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How To Write A Resume That Wins A Job In 2024 [7+ Free Templates & Examples]

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Ready to learn how to write a resume that gets you hired? Look no further!

If you want a resume template that will help you land more interviews, head over to our free resume builder !

In this comprehensive guide, we'll cover the strategies and methods behind taking your template and transforming it into a job-winning resume!

Let's Be Honest: Writing A Resume Is The Worst

Writing a great resume is one of the most frustrating parts of the job search. We sift through dozens of articles and compare conflicting advice to make our own decisions on what to follow:

One article says “one page MAX” while another says “use two or three and include all of your experience.”

And yet another tells you to “write a quick summary highlighting your personality and experience” while a different article claims that “summaries are a waste of space.”

You scrape together your best effort and hit “Submit,” sending your resume into the ether. When you don't hear back, you wonder what went wrong:

“Was it the single page or the lack of a summary? Honestly, who gives a s**t at this point. I'm sick of sending out 10 resumes every day and hearing nothing but crickets.”

Writing a resume sucks, but it's not your fault!

The real reason it's so tough to write a resume is because most of the advice out there hasn't been proven against the actual end goal of getting a job. If you don't know what consistently works, you can't lay out a system to get there.

It's easy to say “one page works best” when you've seen it happen a few times. But how does it hold up when we look at 100 resumes across different industries, experience levels, and job titles?

That's what this article aims to answer.

Over the past five years, I've personally applied to hundreds of companies and coached hundreds of people through the job search process. This gave me a huge opportunity to measure, analyze, and test the effectiveness of different resume strategies at scale.

This article is going to walk through everything I've learned about the best ways to write a resume over the past 5 years, including:

• Mistakes that 95%+ people make, causing their resumes to get tossed immediately
• 3 things that consistently appear in the resumes of highly effective job searchers (who go on to land jobs at the world's best companies)
• A quick hack that will help you stand out from the competition and instantly build relationships with whoever is reading your resume (increasing your chances of hearing back and getting hired)
• The exact resume template that got me interviews and offers at Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Uber, and more

The strategies you're about to learn have helped people just like you land jobs at Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, ESPN, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, and more.

Before we get to the unconventional strategies that will help set you apart, we need to first make sure our foundational bases are covered. That starts with understanding the mistakes most job seekers make so we can make our resume bulletproof.

Resume Mistakes That 95% Of People Make

Most resumes that come through an online portal or across a recruiter's desk are tossed out because they violate a simple rule.

When recruiters scan a resume, the first thing they look for are mistakes. Your resume could be fantastic, but if you violate a rule like using an unprofessional email address or improper grammar, it's going to get tossed out.

Our goal is to fully understand the triggers that cause recruiters/ATS systems to make the snap decisions on who stays and who goes.

In order to get inside the heads of these decision makers, I collected data from dozens of recruiters and hiring mangers across industries. These people have several hundred years of hiring experience under their belts and they've reviewed 100,000+ resumes across industries.

They broke down the five most common mistakes that cause them to cut resumes from the pile:

The 4 Most Common Resume Mistakes (According To Recruiters & Hiring Managers):

Mistake #1:  Sloppiness (typos, spelling errors, & grammatical mistakes). Close to 60% of resumes have some sort of typo or grammatical issue.

Solution:  Have your resume reviewed by three separate sources – spell checking software, a friend, and a professional. Spell check should be covered if you're using Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create your resume.

A friend or family member can cover the second base, but make sure you trust them with reviewing the whole thing. You can always include an obvious mistake to see if they catch it.

Finally, you can hire a professional editor on Upwork . It shouldn't take them more than 15-20 minutes to review so it's worth paying a bit more for someone with high ratings and lots of hours logged.

Mistake #2: Summaries are too long and formal. Many resumes include summaries that consist of paragraphs explaining why they are a “driven, results oriented team player.” When hiring managers see a block of text at the top of the resume, you can bet they aren't going to read the whole thing. If they do give it a shot and read something similar to the sentence above, they're going to give up on the spot.

Solution:  Summaries are highly effective, but they should be in bullet form and showcase your most relevant experience for the role. Think of them as a highlight reel – the Sports Center Top 10 of your resume – instead of a paragraph of who you are and what you're looking for.

For example, if I'm applying for a new business sales role, my first bullet might read “Responsible for driving $11M of new business in 2019, achieved 168% attainment (#1 on my team).” I talk more about resume objectives and summaries in this post.

Mistake #3: Too many buzz words. Remember our driven team player from the last paragraph? Phrasing like that makes hiring managers cringe because your attempt to stand out actually makes you sound like everyone else.

Solution:  Instead of using buzzwords, write naturally, use bullets, and include quantitative results whenever possible.

Would you rather hire a salesperson who “is responsible for driving new business across the healthcare vertical to help companies achieve their goals” or “drove $15M of new business last quarter, including the largest deal in company history”? Skip the buzzwords and focus on results.

You can read more about writing highly effective resume bullets in this guide or you can use our free resume bullet analyzer tool .

Mistake #4: Having a resume that is more than one page. The average employer spends six seconds reviewing your resume – if it's more than one page, it probably isn't going to be read. When asked, recruiters from Google and Barclay's both said multiple page resumes “are the bane of their existence.”

Solution:  Increase your margins, decrease your font, and cut down your experience to highlight the most relevant pieces for the role. It may seem impossible, but it's worth the effort. When you're dealing with recruiters who see hundreds of resumes every day, we want to make their lives as easy as possible.

More Common Resume Mistakes & Facts (Backed By Industry Research)

In addition to personal feedback, I combed through dozens of recruitment survey results to fill any gaps my contacts might have missed. Here are a few more items you may want to consider when writing your resume:

• The average interviewer spends 6 seconds scanning your resume
• The majority of interviewers have not looked at your resume until you walk into the room
• Resumes with a link to a comprehensive LinkedIn profile have a 71% better chance of hearing back
• 76% of resumes are discarded for an unprofessional email address
• Resumes with a photo have an 88% rejection rate
• 58% of resumes have typos
• Applicant tracking software typically eliminates 75% of resumes due to a lack of keywords and phrases being present

Now that you know every mistake you need to avoid, the first item on your to-do list is to comb through your current resume and make sure it doesn't violate anything mentioned above.

Once you have a clean resume, you can start to focus on more advanced tactics that will really make you stand out. There a few unique elements you can use to push your application over the edge and finally get your dream company to notice you.

Steal The Resume Template That Got Me Offers At Google, Microsoft, & Twitter > Click here to get free, instant access to the resume template & bonuses <<

The 3 Elements Of A Resume That Will Get You Hired

My analysis showed that in order to write a resume that was highly effective, it typically includes three specific elements:

• Quantitative results
• A simple design
• Quirky interests section

This section breaks down all three elements and shows you how to maximize their impact.

#1: Quantitative Results

Most resumes lack them.

Which is a shame because my data shows that they make the biggest difference between resumes that land interviews and resumes that end up in the trash.

Here's an example from a recent resume that was emailed to me:

❌ Bad Example of Experience Identified gaps in policies and processes and made recommendations for solutions at the department and institution level Streamlined processes to increase efficiency and enhance quality Directly supervised three managers and indirectly managed up to 15 staff on multiple projects Oversaw execution of in-house advertising strategy Implemented comprehensive social media plan

As an employer, that tells me absolutely nothing about what to expect if I hire this person.

They executed an in-house marketing strategy. Did it work? How did they measure it? What was the ROI?

They also also identified gaps in processes and recommended solutions. What was the result? Did they save time and operating expenses? Did it streamline a process resulting in more output?

Finally, they managed a team of three supervisors and 15 staffers. How did that team do? Was it better than the other teams at the company? What results did they get and how did those improve under this person's management?

See what I'm getting at here?

These types of bullets talk about daily activities, but companies don't care about what you do every day. They care about results. By including measurable metrics and achievements in your resume, you're showcasing the value that the employer can expect to get if they hire you.

Let's take a look at revised versions of those same bullets:

✅ Good Example of Experience Managed a team of 20 that consistently outperformed other departments in lead generation, deal size, and overall satisfaction (based on our culture survey) Executed in-house marketing strategy that resulted in a 15% increase in monthly leads along with a 5% drop in the cost per lead Implemented targeted social media campaigns across Instagram & Pinterest, driving an additional 50,000 monthly website visits and generating 750 qualified leads in 3 months

If you were in the hiring manager's shoes, which resume would you choose?

That's the power of including quantitative results.

Note:  Just because you don't work in sales, marketing, or a “numbers-driven” field, doesn't mean that you can't add measurable metrics to your resume. There are other categories that qualify here, including:

• Time – How long did it take you to achieve something? Was that faster that usual or ahead of the timeline? If so, by how much?
• Scope – What was the measurable scope of the project you worked on? How many people did you manage on this project? How many people use the product you work on? What was the budget for this project? Etc.
• Efficiency / Productivity  – Were you able to save budget? Save people time? Improve outcomes?
• Comparison  – How did your results compare to the past? Did you do things faster? Better? Can you quantify and compare that to previous work?

Finally, every single person at a company has a role there because they impact the bottom line, either directly or indirectly. If you don't feel like you have a direct impact, go find the people who leverage your work who do!

For example, let's say you're a designer who made a brand new pitch deck for the sales team. Can you go talk to the team and:

• Ask how many deals they've closed with your deck vs. the previous deck
• Survey them and ask them to rate your deck compared to the previous deck

If your deck has led to more deals, how much are they worth? You played a role in those results! If your deck has better ratings and feedback than previous decks, add that in!

You can always find a quantifiable way to measure your value if you're willing to get creative.

#2: Simple, Aesthetic Design That Hooks The Reader

These days, it's easy to get carried away with our mission to “stand out.” I've seen resume overhauls from graphic designers, video resumes, and even resumes hidden in a box of donuts.

While those can work in very specific situations, we want to aim for a strategy that consistently gets results. The format I saw the most success with was a black and white template with sections in this order:

• Summary/Objective
• Volunteer Work (if you have it)
• Skills/Interests

This template is effective because it's familiar and easy for the reader to digest.

As I mentioned earlier, hiring managers scan resumes for an average of 6 seconds. If your resume is in an unfamiliar format, those 6 seconds won't be very comfortable for the hiring manager. Our brains prefer things we can easily recognize. You want to make sure that a hiring manager can actually catch a glimpse of who you are during their quick scan of your resume.

If we're not relying on design, this hook needs to come from the Summary section at the top of your resume.

This section should be done in bullets (not paragraph form) and it should contain 3-4 highlights of the most relevant experience you have for the role. For example, if I was applying for a New Business Sales position, my summary could look like this:

Sales Executive Summary Drove quarterly average of $11M in new business with a quota attainment of 128% (#1 on my team) Received award for largest sales deal of the year Developed and trained sales team on new lead generation process that increased total leads by 17% in 3 months, resulting in 4 new deals worth $7M

Those bullets speak directly to the value I can add to the company if I was hired for the role.

#3: An “Interests” Section That's Quirky, Unique, & Relatable

This is a little “hack” you can use to instantly build personal connections and positive associations with whoever is reading your resume.

Most resumes have a skills section but sometimes it doesn't offer enough value.

Research shows that people rely on emotions, not information, to make decisions. Big brands use this principle all the time – emotional responses to advertisements are more influential on a person’s intent to buy than the content of an ad.

You probably remember Apple's famous “Get A Mac” campaign:

When it came to specs and performance, Macs didn't blow every single PC out of the water. But these ads solidified who was “cool” and who wasn't, which was worth a few extra bucks to a few million people.

By tugging at our need to feel “cool,” Apple's campaign led to a 42% increase in market share and a record sales year for MacBooks.

Now we're going to take that same tactic and apply it to your resume.

If you can invoke an emotional response from your recruiter, you can influence the mental association they assign to you. This gives you a major competitive advantage.

Let's start with a question — what could you talk about for hours?

It could be cryptocurrency, cooking, World War 2, World of Warcraft, or how Google's bet on segmenting their company under the Alphabet is going to impact the technology sector over the next 5 years.

Did a topic (or two) pop into your head? Great.

Now think about what it would be like to have a conversation with someone who was just as passionate and knew just as much as you did on the topic. It'd be pretty awesome, right?  Finally,  someone who gets it!

That's exactly the kind of emotional response we're aiming to get from a hiring manager.

There are five “neutral” topics out there that people enjoy talking about:

• Geography (travel, where people are from, etc.)

These topics are present in plenty of interest sections, but we want to take them one step further.

Let's say you had the best night of your life at the Full Moon Party in Thailand. Which of the following two options would you be more excited to read:

• Ko Pha Ngan beaches (where the full moon party is held)

Or, let's say that you went to Duke (an ACC school) and still follow their basketball team. Which would you be more pumped about:

• College Sports
• ACC Basketball (Go Blue Devils!)

In both cases, the second answer would probably invoke a larger emotional response because they are tied directly to your experience.

I want you to think about your interests that fit into the five categories I mentioned above.

Now I want you to write a specific favorite associated with each in parentheses next to your original list. For example, if you wrote travel you can add (ask me about the time I was chased by an elephant in India) or (specifically meditation in a Tibetan monastery).

Here is the exact set of interests I used on my resume when I interviewed at Google, Microsoft, and Twitter:

ABC Kitchen's Atmosphere, Stumptown Coffee (primarily cold brew), Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker), Fishing (especially fly), Foods That Are Vehicles For Hot Sauce, ACC Sports (Go Deacs!) & The New York Giants

If you want to cheat here, my experience shows that anything about hot sauce is an instant conversation starter.

Resume Fundamentals: Format, Fonts, & Pairing With A Cover Letter

Now that you know what mistakes to avoid and what elements to focus on when you write a resume, it's time to get back to the basics. This stuff isn't the sexiest, but you need to make sure that the fundamentals of your resume are on point if you want to edge out the competition and win the job.

What Resume Format Works Best?

This is one of the most common questions I get from people who are planning to write a resume. When it comes to an acceptable resume layout , there are four main templates to choose from:

Resume Format Option #1: Chronological The chronological resume is one of the most common formats, and probably what you're using right now. It focuses on listing out your professional experience starting with your current position and working your way back. If you're leveraging a chronological resume format, you should aim to cap your experience at 10-15 years (when applicable) and don't be afraid to include side projects or part time jobs.

Resume Format Option #2: Functional Functional resume formats emphasize skills and experience over history. This resume is great for people who are chasing new industries that don't have a clear cut path. The blockchain/cryptocurrency space is a great example here – you can't get a degree in blockchain and most of the hires in the industry are brand new to the space so companies prioritize transferable skills over work history. Functional resumes are also great for people who have gaps in their employment. Focusing on your skills and tangible results reduces the spotlight on any lapses you might have and improves your chances of getting hired

Resume Format Option #3: Combination Combination resumes are a cross between functional and chronological. This is typically leveraged by candidates who want to highlight major projects and accomplishments because of their relevance to the position, while showcasing their extensive work history. Combination formats typically split the white space into a section that solely focuses on specific projects and achievements along with a section that highlights experience in a minimalistic fashion (typically the only information listed is the  company name, job title, and dates).

Resume Format Option #4: Creative/Non-Traditional Creative resumes step outside of the 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and help candidates showcase their experience and skills in a non-traditional fashion. This could be an interactive website like Robby Leondari's , a mock up of the company's website like Philippe's , or a video like Mark's:

When it comes to choosing a resume layout , there is no “best” option for everyone. The smartest thing you can do is reflect on your situation, your experience, and the job you want. Then compare those to the options above and pick one that makes the most sense when you're ready to write a resume.

How To Choose A Font For Your Resume (& Why That Matters)

You might have read that and said, “Font? Seriously!? I've got way more important stuff on my plate right now.”

I used to think the same thing until I came across this article on Font Psychology.  It consolidated information from 75+ academic studies on the subject that all point to a similar conclusion – fonts have a  huge  impact on our perception of the written product be it a paper, a website, or a resume.

There are five main font categories in existence today: Serif, Sans Serif, Monospace, Fantasy, and Cursive. Here's an infographic illustrating the emotions that each of these font families evoke in the reader:

When it comes to the “best” font for your resume , the safest bet is to use something simple and easy to read. In my opinion, Sans Serif fits that bill best so choose from fonts like Avenir, Helvetica, Arial, or Geneva.

How A Great Cover Letter Will Strengthen Your Resume

Many people read this article and come back to me with a single takeaway, “Did you say ONE PAGE??”

How can you possibly fit all of the amazing work you've done in the industry over the past several years along with skills , interests, and references onto a single page?! That's where your cover letter comes in.

The cover letter is your place to expand on the experience, skills, and achievements you highlighted in your resume. Crafting a great cover letter is also going to increase the strength of your overall application. Data shows that 53% of employers prefer candidates who submit a cover letter.

But this article is about how to write a resume that gets results. The main takeaway is that, if done correctly, your cover letter is going to boost your overall application and increase the chances that your (now totally awesome) resume gets a thorough inspection. For a more detailed look into cover letters, check out my guide on Writing A Cover Letter That Actually Gets You Hired .

Finally, when you make it past the final round and the company asks for references , make sure your references match the format and templates you chose for your resume and cover letter.

The Proven Plug & Play Resume Template (With Examples)

Now that we have our fundamentals down, it's time to apply all of these tactics to write a resume. Our goal is to write a resume that increases your chances of hearing back from companies, enhances your relationships with hiring managers, and ultimately helps you score the job offer.

The example below is the exact resume that I used to land interviews and offers at Microsoft, Google, and Twitter. I was targeting roles in Account Management and Sales so this sample is tailored towards those positions. We'll break down each section below:

First, I want you to notice how clean this resume template is. Each section is clearly labeled and separated and flows nicely from top to bottom.

My summary speaks directly to the value I've created in the past around company culture and its bottom line:

• I consistently exceeded expectations
• I started my own business  in the space (and saw real results)
• I'm a team player who prioritizes culture

Next, my Experience section aims to flesh out the points made in my Summary. I mentioned exceeding my quota up top so I included two specific initiatives that led to that attainment, including measurable results:

• A partnership leveraging display advertising to drive users to a gamified experience. The campaign resulted in over 30,00 acquisitions and laid the groundwork for the 2nd largest deal in company history.
• A partnership with a top tier agency aimed at increasing conversions for a client by improving user experience and upgrading tracking during a company-wide website overhaul (the client has ~20 brand sites). Our efforts over 6 months resulted in a contract extension worth 316% more than their original deal.

Finally, I included my education at the very bottom starting with the most relevant coursework.

Steal My Proven Resume Template (For Free!) In order to help you write a resume that gets results, I'm giving away a copy of my proven resume template, access to my Rapid Resume Revamp video course, and a live resume review session. All you need to do is click the link below to get instant access: Click here to get free, instant access to all of my resume resources.

How To Identify Resume Keywords

If you're not already familiar, Applicant Tracking Systems are pieces of software that companies use to help “automate” the hiring process.

After you hit submit on your online application, the ATS software scans your resume looking for specific keywords and phrases.

If the language in your resume matches up, the software sees it as a good fit for the role and will pass it on to the recruiter. However, even if you're highly qualified for the role but you don't use the right wording, your resume can end up sitting in black hole.

Translation? If you want to boost your chances of getting seen and getting hired, you need to write a resume that is optimized the right way, using the right resume template.

This can be a little tricky to figure out on your own, which is exactly why I created a tool called ResyMatch.io !

ResyMatch is a free resume scanner and optimizer that will help you identify the exact keywords, experience, and formatting you need to include on your resume for each job you apply for!

