how to write a resume that will get you hired

40+ Resume Tips to Help You Land a Job in 2024

When you haven’t updated your resume in a while, it can be hard to know where to start. What experiences and accomplishments are relevant for the jobs you’ve got your eye on? What new resume rules and trends should you be following? And seriously, one page or two ?

Well, search no more: We’ve compiled all the resume tips you need into one place. Read on for advice and tricks that’ll help you craft a winning resume—and land your next job.

Maximize your chances by looking for more open jobs on The Muse »

Basic resume tips

Let's start with the basic do's and don'ts when putting your resume together. Listing your skills is not the only thing that matters—choosing the right format and sections is equally crucial. Here are some tips for writing a resume from scratch:

1. Don’t try to cram every skill and work experience onto your resume

Think of your resume not as a comprehensive list of your career history, but as a marketing document selling you as the perfect person for the role you’re applying to. For each resume you send out, you’ll want to highlight only the accomplishments and skills that are most relevant to the job at hand (even if that means you don’t include all of your experience ).

This is called tailoring your resume and it helps anyone who reads it see exactly why you’re a match for a specific position.

2. But keep a resume outline with a full list of your qualifications

Since you’ll be swapping different information in and out depending on the job you’re applying to, save a resume outline —or maybe our resume worksheet —on your computer with old positions, bullet points tailored for different applications, and special projects that only sometimes make sense to include. Think of this as your brag file. Then, when you’re crafting each resume, it’s just a matter of cutting and pasting relevant information together.

3. Ditch the objective statement

The only time an objective section makes sense is when you’re making a huge career change and need to explain from the get-go why your experience doesn’t match up with the position you’re applying to. In every other case, resume objectives just make you look old-fashioned or out of touch.

Read More: 3 Reasons You Should Ditch That Resume Objective—and 3 Things You Can Do Instead

4. Put the best, most relevant information first

In journalism speak, “above the fold” refers to what you see on the front half of a folded newspaper (or, in the digital age, before you scroll down on a website)—basically it’s your first impression of a document. In resume speak, it means you should make sure your most relevant qualifications are visible on the top third of your resume.

This top section is what the hiring manager is going to see first—and what will serve as a hook for someone to keep on reading. If your most recent position isn’t the most relevant piece of your candidacy, consider leading with a skills section (such as in a combination resume format ) or writing a resume summary .

5. Choose the right resume format for you

There are lots of different ways to organize the information on your resume—like the functional resume or combination resume. But the good old reverse chronological —where your most recent experience is listed first—is usually your best bet. Unless it’s absolutely necessary in your situation, skip the functional or skills-based resume—hiring managers might wonder what you’re hiding.

6. Keep it concise

The two-page resume is a hotly debated topic, but the bottom line is this—you want the information here to be as short as possible, and keeping it to one page forces you to prioritize what really matters. If you truly have enough relevant and important experience, training, and credentials to showcase on more than one page of your resume, then go for two. But if you can tell the same story in less space? Do it.

Read More: 6 Pro Tips for Cutting Your Resume Down to One Page

7. Include relevant links

Can’t figure out how to tell your whole story on one page, or want to be able to include some visual examples of your work? Instead of trying to have your resume cover everything, cover the most important details on that document. Then, include a link to your personal website , your online portfolio , examples of your work, or a relevant, professional social media profile , where you can dive more into what makes you the ideal candidate.

Just avoid hyperlinking over words that are key to understanding your resume, since it can throw off the tools employers use to store and parse resumes.

8. Be aware of the ATS

You may have heard that employers are using computers to “read” your resume and decide who to hire and reject. That’s not exactly true. But most employers do use software called an applicant tracking system—or ATS—to parse resumes and organize them so that recruiters and hiring managers can search for the most relevant applications.

You should assume your resume will pass through an ATS at some point during your job search, so understanding how it works will help make your hunt more efficient. (All of the tips for resume writing in this list keep ATSs in mind as well!)

