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The right resume will communicate your strengths and experience while appealing to resume bots and hiring managers alike. It sounds like a tall order, but the truth is that writing a great resume is easier than you think.
The average recruiter will skim your resume in just 7 seconds. To land an interview, your resume needs to get past the applicant tracking system and stand out from the pack with clear formatting and skills that pop. Recruiters and hiring managers aren’t going to spend time trying to read a complex, too-long, or unclear resume. Instead, they’ll just move on to the next applicant. If you’re short on time or have a very complex work history, paying for a resume writing service like TopResume (our top pick) can do wonders.
If that all sounds too overwhelming, know that help does exist. CareerCloud has written extensively on:
Ready to give this a try? Get your resume to the top of the pile by following nine simple steps on how to write the perfect resume.
How To Write A Resume In A Few Simple Steps
Step 1 – Choose A Winning Format
Before you start building out your resume, you should decide on a resume format or type of resume. It’s important to choose one of the three main resume formats first because that will determine the information you’ll include. Each format suits a different category of job and applicant.
REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL
The reverse chronological resume format is the classic resume format. This type of resume emphasizes your work history. You’ll show each job you’ve held, starting with the most recent and working backward. The reverse chronological resume is helpful for workers with some experience who can show a consistent progression in their field. This resume format works well if you are looking for a job that’s a step up from what you’re currently doing. You can use the reverse chronological format to show that you’re ready for the next logical step in the progression.
FUNCTIONAL FORMAT
A functional resume focuses on your skills instead of the jobs you’ve held. This resume format could be good for people in creative industries where your product is more important than your work history.
A functional resume can also work well for people who don’t have any work experience to list. If you haven’t had a job, but have developed skills in school or your personal life, a functional resume might be perfect for you.
HYBRID
A hybrid resume combines both reverse chronological and functional formatting to highlight both your work history and your specific skills. The hybrid resume is great for people who are applying to specialized, senior positions. When both your specific skill set and your job progression are equally important, go with a hybrid resume.
QUICK TIPS ON RESUME FORMATTING
Regardless of the way you organize your resume, you should follow some simple stylistic guidelines to make sure that the document is simple and easy to read:
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Use a professional font that’s easy on the eyes (Calibri and Cambria are popular resume fonts)
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Write in 11 or 12 point font.
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Make sure that indentations and bullet point symbols are consistent.
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If you have written a complete sentence within a bullet point (has a subject and verb), use a period at the end.
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Check that the margins are at least one inch on all sides for proper printing
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Use single or 1.15 line spacing.
WHERE TO GET HELP
You don’t have to design your resume alone! Most of us aren’t graphic designers. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to access pre-built resume formats. All you have to do is enter your information into the template!
Check out cheap resume builders like Resumonk.
Step 2 – Build Your Contact Info Section
First, you need to list your current contact information on your resume. To make sure that recruiters and hiring managers can reach you, include a number of different ways they can reach you.
NAME (REQUIRED)
Eliminate the possibility for confusion by using the name you go by on your resume. For example, if your full name is Katherine but you go by Katie, list the name Katie on your resume. That way, recruiters and interviewers will know how to address you. It will also be less confusing if potential employers see the same names on your email, LinkedIn profile, and resume.
PHONE NUMBER (REQUIRED)
Include the best phone number to reach you. This will probably be your main cell phone number. Don’t use your work phone number. Since you are looking for a new job, it’s appropriate to use your personal number. Be thinking about where you have good reception since you will probably be taking a number of screen calls and phone interviews on your phone.
EMAIL ADDRESS (REQUIRED)
Include your personal email address. Make sure that the email address is professional. For example, try not to use something like corgilover208@randomdomain.com. That doesn’t make the best first impression. Instead, try to use an email address that contains your name. For example, if your name is Katie Jones, something like katie.jones or kjones would be perfect.
LINKEDIN PROFILE (RECOMMENDED)
Include the URL of your LinkedIn profile on your contact information section. Many potential employers will check out your profile and activity on the LinkedIn platform. This is a great way to stay connected with people you meet during the interview process. You can also interact with relevant content on LinkedIn to show that you’re engaged in your industry and up to date on the latest trends.
If you don’t like your default LinkedIn profile URL, you can create a custom LinkedIn URL for your profile with a few simple steps. Make it easy to remember!