Here's how it works:

First, head over to ResyMatch.io , upload your resume on the left, and paste your target job description on the right:

ResyMatch will scan your resume and compare it to your target job description. The tool will spit out a match score based on four categories – ATS Best Practices, Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and a Sales Index (which essentially grades you on how well you sell your experience in your bullets):

If you scroll down, you'll get a full breakdown of the exact changes you need to make to improve your resume. ResyMatch will show you the keywords you need to include, the formatting you should aim for, and it will show you how to sell yourself through your bullets and content:

When you write a resume, your goal is to include those keywords at the same frequency that you'd find on the job description.

ResyMatch is free so you can scan your resume and track your progress as you make your updates!

While there's no guaranteed way to beat the online application process, this will definitely help improve your chances of getting your foot in the door!

How To Write Highly Effective Resume Bullets

At the beginning of this article, I talked about conflicting advice that you see all the time when you're ready to write a resume. One page vs. two, summaries vs. objectives, this font or that font…

But the truth is, none of those things matter if the content of your resume stinks.

You could have the best template and the best formatting, but if your bullets are vague and generic, you won't get results!

The problem is, most people don't do a great job of illustrating their value in their resume bullets – and I don't blame them!

When I was job searching, understanding how to write “good” bullets wasn't easy. And most of the time I  thought  I'd finally gotten there, but I still wasn't getting any results.

I realized the problem was that the concept of a “good” bullet was abstract. What made a “good” bullet good and what made a “bad” bullet bad?

I spent the next few years working to develop a formula for great resume bullets to help solve that. It looks like this:

That gave me a starting point for structuring my bullets and it made a HUGE difference.

But applying your bullets to that formula still takes some work. You need to figure out what your skills are, what action words you're using, etc. I wanted to take the guesswork out of it, so I created a resume bullet analyzer tool called ResyBullet.io .

All you need to do is copy a bullet from your resume, paste it into ResyBullet, and the tool will analyze your bullet and give you a score along with objective feedback on how it needs to be improved:

The tool will also save your score history so you can track your progress and A/B test different approaches to your bullets as your score improves.

You can check it out at ResyBullet.io.

Write A Resume With Our Free Resume Templates & Resume Builder

If you're ready to start implementing all of the tips and strategies from this article, check out how to write a resume using our free resume builder .

Like ResyMatch, ResyBullet, and all of our tools, they are free to use:

You can choose from 7 resume templates that are ATS-friendly (meaning the resume robots can easily scan and read it) and have been approved by recruiters from the world's best companies including Microsoft, Google, Barclays, and more.

Next, we give you complete control over the content and style of your resume. You can edit the sections, colors, font, sizing, margins, and a whole lot more!

Finally, you can export your resume as a PDF, a TXT file you can import into Microsoft Word, or you can save it to your Google Drive.

Click here to start building a job-winning resume for free!

Resume Statistics

We recently analyzed 125,000+ resumes to answer one question:

“How many candidates are following best practices and where are there opportunities to create a better, more effective resume?”

We looked at file types and formatting. We looked at contact information, education, and interests. We looked at keywords, skills, and experience. We even looked at the specific language used to write these resumes.

The analysis of these resumes led to some pretty interesting results and the goal of this article is to share them with you so that you can understand how to write an effective resume and get an edge on the competition.

Still Have Questions About How To Write A Resume?

No problem! I tried to include as much as I possibly could in this guide, but everyone's situation is unique.

Feel free to leave a comment below or email me with your question or any feedback you have!

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Austin Belcak

Austin is the founder of Cultivated Culture where he helps people land jobs without connections, without traditional experience, and without applying online. His strategies have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, & Fast Company and has helped people just like you land jobs at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, & more.

18 thoughts on How To Write A Resume That Wins A Job In 2024 [7+ Free Templates & Examples]

Thank you Austin. Awesome article! I’m so happy I found Cultivated Culture. The content you’re posting is absolutely amazing. It has helped me with almost any problem I encountered during my job search. I absolutely love your career advice. Thank you.

As a recent graduate i want to create resume/CV for myself as i am going to start looking for job but didn’t know how and what should i include on resume so started searching over net and found out this article which i think is great help for students like us. Thank You.

Thank you for this informative how-to. I’m recently back on the search for a job after many many happy years at the same place. This is truly helpful for those of us without a tuned-up resume, and will no doubt prove very beneficial.

Thanks again!

>Resume Format Option #4: Creative/Non-Traditional

Just a word of warning – if the job you’re applying to isn’t a creative one, it’s probably best to pass on this option. On the other hand, if you ARE trying to land a job that involves creativity, this might be the best option of them all. Past experience and skills and all that is great, but being able to showcase your talents and genius right there in the resume itself is something that only a few people can do well. And if one of those people is you, then hey, go for it!

Awsome article! It gave me a few ideas of how to re-write my resume. Thanks a lot.

Right on! That’s the whole goal, glad to hear it sparked a few ideas.

Thank you for this wonderful post, Austin! This is extremely helpful.

Do you have suggestions for including or coming up with metrics for your job when it’s hard to quantify the results at your job OR some metrics/numbers are confidential to be published on your resume/cover letter?

My job title is Systems Analyst / Product Owner, and I am looking to apply for Product Management roles.

Do you have any suggestions/templates for coming up with metrics specifically for the Product Owner/Business Systems Analyst role? That is one part of updating my Resume that I am really struggling with. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

You bet Ankit! Thanks so much for reading.

There is almost always some way to spin up metrics or results for what you’ve done. The best questions to ask yourself are:

– Why is the company paying me to do this? How are they measuring success? – What teams/people is my work impacting? How can I leverage their results?

For example, if you release a product, how did that product impact sales, increase efficiency, or drive retention? Or if you fixed a bug, how did that improve satisfaction or usability?

Someone is leveraging your work or paying attention to it and saying “it’s worth keeping Ankit around.” You need to find those people, figure out what results they’ve seen from your work, and add those in.

Austin you are just awesome I don’t read so long content but while I was in your blog, I couldn’t stay away as each point is precise and to the point well explained! Loved it

Nice! I’m super happy to hear it keeps you coming back Razor!

Hey there! I am seeking out some ways to enhance my clients resumes. They are all young adults with disabilities and need some amplification to their entry level resumes. If you have time please send over some tips. Best, Taylor

Hey Taylor, sounds like you’re doing really important work. This article is definitely a great place to start, I’d also recommend checking out this resume builder . It incorporates all of the info above and makes it easy to create a resume that gets results. It’s also 100% free!

Thank you Austin for such wonderful article for job-winning resume templates. Your article is extremely helpful and you can also check out other amazing resume writing templates from one des blog.

Thanks Andy, I appreciate the kind words!

I like how you said that when recruiters scan a resume, the first thing they look for are mistakes. My cousin is looking for a job and he says that it’s been hard to find a good job. Thanks for sharing this article, I will suggest to him to find a professional to help him write a nice resume so that he can get a job faster.

You got it Derek! With companies receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes the easiest way for them to slim it down is by looking for mistakes. Running a resume through tools like Hemingway app or Grammarly is an easy way to make sure yours passes that check!

super useful as usual. I have a question though. I ran my resume through Jobscan. it is currently on 1 page and font size 10 (so rather packed…), however the jobscan analysis says I do not have enough characters on my cv.

I think you said that a 1 page resume is better. Currently based in Europe, I am still hesitating between 1 page and 2 pages. The analysis of Jobscan suggests I should probably have a 2 pages resume.

Any thoughts ?

Hey Xavier,

There is no absolute “right or wrong” answer here. Resumes are all about quality over quantity.

A one page resume full of fluff would be awful and a three page resume that’s jam packed with results and accomplishments would work great. On the flip side, a one page resume with amazing results will beat out a three pager full of fluff.

Instead of worrying about the length, I would focus on making sure your bullets follow the formula in this post . That will ensure that you’re using them to illustrate and drive value!

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How to Make a Resume in 2024 | Beginner's Guide

For most job-seekers, a good resume is what stands between a dream job and Choice D. Get your resume right, and you’ll be getting replies from every other company you apply to.

If your resume game is weak, though, you’ll end up sitting around for weeks, maybe even months, before you even get a single response.

So you’re probably wondering how you can write a resume that gets you an interview straight up.

Well, you’ve come to the right place!

In this guide, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about how to make a resume, including:

• The 8 Essential Steps to Writing a Resume
• 11+ Exclusive Resume Tips to Up Your Resume Game
• 27+ Real-Life Resume Examples for Different Professions

….and more!

So, let’s dive right in.

How to Make a Resume (The Right Way!)

Before we go into detail about how you should make a resume, here’s a summary of the most important steps and tips to keep in mind:

• Choose a resume format carefully. In 99% of cases, we recommend the reverse-chronological format .
• Add the right contact details. Leave your headshot out and make sure to include your job title , a professional email address, and any relevant links. (E.g.: your LinkedIn profile , online portfolio, personal website, etc.).
• Write an impactful resume summary. Unless you’re an entry-level professional, always go for a resume summary. If you do it right, it’s your chance to get the hiring manager to go through the rest of your resume in detail.
• Pay attention to your work experience section. Take your work experience section from OK-ish to exceptional by tailoring it to the job ad, making your achievements quantifiable, and using action verbs and power words.
• Add the right skills for the job. Keep this section relevant by only including the hard and soft skills that are required for the position.
• Keep your education short and to the point. Your most recent and highest degree is more than enough for a strong education section. You only need to add more details here if you’re a recent graduate with barely any work experience.
• Leverage optional resume sections. Optional sections like languages, hobbies, certifications, independent projects, and others can set you apart from other candidates with similar skills and experience.
• Include a cover letter. That’s right, cover letters matter in 2024, and the best way to supplement your resume is by adding an equally well-crafted cover letter to your job application. To make the most of it, check out our detailed guide on how to write a cover letter .

To get the most out of our tips, you can head over to the resume builder and start building your resume on the go as you read this guide.

New to resume-making? Give our ‘7 Resume Tips’ video a watch before diving into the article!

#1. Pick the Right Resume Format

Before you start filling in the contents of your resume, you have to make sure it’s going to look good. 

After all, the first thing hiring managers notice is what your resume looks like, and then they start reading it. So, this is your best chance to make a great first impression.

Start by choosing the right resume format.

There are three types of resume formats out there:

• Reverse-chronological. This is by far the most popular resume format worldwide and, as such, it’s the best format for most job-seekers.
• Functional. This resume format focuses more on skills than work experience. It’s a good choice if you’re just getting started with your career and have little to no experience in the field.
• Combination. The combination resume format is a great choice for experienced job-seekers with a very diverse skill set. It’s useful if you’re applying for a role that requires expertise in several different fields and you want to show all that in your resume.

So, which one should you go for?

In 99% of cases, you want to stick to the reverse-chronological resume format . It’s the most popular format and what hiring managers expect to see. So, in the rest of this guide, we’re going to focus on teaching you how to make a reverse-chronological resume.

Fix Your Resume’s Layout

With formatting out of the way, let’s talk about your resume’s layout , which determines the overall look of your resume. 

Does it look organized or cluttered? Is it too short or too long? Is it boring and easy to ignore, or is it reader-friendly and attention-grabbing?

Here are some of the best practices you should apply:

• Stick to one page. You should only go for a two-page resume if you have decades of experience and you’re sure the extra space will add significant value. Hiring managers in big companies get hundreds of applications per job opening. They’re not going to spend their valuable time reading your life story!
• Add clear section headings. Pick a heading and use it for all the section headers so the hiring manager can easily navigate through your resume.
• Adjust the margins. Without the right amount of white space, your resume will end up looking overcrowded with information. Set your margins to one inch on all sides so your text fits just right on the page.
• Choose a professional font. We’d recommend sticking to a font that’s professional but not overused. For example, Ubuntu, Roboto, or Overpass. Avoid Times New Roman, and never use Comic Sans.
• Set the correct font size. As a rule of thumb, go for 11-12 pt for normal text and 14-16 pt for section titles.
• Use a PDF file. Always save your resume as a PDF file, unless the employer specifically requests otherwise. Word files are popular, but there’s a good chance they’ll mess up your resume’s formatting.

Another thing you need to consider in terms of your resume’s layout is whether you’re going for a traditional-looking resume template or something a bit more modern :

If you’re pursuing a career in a more traditional industry, like law , banking , or finance , you might want to stick to the first.

But if you’re applying to a tech company where imagination and innovation are valued, you can pick a more creative resume template .

Want to Save Time? Use a (Free) Resume Template

Anyone who’s ever tried creating a resume from scratch knows how boring the formatting can be.

Before you can even start filling in the contents, you need to tweak the margins, adjust font sizes, and make sure everything fits into one page while still looking good.

What if you could skip past all that and still create a compelling resume?

Try one of our free resume templates . They’re pre-formatted, so all you have to do is fill in the contents.

They’re also created in collaboration with recruiters from around the globe, ensuring that the templates are visually appealing and ATS-friendly!

See for yourself how one of our templates compares to a resume created in a standard text editor:

#2. Add Your Contact Information

Now that we’ve got all the formatting out of the way, let’s get into what your resume is all about— the information you put on it .

The first thing you want to do when filling out the contents of your resume is to add your contact information .

This section is pretty straightforward but crucial. Your contact details belong at the top of your resume in a designated resume header , so the hiring manager can easily find them.

Even if everything else about your resume is perfect, that all flops if you misspell your email address or have a typo in your phone number. If the hiring manager can’t contact you, it’s a missed opportunity.

So, double-check, and even triple-check your contact information section and make sure everything is factually correct and up-to-date.

Must-Have Information

• Full name. Your first and last name should stand out at the top of your resume.
• Email address. Stick to an address that’s professional and easy to spell, like a combination of your first and last name. (E.g.: [email protected])
• Phone number. Add a reliable number where the hiring manager can easily reach you.
• Location. Add your city and state/country. If you plan to relocate for the job or want a remote position, specify it on your resume.

Optional Information

• Job title. Add your professional title underneath. Write it down word for word, whether it’s “Digital Marketing Specialist” or “Junior Data Scientist.” Just don’t make up job titles like “Marketing Wizzard” or “Data Manipulator.” They’re not quirky; they’re just unprofessional. 
• LinkedIn profile . We recommend that you include a link to your updated LinkedIn profile since over 77% of hiring managers use the platform when evaluating a candidate. 
• Relevant links. Include links to personal websites or any social media profiles that are relevant to your field. For example, a developer could include a Github profile, while a graphic designer could link their Behance or Driblle account, and so on.
• Date of birth. Unless this is specifically required in the job ad, the hiring manager doesn’t need to know how old you are. It’s not important for their decision-making, and at worst, it might lead to age-based discrimination.
• Unprofessional email address. Your quirky, old high school email address doesn’t belong on your resume. Instead of [email protected] , go for a [email protected] type of address.
• Headshot. (USA, UK or Ireland) Depending on the country where you’re applying, it might even be illegal to include a picture of yourself on your resume . While it’s the norm to include a picture in most of Europe and Asia, always check the regulations for each specific country or industry you’re applying to.

All clear? Good! Now, let’s look at what a great example of a resume's contact information section looks like:

#3. Write a Resume Headline (Summary or Objective)

It's no secret that recruiters spend an average of less than seven seconds on a resume .

When you receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications daily, it's physically impossible to spend too much time on each.

So, what the hiring managers do to go through resumes more effectively is to skim through each resume and read it in depth only if it piques their interest.

This is where the resume headline comes in.

Placed right next to (or underneath) your contact information, this brief paragraph is the first thing the hiring manager is going to read on your resume.

Now, depending on how far along in your career you are, your resume headline can be either a resume summary or a resume objective.

So, how do you choose between a resume summary and a resume objective? Here’s all you need to know:

Resume Summary

A resume summary, as the name suggests, is a two to three-sentence summary of your career so far. If done right, it shows that you’re a qualified candidate at a glance and gets the hiring manager to give you a chance.

Here’s what your resume summary should include:

• Your job title and years of experience.
• A couple of your greatest professional achievements or core responsibilities.
• Your most relevant skills for the job.

Here’s an example of a well-written resume summary: 

Experienced Java Developer with 5 years of experience in building scalable and efficient applications. Contributed to a major project that enhanced application performance by 25%. Strong background in Spring Framework and microservices. Aiming to apply robust coding skills to develop innovative software solutions at XYZ Tech Solutions.

Unless you’re a recent graduate or amid a career change, we recommend you stick to a resume summary. Otherwise, a resume objective might be a better option for you.

Resume Objective

A resume objective is supposed to express your professional goals and aspirations, academic background, and any relevant skills you may have for the job.

It communicates your motivation for getting into a new field, so it’s the go-to headline for recent graduates and those going through a career change. As with a resume summary, a resume objective should be brief—around two to four sentences long.

So, here’s what it would look like if you’re a student:

Hard-working recent graduate with a B.A. in Graphic Design from New York State University seeking new opportunities. 3+ years of practical experience working with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, creating illustrations and UX/UI design projects. Looking to grow as a designer and perfect my art at XYZ Design Studio.

Or, on the other hand, if you’re going through a career change, it might look more like this:

IT project manager with 5+ years of experience in software development. Managed a team of developers to create products for several industries, such as FinTech and HR tech. Looking to leverage my experience in managing outsourced products as a Product Owner at Company XYZ.

#4. Prioritize Your Work Experience

The most important part of your resume is your work experience.

This is where you get to sell yourself and show off your previous accomplishments and responsibilities.

If you manage to master this section, you’ll know most of what’s there to know about how to make a resume.

There are plenty of good practices for writing your work experience . But before we dive into all the nits and grits, let's start with the basics.

The standard format for each work experience entry is as follows:

• Job title/position. Your job title goes on top of each work experience entry. When the hiring manager looks at your resume, you want them to know, at a glance, that you have relevant work experience for the job.
• Company name/location/description. Mention the name of the employer and the general location, such as the city and state/country where you worked. In some cases, you may also want to briefly describe the company, like when the organization isn’t particularly well-known.
• Dates employed. Add the approximate timeframe of your employment at each company. You don’t need to give exact dates since the standard format for this is mm/yyyy.
• Achievements and responsibilities. This is the core of each work experience entry. Depending on your field, you want to list either your achievements or responsibilities. List them in bullet points instead of paragraphs, so they’ll be easier to read.

Here’s a real-life example:

Your work experience entries should always be listed in reverse chronological order , starting with your most recent job and working your way back into the past.

Now that you know how to list your experience, we’re going to show you how to write about it in a way that makes you stand out from the competition, starting with: 

Are you a student with no work experience? We’ve got you covered. Check out our guide to writing a resume with no experience here.

Focus on Achievements Whenever Possible

One of the most common resume mistakes is only listing responsibilities in your work experience section.

Here’s the thing—in most cases, the hiring manager knows exactly what your job responsibilities are.

For example, if you’re a sales manager, your responsibilities would be:

• Reach out to potential clients over the phone or email.
• Maintain relationships with existing company clients and upsell relevant products.
• Tracking and reporting on leads in CRM.

Coincidentally, this is also the same list of responsibilities for every sales manager out there. So, 90% of all other resumes probably mention the same thing.

To stand out from the competition, you want to focus on writing achievements in your resume instead. These can be how you helped your previous company grow, reach quarterly quotas, and so on.

Let’s compare how responsibilities hold up next to achievements for the same job:

• Exceeded sales team KPIs by 30%+ for 3 months straight.
• Generated over $24,000 in sales in 1 month.
• Generated leads through cold-calling
• Managed existing company clients

Keep in mind, though, that in some fields, there just aren’t that many achievements you can mention. Let’s say you’re a warehouse worker .