Read More: Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System and Into Human Hands

Resume formatting tips

Your resume's format matters as much as the content it holds. Aim for a simple and minimalist layout, without overwhelming columns, colors, or graphic elements. Here are some key resume formatting tips to help you stand out:

9. Keep your resume format simple

We’ll talk about getting creative in order to stand out in a minute. But the most basic principle of good resume formatting and design? Keep it simple. Make your resume easy on hiring managers’ eyes by using a reasonably sized default font like Helvetica or Arial and leaving a healthy amount of white space on the page. Your main focus here should be on readability for the hiring manager (and that pesky ATS).

Read more: The Best Resume Font and Size (No More Agonizing!)

10. Stand out with ATS-friendly design elements

Really want your resume to stand out from the sea of Times New Roman? Yes, creative resumes —like infographics, videos, or presentations can set you apart, but you have to make sure they actually get read. If you’re uploading your resume to a job application site or online portal, use ATS-friendly formatting elements like:

• Bold and italic text
• Underlining (in headings or over hyperlinks)
• Different text alignments
• Columns that can be read straight across

11. Avoid design elements that can’t be “read” by computers

On the flip side, it’s best to avoid design elements that ATSs are known to have trouble with such as:

• Logos and icons
• Images and photos
• Graphics, graphs, or other visuals
• Headers and footers
• Less common fonts
• Columns that can only be read from top to bottom

12. Make your contact info prominent

You don’t need to include your address on your resume anymore (really!), but you do need to make sure to include a phone number and professional-sounding email address (but not one affiliated with another job!) as well as other places the hiring manager can find you on the web, like your LinkedIn profile, plus your pronouns if you’d like to.

Read More: Here's Exactly What Should Be Included in Your Resume's Header

13. Design your resume for skimmability

You’ve probably heard before that hiring managers don’t spend a lot of time on each individual resume. So help them get as much information as possible in as little time as possible, by making your resume easy to skim .

Work experience resume tips

Recruiters nowadays want to know more than a simple description of your responsibilities. They're looking for the results and impacts of your work, as well as the connection between your experience and the position you're applying for now.

That said, let's take a look at some resume writing tips for describing your work experience:

14. Keep your work experience recent and relevant

As a rule, you should only show the most recent 10-15 years of your career and only include the experiences that are relevant to the positions you’re applying to. Remember to allocate real estate on your resume according to importance. If there’s a choice between including one more college internship or going into more detail about your current role, always choose the latter (unless the internship was more relevant to the role you’re applying for).

15. Don’t forget your transferable skills and experiences

Don’t panic if you don’t have any professional experience that fits the bill. Focus your resume on your relevant and transferable skills along with any related side or academic projects , and then make sure to pair it with a strong cover letter telling the narrative of why you’re ideal for the job.

Read more: What to Put on Your Resume When You Have No Relevant Work Experience

16. Write strong, achievement-focused bullet points

The bullet points under each job entry are arguably the most important part of your resume. They tell whoever’s reading it what skills you have, how you’ve used them, and how you’ve helped your employers in the past.

So start with a strong action verb , include relevant skills from the job description , and frame your bullets around your achievements—don’t just list your job duties . Tell them how your work benefitted your boss or company so they know what they stand to gain by hiring you.

Here’s a simple formula to follow:

• Compelling verb + job duty + key skills used = tangible result

So you might say: “ Developed an upgrade to the employee database, ensuring the smooth flow of critical operations, which led to a 35% increase in efficiency. ”

17. Curate your bullet points and experiences

No matter how long you’ve been in a job, or how much you’ve accomplished there, you shouldn’t have more than eight bullet points under it—and that’s only for your most recent and relevant job. Jobs further back should generally be limited to four to six bullets.

Read More: How Many Bullet Points Should Each Job on Your Resume Have?

18. Use as many numbers as you can

Use facts, figures, and numbers whenever possible in your bullet points. How many people were impacted by your work? By what percentage did you exceed your goals? Quantifying your accomplishments allows the hiring manager to picture the level of work or responsibility you needed to achieve them.

