I review a lot of resumes from engineers with 3–8 years of experience who are applying to US tech companies. The code is usually fine. The resume is not.

Three patterns show up constantly:

1. Visa status buried or missing.

US recruiters skim in seconds. If they cannot tell whether you need sponsorship, many will skip you rather than guess. One clear line near the top is enough. A paragraph is too much.

1. Project lists instead of outcomes.

"Worked on microservices using Kafka and Kubernetes" tells me your stack. It does not tell me you reduced p99 latency or cut infra cost. US hiring managers buy outcomes. Put the number first, then the tech.

1. Cover letters that apologize.

"I know I am not local, but…" trains the reader to doubt you. Lead with the problem you solved. Mention authorization the same way you mention timezone: factual, once, then move on.

If you are applying from outside the US, your resume has two jobs: pass ATS, and make a human comfortable moving you forward. Most kits only do the first.

That is the bar we built CareerForge around.