Your day-to-day responsibilities probably include:

• Loading, unloading, and setting up equipment daily.
• Packaging finished products and getting them ready for shipping.
• Assisting in opening and closing the warehouse.

In fields like this, it’s pretty hard to distinguish yourself through achievements, so it’s okay to stick to responsibilities instead. You can still make them shine by following the rest of our advice about listing your work experience.

Keep in mind, though, that in some fields, there aren’t that many achievements you can mention. Let’s say you work in a warehouse. Your day-to-day responsibilities probably involve:

• Loading, unloading and setting up equipment on a daily basis.
• Package finished product and get it ready for shipping.
• Assist in opening and closing the warehouse.

In such fields, it’s pretty hard to distinguish yourself, so it’s totally OK to stick to responsibilities instead.

Tailor Your Resume to the Job

Tailoring is what sets an amazing resume apart from an okay one.

Hiring managers don’t need to know about every single job you’ve ever worked at or every single skill that you have.

They only want to know about your jobs, experiences, or skills that are relevant to the role you’re applying for.

For example, if you’re applying for a job doing Google Ads, you don’t need to talk about your SEO internship from eight years ago.

By focusing your resume on whatever is important for the specific role, you’re a lot more likely to stand out and catch the hiring manager’s attention.

Let’s take a look at an example of a job ad:

As you can see, we’ve highlighted the most important requirements.

To tailor your resume accordingly, you just need to mention how you meet each of these requirements in your resume.

You can highlight your relevant achievements and qualifications in different parts of your resume, such as:

• In your resume summary, where you should recap your years of experience.
• Throughout your work experience section, where you should list achievements and responsibilities that reflect your social media marketing experience.
• In your education section, where you can let the hiring manager know you have the degree that they’re looking for.

Include the Right Amount of Work Experience

If you’ve got over a decade’s worth of work experience, you’re probably wondering whether all of it belongs on your resume. In most cases, you’d end up writing a novel if you listed everything you’ve ever done, and that’s not how long a resume should be .

If you’re new to the job market, on the other hand, you probably don’t have any experience, and you’re wondering what you could even add to this section.

So, here’s how much information your resume should include, depending on your level of experience:

• No experience. If you’re looking for your first job , you won’t have any work experience to fill this section with. So, you can either keep it empty and focus on all the other sections or fill it up with any experience gained in student organizations, extracurricular activities, volunteering, and other projects.
• Entry-level. List all your work experience so far. While some of it won’t be relevant, it can still show the hiring manager that you do have some actual work experience.
• Mid-level. Only mention relevant work experience to the position you’re applying for. There’s no need to waste space on jobs that aren’t related to what you’re after.
• Senior-level. List up to 15 years of relevant work experience, tops. If your most recent experience is as a marketing executive , the hiring manager doesn’t care how you started your career as a junior marketing specialist 23 years ago.

Consider Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Software

Did you know that over 70% of resumes don’t even make it to the hiring manager ?

Most companies these days use ATS to evaluate hundreds of resumes instantaneously and automatically filter out the ones that don’t meet their criteria.

For example, if a resume doesn’t mention a specific skill or isn’t formatted correctly, the ATS will automatically reject it.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways to make an ATS-friendly resume .

Here are a couple of tips to help you get past those pesky robots:

• Stick to one page. Sometimes employers set a limit on how long a resume should be. This means that if your resume is longer than one page, it might get automatically disqualified.
• Incorporate keywords. Tailoring your resume to the job helps a ton with beating the ATS. Just carefully read the job description to find hints for what the ATS will be looking for. Then, whenever you find keywords related to your responsibilities and achievements, make sure to include them in your work experience section.
• Use an active voice. Passive voice is too vague and unclear, so make sure to use active voice as much as possible when describing your previous jobs. (E.g.: “Managed a team of ten people,” instead of “ A team of ten people was managed by me.” )
• Leverage powerful action words. Instead of starting each of your sentences with “was responsible for," make your work experience impactful by using words that can grab attention. Saying that you “spearheaded” or “facilitated” something sounds a lot more impressive than “helped.”

Want to make sure your resume formatting passes the ATS test? Choose one of our tried and tested ATS-friendly resume templates , and you’ll be good to go! 

#5. List Your Education

The next section on your resume is dedicated to your academic qualifications. Let’s start with the basics!

Here’s how you should format the education section on your resume :

• Program Name. Your major and degree type should be listed. (E.g.: “B.A. in Business Administration” )
• University Name. Add the name of the institution. (E.g.: “New York State University” )
• Dates Attended. Use a mm/yyyy format for the dates you attended. (E.g.: “08/2008 - 06/2012” )
• Location. If your university is less well-known, you can also add the location. (E.g.: “Stockholm, Sweden” )
• GPA. Use the appropriate grading system for the country you’re applying to work in. (E.g.: In the USA, it would be “3.9 GPA” )
• Honors. Add any honors and distinctions you’ve been given. (E.g.: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude )
• Achievements. You can mention interesting papers you’ve written, projects you’ve done, or relevant coursework you’ve excelled in.
• Minor. “Minor in Psychology”

Pretty simple, right? Now let’s see what an education section looks like in practice:

This example includes all the necessary information, plus an eye-catching award and relevant classes this candidate has taken.

Resume Education Tips

Now that you know how to list your education on your resume, let’s take this section to the next level.

Just follow these expert tips:

• If you’re making a resume as a student and don’t have any work experience yet, you can list your education section at the beginning of the page instead of work experience.
• You can add your expected graduation date if you’re still pursuing your degree.
• If you already have relevant work experience, just keep this section short and sweet. Recent graduates can expand on their education more and add optional information like projects, classes, academic achievements, etc.
• Always list your degrees in reverse chronological order, starting with your highest degree on top. Your highest and most recent degree is usually enough, so if you have a Master’s degree that’s relevant to the job, there’s no need to mention your earlier degrees.
• Don’t add your high school degree to your resume if you already have a university degree. It doesn’t have as much weight, and you can use the space for something else.
• Only mention your GPA if you had an impressive academic career. Anything below a 3.5 GPA doesn’t need to be on your resume.

Are you in the process of applying for college? Check out our guide to writing a college application resume to wow that admissions officer!

#6. Emphasize Your Know-How in the Skills Section

After your work experience, your skills are the first thing the hiring manager is going to look for. In fact, together, work experience and skills make up 90% of the hiring decision .

So, this is the place where you want to mention all the know-how that makes you the perfect candidate for the job.

There are two types of skills you can include when writing your resume:

• Hard Skills. These are measurable abilities. What you can list here can be anything from coding in Python to knowing how to cook Thai cuisine.
• Soft Skills. Also known as personal skills, these are a mix of communication skills , personal traits, career attributes, and more. They can include leadership, critical thinking, and time management , just to name a few.

Your resume should always cover both hard skills and soft skills . Here’s an example in action:

Now, let’s discuss how you should list your most important skills on your resume.

There are a few essential steps you need to follow:

Always List Hard and Soft Skills Separately

Your resume should be easy and neat to navigate. The hiring manager shouldn’t have to waste time looking for a specific skill because you didn’t separate it into the appropriate subsection.

So, just create separate categories for your hard and soft skills.

Depending on your field, you could customize the name of your “hard skills” subsection to something like “technical skills," “marketing skills," or something else related to your field.

Let’s look at an example of what skills look like on a project manager’s resume :

Methodologies & Tools

• Agile Methodology
• SCRUM Framework
• Waterfall Project Management
• Microsoft Project
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Risk Management

Soft Skills

• Team Management
• Conflict Resolution
• Negotiation

Tailor Your Skills to the Job

You might have some awesome skills, but the hiring manager only needs to know about the ones that are relevant to the job.

For example, if you’re applying for a job as an accountant, your gourmet chef skills shouldn’t be on your resume.

Look at the job ad and list at least two to three essential skills you have that are required for the role. Remember—there’s no need to list every skill you have here; just keep it relevant.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Graphic Design or a related field.
• Tech-savvy, with some background in CMS systems such as WordPress.
• Thrives in a stressful environment and juggles multiple tasks and deadlines.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Self-reliant, with the ability to manage their own work.
• A can-do attitude and an outside-the-box thinker.
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Keynote, and Pages.
• Basic understanding of Office software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

So, the must-have hard skills here are Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Keynote, and Pages. Other good computer skills to have are WordPress or similar CMS systems.

While you can also mention Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, it’s pretty much assumed that you know how to use them since they’re required for most office jobs.

List Hard Skills with Experience Levels

For each hard skill you list on your resume, you should also mention your proficiency level. This tells employers what they can expect from you and how much training you might need.

• Beginner. You have some experience with the skill, whether it’s from some entry-level practice or classroom education.
• Intermediate. You’ve used the skill in a work environment with good understanding.
• Advanced. You’re the go-to person for this skill in your office. You can coach other employees, and you understand the skill at a high level.
• Expert. You’ve applied this skill to more than a handful of different projects and organizations. You’re the go-to person for advice about the skill, not just in your office but even amongst some of the best professionals in your field.

Just make sure to never lie about your actual skill level. Even if you get the job, once you need those skills you exaggerated, it will be pretty awkward for both you and your employer.

Include Transferable Skills

These are the types of skills that are useful for almost any job out there.

Transferable skills can be both soft skills (e.g.: teamwork, creativity, problem-solving skills, and others) and hard skills (MS Office Suite, HTML, writing, etc.)

Whatever job you’re applying to, chances are you have transferable skills from your experience that can come in handy one way or another. So, feel free to include them, even if they’re not specifically required for the position.

Not sure which skills to mention on your resume for your specific field? Check out our list of 101+ essential skills for inspiration!

#7. Leverage Optional Resume Sections

The sections we’ve covered so far are must-haves for any resume. They’re the bread-and-butter for any job application, and if you get them right, you’ll land any job you apply to.

But if you have some leftover space, there are a few optional sections you can choose from to give your resume a boost!

Are you bi-lingual? Or even better  – multi-lingual? You should always mention that on your resume!

Even if the position doesn’t require you to know a specific language, it can still come in handy at some point. At the end of the day, it’s always better to know more languages than less.

To list languages in your resume , just write them down and assign them the appropriate level:

• Intermediate

You can also use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency scales.

As a given, you should never lie about your language skills. You never know—your interviewer might turn out to be fluent in the language or even be a native speaker!

Hobbies and Interests

If you want to spice up your resume, hobbies and interests could be just what you need.

While this section isn’t a game-changer, it can help the hiring manager see who you are as an individual.

For example, if you listed “teamwork” as one of your skills, hobbies like team sports can back up your claim.

And who knows? Maybe you and your interviewer have some hobbies or interests in common!

Volunteering Experience

If you’re the type of person who devotes their free time to helping others while expecting nothing in return, chances are that you’re the type of employee who’s in it for more than just the money. 

Seeing volunteer experience on your resume tells hiring managers that you’re a loyal employee who’s after something meaningful.

Several studies show that listing your volunteer experience can boost your chances of getting hired, especially if you have little to no work experience.

Certifications

Hiring managers love candidates who invest in themselves, and that’s exactly what they see when you list certifications on your resume .

If you value continuous learning and strive to expand your skill set, that’s always a plus.

Certifications can also show employers how much expertise you have.

For example, if you’re a Microsoft Cloud Engineer and you specialize in Microsoft Technologies, you should definitely include all essential certifications on your resume, such as the Azure Solutions Architect Expert one.

Awards and Recognitions

There’s no harm in showing off a little on your resume. After all, you want to be a candidate that shines above the rest.

So, if you’ve received any awards or recognitions that make you stand out in your field, make sure to add them.

For example, if you’ve been recognized for your contributions to data science or received a hard-to-come-by scholarship , mention it in your resume. Just keep your entries here relevant to the field you’re applying to.

Publications

Whether you’re a freelance writer or a distinguished academic, publications are always impressive.

If you have any published works (online or in an academic journal), you can add them to your resume. Just make sure to include a link so the hiring manager knows where to check your work!

Are you looking for a career in academia? Check out our guide to writing the perfect academic CV to get started!

Working on side projects can show off your passion for your field. Whether they’re university class projects or part-time entrepreneurial endeavors, they’re relevant.

For example, if you worked on a mock software product as part of a university competition, it shows you went through every step of product creation, from ideation to creating a marketing strategy.

This project also shows off your organizational skills , and if you mention it in your resume, you stand a better chance of landing the job you had your sights set on.

But projects can also be personal, not academic. For example, you might manage an Etsy store where you sell hand-made arts and crafts to customers online. This is a great opportunity to highlight your creativity, management, and customer service skills .

Overall, hiring managers love employees who do cool work in their free time, so projects are always a great section to add to your resume.

Looking to kickstart your career? Check out our guide on how to get an internship for useful tips and real-life examples!

Extracurricular Activities

Every college freshman knows that extracurricular experience can make a difference in their application.

Especially if you don’t have a lot of experience outside of school, extracurricular activities are a great way to show potential employers your skills and give them insight into you as a person. Different clubs and after-school projects can help you gain real-life skills and considerably increase your chances of landing your first job after college.

For example, joining a student government organization can hone your leadership skills and teach you how to work as part of a team.

For example, if you’re part of a student government or public speaking club, these activities can help you hone your leadership and presentation skills.

11+ Expert Resume Tips

You’ve got the gist of how to make a resume. Now, it’s time to make it really stand out from the crowd!

Follow these exclusive resume tips to take your resume game to the next level:

• Match the professional title underneath your name to the job title of the position you’re applying for. Hiring managers often hire for several roles at once, so giving them this cue about what role you’re after helps things go smoother.
• Mention any promotions from your previous jobs. Use the work experience entries for them to focus on the achievements that helped you earn them.
• Describe your achievements using Laszlo Bock’s formula : accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z . This way, your work experience can go the extra mile and show the hiring manager what you can bring to the table.
• Always list your achievements and responsibilities in concise bullet points. This makes your resume more reader-friendly, and it’s more likely that the hiring manager will see your impressive achievements at a glance.
• Don’t use personal pronouns like “I” or “me,” and don’t refer to yourself by name. Stick to a slightly altered third person, like “managed data integrity at XYZ Inc.” instead of “he managed data integrity at XYZ Inc.”
• Name your resume sections correctly, or it might get rejected by the ATS. Swapping out quirky names like “career history” or “expertise” for “work experience” and "skills" makes it easier for the hiring manager to find what they’re looking for, too.
• Prioritize important keywords instead of adding all of them. Make sure the relevant skills, qualifications, and experiences you add all make sense in context, too. Your goal is to get past the ATS and impress the hiring manager.
• Focus on transferable skills if you don’t have a lot of relevant work experience. Any extracurricular activities or personal projects can help you stand out here.
• Add a strategic pop of color to headings, bullet points, or key elements you want to highlight. It can help your resume stand out, but don’t overdo it—you want the information to be more impressive than the color palette.
• Don’t include the line “references available upon request.” Hiring managers already know they can request a list of references from you, so there’s no need to waste valuable space on it.
• Make sure your resume is optimized for mobile viewing. Most hiring managers use their mobile phones as often as desktop computers, so save your resume to a PDF file and make sure your formatting stays intact across any device.
• Rename the resume file you plan to send so it includes your name and the name of the position you’re applying for. It’s a small detail that can turn into a crucial mistake if you forget it.
• Read your resume out loud when you’re done. This is a great way to catch awkward phrases or spelling mistakes you might have missed otherwise.
• Use a tool like DocSend to track your resume. You’ll get a notification any time someone opens your resume, and you can see how long they spend reading it.

FREE Resume Checklist

Are you already done with your resume? Let’s see how it holds up!

Go through our checklist for perfecting your resume and see where you stand!

If you missed some points, just go through your resume one more time and perfect it.

And if you ☑’d everything—congrats! You’ve learned all there is to know about writing a resume, and you’re good to go with your job search.

Need to write a CV instead of a resume? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to write a CV with dozens of examples!

9 Resume Templates for Different Industries

Looking to create an effective resume without dealing with the formatting hassle? Just choose one of the templates below.

#1. Traditional Resume Template

Good for traditional industries like finance, banking, law, and manufacturing.

#2. Modern Resume Template

Good for both contemporary and forward-looking industries, including entrepreneurship, medical technology, and engineering.

#3. Creative Resume Template

Good for creative industries, including entertainment, design, and architecture. 

#4. Minimalistic Resume Template

Good for experienced professionals in basically any industry who want to let their achievements do the talking. 

#5. IT Resume Template

Good for any IT-related profession like software development, cyber security, and DevOps engineering.

#6. Tech Resume Template

Good for the tech industry and everything it encompasses.

#7. College Resume Template

Good for college students and recent graduates alike.

#8. General Resume Template

Good for multiple industries, including HR, education, and customer service.

#9. Executive Resume Template

Good for senior professionals across different industries, including hospitality, marketing, and logistics.

17+ Resumes for Different Jobs

Knowing how to write a resume is one thing, but making a resume that stands out is something entirely different. Without inspiration, even top career experts might stumble on a roadblock or two.

Check out the following effective resume examples for specific jobs to get a better sense of what a good resume looks like:

#1. Nurse Practitioner Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a nurse resume here.

#2. Data Scientist Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a data scientist resume here.

#3. Business Analyst Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a business analyst resume here.

#4. Digital Marketing Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a digital marketing resume here.

#5. Software Engineer Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a software engineer resume here.

#6. Construction Project Manager Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a construction project manager resume here.

#7. Customer Service Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a customer service resume here.

#8. High School Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a high school resume here.

#9. Student Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a student resume here.

#10. Server Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a server resume here.

#11. Actor Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing an actor resume here.

#12. Web Developer Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a web developer resume here.

#13. Engineering Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing an engineering resume here.

#14. Computer Science Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a computer science resume here.

#15. Architect Resume Example 

Check out our full guide to writing a data analyst resume here.

#17. Remote Job Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a remote job resume here.

#18. Sales Associate Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a sales associate resume here.

#19. Receptionist Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a receptionist resume here.

Want to see more examples? Check out our compilation of 80+ resume examples for different fields .

• Administrative Assistant Resume
• Bartender Resume
• DevOps Engineer Resume
• Executive Assistant Resume
• Flight Attendant Resume
• Graphic Designer Resume
• Paralegal Resume
• Pharmacist Resume
• Recruiter Resume
• Supervisor Resume

Next Steps After Your Resume

Now that we’ve covered everything you need to know about how to make a resume, it’s time to talk about the rest of your job application.

After all, your resume is only the first step in your job search. To land the job you deserve, you also need to write a captivating cover letter and ace that upcoming interview. Here’s how:

#1. How to Write a Convincing Cover Letter

The companion piece to every resume is the cover letter.

Most job-seekers flinch when they hear that they have to write a cover letter. What do you even mention in a cover letter, anyway? If you were good at writing cover letters, you’d be applying for a job as a writer !

In reality, though, writing a cover letter is very simple once you know its purpose.

Think of your cover letter as a direct message to the hiring manager. It’s your chance to briefly explain why you’re such an awesome fit for the position. And with a few cover letter tips to point you in the right direction, you’ll write the perfect cover letter for your job application.

Just follow this structure:

• Add the contact details. Include the same contact information as on your resume, plus additional contact details for the hiring manager, including their name, job title, the company’s name, and location.
• Introduce yourself. Start your cover letter by mentioning who you are, what your work experience is, and why you’re interested in the position. Mention a standout achievement or two, relevant skills, and what you’d like to do for the company you’re applying for.
• Explain why you’d excel at the job. Find the requirements in the job ad that you meet, and elaborate on how you fulfill the most important ones. Research the company so you know what you like about it, and mention it in your cover letter. Make sure to convey your enthusiasm for the job and confidence that you’ll be a great fit for their team.
• Wrap it up politely. Conclude your cover letter by recapping your key selling points and thanking the hiring manager for their time. Then add a call to action, such as “Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at the provided phone number so that we can discuss my application in greater detail.” Then, add a closing line and follow it with your full name.