19. Don’t neglect non-traditional work

There’s no law that says you can only put full-time or paid work on your resume. So, if you’ve volunteered , worked part-time or as a temporary or contract worker , freelanced, or interned? Absolutely list these things as their own “jobs” within your career chronology—as long as they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for. The same goes for career breaks . Yes, really.

Read More: 4 Things You Didn't Know You Could Put on Your Resume

20. Use important keywords from the job description

Scan the job description, see what words are used most often, and make sure you’ve included them in your bullet points. For example, does the job description list “CRM” or “Salesforce”? Make sure your resume matches. Not only is this a self-check that you’re targeting your resume to the job, but it’ll also make it easier to search for your resume in an ATS.

Read More: How to Pick Resume Keywords That'll Get Your Job Application Past the ATS

Resume tips for including your education

Most hiring managers will want to know your education level, even if it's not necessarily relevant to the position you're going for. This section is especially important for those changing careers or applying for entry-level jobs—as your education can be an indicator of the skills you have.

Here's some resume tips and tricks for this section:

21. Put experience first, education later

Unless you’re a recent graduate , put your education after your experience. Chances are, your last couple of jobs are more important and relevant to you getting the job than where you went to college.

22. Also keep it in reverse chronological order

Generally, you should list your educational background with the most recent or advanced degree first, working in reverse chronological order. But if older coursework is more specific to the job, list that first to grab the reviewer’s attention.

23. Remove the dates from your education section once you’re a few years into your career

Unless you’re early in your career, don’t list your graduation dates. The reviewer cares more about whether or not you have the degree than when you earned it. And you don’t want to inadvertently open yourself up to age discrimination , which is an unfortunate reality in some job markets.

24. Highlight honors and achievements, not GPA

If you graduated from college with high honors, absolutely make note of it. Showcase that summa cum laude status, the fact that you were in the honors college at your university, a relevant project you completed, or an award you won. You don’t need to list your GPA —employers don’t care as much about GPA as they do what skills you gained in school.

Read More: How to (and How Not to) List Education on Your Resume

25. Include continuing or online education

Feel free to include continuing education, professional development coursework, or online courses in your education section, especially if your resume feels a little light on relevant experience.

Best resume tips for showing off your skills

You shouldn't wait until you get an interview to showcase your skills—your resume can and should have a specific section for them. You can also leverage other sections of the document to incorporate what's relevant for the position.

Here are our tips for making a resume that effectively highlights your skills:

26. Don’t forget your skills section

Be sure to add a section that lists all the relevant skills you have for a position—especially those mentioned in the job description. Include technical skills like software and project management tools or specific knowledge of how to perform relevant tasks. Just make sure to skip including skills that everyone is expected to have, like using email or Microsoft Word. Doing so will make you seem less technologically savvy.

27. But don’t only put your skills in your skills section

Your skills section is an easy way for anyone reading your resume to confirm that you have required qualifications, but that shouldn’t be the only place that your important skills appear. Any skill that’s vital to you being hired should also be in your bullet points—where you can show how you’ve used it in the past.

28. Divvy up your skills for readability

If you have lots of skills that would help you with a job but aren’t necessarily in the same category—say, foreign language, software, and leadership skills—try breaking up your skills sections. Below your “Skills” section, add a subsection titled “Language Skills” or “Software Skills,” for example. Again, we’re going for skimmability here!

29. Show—don’t tell—your soft skills

Describing soft skills on a resume often starts to sound like a list of meaningless buzzwords. But being a “strong leader” or an “effective communicator” are important characteristics you want to get across. Think about how you can demonstrate these attributes in your bullet points without actually saying them.

Read more: The Non-Boring Way to Show Off Your Soft Skills in Your Job Search

Other resume section tips

Resume sections are not fixed like stone-written texts; they can change according to the job position you're applying for or the requirements listed by the company. Here are some examples of sections you can add—and more tips on writing a resume that stand out:

30. Include relevant certifications and licenses

If you have a certification or license that proves you can do some aspect of the job you’re applying for, include it on your resume. This is especially important if that certification or license is legally required to do the job—for example, in nursing, teaching, or driving jobs.

