior Director (upper edge of your read)StretchYour resume shows an employer placed you in this title at Thornfield Health Systems, though the bullets lack the team and financial scale typical of the level.
  • VPStretchYour resume does not yet evidence the multi-department leadership or enterprise-wide P&L ownership expected at this level.

On a general corporate ladder your resume reads between Director and Senior Director. In healthcare logistics, titles at this scope typically sit lower. A general norm, not a fact about you.

Unfair, but real

Assumptions some readers make from the shape of a career, fair or not. You don’t need to fix these on your resume. Just have a clean answer ready for a cover letter or screen call.

  • Readers might assume your independent consulting stint was a stopgap between full-time roles rather than a thriving business.

    The 1.5-year duration and the supportive nature of the bullets signal a transitional period rather than a permanent agency build.

Dana, here’s where to go from here

  • 01Level gap. Clarify your leadership scope in your current role to support the Senior Director title.Biggest mover
  • 02Ownership unclear. Specify your exact deliverables in the consulting projects to show independent value.
  • 03Unquantified impact. Add the financial or efficiency outcomes of your operational improvements.

Make these changes, then run your follow-up read. It’s included, and it will show what moved.

Work through all three. Fix 01 is the one most likely to change how a recruiter reads you. Most of what’s here is fixable on the page, and none of it is a verdict on you. Good luck with your search.

Get your read