Sounds easy, right? Here’s a real-life example to drive the point home:

Do you need more help perfecting your cover letter? Learn what the most common cover letter mistakes are and check out cover letter examples for all professions here.

#2. How to Ace Your Next Interview

Once you’ve perfected both your resume and cover letter, there’s only one thing left.

It’s time for the final step—the dreaded job interview.

Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert, you probably hate the interviewing process. No matter how experienced you are, it can be nerve-wracking. Sitting there while someone’s prodding into your past experiences and judging you isn’t fun.

But did you know that most interviewers ask the same questions?

That’s right—all you have to do is learn how to answer some of the most common interview questions, and you’ll be an interview away from landing your dream job!

Just check out our complete guide to the 35+ Job Interview Questions and Answers and learn how to ace your next interview.

FAQs on How to Make a Resume

Do you still have some questions about making a resume? Check out the answers to the most frequently asked questions below!

#1. What does a good resume look like in 2024?

For your resume to look good in 2024, make sure it’s organized and clean and isn’t longer than one page.

Be sure to include information that adds value to your application—leave out the focus on your relevant work experience and skills that you can back up, and list as many achievements as possible. 

If you’re using a resume template, choose one based on your industry. Conservative industries like law, banking, and business require more traditional resume templates. But if you’re going for an industry like design, architecture, or marketing, you can go for a creative resume template . 

Remote work is also big in 2024, so if that’s what you’re after, tailor your resume to match the job you want.

#2. How do you make a resume in Word?

The best way to create a resume in Word is to use a pre-designed Microsoft Word template. To access them, you should: 

• Open MS Word
• Click “file” from the menu bar 
• Select “new”
• Type “resume templates” in the search bar 

That said, Word resume templates are generic, hard to personalize, and overall not very stylish.

Want a resume that looks good and is extremely easy to make? Check out resume templates to get started!

#3. How do I write a resume for my first job?

If you’re writing your first-ever resume for an entry-level position, the hiring manager won’t expect you to have any work experience.

However, you can make up for your lack of experience with your skills and academic achievements.

For example, you can take advantage of extracurricular activities, internships, volunteering experiences, and other non-professional experiences. You can use them to highlight the skills you’ve gained and what you’ve achieved so far.

So, your first job resume should have a resume objective, emphasize your education, and replace your work experience with any internships, volunteering, independent projects, or other experiences.

#4. How to make a resume on Google Docs?

You can make a resume on Google Docs by choosing one of their templates and filling it in on the go.

All you have to do is go to your Google Drive’s template gallery, choose your preferred template, fill in your information, and your Google Docs resume is ready to go! 

That said, Google Docs templates aren’t the most user-friendly choice. You don’t have much flexibility with the layout and formatting isn’t that easy. For example, you tweak a section to the slightest, and the whole resume becomes a mess.

If you want an easier option, check out our resume builder !

#5. What kind of resume do employers prefer?

Typically, employers prefer one-page-long resumes that follow the reverse chronological format. 

Hiring managers receive hundreds of resumes every day, so they don't have the time to read three-page resumes. Try one of our one-page resume templates so you don’t go over the recommended resume length.

Meanwhile, the reverse-chronological format is the most popular because it draws attention to your most recent jobs and professional achievements, which is the #1 most important thing hiring managers look at when evaluating a resume.

#6. How many jobs should you put on your resume? 

You should only include relevant job positions on your resume.

This means that your work experience section should be tailored to the job you are applying for. If you’ve worked five different jobs and they can all add value to your current application, then you should include all five. 

If, on the other hand, you’re applying for, say, a customer service position and some of your past jobs don’t have anything to do with customer service, you should skip them.

#7. Should I put my address on my resume? 

You can put your location (city, state, or country) on your resume, but you don’t need to put your entire physical address.

Putting a physical address on a resume was the norm back when companies would contact you via mail. In today’s world, everyone communicates via email, which is why adding a correct and professional email address to your contact information section is far more important than putting your physical address. 

So, just include your location or-–if you’re a remote worker—specify you prefer to work remotely by writing “working remotely from [location].”

#8. What information should I leave out of my resume?

As a general rule, you shouldn’t include your birthday or your headshot on your resume. This norm varies from country to country but it applies to the USA, Canada, and UK.

If you have plenty of achievements to list under your work experience, then you can leave your basic work responsibilities out of your resume. 

In your education section, you should only include your highest and most recent degree. So, if you hold a Ph.D., you can list that and your Master’s degree and leave your Bachelor’s degree and high school diploma out.

Finally, leave out any skills that aren’t relevant to the job you’re applying for.

#9. Is a resume a CV?

Depending on where you are, a CV (Curriculum Vitae) and a resume might be completely different things.

In most of the world, though, including Europe and Asia, they are used interchangeably for the same document. Both CVs and resumes are one to two pages long, and list skills and experiences relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Sometimes more detailed resumes that go over one page are referred to as CVs. These are typically only used by senior professionals, executives, CEOs, etc.

In the USA, however, a CV is a completely different document. Typically, CVs are detailed and comprehensive documents that highlight your entire academic and professional history. They’re often used for academic, scientific, or research positions, which is why this type of CV can also be referred to as an academic CV.

You can create your CV using one of our CV templates !

#10. Should I write my own resume?

Yes, you should always write your own resume.

Your resume is your opportunity to show the hiring manager your communication, writing, and presentation skills . Employers also evaluate you based on how effectively you can convey information about yourself, and there’s no one that can represent you better than yourself.

Writing your own resume lets you introduce yourself authentically. You have the best understanding of your skills and experiences, and you can personalize them to make your resume stand out.

And, as a bonus, the experience of writing your resume yourself can be reflective and insightful, so it might help you understand your professional journey and career goals better.

#11. Can a resume be two pages?

Generally, we strongly recommend that your resume stick to one page.

Hiring managers go through hundreds of resumes every day, and keeping your resume to one page increases the odds that they’ll see your qualifications faster.

In some cases, like when you have a lot of relevant experience, your resume can go over two pages. But this exception is reserved for senior professionals with over a decade of relevant experience and tons of skills and achievements that simply can’t fit on one page.

#12. Is a simple resume okay?

Absolutely, a simple resume is often more than okay—it's preferable.

Before your resume even gets to the hiring manager, a complicated layout could get it rejected by the applicant tracking system (ATS). A simple resume template can help get your application straight to the hiring manager.

A clean layout can also make sure that your resume is easily readable and looks professional. This can focus the hiring manager's attention on your work experience and skills without excessive clutter or flashy colors to distract them.

Key Takeaways

And that’s a wrap!

If you’ve followed all of our advice until now, congrats! You’re probably an expert on how to make a resume.

To recap, let’s go through some of the most important lessons we’ve learned so far...

• Use the right resume builder to make the process as smooth as possible. You don’t want to mess around with formatting for hours before even starting to work on your resume!
• Focus on your achievements over responsibilities. This can help you stand out from all the other applicants, especially if you back your claims up with data.
• Include all the must-have sections, like the resume summary, work experience, education, and skills. Then leverage optional sections if you have leftover space.
• Tailor your resume for the job you’re applying for. Everything listed on your resume should be relevant to the specific job you’re applying for, and you should write a new resume for every new job application.
• Take the time to perfect your cover letter. It’s just as important as your resume, so make sure you pay as much attention to it!

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How to Make a Resume: 2024 Resume Writing Guide

Learn how to identify important resume keywords, format your resume, and write each section in this comprehensive guide.

Your resume is a document that encompasses your entire professional journey, showing where you currently are in your career, how you got there, and where you hope to go next. Since it’s meant to be a concise brief—often condensed to just one page—that can feel like a lot of storytelling for a small space.

To make a resume that fully demonstrates your experiences and goals, it’s important to be strategic with the language, format, and sections you include. In general, there are three broad steps to making your resume:

Identifying keywords and important skills

Choosing a format

Writing each section

In this resume guide, we’ll offer tips and resources to ease you through the process.

Free resume templates

If you’re starting with a blank page, use these free customizable templates for a chronological resume or functional resume to make your resume in a Google Doc. Simply log into your Google account and select the ‘Make a copy’ prompt.

How to write a resume

The key to making an effective resume is keeping your audience in mind. First, consider who the people (and technologies) are that will be reading your resume.

When you’re applying for jobs online, often your first audience member will be an applicant tracking system (ATS) , which is a screening program that uses an algorithm to “read” incoming resumes and sort qualified candidates. After the ATS deems you qualified for a role, a human recruiter—your second audience member—will review your application materials and decide whether to invite you to interview.

Now that we’ve established your likely audience, let’s take a closer look at how to determine the information the ATS and human recruiters may be looking for and how they will best receive that information.

1. Identify keywords and important skills.

You can find a lot of information about a role directly from the job description. Within the listed responsibilities and qualifications, you can get a strong sense of the language and experience that a successful candidate will have on their resume.

As you read a job description, highlight the action words, keywords, and specific workplace and technical skills mentioned. It’s likely that the ATS is programmed to look for the same or similar language as that which appears in the job description, so this analysis can help shape the way you approach writing your resume.

Here are some resources that may help as you research your desired job:

Choosing action words and keywords  

84 Powerful Action Words to Enhance Your Resume

Resume Keywords: How to Find the Right Words to Beat the ATS

Identifying key job skills

What Are Job Skills and Why Do They Matter?

What Skills Should I Include on my Resume?

Transferable Skills: How to Use Them to Land Your Next Job

What Are Technical Skills?

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Difference?

7 High-Income Skills Worth Learning

Industry-specific job skills

13 Key Marketing Skills to Boost Your Resume

15 Essential Skills for Cybersecurity Analysts

7 In-Demand Data Analyst Skills to Get Hired

7 In-Demand IT Skills to Boost Your Resume

9 Essential Skills for UX Designers

11 Key Project Management Skills

2. Select a resume format.

When it comes to formatting, there are three common types of resumes—chronological, functional, and combination—along with several more specialized options. With your audience in mind, choose the format that best demonstrates how your experience aligns with your desired role’s job description.

If you’re applying for jobs online, ATS software is generally programmed to interpret chronological resumes. The software may still identify important keywords in alternative formats, but potentially less accurately.

If you’re unsure of the resume format you should choose, a chronological resume with standard 1-inch margins, black text, and a common font like Times New Roman or Arial is typically a safe choice.

For more on resume formats, check out these additional articles:

Types of resumes

Types of Resumes: Choosing the Right Format for Your Needs

Chronological Resume Guide: Template and Tips

Functional Resume Guide: Template and Tips

What Is a CV?

CV vs. Resume: What’s the Difference?

3. Write your resume sections.

Guided by your keyword list and format, you’re ready to start filling out your resume sections. You’ll typically want to include sections for your header, work experience, education, and skills, but there are optional sections you can add to amplify the story you want to tell.

Take a look through the below resources for more specific information about shaping each section:

Resume sections

How to Use Resume Sections to Shape Your Professional Story

How to Write a Resume Objective [+ Templates]

How to Write a Resume Summary [+ Examples]

How to Show Promotions on Your Resume: Guide + Examples

How to List Education on a Resume

When Should You Include Your GPA on Your Resume?

How to List Certifications on Your Resume: Guide + Examples

How to Feature and Format Key Skills on Your Resume

Resume checklist

At this point, you are almost ready to submit your resume. Before you do, let’s do one final check. Ask yourself:

Did I write my resume with my audience in mind?

Did I strategically select action words and keywords?

Have I clearly demonstrated my relevant skills and experience?

Are my margins set to 1-inch on all sides?

Is my font easy to read?

Did I include all of the key resume sections?

Did I edit for proper spelling and grammar?

If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, save your resume as a PDF file with a title that includes your name and “resume.” Check that the file saved correctly, then prepare to submit your resume!

For any lingering questions, check out these additional tips and specific resume guides:

Additional tips and resources

How to Get Your First Job: A Guide

Job Search Guide: Resources for Your Next Career Move

16 Resume Tips to Help You Apply with Confidence

10 Ways to Enhance Your Resume

How to Add Your Resume to LinkedIn

Specific resume guides

How to Make a Resume for Your First Job (+ Template)

How to Write a Resume with No Experience: 5 Tips

How to Write a Standout Resume When You’re a Stay-at-Home Parent

7 Real UX Designer Resumes and a Template

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Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

How many pages should a resume be ‎.

Most people aim to fit their resume on one page. However, it’s becoming increasingly common for people with 10 to 15 years of experience to extend their resume to two pages. For professionals with more than 15 years of experience, a three-page resume may be acceptable.

Learn more: How Many Pages Should a Resume Be? Guide + Tips ‎

How far back should your resume go? ‎

Typically, the amount of time you include on your resume depends on your relevant job experience. You should include the experience you have that is relevant to the role you’re applying for. However, if you have 10 or more years of work experience, you may be able to shed some of those earlier experiences from your resume so that you can better highlight your advanced skill set.

Learn more: How Far Back Should Your Resume Go? ‎

Should you list references on a resume? ‎

It’s generally not recommended to list your references directly on your resume . Instead, use that space to highlight what makes you a great candidate. As you progress through the hiring process, the hiring manager or recruiter will request your references when they’re ready to contact them.

Learn more: How to List Resume References: Guide and Sample ‎

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Best Resume Tips That Will Get You Hired

Resume That Will Get You Hired | Tips & Examples

Creating a resume that’s appealing to hiring managers takes careful planning and execution. There are several decisions to make regarding the template choice, style, and overall content to include for each job listing. In this article, learn how to craft a well-written resume that is both relevant and interesting to increase your chances of getting hired.

Top tips for creating a resume that will help you get hired

Before you begin drafting your resume or making changes to your existing one, consider these tips to help you get hired.

Be selective about what you include

To keep your resume concise and relevant, consider leaving out work experience that is not relevant to the position. Show the hiring manager that you’re the best person for the job by including skills and work experience that relate to the desired job position. There is no need to include short-term jobs that did not impact your career. If you don’t have much relevant work experience to highlight, look for ways to include any transferrable skills (communication, leadership, organization) that you used in previous jobs that would help you fulfill a new role.

Keep important information near the top

The top half of the resume, also known as the area above the fold, gets the most attention because busy recruiters are most interested in reading about your skills and work experience. For this reason, it is smart to keep the most crucial information regarding your work history near the top half of your one-page resume. This should include your contact information, skills, and most recent or relevant work experience.

Consider leaving out an objective or a summary

When you’re looking to save space and get right to the point, omitting the objective or summary paragraph is a great option. If you decide to cut this section, focus on ways to make the other sections of your resume stand out. For example, you may add an extra bullet point or two to your skills or work experience section that conveys the message you had in the summary. Or you may use the cover letter to explain any additional points about your strengths and career goals.

Create a simple format

Busy resumes are hard to read and discourage recruiters from reading further. If you want to increase your chances of getting hired, keep your resume format clean and simple. Follow standard formatting guidelines when creating your layout.

Examples of standard resume guidelines:

• Choose a font size between 10 and 12. This promotes readability and allows for adequate space within your text.
• Stick with a basic font type. Choose Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial, or Century Gothic for a distraction-free message.
• Include white space. Break up core resume sections with white space in between, which helps content stand out.
• Use one-inch margins.  This helps your text look organized and makes it easier to read.
• Add bullet points for emphasis.  Including short snippets of key information makes your resume more scannable.
• Consider alignment. It is common practice to left-align the main text of a resume. This makes it easier to read. You can center the resume heading and other section headers.
• Save it as a PDF file. Unless otherwise noted in the job listing, submit your resume in PDF format. This makes it easier to access, read and share, and it ensures your formatting stays as-is.

Showcase your skills

Crafting a resume that gets you hired takes time and focus. Listing your relevant skills is an important part of the process. Still, sometimes, the skills you list end up being the same as everyone else’s. Go beyond the typical skills list and look for ways to show employers that you possess the skills by showcasing them. For example, instead of listing that you’re an excellent communicator, demonstrate your excellent communication skills throughout your resume and cover letter. Show how detail-oriented you are by submitting your properly formatted resume according to instruction.

Make your resume interesting and unique

When you’ve finished your resume, read through it several times to gauge whether or not it is appealing to a hiring manager. Include information that makes employers excited to speak with you. List your unique successes and achievements for past employers. Use projects related to your past roles, then think of ways to make your explanation compelling enough to get an email or phone call.

Quantify your accomplishments

Sell yourself as a top candidate by using numbers and percentages when describing your achievements. This helps employers understand the scope of your past experiences and how you may help their company achieve its goals. Quantify your accomplishments to support your message in detail while staying concise.

• Negotiated 65% of the client contracts, resulting in a 10% increase in company revenue during my employment.
• Wrote over 500 original pieces of content for the company website.
• Managed a team of 45 people for two years while mentoring at least five on a consecutive basis.

Use quality keywords

Use words that matter in your industry and that accurately convey your past roles. Think of ways to enhance your resume content with a variety of verbs and adjectives that describe your history best. Try not to use these words twice, if you can help it. Make your resume tell an interesting story while keeping it professional and concise.

Add a portfolio link

List the most important information on your resume, then include a link to your portfolio or personal website to supplement the rest. This is a great way, especially for creatives, to show your past work. Digital assets like photography, graphic design, and videography are most accessible this way, including writing samples. Plus, links are an easy way for recruiters to share your work with other members of the hiring team.

Review your resume thoroughly

To ensure that your resume is free from typos and other grammatical errors, enlist the help of an online grammar tool—and a few friends with strong writing skills. Beyond catching the stray comma or misspelled word, your reviewers may offer additional suggestions for improving your resume (and may even help you recognize skills and qualities about yourself that you may have missed).

Keep a master resume

The information you include in your resume may differ between applications depending on the job listing. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep a master resume on file that lists every job, skill, and achievement to save time later. It helps to have a reference on hand when writing down relevant information or deciding what to cut out.

If you need help writing a resume, use our data-backed resume builder .

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How to Write a Resume: The Only Resume Guide You’ll Need in 2024

• Kaja Jurcisinova , 
• Updated January 16, 2024 16 min read

Your resume is arguably the most important document you'll create during a job search. So taking the time to learn how to write a resume properly can make a job hunt much quicker and easier.  

What would otherwise take you hours of hard work and research can be done in a few minutes. All you have to do is follow our simple step-by-step guide on how to write the perfect resume. 

In the end, a good resume gives you a chance to make a great first impression and ultimately decide if you'll be invited for an interview. 

What makes a great resume?

• Clear division of resume sections
• Prioritizing relevant information
• Tailored for a specific position
• Typo-free and well-written
• Usage of bullet points

There's more to it, though.

Table of Contents

Click on a section to skip

What is a resume?

Before you start writing your resume, how to write a resume, step 1: choose the right resume format, step 2: add contact information and personal details, step 3: begin with your professional summary, step 4: list relevant work experience, step 5: summarize your education , step 6: highlight your soft and hard skills , step 7: add optional resume sections.

• Step 8: Wrap it up with a cover letter 

Final tips before you click “Send”

Let's cover the basics first. Before we learn how to write a good resume, we should know what a resume even is. 

The word resume comes from French, meaning “summary” . This is the perfect word because that’s exactly what a resume is: a short, straight-to-the-point summary that details your professional achievements, skills, qualifications, education, work experience, and past employers. It's also known as a curriculum vitae (CV) .