31. Show some (relevant) personality

Feel free to include an “Interests” section on your resume, but only add those that are relevant to the job. Are you a guitar player with your eye on a music company? Definitely include it. But if you’re considering including your scrapbooking hobby for a software developer job at a healthcare company? Best to leave it out.

32. Beware of interests and activities that could be controversial

Maybe you help raise money for your church on the reg. Or perhaps you’re dedicated to canvassing during political campaigns. Yes, these experiences show a good amount of work ethic or possibly other relevant skills—but they could also open you up to be discriminated against by someone who disagrees with the cause. So weigh your decision to include them carefully.

33. Add awards and achievements—when they’re relevant

Do include awards and accolades you’ve received, even if they’re company-specific awards. Just state what you earned them for, e.g., “Earned Golden Salesperson Award for having the company’s top sales record four quarters in a row.” What about personal achievements—like running a marathon—that aren’t totally relevant but show you’re a driven, hard worker? Consider the best way to include them (and if you should).

Resume tips for navigating employment gaps and other sticky situations

If you're an experienced professional, you might have some tricky information to explain. Job hopping, career gap, and short term jobs are examples of things that can make an applicant feel insecure when drafting resumes.

Is that your situation? Check on these good resume tips to explain sticky situations without jeopardizing your chances to get an interview:

34. Cut the short-term jobs

If you stayed at a (non-temporary) job for only a matter of months, consider eliminating it from your resume to avoid looking like a job hopper. Leaving a particularly short-lived job or two off your resume shouldn’t hurt, as long as you’re honest about your experience if asked in an interview. But if the short-term job is super relevant to this job, consider including it anyway.

35. If you have shorter gaps, be strategic about how you list dates

If you have gaps of a few months in your work history, don’t list the usual start and end dates with months and years for each position. Use years only (2018–2020), or just the number of years or months you worked at each position. Just keep it consistent throughout your resume and don’t lie if asked about gaps during an interview.

Read more: How to Explain the Gap in Your Resume With Ease

36. Explain serial job hopping

If you’ve job-hopped frequently, you can include a succinct reason for leaving next to each position like “company closed,” “layoff due to downsizing,” or “relocated to a new city.” By addressing the gaps, you’ll proactively illustrate the reason for your frequent job movement and make it less of an issue.

37. Explain a long break in jobs

Re-entering the workforce after a long hiatus? This is the perfect opportunity for a summary statement at the top, outlining your best skills and accomplishments. Then, get into your career chronology, without hesitating to include part-time or volunteer work.

38. Be intentional about career gaps

While career gaps are becoming increasingly common, you should still frame them in a way that’s relevant to a future employer, by talking about skills you gained or any professional endeavors you took on. If you didn’t focus on professional development, that’s fine too! But not every employer will appreciate it if you get too cutesy about that section of your resume.

For example, if you took time out of the workforce to raise kids, you might not want to creatively describe this parenting experience on your resume, à la “adeptly managed the growing pile of laundry.” Instead state what you did plainly and include any professional skills you may have grown or activities you may have done.

Read More: Stay-at-Home Parent? How to Kill it on Your Comeback Resume

Tips on resume finishing touches

Writing a good resume alone isn't the only thing that matters. How you save and send it can also determine whether the recruiter will even take a look at it. To wrap things up, here are our resume formatting tips and other suggestions to boost your chances of getting noticed:

39. Ditch “References available upon request”

If a hiring manager is interested in you, they’ll ask you for references—and will assume that you have them. There’s no need to address the obvious (and doing so might even make you look a little out of touch!).

40. Proofread, proofread, proofread

It should go without saying, but fully edit your resume and make sure it’s free and clear of typos. And don’t rely on spell check and grammar check alone—step away for a few hours, then read your resume closely again, and ask family or friends to take a look at it for you.