MAILING ADDRESS (OPTIONAL)
The mailing address used to be a basic requirement, but it’s less relevant these days. Many employers still like to know where you’re located. If you’re willing to move anywhere for a job, potentially without relocation assistance, it’s fine to leave your physical address off of your resume.
On the other hand, if you really want to remain in your area, you should probably leave your address on your resume. Employers want to know if they should consider you, based on their own constraints. Some companies may be willing to let you work remotely, while some want you to be in a specific office. Many, but not all, employers offer relocation assistance. Your address provides crucial information to hiring managers about whether they should consider you and what logistical questions they need to ask.
TITLE (OPTIONAL)
You can include a short title in your contact information. This isn’t required, but it creates a feel that’s similar to your LinkedIn profile. The title can be your official job title, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead of something simple like “Line Manager” you could instead say “Six-Sigma Certified Manufacturing Leader”. Choose something that is straightforward, but catchy, and conveys your greatest strengths.
BLOG OR WEBSITE (OPTIONAL)
A personal blog or website can be a great way to display your skills in a particular area, especially if you are a young professional without much corporate experience. Include your website link on your resume only if the content is relevant to jobs you’re applying to.
For example, if you’re looking for a graphic design job, you can link to a personal website that includes samples of graphic design work you’ve done in the past. When you’re applying to content creator jobs, it can be helpful to link to writing samples on your website. If you’re not sure, leave your blog or website off of your resume. You only want to include this if it is specifically and directly relevant.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS (OPTIONAL)
Social media links, other than LinkedIn, can be appropriate in certain situations. If you’re applying to jobs as a social media manager, you should definitely include links to social media accounts you’ve managed in the past. Software developers should link to their GitHub profiles so employers can see your contributions.
CONTACT INFORMATION YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE
There are a few pieces of personal information you should steer clear of. These could be unprofessional, confusing, or irrelevant. You want your resume to be as clear and concise as possible, so avoid listing this information:
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Personal websites, blogs or social media accounts that aren’t related to your work
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Date of birth
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Second email or phone number
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Photo
Step 3 – Work Experience Section
Your work experience is the meat of your resume, and it’s the part you’ll probably spend the most time on. The format you will use depends on what type of resume format you chose. Regardless of the format, though, you should include the same set of key facts about your job experience.
JOB TITLE
Include your job title at each employer. This information should appear at the top of each entry to make sure it’s easy to see at a glance. You can put the job title in bold to make it stand out even more when someone is skimming your resume. Generally, you should use your formal job title on your resume. In case a potential employer verifies employment with your company, you want to make sure that the titles match.
COMPANY
List the company for each work history entry. It’s important for potential employers to know what industries you’ve worked in, and your company information gives them a quick snapshot.
CITY & STATE
It’s common to include the city and state you worked in for each job. This can give employers a view of your geographical experience. You may be extremely familiar with a specific region. International work experience can also be very appealing to employers.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Mention the most important responsibilities for your previous roles. You don’t need to include all of your day-to-day tasks. Instead, think about the top two to four responsibilities that apply to the types of jobs you’re looking for.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
It’s important to show employers that you work had a positive impact. Instead of spending too much time on what you’ve done at your previous jobs, focus on what your achievements were. Did you reduce spending by 50%, increase customer service ratings by 10% or improve customer retention by 5%? Quantifiable achievements show that you can take action to create change, and that is extremely important to hiring managers.
Step 4 – Include Your Education
A simple and accurate education section is important to any resume. If you have multiple degrees, start with the most advanced degree. You don’t need to include your high school degree if you have an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree.
Some jobs require a specific educational background, so it’s important to list your degrees and majors accurately. You’ll need the following details for the education section of your resume.
DEGREE
List the degree that you received. This information is extremely easy to verify, so list only degrees that an institution conferred. The degree might be a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy and so on. Although many degrees have commonly understood acronyms (e.g. BA is Bachelor of Arts), some do not. If you have a less common degree, write out the degree instead of using the abbreviation so it’s clear to everyone.
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
List the institution that conferred each degree and its location. Some colleges and universities have multiple locations.
MAJOR AND MINOR SUBJECTS
List your major subject for each degree. You can also list your minor if you had one and think it’s relevant. Your major is important to specialized jobs, so make sure to include this information.
AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS (OPTIONAL)
If you received awards or want to share key accomplishments, list them in the education section. If you’re relatively experienced and have plenty of content in your work history, you probably don’t need to list accomplishments at all. If you’re earlier in your career and want to provide a bit more information about your education, include no more than three relevant bullet points about your key awards, recognitions, or accomplishments.
GPA (NOT RECOMMENDED)
You usually don’t need to list your GPA, although if it’s very good you could consider including it.
Step 5 – Don’t Forget To Add Hard And Soft Skills
You want to make your resume SUPER easy for people and automated systems to scan. You can help this process along by highlighting your top skills in an obvious way. Think about your skill set and how it applies to the job you’re interested in. Then you can create a skills section that’s tailored to each job.
Include both hard skills and soft skills in this section. Hard skills include technical skills, like programming, software, machine operation, or engineering knowledge. These skills are measurable and quantifiable.
Soft skills, on the other hand, are more difficult to measure. Teamwork, communication skills, and empathy are soft skills. These are interpersonal skills that help you get along with your co-workers and contribute to the team. Soft skills are just as important as hard skills on a resume!
HARD SKILLS
Many professional roles require specific hard skills, so be sure to research which skills are important for the position you’re applying to. You don’t need to include all of your hard skills. Only list the ones that are relevant to the role.
If you have a lot of work experience, consider the state of the industry when you’re listing hard skills. Don’t include skills in less used programming languages or older computer software. Share the hard skills that are currently important in the industry and relevant to the potential employer.
SOFT SKILLS
Soft skills are important to employers, but they can be hard for job candidates to communicate. Make sure to highlight a few of your top soft skills. Employers can’t quantify your soft skills, but at least they’ll know that you think certain soft skills are important.
The “Other” Section
Outside of the main sections of a resume, you might have some other skills or accolades you’d like to include. You should always ask yourself whether this information is relevant to the potential employer before listing it.
PUBLICATIONS
If you’re in academia or an environment that emphasizes original research, you should include your publications. People who have published their own work can definitely stand out from other job applicants.
CERTIFICATIONS
Include all relevant certifications on your resume. This is a great way to show employers that you have the skills you say you do. Certifications show that ongoing training and education is important to you and that you’re always growing your skillset.
PORTFOLIO
If you have a portfolio of professional work that you want to share, you can include that information on your resume. This is a great way to show your abilities in graphic design, content creation, website design, or even analytics. A portfolio can be especially valuable if you don’t have much work history.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Many companies are global or work with customers who speak a different language. If you are proficient in another language, you should definitely list those skills on you resume. Even if the job doesn’t directly require foreign language skills, language skills can differentiate you from similar candidates.
VOLUNTEER WORK
Companies are increasingly attuned to the need to be good community citizens. Many organizations give back to their communities by donating time and money. Listing volunteer work on your resume shows employers that you engage in your community and want to give back. If you’ve had a gap in your resume or have limited work experience, you can also list skills you learned while volunteering.
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
You can include hobbies and interests on your resume if it feels right to you. Some interviewers really like to learn about you and get a sense of how you might fit in with the team. Other interviewers find hobbies irrelevant to the interview process.
It’s OK to include personal interests if you want to, but think about what you are listing. Put more weight on hobbies that are unique or required long training to master. Skip more generic interests that don’t really tell the person about you specifically, like reading or jogging. It’s up to you whether it feels right to include hobbies and interests on your resume or not, but it probably won’t make or break your application either way.
Setting Your Resume Apart
In today’s job market, automated software often does the initial screening for job candidates. More than 60% of companies use some sort of automated resume screening to help streamline the hiring process for recruiters. This means that you could be the perfect candidate but fail to make it through the initial resume screen if your resume isn’t optimized for the job posting. To help your resume pass automated screening, you should include relevant keywords and tailor your resume to each job posting.
Once your application passes the initial scan, a recruiter or hiring manager will read your resume. To make sure your resume makes a great impression, you should also make sure that your work experience is clear, easy to read and active instead of passive.
Include Keywords
To improve your chances of passing the initial automated resume screen, you should include important keywords in your resume. To get an idea of the keywords that hiring managers commonly use, scan some job postings that you’re interested in. Make a list of words that appear in multiple postings.