The aim of a resume is to get invited to a job interview . It should aim to convince an employer that you're a good fit for the job. 

Because of that, your resume should be adjusted and tailored to each job vacancy.

TL;DR Here's a step-by-step video guide on how to write a professional resume in 2024

If you’re already familiar with what should be on your resume and just want a quick and informative recap, or if your time is limited, just check out our 5-minute step-by-step video guide .

Before we move on to how to write a resume, we recommend setting a few minutes aside for research. These few minutes can save you hours of frustration and ultimately make your job search that much easier.

Here’s what we recommend to research before you write your resume: 

• Research the company, specifically the “About Us” page. This is a great place to search for keywords you can use in your resume or cover letter. What are their mission statement and their values?
• Research the position you’ll be applying for. Great resumes are tailored to a specific job opening. You can do this by asking these three questions as you go through the job post: “ What are the essential keywords? What adjectives, nouns, and phrases occur repeatedly? What language does the company use?”
• Discover your strong points , as this will make it easier to pinpoint the qualities you want to highlight in your resume. Ask people around you: “What are my skills and abilities, and what are my weaknesses?” Also, look at your past accomplishments. What were the skills and abilities that helped you succeed in the past?

Another way of preparing for writing your resume is by looking at these well-researched, specifically tailored, and properly formatted resume examples in our database. You can even filter them by your job title.

Not enough time?

Let your resume write itself. All you’ll have left to do is edit the draft.

We'll walk you through nine essential steps to help you create a standout resume.

Different resume formats cater to different types of job seekers, depending on the experience level and career goals. The  three most commonly used  resume formats are chronological, functional, and combination (hybrid).

Your resume should include your contact/personal information right at the top, in a so-called resume header. A resume header is  more than just your name and contact details . Depending on your career path, there's a lot more that can (and should) be included in this section. To find out what to include, what to skip, and how to format it keep on reading.

A professional summary (also called resume profile or resume summary) is a short paragraph that summarizes your relevant skills, experiences, and achievements. Think of it as a teaser for the rest of your resume.

This is the most important section of your resume. You need to include key information like : names of companies, locations, job titles, positions held, dates of employment, responsibilities you've had. Then: - list the jobs in reverse-chronological order - write in bullet points - include your quantifiable achievements - avoid buzzwords - use action verbs and keywords from the job description

The education summary section, though important, varies in significance based on your career stage . As an experienced professional, prioritize work history and skills, placing education after. Keep it concise, including university, degree, and graduation year.

Skills fall into two categories: hard and soft. 1. Hard skills are teachable and measurable, acquired through training, and include computer proficiency, language abilities, project management, etc. 2. Soft skills , linked to personality traits, can enhance both work and personal life, encompassing communication, leadership, and time management, among others.

These can include: achievements and awards, certifications and licences, language skills, publications, references, hobbies, social media, volunteering, or custom sections.

A good cover letter should answer the following questions: 1. Who are you?  2. Why are you interested in working for their company? 3. Why are you the best fit for the job opening? 4. How can you enrich their company?

In the following chapters, we look at each step in more detail and give you helpful tips and examples.

Once you know what the company and job require and you’ve identified your strengths and weaknesses, you should be ready to pick the right resume format.  

Make this choice depending on the stage of your career: 

• Are you a seasoned professional ? Then you should pick a resume format that emphasizes your experience.
• Are you a fresh graduate? Then your resume should highlight any transferable skills you’ve acquired during your studies.
• Are you changing careers? Then a combination of the two will produce the best results.

Pick the best option for your career from the three dominant resume formats that are in use today:

• Chronological resume format. Probably the best choice for experienced professionals. Lists the candidate’s jobs and accomplishments in chronological order. Main resume section : Work Experience.
• Functional resume format. Great for fresh graduates, IT professionals, or other skill-based professions. Emphasizes skills instead of experience. Main resume section: Skills.
• Combined resume format . A combination of the previous two.

Let's take a look at what these resume formats look like in practice:

Chronological resume format

Functional resume format, combined resume format.

The resume format you choose will determine how you organize the information on your resume. It will also attract attention to some things and away from others. 

Take time to understand your strengths and weaknesses and choose accordingly.

You want the recruiter to read the strongest and most relevant parts of your resume at the start. For more, check out a guide on how to choose the right resume format .

Your contact/personal information should always be at the top of your resume in a so-called resume header .

Compared to the other resume sections, filling in the contact information section may seem super easy. That's until you start asking more questions.

Should you put your address on the resume? How to include social media , and should you? And what about the date of birth? 

Well, let’s see: 

• Name. Absolutely necessary. Put your first name first and surname last. Middle name is optional.
• Title. Optional. If you’re applying for a position in a traditional or specialized field, it's good to add your Ph.D., MBA, or other titles to it.
• Email address. Absolutely necessary, even when you’re sending your application by email. Your email address should look professional (e.g. [email protected] , NOT [email protected] ). Always use your personal email address, not the email address with the domain of your current employer. 
• Home address. Somewhat problematic. Your neighborhood can say a lot about you in some cases, disclosing living in a certain area can lead to discrimination. On the other hand, if you’re located in the same city as the company, it may help you to get the job, as it saves the company that they'd have to spend on a relocation package (of course, only if the job isn't remote).
• Phone number. Necessary. Many employers will call you by phone to arrange an interview, instead of doing it by email.
• LinkedIn. Recommended. And if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, consider creating one. Make sure your profile is complete and up-to-date.
• Social media. Optional. Include it only if it’s related to your job. GitHub, Behance, and even your Facebook or Instagram profile will do (if you regularly post content that has to do with your profession). Here are a few tips on how to include your social media . 
• Blog/website. Optional. Similar to social media. If you have a blog , website, or digital portfolio related to your chosen profession, don’t be afraid to show it off.
• Photo. Problematic. It depends on the country. In most English-speaking countries, they don’t add a photo. See this guide to know if you should put a picture on your resume .

Your professional summary should be a list of about 4-5 bullet points or a short paragraph that summarizes your relevant skills, experiences, and achievements.

You can think of it as a teaser for the rest of your resume. Make sure it’s interesting enough to hook the hiring manager right in.

But how do you write a good professional summary?

• Write your professional summary last. It’s surprisingly easy to do if you’ve already finished other sections of your resume.
• The first bullet point should describe your professional title. Don’t forget to add the number of years of experience. Write it in bold if the number is especially impressive.
• Pick the most impressive parts of your resume and rewrite them into snappy bullet points. Tease your potential employer into reading further.
• Pack your professional summary with relevant keywords. Think of ATS. This will help you get through automated pre-screenings.
• Quantify every achievement if possible. This will make you look even more professional. 
• Tie every bullet point to the requirements introduced in the job offer.

If you do everything right, you should end up with something like this:

The work experience section is what most people picture when they think “resume” .

The trick is to focus on your past achievements , not your responsibilities. 

Hiring managers are likely to know what your responsibilities were supposed to be. In most cases, your job title says it all.

If you want to stand out, you should tell them how you excelled in your previous job instead. 

And there’s hardly a more effective way to do that than by mentioning your achievements.

But how do you list your work experience on a resume?

• Put your work experience section in the right spot. If you can boast a lot of professional experience, put your work experience section right under your resume summary. If you don’t have enough experience yet, put it just below your education section. Finally, if you prefer to highlight your skills instead of experience, put your skills section first.
• Give it a proper heading. Keep it simple and stick to “Work Experience” or “Employment History” as other headings might not be understood by applicant tracking systems (ATS) .
• List your jobs in reverse-chronological order. Start with your most recent experience and work your way back from there. Based on your level of experience, decide how far back should your resume go .
• Don’t include the job description. Instead of listing what you were supposed to do, try to tell your potential employers what positive results you had.
• Write in past tense. This will help you focus on your past achievements instead of responsibilities. It also sounds better.
• Show your problem-solving skills. In the end, hiring managers want to know how effective you’re going to be in solving real problems. There’s no better way to show your problem-solving ability than to briefly describe how you solved difficult problems in the past. Follow the PAR scheme: What was the (P)roblem? What (A)ction did you take? What was the (R)esult?
• Quantify results. Hiring managers love measurable results. Because of that, a single number often speaks more than a thousand words. Don’t say that you “increased the company’s revenue significantly.” Instead, don’t be afraid to brag about “increasing the company’s revenue by 20%.”
• Use bullet points. Bullet points help you structure each subsection. Try to limit yourself to about 5 bullets per job.
• Avoid buzzwords. People used some phrases in their resumes so much, these words have become meaningless. Everybody seems to be an out-of-the-box creative thinker with a knack for innovation nowadays. But in reality, only very few people really are those things. See what other 10 buzzwords you should stop using on your resume
• Use action verbs . Unlike buzzwords, action verbs carry the weight you need to persuade an employer to hire you. Just to mention a few, these are words like “developed” , “increased” , “facilitated” and others. For more action verbs, check out our resume cheat sheet .
• Keywords. Reread the job description and carefully pick the most important keywords. These are the words that best describe the position you’re applying for, and that will attract the attention of the ATS system. 

In the end, your work experience section should look a bit like this:

The education summary section is where you list your degrees and relevant academic accomplishments.

Based on your degree and where you're in your career, it can be either the least or the most important part of your resume.

Are you an experienced professional?

Once you become more experienced, the education section takes a back seat to your work history and hard skills.

In other words, your education section should come after your work experience section, not the other way around. It also shouldn't be too long. For instance, your grades are no longer relevant.  

It’s enough if you include the name of your university, the name of your degree, and the year you graduated.

Here’s an example:

Are you a fresh graduate?

Then your degree is still one of the strongest cards you have to play.

In practical terms, it means that you should place your education section at the top of your resume — right between your professional summary and work experience section.

It should also be a bit longer. 

These are the things you should add to your education section if you’re a student or a fresh graduate:

• Academic awards. AP scholar, Duke of Edinburgh award, National Merit Award, President’s Award, school subject-based awards, dean’s list, etc.
• Scholarships. Athletic scholarships, scholarships for women, creative scholarships, etc.
• Academic conferences and symposia. Don’t forget to mention the scope and name of the paper you presented at a conference.
• Relevant student societies. Debating or programming clubs. If you were on a student committee of any kind, mention that too.
• GPA. Only include your GPA if it was higher than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. If your overall GPA was lower, mention your overall GPA. Alternatively, mention your summa cum laude or magna cum laude .
• Academic publications. Producing an academic work worth publishing is impressive no matter the context.

In the end, your education section can look like this:

Before you start writing, you should know there are two types of skills : hard skills and soft skills.

1. Hard skills can be learned, taught, and most importantly — measured. Acquiring them requires deliberate effort, training, and time.

Hard skills can be, for instance: computer skills, language skills, manual skills, mathematics, project management, etc.

2. Soft skills are tied to your personality traits. These skills can come as part of your upbringing, or you can acquire some later in life through self-improvement. These skills can bring value to any job, as well as your private life.

Examples of soft skills include: communication, leadership, time management , creativity, decision-making, etc.

But how to make your skills stand out?

• Focus on what’s most relevant. Do you have any of the skills mentioned in the advertisement for your desired job? Good. Make sure to include them in your resume’s skills section.
• Organize your skills into subcategories. Divide your skills section into several subsections like computer skills, soft skills, languages, and others.
• Don’t underestimate soft skills. 67 percent of HR managers said they’d hire a candidate with strong soft skills even if their technical abilities were lacking. On the contrary, only 9 percent would hire someone with strong technical credentials but weak soft skills.
• There are skills you shouldn’t include. Never include any skills you don’t have, skills that have nothing to do with the job, skills everybody should have, or skills that have become obsolete.

Apart from the standard resume sections we just mentioned above, are also optional sections. 

A good rule of thumb is to add an optional section only if it's relevant to the job you're applying for. If done properly, these sections can help you:

• Fill the gap when lacking experience
• Highlight additional skills and expertise 
• Let an employer know more about who you are

Pro tip: Optional resume sections can be especially important to companies that prioritize hiring candidates who fit their workplace culture. 

Here are some of the most common optional sections: 

Technical skills

This section can be a nice addition when applying for (surprise!) technical jobs. 

Some examples of technical skills are: programming languages, software proficiency, project management, and data analysis.

Technical skills are usually measurable, so if you decide to include them in your resume, use a graph or a scale to illustrate how strong they are. Adding visual elements to your resume not only looks nice but also shows your ability to be precise and analytical.

Achievements and awards

Scholarships, competitions, work-related awards, or even promotions to leadership positions in your job — all of these can be considered important professional achievements. 

Either distribute them across other parts of your resume or put them in a dedicated section. The latter allows you to truly highlighted them. 

And if you choose to include them in a separate resume section, don't forget to mention the dates and the name of the company/institution at which you've accomplished the achievement. 

Professional references

In today's competitive job market, strong professional references can be a game-changer. Consider including a ' Professional References ' section in your resume to provide potential employers with easy access to these valuable resources.

How to format references on resume? Here's what you should list for each reference:

• Their full name
• Their current job title and organization
• Their contact details (email and phone number will do)
• Your relationship with them (e.g., Former Supervisor)

Ensure you have their permission and inform them when actively job searching.

Once you decide who you want your references to be, it's time to ask them if they agree. Here's how to ask someone to be a reference via email .

Certifications and licenses

Listing the certificates and courses that you've successfully completed on your resume is never a mistake.

However, keep in mind that they should be related to the role that you're applying for. 

If you'd like to add a certificate to your CV but you're unsure about where to find the best course for you, check out this carefully curated list of the best online courses that will help you to get a job. 

Publications

In this section, you can mention all the relevant conferences, presentations, and written publications. 

This section is most useful if you're working in academia, marketing, or journalism. 

However, include it in your resume also if you're applying for a position that requires you to be an expert on the topic that you've written about.

Volunteering

This section lists your volunteer work . It should be treated similarly to a work experience section. The reason is that whether your work was paid or not, it still translates to real-life experience. 

This is true especially if you find yourself at the beginning of your career. In that case, feel free to place the volunteering section towards the start of your resume. 

On the other hand, if you're a seasoned professional, locate this section more toward the end of your document. 

This is the part of your resume that's the most personal. Here, let a little loose and let your personality shine through. List you hobbies and interests, even the quirky or unique ones.

Hobbies serve as a great way for a hiring manager to see you more as a person and less as just a name written on a paper. They can also break the ice during the interview stage.

Christy's word of advice

Really, it sounds so simple, but one of the best ways to stand out with your resume is to apply for jobs you’re a close fit for. So many people apply ‘just in case they’ll consider me if even I only meet some of the requirements’, then feel deflated when they’re rejected. The company has spent time figuring out exactly what they need and are paying their staff or a recruiter to find that. Look closely at the minimum/essential requirements, apply for jobs you’re a great fit for, and you’ll have much better luck!

Christy Morgan, Resident HR Expert

Step 8: Wrap it up with a cover letter  

Phew! Almost done with how to write a resume. Just a little bit of editing and proofreading, picking the right resume template , and you should be able to click send, right? 

Well, not quite. At least we wouldn’t recommend you sending it —  yet. 

The truth is that resumes are often put aside when not accompanied by a cover letter. It would be a shame if this happened to you, especially after all the time you’ve spent creating it. 

A good cover letter is a way to stand apart from the competition. It’s where you can show your hiring manager you mean business. 

And, if you're fresh out of college or changing career this step-by-step guide on  how to write a cover letter with no experience  will show you what to focus on instead. 

Here are 4 questions to guide you while writing your cover letter: 

• Who are you (professionally)? 
• Why are you interested in working for their company?
• Why are you the best fit for the job opening?
• How can you enrich their company?

When all it’s said and done, your cover letter should look something like this:

Cover letter example

This cover letter sample was provided by a real person who got hired with Kickresume’s help.

Want more inspo? Browse another 1,250+ cover letter examples by your profession.

And if you really want a memorable cover letter, we’ve got you covered. In fact, we’re certain it will be the only cover letter guide you’ll ever need . 

• The older the job, the fewer the details. In other words, don’t have 13 bullet points on a job from 5 years ago.
• Use off-peak hours for maximum attention , especially if you’re reaching out to an employer directly. Hiring managers are busy people and you want them to receive your resume when they have enough time to carefully read through it.
• Check your resume for typos. If English isn't your first language, employers might be inclined to overlook any grammatical mistakes that you make in your resume. Typos, on the other hand, are unforgivable. Your computer’s spell-check feature can help you fix that.
• Customize your resume for each job application. Every employer is different. And any hiring manager can tell if you’ve just sent them the same generic resume as to everyone else. So make sure you tailor your resume to each individual employer to increase your chances of getting hired.
• Get the introductory email right. It doesn’t matter that you have the best resume ever if nobody gets to read it. Attach it to an email that catches the employer’s attention from the get-go. Pay particular attention to the subject line that will make them read the full email, including the attachments.

FAQ: How to write a resume

One to two pages is the ideal. If you're at the junior stage of your career, one page is more than enough. Similarly, make sure that your resume isn't longer than three pages (and this may be stretching it already), even if you're a CEO.

Generally speaking, content is superior to form when it comes to resumes. However, a nice design is the first thing that catches the recruiter's attention — and that's precisely what you want. Moreover, if you're looking for a job in marketing, art, or design, the design of your resume naturally becomes your selling point, too.

Typos, being too general and not specific enough, not including relevant information, not using action verbs, and writing about duties instead of accomplishments.

The best format for sending a resume is PDF, as it keeps the visuals of the resume unchanged once the document is opened by the recruiter.

1.  Include standard resume sections.  Contact information, resume summary, work experience, education, skills. 2.  Include optional resume sections.  Awards, references, certifications, publications, projects, etc. 3.  Choose a resume format.  The three standard are: chronological, functional, combination.  4.  Use bullet points.  Use bullet points to make your resume easier to scan and highlight important information quickly.  6.  Think about the  margins .  Strike a good balance between not leaving too much white space and making your resume seem cluttered.  7.  Keep it to  one-two pages .  Unless you have extensive work experience, you should generally aim to keep your resume to one page.  8.  Consistency is key.  In all aspects of your resume, including the spacing, font, margins, etc. 9.  Use a professional resume   template  or layout which helps to structure the information effectively and makes it easy to read. 

Good job, you made it! If you still need more information on how to write a resume. You can go further in-depth in our section-by-section resume guide .

This article was recently updated. The original article was written by Noel Rojo in 2019.

Kaja Jurcisinova is a junior copywriter at Kickresume. Kaja completed her undergraduate degree in Art History at the University of St Andrews in 2018 and graduated with a Master’s in Arts and Culture from the University of Groningen in 2021. She was an intern at multiple cultural institutions across Europe, including the Dutch Museum Association in Amsterdam, the Matter of Art Biennale in Prague, and the European Cultural Centre in Venice. At the moment, she resides in Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland.

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How to Write a Resume to Get You Hired

Your resume is often the first professional impression you make when you’re looking for a new job. Resumes that are keyword-optimized are more likely to be found in online searches. Resumes summarize career evolution, provide details about skills and technical capabilities, and highlight why a candidate is the right fit for a particular job.

A 2019 study by TopResume found recruiters perceive candidates with professionally written resumes to be:

• Worth 7% more than those without them
• More polished and better able to deliver results
• More worthy of presenting to clients

A good resume can move a candidate further along in the job interview pipeline and be a tool to get you to the interview stage. Here’s how to create an effective resume that will help you get hired for the job you want.

What Makes a Good Resume?