41. Save it as a PDF or Word document

Unless a job posting specifically requests that you do otherwise, your resume should always be submitted as either a PDF or Word document (.docx not .doc). These are the formats that can be most easily opened and most easily parsed by an ATS.

The choice between the two is up to you (again, unless the company you’re applying to requests one format over the other). If you’re emailing your resume, however, PDFs are a bit more likely to maintain your formatting across different computers and programs.

42. Name your file clearly

Ready to save your resume and send it off? Save it as “Jane Smith Resume” instead of “Resume.” The hiring manager is going to have plenty of “Resumes” on their computer, so make it super easy for them to find what they’re looking for. You can even go a bit further and put the position title in your file name (e.g., “Jane Smith Marketing Analyst Resume).

Read More: The (Simple) Guidelines You Should Follow When Naming Your Resume and Cover Letter Files

43. Keep your resume outline fresh

Carve out some time every quarter or so to pull up your resume outline and make some updates. Have you taken on new responsibilities? Learned new skills? Add them. When your resume is updated on a regular basis, you’re always ready to pounce when opportunity presents itself. And even if you’re not job searching, there are plenty of good reasons to keep this document in tip-top shape.

How To Write a Resume That Gets You Hired [Samples and Templates Included]

Your resume is your first chance to make a good impression on a potential employer, so it’s important to make it count.

In this guide, we’ll provide step-by-step instructions, valuable insights, and strategies for crafting a resume that resonates with hiring managers.

We also understand that practicality matters, so we’ll offer samples and templates to help you get started. These tools will give you a foundation to build on, so you can create a resume that shines and stands out.

How to Write a Resume in 8 Steps

Learn how to write a resume that gets you hired, with step-by-step instructions;

1. Choose the right resume format

There are 3 main resume formats: chronological, functional, and combination. Each has its strengths, so choose the format that best showcases your skills and experience for the job you’re applying for. 

For a straightforward employment history, the chronological format is effective. If you’re changing careers or have employment gaps, the functional or combination format may be more suitable.

2. Write a strong resume summary or objective

Your resume should open with a compelling summary or objective statement. This is a concise paragraph that outlines your key skills, experience, and career goals. It’s your chance to grab the employer’s attention and make them want to keep reading.

3. Highlight your relevant work experience

In the body of your resume, the work experience section is where you can shine. Add your previous jobs in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. For each job, outline your key responsibilities and highlight your accomplishments. Use action verbs and quantify your achievements whenever possible. This not only tells the employer what you did but also demonstrates the impact you had in your previous roles.

4. Include your education, certifications and training

Your educational background is an important part of your resume. List your educational institutions, degrees obtained, and any relevant training or certifications. Be sure to include your graduation dates as well.

5. List Your skills and abilities

Employers are interested in your skills. Include both hard skills, which are technical or job-specific, and soft skills, which are interpersonal and relate to how you work with others. Use a skills section to make it easy for employers to identify your qualifications.

6. Proofread carefully

Typos and grammatical errors can make you look unprofessional and may cause employers to question your attention to detail. Proofread your resume thoroughly, and you can use grammar checker tools like Grammarly to help ensure accuracy.

Resume Samples and Templates 

To make your journey easier, here are some professionally designed resume samples and templates for you to use as inspiration. Feel free to download these templates and personalize them according to your needs:

#1. Sample 1 – Entry-Level Resume

Fit for those with 0-3 years of experience

Highlights education, internships, and relevant skills.

Sample 2 – Creative Resume Template

Suitable for creative fields like design and marketing.

Features a unique layout to showcase your artistic side.

Sample 3 – Technical Resume Template

Geared towards IT and technical professionals.

Showcases technical skills and certifications.

Incorporating these samples and templates will help you understand how to structure your resume effectively and cater to your unique circumstances. Remember, your resume should evolve as your career does, so don’t hesitate to revise and refine it as you gain new experiences and skills.

Why is a resume so important?

Initial Interaction: Employers usually see your resume first. This is your chance to create a lasting first impression and highlight your skills and qualifications.

Screening Tool: Employers use resumes to filter through numerous applicants. A well-crafted resume can help you pass the initial screening and move to the next stage, which is often an interview.