Once you have a list of common keywords, find a way to incorporate them into your resume naturally.
Tailor Your Resume To Individual Jobs
One important component of passing the automated resume screen is tailoring your resume to individual jobs. As much time as this can take, it’s worth making the effort for roles that you’re really excited about. If you come across a job posting that looks like it was made for you, make sure that you’ve listed the most relevant experience and keywords in your resume for that application. Take your cues from the words used in the job posting to make sure you’re hitting the highlights that the resume bot will be looking for.
Use Active Voice
Once you’ve made it through the AI resume screen, a human will probably review your resume. You want to make sure that your resume is impactful for human readers. You can do this by using the active voice in your resume whenever possible. Instead of saying “Ten lab scientists were managed by me” say “I managed ten scientists.” The passive voice can really sneak up on you, so make sure to pay close attention to using passive voice when you proofread your resume.
Use Clear, Concise Wording
Recruiters and interviewers are scanning your resume. To make sure that people can read your resume easily, make sure to use straightforward, concise wording. This is not the time for complicated sentences and fancy words.
Although it’s sometimes tempting to use advanced vocabulary to make your resume sound more impressive, the fact is that often these words just make it harder for people to understand what we are trying to say. For example, instead of saying, “Utilized a commonly accepted spreadsheet program to ascertain monthly expenditures”, say “Calculated monthly expenses in Excel”.
Step 7 – Proofread Your Resume
Once you have the first draft of your resume, you need to proofread it multiple times. You want your resume to be as accurate and professional as possible. That means that you need to review grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Your resume also needs to be impactful, so you should refine your wording to make it clear, simple, and powerful.
REVIEW SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, AND GRAMMAR
Every resume needs to demonstrate professionalism by having correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Start by using the built-in proofreading functionality wherever you’re writing your resume. Programs like Microsoft Word and Google Dogs check spelling, grammar and punctuation and highlight any errors. Review those errors as a first pass.
LOOK AT WORD CHOICE AND PHRASING
In addition to checking for mistakes, you should also look for opportunities to improve the way you’ve phrased your resume. Make sure you’ve used the passive voice when possible. Look for opportunities to make a sentence simpler. Take out complicated words and replace them with more common words. Add specific details or statistics when possible, even your initial information was more generic. Your resume should be clear, easy to understand, and impactful.
WAYS TO PROOFREAD
You can – and should – proofread your resume in multiple ways. In addition to reviewing your resume as a soft copy on your computer, you should print it out and review it. You should also ask at least one other person to review and edit your resume. They’ll catch typos and also help you clarify messages that are still murky.
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Use built in capabilities in word or google docs
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Use a writing reviewer like Hemingway
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Print out and write edits with a pen
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Send it to a friend, family member, or colleague
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Hire a professional resume proofreader
Step 8 – Save As PDF
Once you have built out – and proofed – your resume, you should save it as a PDF. Saving and sharing your resume as a PDF is super important for a few reasons. First, a PDF will appear the same on every screen – phone, tablet, or laptop. It doesn’t matter which operating system you use and readers can open a PDF in any web browser. There’s no formatting conversion. That means you can be 100% certain how other people are seeing your resume.
Most programs give you the option to print to PDF. Then, just save your resume as a PDF in a location you’ll remember. You can email and upload the PDF resume without worrying about formatting issues. Just makes sure to create a new PDF each time you edit the original version of the resume.
Step 9 – Write A Cover Letter (Also Tailored)
You’ve worked SUPER hard to create an exceptionally tailored resume for each job posting, and now it’s time to do the same with a cover letter. Some job postings don’t require a job letter, but you should include one. A cover letter is your opportunity to tell an employer exactly how your skills map to their job. You should always tailor your cover letter to each specific job.
A cover letter should use the same format as your resume. Save your cover letter to PDF before sharing.
You Are Now Ready To Tackle Your Next Job Opportunity!
Writing your resume isn’t as complicated as it might seem, but it does take some time. Include the right information in an effective format, and you’ll be well ahead of most other job applicants. If you’re feeling stuck in your current role and are ready to tackle something new, don’t let an outdated resume be the roadblock that holds you back.
If you still feel like you need help with your resume, we recommend checking out the best resume writing services.