A good resume is a one-to-two-page document that:

• Catches attention and gets seen by the right people
• Makes you stand out among job candidates
• Concisely lists your experience and skills

With much of recruitment and the hiring process moving online today, a good resume needs to be designed for online job banks. That means the resume should have relevant keywords to the job you’re applying for.

What to Include in Your Resume?

There are dozens of free resume templates online that you can use. Choose one that has a clean and concise design so hiring managers can quickly understand the attributes you bring.

However you design your resume, you should always include these key features.

• A powerful summary statement. Write this summary statement based on industry trends for the job you’re going after. Provide a macro view of your experience and include relevant skills and keywords that match your experience with the job you’re applying for.
• A list of core competencies. Include a bulleted list of your main skills/attributes that you offer. Examples include “team-building,” “communication skills” and “financial analysis.” Including these keywords makes your resume scannable and also searchable for recruiters and hirers using online job banks.
• Relevant professional experience. Include the name of the company, the years worked there, your title at the company, a summary statement of your work and a bulleted list of the contributions you made and significant tasks you completed. Focus more on specific career accomplishments, rather than simply listing your day-to-day responsibilities.
• Include any degrees and certificates you have earned. You can also list industry-specific training and certifications you’ve achieved.
• Technical skills. If you have experience with industry-specific software and tools, list them. Again, these are keywords recruiters and hirers may be searching for.
• Achievements. If you’ve won any notable awards, including professional, industry and community service awards, listing these can demonstrate value to a prospective employer.

Make sure your resume is keyword-diverse to increase visibility in online applicant tracking systems. Look at the job description for the position you’re applying for. Include similar keywords based on your relevant experience in your resume.

Always be honest with what you display on your resume. You don’t want to harm your chances at the job you’re applying for, and others when recruiters and hirers talk, when there are inconsistencies on your resume.

Do You Put All of Your Past Jobs on a Resume?

The answer is, it depends. You want to focus on listing jobs that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.

If you are concerned about job gaps, you can include a section towards the end of the resume where you list “Other Work,” where you list all your positions and the years worked there, which will cover for job gaps.

According to Glassdoor , recruiters and hiring managers spend an average of 6 seconds looking at a resume. With such precious little time to make an impression, you want to make sure you lead with your most recent relevant experience.

However, know that two-page resumes make a better impression with recruiters and hiring managers compared to one-page resumes. A ResumeGo study found recruiters are 2.6 times as likely to prefer resumes that are 2 pages compared to 1-page resumes for mid-level positions and 2.9 times more likely to prefer 2-page resumes over 1-page resumes for manager positions.

Two-page resumes are not only acceptable today – they’re preferred. If you are having trouble filling two pages with your most relevant work experience, you can include other jobs you’ve worked closer to the end of the resume to lengthen it.

How Far Back Should Your Resume Go?

Again, the answer is, it depends. You should include work experience that is relevant to the job you are applying for. If you have work experience from a decade or more ago that directly relates to the current position you are applying for, then it makes sense to include it if it fits within two pages.

The best rule of thumb is to list relevant work experience starting with your most recent experience.  Recruiters and hiring managers care about your most recent work history than what you did years ago, so always lead with the most recent, relevant experience.

Common Mistakes to Avoid on Your Resume

As you’re putting together your resume, avoid these common mistakes that can get your resume dismissed even when you’re the most deserving candidate for the job.

• Typos. A report by The Muse lists this as one of the top, most common mistakes hiring managers see on resumes. Typos convey more than that you made a mistake. A typo can give an impression that you are careless or hurry through your work. Spell-check your resume, make sure your contact information is accurate, and ensure that the spelling of all companies you’ve worked for is correct, too.
• Fluff and filler words. Get to the point quickly with your resume. Avoid using the same words over and over again. Eliminate passive language and clichés like “successfully.” Use action-oriented statements that tell the hiring manager or recruiter the actions you performed, so it’s easier for them to assess the impact of your work and understand the role you played through specific actions.
• Vague contributions. Employers want to see specific ways you made an impact in your work. Quantify your contributions when possible. Consider listing numbers like revenue, cost and team size. Specific, quantifiable statements take the guesswork out for recruiters.
• Cluttered design. Make sure your resume is scannable. Format it in a straightforward way, so it’s both easy to read and easy for applicant tracking systems to scan.
• Inappropriate length. Keep your resume between one to two pages. Only provide details for relevant job experience, though you may choose to list other work experience in its own short section towards the end of the resume. A resume that is too short or too long may turn recruiters and hiring managers off.

It can be helpful to have a friend with hiring experience or a professional resume coach look over your resume to provide feedback. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities because of a typo or because you’re not effectively conveying all the great experience you have.

The Wharton School is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.

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• Resume and Cover Letter
• 17 Resume Tips to Get Seen...

17 Resume Tips to Get Seen and Hired Faster

13 min read · Updated on February 13, 2024

Your resume is only as good as the message it delivers

Are you struggling to write the perfect resume? If the answer is yes, you're not alone. Unless you've had a lot of experience creating resumes, chances are that you're unsure about what to include and how to create a truly compelling message that can capture an employer's interest. If so, then you could almost certainly benefit from some incredibly useful resume tips.

In this post, we'll explore 17 of the top resume tips and tricks used by many of the most accomplished resume writers in the industry. By incorporating these tips into your resume creation strategy, you should be able to craft the type of resume that can help you to win more interviews and land a fantastic job.

The basics: top 10 resume tips you need to know

We'll begin with the top 10 resume tips every job seeker needs to know to craft a compelling resume. One of the reasons that so many job seekers struggle with resume creation is that they just don't know what employers expect to see in a solid resume offering. These 10 tips can help you to ensure that your resume meets those expectations in a way that captures their attention.

1.     Gather your resume information before you begin

Our first tip may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many job seekers fail to follow it. Before you even begin to lay out your resume, start by gathering all the information you'll need to spin your resume narrative. Try to keep it as organized as possible, so that you have the facts you need readily available as you create each part of your resume.

That information includes:

All the contact details that an employer will need to reach out with an interview or job offer

A comprehensive list of your skills

Your work history, including company names, job titles, and employment dates

A list of your most notable achievements in each role

Your educational history, including certifications and continuing education

Information about any volunteer activity

Details about relevant awards

Any other relevant information that can demonstrate your qualifications

2.     Select the right format for your resume

You should also focus on picking the right format for your resume - a decision that will largely depend on your experience level and career needs. There are three formats available:

Reverse-chronological. This format option is simple to use and the most popular choice for job seekers. It simply requires you to list your employment history and education in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent position you've held. As for why it's so popular, the answer is simple: most employers prefer to see resumes using this format.

Functional. The functional resume format is sometimes used by job seekers who have little experience or who are trying to switch careers. It focuses most of its attention on your skills, rather than career experience. Unfortunately, many employers view it with a skeptical eye, so make sure that it's the best option for you before you use it for your resume.

Combination . The combination, or hybrid, resume offers a balanced mix of those two extremes. It focuses equally on experience and skills, while also employing the reverse chronological technique in its employment section. It can be used by career-changers, those with gaps in their work history, and veteran workers who have a great deal of experience.

Related post : The Best Resume Format to Get Hired

3.     Use a clear structure

When it comes to useful resume tips, we'd be remiss if we failed to note the importance of using a clear and easy-to read structure. To achieve that goal, you need to separate distinct types of information into their own sections, so that employers can quickly identify the information they want to see. Every great resume includes the following sections:

Contact information

Summary paragraph

Skills section

Work experience

You can also include additional optional sections like awards, volunteer work, and other relevant information. Just make sure that those sections contain details that add to your resume narrative by further highlighting your qualifications for the job you're seeking.

Related post: 11 Key Things to Put on Your Resume

4.     Include all relevant contact information

Speaking of contact information, it's important to include multiple ways for employers to reach you for interviews. So, in addition to your full name, you'll want to provide a phone number, email address, and professional social media URL (for example, LinkedIn). You may also benefit from including your professional website, if it contains examples of your work that employers need to see.

5.     Create a compelling resume headline

It's also helpful to add a headline right below your contact information. Many job seekers just list the job title that they're seeking. However, you can use this headline space to create a more compelling message that can help your resume to stand out from the competition. To do this, create a headline that includes that job title along with descriptive language that can capture the employer's attention.

For example, if you're applying for a position as an Office Manager, you can add more flavor to your headline by writing something like:

Dynamic Office Manager with 7 Years of Experience in Productivity Enhancement and Cost Management

6.     Use a resume summary instead of an objective statement

If you're used to including an objective statement on your resume, then this tip is for you: try a resume summary instead. While an objective statement can be a wonderful way to outline your career goals, it's not really something that captures an employer's imagination. After all, employers are more interested in what you can do for them.

A properly constructed resume summary paragraph can be the best way to make that case in the briefest way possible. This short, three- to five-sentence paragraph should help you to highlight your relevant experience, top skills, and quantifiable achievements, creating the job search equivalent of a salesperson's elevator pitch.

Related post : 27 Great Resume Summary Examples to Get Hired

7.     Don't forget to include soft skills

As you craft your core competencies or skills section, make sure that you include more than just the key hard skills listed in the job posting. Those job-specific skills are important and need to appear in your resume, but they typically won't be sufficient to help you differentiate yourself from rival candidates. To do that, you will also need to include relevant soft skills. In fact, those soft skills may be the thing that separates your resume from everyone else's.

Related post : Soft Skills Explained - and the Top 7 for Your Resume

8.     List relevant jobs in your professional experience section

Start with your most recent job and work your way backward. The perfect resume should detail all your relevant professional positions within the past 10 to 15 years. If you recently graduated from college, include your internships and any work experience that took place since you entered college.

For each role, list the following information:

• Company Name.

Job Title.   If your title is specific to your organization, you can include a translation of sorts in parentheses next to your official job title.

Start and End Dates.   Include the month and year for each of these dates.

Achievements.   Brainstorm a list of your accomplishments and major contributions that benefited the organization during your tenure.

9.     Focus on achievements, not responsibilities

You'll notice that we advised you to include achievements for each job listing, rather than your job duties or responsibilities. The reason for that is simple: employers know that every worker has responsibilities, so including that information on its own in your resume won't impress anyone. However, if you can include actual achievements, and quantify them with real numbers, it will help employers to understand the type of value that you can provide if they hire you.

For example, how did you help save the company money, generate revenue, improve customer satisfaction, or increase productivity? Include real numbers, along with dollar and percentage signs to highlight that value.

10.  Include the right educational details

Create a record of all your education, beginning with your most recent degree. List the institution, its location, the name of your degree, your major and minor, your graduation year, and any honors associated with the degree, such as summa or magna cum laude. Do the same for any relevant certifications you've obtained or additional training opportunities or workshops you've attended.

Five tips for writing a resume that gets seen

While the preceding ten resume tips are vital for ensuring that you create the most compelling resume possible, the following five tips can take your resume from average to exceptional if you use them correctly.

11.  Use the right keywords

Let's begin with keywords. Many employers use applicant tracking systems, or ATS, that scan your document to rank candidates. That system will look for specific keywords in your resume. If it finds those keywords, you'll have a better chance of passing the screening and moving on to the next stage of the review process. If the ATS doesn't find those keywords in your resume, your candidacy will be at an end.

So, what are keywords and what should you do with them? You can typically find the right keywords by reviewing the job posting and job description. Pay careful attention to required skills, experience, and educational credentials. The terms used to describe those required qualifications will usually be the same words and phrases that the ATS searches for.

You can create a list of those keywords and simply insert them in your resume - in the summary statement, skills list, and other sections. Always be sure to use the exact terminology you find in the job posting, to ensure that you have the right keywords in your resume.

12.  Make sure that employers can easily skim your resume

It's also vital to think about how employers review resumes. The fact is that few resumes are read from beginning to end, unless they manage to somehow capture an employer's interest in the first few seconds. Most hiring managers only skim through each resume until they find that point of interest. Knowing that, your job is to make sure that their attention is grabbed as early as possible, to entice them to spend more time on their review.

Make sure that your resume can be easily skimmed by keeping it well-organized and tightly focused on your qualifications and value as a potential employee. You should pay attention to the details - like using power verbs to start your bullet points, to ensure that the first few words in each of those achievements draws the reader in and captures their attention.

13.  Skip the fancy design elements

You'll also want to make sure that your resume uses a simple, basic design. Don't try to incorporate tables, text boxes, images, or unusual fonts. Many applicant tracking systems struggle to read those types of design elements, which means that your complex resume design may never be seen by human eyes.

Stick to simple formatting tricks like bullet points, bold or italicized text, and clear section labels.

14.  Save your resume in the right file format

One of the most important resume tips you need to learn involves the document format that you use when you save your resume. Most employers will want to see either a Word document or PDF file, so stick to one or both of those options. Most ATS can read these files. Of course, if a company requests a certain file format, you should always follow those instructions.

15.  Name your file correctly

It's also important to ensure that your file doesn't get lost when you submit it to the company. That's why it's so important to give your resume file a name that can be easily found by any prospective employer. Don't send a file named “My resume,” since that document may be difficult for hiring managers to manage. Instead, provide more details by using a file name like:

“John Doe's Office Manager Resume”

Two tips to help you avoid immediate rejection

Our last two tips are designed to help you avoid being immediately rejected by employers. Both are critically important for ensuring that you avoid making a bad impression on your readers.

16.  Proofread the document

If you want to get your resume rejected as quickly as possible, filling it with misspellings, poor punctuation, inaccurate information, and bad grammar is one of the best ways to do it. Naturally, that's the last thing you want to do when you're hoping to land an interview and job offer. Fortunately, there's a straightforward way to avoid that fate: proofread your resume. In fact, you should proofread it several times to ensure that it's as perfect as possible.

We also recommend that you take that proofreading to the next level by having someone else review it after your edits are done. Find a friend or family member with strong English skills and ask them to read it several times. Make sure that it's someone who won't be shy about critiquing your work!

17.  Update your resume and tailor it to each job

The last of our resume tips is all about freshness and proper targeting for the job you seek. As a rule, you should try to update your resume every few months, even if you're not changing jobs that often. That will allow you to update your achievements and skills in real-time, so that you don't struggle to remember your accomplishments the next time you're looking for a job.

In addition, you need to make sure that you modify your resume every time you submit it to another company, to ensure that it specifically targets the job you're seeking. Effective tailoring will require you to adjust your included keywords to match the job posting, add or omit relevant skills to ensure that you meet the job's requirements, and potentially change your headline and resume summary to align with the company's needs.

Using these resume tips can maximize your chances of job search success!

There's no one-size-fits-all strategy for landing more interviews and job offers. After all, every employer has its own unique needs, and the hiring process can vary from industry to industry. Nevertheless, learning how to employ these resume tips in your resume creation process can help to increase your odds of success and ensure that the right decision-makers see your resume.

Need help with your resume? Our TopResume professional resume writers can assist you! Get your free resume review today!

Recommended reading:

47 Accomplishment Examples for Your Resume: Expert Picks

How to Advance Your Career (plus 10 Insightful Tips)

4 Types of Sentences: Definitions, Examples and Tips

Related Articles:

7 Signs Your Resume is Making You Look Old

Why a Simple Resume Layout is a Successful Resume

Software Developer Top Needed Skills

See how your resume stacks up.

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How to write a resume

Your resume can be a life-changing document.

It can land you a dream job that sets you on a path to career success… But only if written correctly.

To grab recruiters’ attention and land job interviews, you need a professional and impactful resume.

But, knowing exactly how to write a winning resume can be difficult.

So, I’ve put together this step-by-step guide, packed with example resumes, that will teach you exactly how to write the perfect resume (regardless of your industry and experience level) and bag yourself the job you always wanted.

Resume templates 

What is a resume?

Before we learn how to write a resume, let’s first look at what a resume is and the role it plays in your job hunt.

A resume is a formal written document used when applying for jobs. It  includes information such as your skills, work experience, and education.

You resume is then sent out to potential employers to show them why you’d be a good fit for the position you are applying for. A recruiter or hiring manager will review your resume to determine if you are a suitable candidate and worth inviting in for an interview.

So ultimately, the purpose of your resume is to introduce you to recruiters or potential employers and help you to secure an interview.

What to include in a resume

The information you choose to include on your resume will vary slightly, depending on your experience and what stage you’re at in your career.

But there is certain information that employers expect to see, and having a standard formula for what to include can guide you in the right direction.

Your resume should include:

• Name and contact details – The recruiter needs to know who you are, and how to get in touch with you, so you need to include your name, email and cell phone number
• A resume summary – Every resume needs a snappy introduction paragraph to summarize your skills and reel readers in
• Employment history – This should be a list of your relevant work experience, starting with your current or most recent position, and working backwards.
• Education and qualifications – This is a list of your educational accomplishments and qualifications.
• Optional others – We’ve covered the essential by now, but you might also wish to include information about your hobbies and interests, achievements, awards , or memberships to relevant organizations, if they are relevant to the jobs you are applying for.

How to layout a resume

Understanding how to layout your resume will give you the best chance of grabbing the recruiter’s attention. It’s always important to remember that these are busy people, and you only have between 7-8 seconds to win them over, when they first read your resume .

Therefore, you need to create a clearly structured resume that is easy to read. You want recruiters and hiring managers to be able to find the information they are looking for almost instantly.

To help you get this right, here are the main sections you need to include on your resume and the basic structure you should follow.

Quick tip: Formatting a resume to look professional can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want to create an attractive resume quickly, try our quick-and-easy Resume Builder and use one of their eye-catching resume templates.

Name and contact details

Your contact details should always be at the top of your resume, so recruiters know who you are and how to get in touch. Plus, placing these neatly and compactly at the top of the page can be a great space-saver.

There are certain details you need to include as part of your contact information, and these are:

• Your full name – First name and surname
• Professional title – E.g. Law Student or Project Manager
• Cell phone number – So the recruiter can reach you quickly
• Email address – This is another way the recruiter might reach out. This should be a professional-looking address, and not a nickname.
• Your location – It can be helpful to put a location if you’re looking for jobs in a certain area, but it doesn’t need to be your full address; for example, including ‘ New York ’ is enough
• Optional extras – You might also wish to include other info such as your LinkedIn profile or nationality, depending on what employers expect to see in your state or region.

Resume summary or objective statement

You need to include an introduction to your resume, known as a summary . This  a brief paragraph which gives an overview of what you can bring to an employer in terms of skills and knowledge.

More junior candidates will need to write an “objective statement” which is more of statement about what they wish to achieve in their career.

Work experience

In the work experience section, you need to list some or all of your previous jobs in reverse-chronological order, starting with the job you currently hold or your most recent role if you’re unemployed.

For those who have been in work longer, this will be the largest section on your resume because it is often the area employers are most focused on.

For those with less experience, this section will obviously be smaller, but you can also include voluntary work or college work placements.

Quick tip: Write your current job in present tense , and your previous jobs in past tense.

Your education section is another integral part of your resume and should demonstrate how qualified you are to carry out the jobs you are applying for.

This section is a summary of your education and any vocational qualifications you have gained in your industry.

You might also choose to include academic achievements and any extra certifications you have completed, such as gaining the highest exam results in your school.

For those with lots of experience, this section doesn’t need to be as big, but for those with less experience, this will be an important way to showcase your skills and knowledge.

Hobbies and interests

As I mentioned earlier, including your hobbies and interests is completely optional and should only be added if they will benefit your applications in some way.

If you have little or no experience, your hobbies can be a great way to showcase skills, but if you have plenty of experience, it’s unlikely your hobbies will benefit the resume.

Resume format

Getting the structure right is one thing, but you also need to make sure you format your resume correctly too.