Customization: Your resume can be tailored to match the specific job you’re applying for. By highlighting relevant skills and experiences, you can demonstrate that you’re a perfect fit for the position.

What Do Employers Look for in a Resume?

Employers typically scan resumes looking for several key elements:

• Relevance: They want to see how your skills and experiences align with the job requirements.
• Professionalism: A well-organized and error-free document reflects professionalism.
• Achievements: Employers are interested in your accomplishments and contributions in previous roles.
• Skills: They look for both technical skills and soft skills, as they want to ensure you’re not only qualified but also a good fit for the team.

At Joresume, we’re committed to helping you achieve your professional goals. We offer affordable resume-writing services designed to bring out your best and capture the attention of employers.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for personalized assistance on your resume journey. A well-crafted resume is your stepping stone to success, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

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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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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

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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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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 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 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 to write a really great resume that actually gets you hired

This is a data-driven guide to writing a resume that actually gets you hired . I’ve spent the past four years analyzing which resume advice works regardless of experience, role, or industry. The tactics laid out below are the result of what I’ve learned. They helped me land offers at Google, Microsoft, and Twitter and have helped my students systematically land jobs at Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and more.

Writing Resumes Sucks.

It’s a vicious cycle.

We start by sifting through dozens of articles by career “gurus,” forced to compare conflicting advice and make our own decisions on what to follow.

The first article says “one page MAX” while the second says “take two or three and include all of your experience.”

The next says “write a quick summary highlighting your personality and experience” while another says “summaries are a waste of space.”

After spending hours wondering what your resume should look like , 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 resumes 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 four years, I’ve personally applied to hundreds of companies and coached hundreds of people through the job search process. This has given 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 resumes over the past 4 years, including:

• Mistakes that more than 95% of people make, causing their resumes to get tossed immediately
• Three 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 whomever 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

When you're done with this post, you can use my free resume builder to apply everything you learned into a beautiful, ATS-friendly resume that actually gets results.

Before we get to the unconventional strategies that will help set you apart, we need to 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 is 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 Five Most Common Resume Mistakes (According To Recruiters & Hiring Managers)

Issue #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.

Issue #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. 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 2018, achieved 168% attainment (#1 on my team).”

Issue #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.

Issue #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, you want to make their lives as easy as possible.

More Common 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
• 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 are a few unique elements you can use to push your application over the edge and finally get your dream company to notice you.

The 3 Elements Of A Resume That Will Get You Hired

My analysis showed that highly effective resumes typically include three specific elements: quantitative results, a simple design, and a quirky interests section. This section breaks down all three elements and shows you how to maximize their impact.

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:

+ 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:

+ 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 campaign across Instagram & Pintrest, which drove an additional 50,000 monthly website visits and generated 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.

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 Word template with sections in this order:

• Volunteer Work (if you have it)

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:

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.

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 whomever is reading your resume.

Most resumes have a skills/interests section, but it’s usually parked at the bottom and offers little to no value. It’s time to change things up.

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 year 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 it is 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 category 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.

The Proven Plug & Play Resume Template

Now that we have our strategies down, it’s time to apply these tactics to a real resume. Our goal is to write something 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 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

I purposefully include my Interests section right below my Summary. If my hiring manager’s six second scan focused on the summary, I know they’ll be interested. Those bullets cover all the subconscious criteria for qualification in sales. They’re going to be curious to read more in my Experience section.

By sandwiching my Interests in the middle, I’m upping their visibility and increasing the chance of creating that personal connection.

You never know — the person reading my resume may also be a hot sauce connoisseur and I don’t want that to be overlooked because my interests were sitting at the bottom.

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 3000 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.

Download My Resume Templates For Free

You can download a copy of the resume sample above as well as a plug and play template here:

Austin’s Resume: Click To Download

Plug & Play Resume Template: Click To Download

Bonus Tip: An Unconventional Resume “Hack” To Help You Beat Applicant Tracking Software

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 you want more details, this article does a good job of explaining ATS).