If there is too much text, no clear sections, or a confusing font, the reader will struggle to digest the information quickly, and it’s likely your resume will end up on the rejection pile.

So, to ensure that your resume is clearly presented and easy to read, there are several simple rules you can follow.

This is how to format your resume for success:

• Font/text: Choose a professional, easy-to-read font like in a readable size and a color that contrasts the background
• Dividing the page: Divide your resume into clear sections and use headings and sub-headings to mark these out
• Break up text: Bullet points with good line-spacing is a great way to make the information easier to read and digest
• Page margin size: Make sure your page margins are not too big or too small; about 1” margins should suffice
• Color scheme: Choose a professional color scheme by sticking to calm colors, and make sure all font contrasts against the white background to make it easily readable.
• Resume length: Keep your resume under 2 pages to ensure busy hiring manager have time to read it all.
• Keep it simple: Do not overcrowd the page with large images and design features (a small headshot photo is OK)

Now that we understand the best way to structure and format a resume let’s dive a little deeper.

Next, we are going to look at each section of your resume in more detail, discussing what you should (and shouldn’t) include.

Writing your resume summary or objective statement

After your contact details come your resume summary or objective statement.

As we said above, whether you choose a summary or an objective statement will depend on how much experience you have, but in this next section, we’ll cover the dos and don’ts of writing both.

• Resume summary – Best for experienced candidates, describing their past achievements
• Objective statement – Best for school leavers and juniors, describing their goals and ambitions.

A resume summary

A resume summary sometimes referred to as a professional summary or summary statement, is a snappy introduction to who you are.

Essentially, this is your elevator pitch.

This is your chance to show the recruiter what you bring to the table. For the best results, your resume summary should be just a couple of sentences long (ideally 2-3) and should include:

• Your key experiences and achievements, such as past employers or the number of years you’ve been in the industry
• Any certificates or qualifications you have that are relevant to the role
• Your top skills or expertise in your field
• Your unique selling points and what makes you the best candidate
• What benefits you can bring to an employer (boosting sales, savings costs, pleasing customers etc.)

Tailoring your resume summary

Every resume you submit should be tailored to the specific role and company you’re applying to, and this should start with your resume summary.

Be sure to do your research and make sure you include any skills, experience, or achievements that the employer has specifically asked for in the job description. This might mean looking back over the job advert several times, as well as looking at the company website and social media accounts.

Really, you want your resume summary to scream, ‘ I am right for the job at your company, and here are three or four very specific reasons why ’.

Top tips for writing a resume summary

When writing a resume summary, there are certain things you can do to take your introduction to the next level. Some of our top summary-writing tips include:

• Using keywords from the job description and company website – As the recruiter scans through, this makes it much quicker and easier to pick out keywords and see why you’re a good fit for the role
• Quantify your achievements wherever possible – Facts and figures make it much easier for the recruiter to see your value. For example, ‘saved the business $10,000 YoY, which led to a 52% decrease in the operating budget’
• Avoid cliche words or phrases – Nothing kills a great resume quicker than overused, cliche phrases that recruiters have seen 10,000 times before. So avoid words and phrases like team player, dynamic, go-getter , or self-motivated

Quick tip: Choose from hundreds of pre-written summaries across all industries, and add one to your resume with one click in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder . All written by our recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.

An objective statement

An objective statement, also known as a resume objective or career objective, describes your professional goals and outlines your reasons for applying to that specific job and company.

Like a resume summary, this needs to be tailored for each position and company you apply to and can be a similar length as well, typically 2-3 sentences.

A good objective statement should include:

• A sentence summarising your most relevant skills, qualifications, or certificates
• Your reason for applying; for example, ‘customer support representative with over-the-phone technical support training, looking to leverage my skillset in a sales representative role’
• An explanation of why you’d be a good match for the role and how you can support and drive the business forward

Basically, your objective needs to focus more on your motivations for applying to the job and outline how you can help, rather than discussing past experiences.

Should you use a resume summary or objective statement?

As this section is placed at the top of your resume, it needs to wow the recruiter and persuade them to keep reading. So it needs to be good!

But which approach should you choose?

Well, as we’ve said, a resume summary is better for those who have got a good amount of experience behind them as this is an opportunity to discuss past positions and the skills you have gained.

However, an objective statement is better suited to those who are just starting out or have less experience. These could be students, those on scholarships, entry-level candidates, career changers, or those with large career gaps.

But ultimately, which you choose is up to you. Just make sure it’s an attention-grabbing introduction either way.

Adding your work experience

After your resume summary or objective statement, you need to add your work experience. In many cases, this will be the biggest and arguably most important section of your resume, so you need to get it right.

Your experience should be listed in reverse chronological order, meaning newest job to oldest as you go down the page.

How to format your work experience

Your experience needs to tell a story about who you are and what you’ve achieved in your career so far.

Each of your job descriptions should contain the following info:

• Job title and position
• The employer’s name
• The dates you were employed there (if you still work there, put your start date and the word ‘current’ to show you’re still employed there)
• A brief overview of the company and your role within it

Your key responsibilities

• Your biggest achievements

You can see an annotated example of this below.

A bold heading

You need to start with your job title, company name, and the dates you were employed there. This should be in bold as this acts as the heading, making the page easy to skim-read.

The outline

Next, you need to give a brief outline of your role in the company and where you sit within the organization to build some context for the reader.

“Working as part of the digital marketing team to support all social media campaigns, providing content, analytics, and feedback.”

Next, provide a concise bullet pointed list of your responsibilities.

Although it’s important to share some of your key responsibilities and the skills these require, you don’t want this to be a long, boring list that adds no real value to your application.

As such, it’s best to pick a few of the highlights and use bullet points to break these up, like this:

• Created a range of social media content across varying platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
• Conducted competitor analysis and research based on competitor’s social media strategies
• Organized the monthly editorial calendar for each channel
• Collaborated with the design team to create engaging visuals to accompany the copy

Key achievements

The last thing you need to do when formatting your work experience is include any key achievements that led to positive results for the employer (such as generating revenue or helping customers to achieve their goals)

Again, use bullet points to set these out and add facts and figures to demonstrate your value. Such as:

• Increased the brand’s Instagram following by 25% in just 3 months
• Managed a minimum of 4 campaigns simultaneously which all achieved 90% of target
• Organized and ran a competition through Instagram and Facebook that led to a 73% spike in engagement across all company platforms

How far back should you go?

If you’ve got lots of experience, it can be tough to know how far back you need to go . Although you may wish to include older roles, you can be more sparing on these details. Your main focus should be on your current or most recent roles.

For those that have been around a while, it’s best to omit anything really old, say more than 10 years ago. Unless, of course, you were in the same role for a very long period of time.

If you don’t have much experience

If you don’t have much work experience, this section can feel a little daunting. However, you can bolster this section with unpaid experiences, such as:

• College work placements
• Summer internships ( more details on how to include an internship on your resume )
• Voluntary or charity work
• A side hustle or hobby
• Studying abroad

Employers value any experience you have as long as you can use this to demonstrate your skills, particularly the transferable skills you gained.

Dealing with gaps in employment

If you’ve got large gaps in your employment history, you might be worried about how this will look to hiring managers and potential employers.

It’s important that you don’t leave these gaps unanswered. Instead, be sure to give details of practical and positive things you were doing during this time.

For example, were you traveling and boosting your language skills? Or were you caring for your family and taking the opportunity to complete online courses at home?

Whatever the case may be, try to avoid leaving employment gaps unanswered as much as possible.

Adding your education

Next, you need to add your education section, but how you go about this will depend on your level of experience.

For experienced candidates

For those with more work experience, your education section doesn’t need to be as long because the emphasis will be on your employment history.

This means you can afford to cut this section down, giving just a short bullet-pointed list of your most important and recent qualifications. You don’t need to include everything you’ve ever studied.

For less experienced candidates

If you have less (or perhaps no) experience to talk about, then your education section can be much crucial to the success of your resume. In this case, you should use your education section to give more details about your skills and knowledge.

To do this, you should include information about your high school education, any General Educational Development (GED) diplomas you may have, and your college degree, if you have one (detailing your major and minor )

You can strengthen this section by adding details like:

• Any awards and honors you have
• Relevant coursework or areas of study
• Extracurricular activities you took part in
• Key achievements from your time in education
• Whether you took a double major , or any minors
• Your GPA (Grade point average)
• Making the Dean’s list
• GED or similar 
• Expected graduation date (if you have not yet graduated)

If you do choose to include your hobbies and interests on your resume, you need to approach this with caution.

You should only include these if they are relevant to the role you’re applying to or if they help you to showcase some great transferable skills.

Which hobbies should you include?

With this in mind, you can’t just add any old thing you find slightly interesting; you need to be selective about what you include.

Anything you add to this section should enhance your resume. Some examples of good hobbies to include are:

• Volunteering – Volunteering, shadowing and charity work can be a great addition to your resume, whether this is for a good cause or you’re running an after-school club. It shows lots of transferable workplace skills, including commitment, compassion, and organization
• Writing or blogging – Whether it’s a personal blog, poetry, or anything else creative , writing can showcase your excellent communication skills
• Sports and exercise – Getting involved in individual sports like running shows dedication and passion. If you take part in team sports like basketball or football, this can show teamwork and leadership
• Strategy games – From chess to Sudoko, strategy games can be a great way to show off your strategic thinking and problems solving skills
• Photography – If you’re a budding photographer, you can showcase your creativity, patience, and attention to detail
• Coding or web design – Digital skills are really in-demand right now, and if you do web design or coding in your spare time, you could instantly boost your application and stand out from the crowd
• Cooking or baking – No matter what you like to cook, if you love spending time in the kitchen, this can show recruiters that you can follow instructions (recipes), that you have good time management, and pay great attention to detail
• Playing an instrument – Learning and practicing an instrument takes dedication, focus, and motivation, all qualities potential employers look for in a candidate .
• Learning a language – Being a multi-lingual candidate can give you a competitive edge. Not only does it showcase transferable skills, but language skills are in high demand. Particularly if you can speak those languages that are popular in the US, such as Spanish or Chinese

Pretty much any one of these hobbies can help to show transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, attention to detail, creativity, and more. So think about these before writing your hobbies and interests section.

Which hobbies should you avoid?

There are some things that should be left off of your resume as they won’t help your application. The following hobbies are unlikely to promote your success:

• Socializing with friends
• Binge-watching Netflix series
• Going to the cinema
• Political or religious activities
• Watching sports

Should you add your hobbies to your CV?

If we haven’t made it clear yet, this is an optional section, and deciding whether to include hobbies and interests can be tricky. However, there are several key ways you can decide.

Firstly, this section tends to work best for candidates who lack experience and need to make up for this by demonstrating their skills and dedication in another way. So ask yourself, have you got much experience? And if not, can listing your hobbies make up for this?

You should also look at whether your hobbies are relevant to the role. For example, if you’re applying for a job in marketing, skills like blogging, web design, and photography could come in handy.

Lastly, do you have the space to include this additional section on your resume? If you don’t, then it’s best to focus on perfecting the rest of your application and leave this section out.

Resume language

You could include all the right content on your resume, but if you don’t use the right language as well, you might find that your applications keep getting ignored.

This is because the language you use on your resume needs to be creative, professional, descriptive, and, most importantly, persuasive.

Remember, if this is your elevator pitch, it needs to sell yourself and what you have to offer. You want the hiring manager to be scrambling for their cellphone, desperate to call you before you’re snapped up by another company.

The best way to show off your communication skills and successfully sell yourself is to avoid boring, basic language or overused cliches.

By boring and basic language, we mean something plain and non-descriptive. For example:

“I worked for the head of marketing, taking on various writing tasks.”

This is vague and uninspiring and doesn’t help the recruiter to understand how you contribute to the business. Instead, you could say something more descriptive and impressive like:

“As part of the digital team, I supported the head of marketing in creating powerful and engaging content for the company’s website and social media platforms.”

You’re essentially giving the same information, only you’ve made it more interesting and detailed, highlighting the role you played within the business.

And when listing responsibilities, even something as simple as ‘edited old content ’ can be improved like this:

“Optimised old and outdated content across the company website and blog to make it more SEO-friendly.”

These examples show how you can display a better style of writing, showcasing your communication skills and engaging the recruiter at the same time.

Resume language top tips

If writing doesn’t come naturally to you or it’s not something you’ve done much of recently, don’t worry; there are some simple rules you can follow for success. Our top resume language tips are:

• Make use of power verbs and adverbs to make your resume more descriptive, for example, analyzed, organized, executed, consolidated
• Use facts and figures to illustrate your points and show you value
•  Use keywords from the job description to guide the language you use
• Avoid boring language and overused cliches
• Proofread your resume several times before submitting it to an employer

Resume mistakes

Even the best resume writers can make mistakes, and no one expects you to be perfect! But understanding some of the most common pitfalls that job hunters fall into can reduce the likelihood of you making the same mistake.

Here are some of the most common resume errors you should try to avoid:

Not doing any (or enough) research

When we talked about tailoring your resume, we mentioned the importance of research. If you fail to do effective research beforehand, how do you know what the recruiters looking for ?

The best way to create an effective application and tailor every resume you submit is to do thorough research beforehand and look out for the most in-demand skills and experience in your field. Then make sure your resume reflects this research.

Unprofessional email addresses

This is a professional document. Therefore every detail within must prove this. Something job seekers often overlook is their email address. These can be silly and embarrassing and, worst of all could cost you a j ob interview .

So be careful to always use a professional email address. If in doubt, simply sticking with your name will do. Avoid your old addresses from when you first began using email many years ago.

After all, something like [email protected] is hardly likely to make recruiters take you seriously in your career.

Lying on your resume

You should never, under any circumstances, lie on your resume . Not only could this prove stressful if you’re asked about your lie in an interview, but if you get caught, this could cost you the job.

It’s always best to be open and honest. If you’re worried about your lack of experience or qualifications, make other areas of your resume shine instead.

You should never lie to try and make up for this.

Spelling and grammatical errors

Finally, one of the worst things you can do is submit a resume with spelling and grammatical errors on it.

Not only does this look unprofessional, but it shows you lack attention to detail or that you didn’t care enough to read it through.

If you’re concerned about your spelling and grammar, have a friend or family member check it over to be safe.

Common resume questions

Throughout the resume-writing process, you might find that you have a few questions. And you aren’t the only one.

To help you find some answers, we’ve pulled together a list of some of the most common resume questions that you might be faced with.

How long should your resume be?

One of the hardest things to determine is how long your resume should be. Should it be one page ? Two? Three even?

Well, this will very much depend on your level of experience, but there are some helpful ways you can decide.

In most cases a 1-2 page resume should be enough, but sometimes you can stray a little either side of this.

Remember, this is not a detailed account of every single thing you’ve ever done in your life and career. For most mid-level positions, you should include:

• Your contact details
• A short summary or objectives statement
• 2-3 work experiences
• 1-2 education entries
• An optional key skills or hobbies section

However, those with more experience might struggle to stick to 1 page, and in those cases, 2 pages are acceptable, providing all the information is relevant and supports your application.

Academics may also rely on longer resumes, sometimes up to 3 pages. These are actually called CVs and contain a lot more information about research, papers, lectures, journals, etc. But again, these are specific to academics.

So, as you can see, though there is no one right answer, you should always try to remember that recruiters and hiring managers are often pushed for time – so keeping it under 2 pages will help them to read it in full.

Why is it called a resume?

The term resume derives from the french word résumé, which means ‘to summarize’. No one quite knows who first used this term or when, though many have credited Leonardo da Vinci circa 1482. Others believe it was started by heads of guilds in the Middle Ages.

Who reads your resume?

You’ve spent time crafting a killer resume and sent it off into cyberspace, but you might be wondering who will actually read it. Well, there are normally a handful of people who might be reviewing your application:

• Hiring managers – They work within a company and represent your potential boss or department. They are often the ones who request or post the job description in the first place
• Recruiters – These are professionals whose job it is to find and recruit new hire s for a company, or to work with individual candidates to find them a suitable role
• HR professionals – Sometimes, the recruitment process gets left to the HR team . In these cases, it could be a HR professional that is reviewing your application

How can you write a good resume?

We’ve already shared lots of our top tips for writing a stand-out resume, but to summarize, the key to a good resume is to prove to potential employers that you are the perfect fit for the job.

In order to do this, you need to clearly present your information so it can be read and digested quickly. This includes content such as your key work experience, skills, and education.

Using this comprehensive guide, you should be able to achieve this. Just be sure to always keep your audience in mind and use engaging, persuasive language that will grab their attention and reel them in.

What skills should you put in a resume?

Not sure which skills to include on your resume and which to omit?

Of course, this will depend on your experience and skill set, but there are two key categories these fall into:

• Hard skills – These are the skills that are specific to your industry or are measurable, for example, technical, computer, or analytical skills
• Soft skills – These are the personal skills that can be transferred between jobs, such as communication, problem-solving, creativity, and interpersonal skills

Resume Vs CV?

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a resume and a CV ?

Well, they are essentially the same thing; only the term resume is used widely in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other nations. In contrast, CV is widely used in the UK and Europe.

The term CV can also be used to describe a longer academic resume in the USA.

Do I need a cover letter?

If a job advert doesn’t specifically ask for a cover letter, it can be tricky to know whether you should still send one or not.

The short answer is, yes, you should! And here is why:

• A cover letter shows you’ve made the extra effort
• It gives you a chance to expand on your resume
• It can set you apart from other candidates
• It can help you to build rapport with recruiters and encourage them to read your resume

If you’re applying through a job board, you could attach your cover letter as a Word document. However, in most cases, it is best to include this in the body of your email, and it only needs to be a few sentences long.

Resume examples

When writing your resume, it can be really helpful to look at some real-life examples for inspiration.

So, we’ve put together some of the most common, basic resume examples to help get you started.

A resume with no experience

Writing a resume when you don’t have a lot of experience to shout about can be a daunting prospect.

Here is an example of a candidate just starting out in their career perfectly demonstrating that a lack of experience doesn’t mean you can’t create an impressive resume:

• The resume has a crisp, clear format and structure that makes it easy for hiring managers or recruiters to read
• They have used lots of bullet points to make the information much more organized and accessible
• The resume summary more than makes up for their lack of experience by showing their potential This is done through what they’ve achieved during their time in education and activities outside of their studies
• They have carefully demonstrated the transferable skills they could bring to the role

A student resume

Whether you’re in high school, college, or you’re a recent college graduate , you need to prove how your education and your work experience have prepared you for the working world. As you can see from this example:

• The student resume summary does an excellent job of highlighting educational achievements
• They have also given examples of the transferable skills they gained during their part-time work experience, including those skills that are most in-demand
• Though their experience may be limited, they have used engaging and persuasive language to sell this and impress the recruiter

An experienced resume

If you are an experienced candidate, you want your work experience to be the star of the show. This is your chance to prove to potential employers how you can add real value to their business. As they have done in this example:

• The resume summary gives a well-rounded introduction to the candidate’s background, highlighting their top skills, experience, and qualifications
• They have used keywords throughout to ensure they are ticking the right boxes and meeting the employer’s requirements
• They have structured their work experience section effectively to give more details about their experience and key achievements in past roles

The final checks

We understand there is a lot to take in, but once you’ve processed all of this and created your resume, you don’t want to fall at the final hurdle.

So before you hit send on that application, you need to do some final checks.

Nothing will make your resume end up on the rejection pile quicker than spelling errors or typos. So, as we said before, proofreading and checking over your resume is crucial.

Be sure to have someone else look over your resume too, and make the most of free tools before you send it off.