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 a black hole.

I’m going to teach you a little hack to help improve your chances of beating the system and getting your resume in the hands of a human:

Step 1: Highlight and select the entire job description page and copy it to your clipboard.

Step 2: Head over to WordClouds.com and click on the “Word List” button at the top. Towards the top of the pop up box, you should see a link for Paste/Type Text. Go ahead and click that.

Step 3: Now paste the entire job description into the box, then hit “Apply.”

WordClouds is going to spit out an image that showcases every word in the job description. The larger words are the ones that appear most frequently (and the ones you want to make sure to include when writing your resume). Here’s an example for a data a science role:

You can also get a quantitative view by clicking “Word List” again after creating your cloud. That will show you the number of times each word appeared in the job description:

4 experience

3 Experience

2 Qualifications

2 statistics

2 techniques

2 libraries

2 preferred

When writing your resume, your goal is to include those words in the same proportions as the job description.

It’s not a guaranteed way to beat the online application process, but it will definitely help improve your chances of getting your foot in the door!

Want The Inside Info On Landing A Dream Job Without Connections, Without “Experience,” & Without Applying Online?

Click here to get the 5 free strategies that my students have used to land jobs at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more without applying online.

Originally published at cultivatedculture.com .

I teach people how to land jobs they love without traditional experience and without applying online. Connect with me and follow along on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abelcak/

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99+ Must-Know Resume Statistics To Get You Hired in 2024

Are you struggling to land your dream job despite submitting countless resumes? 

You’re not alone. 

According to recent statistics, a job opening receives an average of 250 resumes, but only 2% of applicants are invited for an interview. 

This competitive landscape makes it crucial to have a standout resume. 

But how can you ensure that your resume gets noticed by hiring managers? 

In this article, we’ll explore the latest resume statistics and trends that’ll shape your 2024 job hunt and help you stand out from the crowd. 

12 Key Resume Statistics

Let’s start with some key resume statistics. 

These resume statistics provide valuable insights into current HR trends in today’s job market that can help job seekers make informed decisions about their job hunt:

• A single corporate job opening gets an average of 250 applications. (Glassdoor)
• Over 80% of resumes don’t make it past the first screening and only 1 in 10 get to a hiring manager. (Workopolis)
• Less than 3% of sent resumes result in a job interview. (Team Stage)
• Up to 90% of employers, including most Fortune 500 companies, use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to manage candidate applications. ( Forbes )
• Only 25% of resumes make it past the ATS and in front of a human recruiter! This means that 75% of resumes don’t qualify because of formatting, content, or lack of keywords. (Gitnux)
• The average time a hiring manager spends looking at a resume is 7 seconds, so your resume needs to make a very quick impression.
• The ideal length of a resume is between 475 and 600 words. (Forbes)
• Resumes outside the ideal word count are seen as less hireable 43% of the time. (Forbes)
• Yet over 77% of resumes don’t fit in the recommended range! (Forbes)
• The average resume only lists about half of the keywords used in the job description. Consider this a reminder to compare your resume to the job ad and include all the relevant keywords. (Forbes)
• Based on this data, the majority of resumes job-seekers send out don’t meet the average recruiter’s criteria.
• But it’s not all dark! Research finds that around 68% of candidates who use a professional resume writing service get a job within 90 days of sending out their resume. ( The Motley Fool )

Now that you know how important a good resume is for your job hunt, learn how to write a great resume with our guide. 

22 Resume Formatting Statistics

Resume formatting plays an extremely important role in what kind of first impression you make as a candidate. If the first thing the hiring manager sees is a messy and crowded resume, chances are they won’t feel compelled to read the contents. 