You might find that having someone else read your resume will give you a different perspective. They could also notice mistakes you made or suggest better ways to phrase certain points.

At this stage, you should also check that your resume isn’t too long. If you’ve added a section at the end for references, you can remove this. If employers want to get in touch with your references, they’ll ask you for this information at a later stage.

Don’t forget to name your resume file professionally to maintain a strong first impression when it is first seen.

And that is it! Once you’ve given your resume a final check (and check again), you are ready to start applying. Just remember to tailor your resume for every role and to create an accompanying cover letter each time.

And just because you’ve started applying to jobs, it doesn’t mean it’s too late to change your existing resume. You can go back as many times as you like to tweak or fix it.

This can be particularly important if you receive feedback from a recruiter, perhaps pointing out some areas of your resume that could be improved.

Even the smallest changes are worth making if they can help you to secure an interview.

We hope that this guide can help you in creating a competitive and engaging resume that will land you some quality job interviews.

Happy job hunting!

How do I update my resume to help land that job? Ask HR

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. tackles your human resources questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR professional society and author of "Reset: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval.”

Have a question? Submit it here .

Question: Since leaving a job I have had for almost a decade, I have primarily conducted my job search online. I have used the same resume design since I started working 12 years ago. Should I update my resume design to be more effective? What do you recommend for building a modern resume? – Sandra

Answer: Updating your resume design can indeed be a wise move, especially if you've been using the same format for a long time. A fresh, modern design can help your resume stand out and leave a positive impression on recruiters and hiring managers. Here’s what I recommend for building a modern resume:

◾ Clean, professional layout: Opt for a layout that’s visually appealing and easy to read. Avoid cluttered designs and overly decorative elements that may distract from your content.

◾ Font selection: Stick to standard, easy-to-read fonts such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. These fonts are widely accepted and compatible with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), ensuring your résumé is easily scannable by both humans and software.

◾ Incorporate keywords: Tailor your resume to each job application by incorporating industry-specific keywords and phrases relevant to the position. Many companies use ATS to screen résumés, so this will increase the likelihood of your resume being noticed.

◾ Organized sections: Structure your resume into clear sections, including Contact Information, Summary or Objective, Work Experience, Skills, Education and any additional relevant sections such as Certifications or Volunteer Work. This organization makes it easy for recruiters to quickly find the information they need.

◾ Summary/objective statement: Start your résumé with a summary that highlights your key qualifications and career goals. Keep it concise, focusing on what sets you apart and what you aim to achieve in your career.

◾ Accomplishment-oriented experience: When listing your work experience, focus on highlighting your accomplishments, rather than just listing job duties. Use quantifiable achievements whenever possible, to demonstrate your impact, such as increasing sales by a certain percentage or leading successful projects.

◾ Skills section: Dedicate a section to showcasing your key skills and competencies, including both technical skills and soft skills relevant to the job. This section provides recruiters with a quick overview of your capabilities.

◾ Proofreading: Before submitting your resume, thoroughly proofread it to ensure there are no grammatical errors, typos, or formatting issues. Consider having someone else review your resume for feedback and additional insights.

By updating your resuméewith a modern design and incorporating these key elements, you can increase your chances of making a strong impression in today’s competitive job market. Good luck with your job search!

Ghosting a job Is it bad to ghost low priority potential employers? Ask HR

I've been denied PTO requests on multiple occasions, which is becoming increasingly frustrating. Most of them are denied on the grounds of staffing needs. Do I have any recourse in fighting these denials? What can I do to ensure PTO approvals? – Chanette

You may indeed have some recourse in addressing these denied paid time off requests. Start by reviewing your company's PTO policy and procedures. Many employers have specific guidelines regarding PTO requests, including deadlines for submission and limits on the number of employees who can be on leave simultaneously, to ensure adequate staffing levels.

First, check if your PTO requests were made in accordance with company policy. If they were not, ensure that you adhere to the established procedures for future requests, to increase the likelihood of approval.

However, if you followed company policy and your requests were still denied, consider discussing the matter with your manager or the human resources team. Seek clarification on the reasons for the denials and inquire about potential strategies to improve the approval rate for your requests.

It's also essential to consider whether your state mandates sick leave, and if your company uses PTO to fulfill those requirements. If so, your employer may be obligated to approve leave requests that align with qualifying reasons for sick leave under the law. If you’re uncertain about your state’s sick leave requirements, consult your HR team for clarification.

Ultimately, unless there is a contractual agreement or policy stating otherwise, employers typically have discretion in managing PTO usage. However, by following company procedures and addressing your concerns with management or HR, you may increase the likelihood of having your PTO requests approved more frequently.

Salaried, nonexempt What does that mean? Ask HR

Resume Worded   |  Proven Resume Examples

• Resume Examples
• Legal Resumes
• Underwriter Resume Guide & Examples

Credit Underwriter Resume Examples: Proven To Get You Hired In 2024

Jump to a template:

• Credit Underwriter
• Mortgage Underwriter
• Commercial Lending Officer

Get advice on each section of your resume:

Jump to a resource:

• Credit Underwriter Resume Tips

Credit Underwriter Resume Template

Download in google doc, word or pdf for free. designed to pass resume screening software in 2022., credit underwriter resume sample.

As a Credit Underwriter, your job is an essential two-fold process - you're both an investigator and an analyzer. Your resume should reflect this blend, showcasing a meticulous attention to detail as well as a knack for making data-driven decisions. In light of recent trends, many companies are moving towards automating parts of the underwriting process. As a result, there's a higher demand for underwriters who are comfortable with data analytics and digital platforms, so you’ll want to highlight any relevant tech skills. Your resume needs to show that you can morph with the times while still offering the in-depth, individualized analysis that machines can't.

We're just getting the template ready for you, just a second left.

Recruiter Insight: Why this resume works in 2022

Tips to help you write your credit underwriter resume in 2024,    highlight quantitative accomplishments.

To stand out, rather than merely stating your responsibilities, you should quantify your achievements. How much money did you save the company? Did you help improve the loan approval process? If yes, by what percentage? The more specific, the better.

   Showcase your risk management skills

Underwriting is all about calculated risks. You should make sure to include any experience or training you have in risk assessment and mitigation. This could be anything from courses you've taken, to specific tools or strategies you've used to evaluate potential risks.

Have you ever applied for a loan to buy a car or pay student debt? Perhaps you know people who took out loans from the bank or other private companies. It is the credit underwriter who is reviewing paperwork and other documents for you to be able to access loans! It is your responsibility as a credit underwriter to examine loan applications and, on occasion, run a credit history check on a loan applicant. Additionally, you can be requested to review proof of income and debt. Here’s what a successful resume for a credit underwriter looks like, highlighting all important aspects of value to a recruiter!

   State your financial specialty

Credit underwriters must have a strong background in banking and finance, as well as know-how about credit systems. So make sure to utilize your resume well by mentioning that you specialize in underwriting for the banking sector! Make sure to mention it in the introduction and provide evidence of your success in the part about your experience.

   Talk about your banking experience outside of underwriting

If you’re an individual who has experience as a banker or financial expert rather than underwriting, don't be shy to talk more about it! A lot of these skills will be transferred into your credit underwriting career and will make you a more able candidate for the position.

Mortgage Underwriter Resume Sample

Commercial lending officer resume sample.

We spoke with hiring managers and recruiters at top financial institutions like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup to gather their best tips for creating a strong credit underwriter resume. Here's what they shared:

   Highlight your credit analysis skills

Employers want to see that you have a strong foundation in credit analysis. Showcase your skills by including examples like:

• Analyzed credit reports and financial statements for 50+ loan applications per month
• Used spreadsheet models to assess debt-to-income ratios and project cash flows
• Identified risk factors and recommended credit limits based on analysis

Avoid simply listing 'credit analysis' as a skill without providing specifics. Instead, quantify your experience and give concrete examples of how you've applied your skills.

   Demonstrate your understanding of lending products

Credit underwriters need to have a solid grasp of various lending products. Show employers you have this knowledge by mentioning specific products you've worked with, such as:

• Underwrote auto loans, personal loans, and credit card applications
• Specialized in evaluating commercial real estate loans ranging from $1M to $20M
• Experienced in FHA, VA and conventional mortgage underwriting guidelines

If you have experience across multiple loan types, definitely highlight that to demonstrate your versatility.

   Quantify your impact on loan portfolio performance

Ultimately, credit underwriters are responsible for maintaining the quality and profitability of their employer's loan portfolio. Hiring managers love seeing examples of how you've directly contributed to portfolio performance, like:

• Maintained a personal loan approval rate of 85% while keeping defaults under 2%
• Underwrote $50M in new commercial loans, increasing portfolio revenue by 10%
• Identified and approved 25% more loans compared to the team average

Always look for ways to tie your work back to bottom-line results. Numbers and percentages jump off the page and make your impact crystal clear.

   Show progression in your credit underwriting career

Hiring managers want candidates who have progressed and taken on more responsibility over time. You can show this by:

• Noting any promotions, like moving from Junior Underwriter to Senior Underwriter
• Mentioning increases in your loan approval authority limits
• Highlighting leadership experience, like training or supervising junior underwriters

On the flip side, downplay or leave off roles and responsibilities that are too basic or entry-level once you have more experience. For example:

• Assisted with data entry of loan applications
• Shadowed senior underwriters to learn credit analysis process

   Include relevant certifications and training

Certifications and advanced training show your commitment to your field and expanding your expertise. Some examples to include:

• Certified Residential Underwriter (CRU) designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association
• Completed advanced credit analysis courses through the Risk Management Association
• Participated in ongoing training on Fair Lending and Anti-Money Laundering regulations

Just be sure to explain any industry acronyms that hiring managers outside your niche may not recognize.

   Tailor your resume to the job description

While it's great to have a 'master' resume that includes all your experience, always take a few minutes to customize it for each job you apply to. Look for key skills in the job description, like:

Seeking a credit underwriter experienced in evaluating unsecured personal loans. Must have knowledge of consumer credit reports and debt-to-income analysis.

Then, make sure your resume reflects those priorities:

• Underwrote unsecured personal loans ranging from $1,000 to $50,000
• Analyzed consumer credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian to assess creditworthiness
• Evaluated debt-to-income ratios and disposable income for 200+ borrowers per month

Small tweaks to match the job posting can make a big difference in showing the employer you're the right fit.

Writing Your Credit Underwriter Resume: Section By Section

  summary.

A summary on your resume is optional, but it can be a useful way to provide additional context about your career goals and highlight key qualifications that may not be immediately apparent from your work history. This is especially true if you're making a career change or have a lot of experience to summarize. However, you should never use an objective statement, as it focuses on what you want rather than what you can offer the employer.

When writing your summary, avoid repeating information that's already covered in other sections of your resume. Instead, use this space to add new details and emphasize your most relevant skills and experiences for the credit underwriter role you're targeting. Keep it concise, ideally no more than a short paragraph, and steer clear of overused buzzwords or soft skills.

To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Credit Underwriter resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Credit Underwriter Resume Summary Examples , or Credit Underwriter Resume Objective Examples .

1. Tailor your summary to the credit underwriter role

To make your summary stand out, go beyond generic statements and tailor it to the specific credit underwriter position you're applying for. Research the company and job description to identify the key qualifications and skills they're looking for, and then incorporate those into your summary.

For example, instead of a vague statement like this:

Experienced financial professional with strong analytical and communication skills.

Try something more targeted:

Detail-oriented credit analyst with 5+ years of experience evaluating loan applications and assessing risk for consumer and commercial lending. Proven track record of accurately determining creditworthiness and collaborating with cross-functional teams to support sound lending decisions.

2. Quantify your achievements in the credit underwriting field

To make your summary more impactful, include specific accomplishments and metrics that demonstrate the value you've brought to previous roles. Quantifying your achievements helps provide context and makes your claims more credible.

• Skilled in analyzing financial statements and assessing credit risk
• Experienced in underwriting loans for both individuals and businesses

Instead, try highlighting tangible results:

• Underwrote 100+ loans totaling $50M annually while maintaining a delinquency rate below 1%
• Implemented new risk assessment model that reduced default rates by 20% and saved the company $1M+ in potential losses

  Experience

When writing the work experience section of your credit underwriter resume, you need to showcase your relevant skills, experience, and accomplishments. This is the most important section of your resume, and it's where you can really highlight your qualifications for the job.

In this section, we'll break down the key steps you need to follow to write a compelling work experience section that will catch the attention of hiring managers and help you land your next credit underwriting job.

1. Use industry-specific action verbs

When describing your work experience, use strong action verbs that are specific to the credit underwriting industry. This will help your resume stand out and show that you have the skills and experience necessary for the job.

Examples of good action verbs to use:

• Analyzed credit reports and financial statements to assess creditworthiness
• Collaborated with loan officers to structure loan deals
• Monitored portfolio performance and identified potential risk factors
• Presented loan recommendations to credit committee for approval

Avoid using generic or overused verbs like:

• Responsible for analyzing credit reports
• Worked with loan officers
• Looked at portfolio performance

2. Quantify your accomplishments with metrics

Whenever possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your accomplishments and show the impact you had in your previous roles. This will help you stand out from other candidates and show the value you can bring to the company.

Examples of how to quantify your accomplishments:

• Underwrote $50M in commercial loans annually while maintaining a default rate of less than 1%
• Reduced loan processing time by 30% by implementing new underwriting procedures
• Managed a portfolio of 100+ loans totaling $75M with a delinquency rate of less than 2%

Avoid using vague or unspecific accomplishments like:

• Underwrote a lot of loans
• Reduced loan processing time
• Managed a big portfolio of loans

3. Highlight your career progression

If you've been promoted or taken on increasing levels of responsibility in your previous roles, make sure to highlight that in your work experience section. This shows that you have the skills and experience to take on more advanced roles and that you're committed to growing your career in the credit underwriting industry.

Credit Analyst, ABC Bank (2018-2020) - Analyzed credit reports and financial statements to make loan recommendations - Collaborated with loan officers to structure deals and present to credit committee - Promoted to Senior Credit Analyst in 2020

Avoid simply listing your job titles and dates without showing your progression:

Credit Analyst, ABC Bank (2018-2020) Senior Credit Analyst, ABC Bank (2020-Present)

4. Showcase relevant tools and technologies

In the credit underwriting industry, there are many specialized tools and technologies that you may use in your day-to-day work. Showcasing your experience with these tools can help you stand out from other candidates and show that you have the technical skills necessary for the job.

Examples of relevant tools and technologies to mention:

• Moody's Risk Analyst
• Fiserv Signature

Avoid simply listing tools without context:

• Microsoft Office

Instead, showcase how you used the tools to achieve specific results:

• Used Moody's Risk Analyst to analyze credit reports and identify potential risk factors
• Implemented Salesforce to manage customer relationships and improve loan processing efficiency

  Education

The education section of your credit underwriter resume should be concise yet impactful. It's an opportunity to showcase your relevant academic background and any specialized training that qualifies you for the role. Follow these tips to effectively highlight your education and make a strong impression on hiring managers.

1. List your degrees in reverse chronological order

Start with your most recent or highest degree first. This format allows employers to quickly identify your latest educational achievements. For each degree, include:

• Name of the degree (e.g., Bachelor of Science in Finance)
• Name of the university or college
• Graduation year
• GPA (if above 3.5)

Here's an example of how to list your education:

• Master of Business Administration (MBA), XYZ University, 2019
• Bachelor of Science in Finance, ABC College, 2015

2. Highlight relevant coursework for entry-level credit underwriters

If you are a recent graduate or have limited work experience, highlighting relevant coursework can demonstrate your knowledge and skills to potential employers. Include courses that are directly applicable to credit underwriting, such as:

• Financial statement analysis
• Risk management
• Corporate finance
• Accounting principles

However, avoid listing irrelevant or general education courses, as they can clutter your resume and detract from your key qualifications. For example:

• Introduction to psychology
• World history
• English composition

3. Include relevant certifications and training

In addition to formal education, include any relevant certifications or specialized training you have completed. These can help you stand out from other candidates and demonstrate your commitment to professional development. Some examples include:

• Certified Credit Analyst (CCA)
• Commercial Lending School Certificate
• Risk Management Association (RMA) Training

Be sure to list the name of the certification, the issuing organization, and the year you obtained it.

4. Keep it concise for senior-level credit underwriters

If you are a senior-level credit underwriter with extensive work experience, your education section should be brief and to the point. Focus on your highest degree and any directly relevant certifications. For example:

Master of Business Administration (MBA), XYZ University Bachelor of Science in Finance, ABC College

Avoid listing outdated or irrelevant information, such as:

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, DEF University, 1985 High School Diploma, GHI High School, 1981

Remember, your work experience and achievements should be the primary focus of your resume at this stage in your career.

  Skills

Your skills section is one of the first things recruiters notice. It's a quick way to show if you're qualified at a glance. When writing your skills section for a credit underwriter position, focus on the technical skills, knowledge and tools that are essential for the job.

1. Understand how applicant tracking systems (ATS) work

Many companies use applicant tracking systems to automatically scan your resume. ATS look for specific skills and keywords to filter out unqualified candidates.

To get past ATS, read the job description carefully. Identify the skills and keywords the company is looking for, such as:

• Credit analysis
• Risk assessment
• Financial modeling
• Loan processing

Make sure you include these skills in your skills section, using the same terminology from the job description. This will help your resume get past the initial ATS screening and in front of a human recruiter.

2. Categorize your credit underwriting skills

Group your skills into categories to make them easy to read. This is especially important if you have a lot of technical skills. Grouping them will prevent your skills section from looking cluttered or overwhelming.

Here's an example of what your categorized skills section could look like:

• Credit Analysis : Credit reports, Capacity analysis, Collateral evaluation, Risk assessment
• Financial : Financial modeling, Accounting, Budgeting, Forecasting
• Loan Processing : Loan applications, Documentation, Compliance, Closing
• Software : MS Excel, LoanPro, Nortridge, Encompass

3. Focus on your top skills for the credit underwriter role

Some candidates try to pad their skills section by listing every skill they have, even ones that aren't relevant. Avoid doing this, as it distracts from your top skills:

Skills: Credit analysis, Risk management, Financial modeling, Loan processing, Spanish, Creative writing, Social media, Baking

Instead, curate your top skills that relate directly to the credit underwriter position:

Skills: Credit analysis, Risk assessment, Financial modeling, Loan processing, Budgeting, Forecasting, Compliance, Documentation

Quality is more important than quantity. Stick to 10-15 skills at most, and make sure they highlight your fit for the specific credit underwriter role.

4. Remove outdated software or generic skills

Including outdated software can make you look behind the times. For example:

Skills: MS Excel, MS Word, Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Symphony, Lotus Approach

Avoid listing generic skills like MS Office. It's assumed that all professionals have basic computer skills. Instead, focus on industry-specific software that's relevant for credit underwriting:

Skills: MS Excel, LoanPro, Nortridge, Encompass, Salesforce

If applying for a senior role, you can include your skill level in parentheses to show advanced expertise:

• Credit analysis (Expert)
• Risk assessment (Advanced)
• Financial modeling (Expert)

Skills For Credit Underwriter Resumes

Here are examples of popular skills from Credit Underwriter job descriptions that you can include on your resume.

• Financial Services
• Retail Banking
• Small Business Lending
• Financial Analysis
• Commercial Banking
• Mortgage Underwriting
• Mortgage Lending
• Financial Risk

Skills Word Cloud For Credit Underwriter Resumes

This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Credit Underwriter job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more likely you should include it in your resume.

How to use these skills?

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Credit Underwriter Resumes

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