The following resume formatting statistics prove just how important resume formatting is and show you how to format yours to make the right first impression:

• According to Novoresume’s Job-Seekers survey, 60.6% of job-seekers have a resume that’s one page.
• Two-page resumes are common for 29.7% of candidates.
• Meanwhile, less than 10% of people have a resume that’s 3 pages or more.
• Single-page resumes are especially recommended for students who have less professional experience. (Reed)
• However, this doesn’t mean that you should rule out two-page resumes entirely. 77% of employers agree that more experienced candidates should have a two-page resume. (Zippia)
• Research shows that candidates with two-page resumes may be up to 2.9 times as likely to get hired than applicants that submit one-page resumes. (Zippia)
• So don’t cram everything into one page if you have relevant information that could provide value to your application. Two pages might not ruin your candidacy, especially if you’re at a senior level. ( Business Insider )
• Always keep the information you list on your resume relevant. A resume is meant to provide a brief introduction to your professional life, while a CV or LinkedIn profile can house all the details. (Business Insider)
• And when it comes to your European CV, a survey found that 91% of recruiters agree that two pages are the ideal length for it. (Reed)
• Applicant tracking systems reject most resumes due to bad formatting. Thankfully, there are plenty of good sources teaching you how to write an ATS-friendly resume .
• The best format for your resume is a PDF file since it allows your resume to be readable by most ATS software and keeps your resume layout from changing when opened on different operating systems. (Indeed)
• Recruiters suggest keeping your resume formatting as clear as possible. This means using black font color, bullet points instead of blocks of paragraphs, and a separate skills section to optimize readability. ( Business Insider )
• The most common sections to include on a resume are contact information , work experience, education, skills, and a resume summary or objective.
• For nearly 70% of recruiters, the most important section of your resume is your past work experience .
• Research shows that 54% of candidates don’t tailor their resume to the job description, which can considerably lower their odds of getting called in for an interview. (Career Builder)
• According to a study, one of the easiest ways to catch a hiring manager’s attention is by having a resume summary of about 15 words at the top of your resume.
• But don’t rely too heavily on a summary statement. Making your resume objective or resume summary too long or using cliches will have a negative impact on a recruiter about 29% of the time. (Finances Online)
• Most hiring managers recommend the reverse chronological resume format because it’s the most popular format globally and because it lists your most recent professional experience first. (Indeed)
• A crucial detail that employers want to see but that most resumes are missing is quantifiable achievements , with 34% of recruiters stating that a lack of result statements is a dealbreaker. ( Forbes )
• Recruiters overwhelmingly recommend using action verbs and leadership-related words in your application. Replace passive words like “helped” or “assisted” with the bolder “managed” and “led”. (Finances Online)
• Try to avoid using too much industry jargon and focus on leveraging keywords instead. There’s always a chance the person reviewing your resume isn’t an expert in the field, just part of the HR department weeding through applications. ( Business Insider )
• Always follow the resume guidelines typical for the country you’re applying in. For example, over 80% of applications in the USA are rejected because the candidate includes their photo . (Team Stage)

20 Job-Hunting and Resume Statistics

Observing current job market trends will help you get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. 

Here’s what job-seekers and recruiters have to say about how resumes affect job hunting:

• On average, a single job-seeker sends out 50 resumes before finding a job. (Zippia)
• A Novoresume survey found that the majority of job-seekers, up to 37.5%, got employed within two months of searching.
• On the other end, 12% of job-seekers took more than a year to find their next position.
• Roughly 48.8% of job-seekers only make minor adjustments to their resume before sending in their applications for different jobs.
• However, 32.9% create a brand new resume for each application.
• Only 18.2% submit the same resume with every application.
• Separate research by Gitnux has recently found that 60% of jobs are found through networking.
• The same research also found that up to 70% of jobs are never posted publicly but instead filled by internal transfers or referrals.
• Additionally, Gitnux found that the process of landing a job in 2023 takes an average of 5 months.
• Meanwhile, about 52% of recruiters say that the average hiring time after an interview is 3 weeks.
• But recruiters rarely need more than 8 seconds to decide if a candidate is appropriate for the position.
• The Job-Seekers survey also found that during their job search, 41.5% of people spend less than 2 hours per day looking and applying for positions.
• However, 40.3% of people spend between two and four hours doing the same.
• 84.7% of job-seekers apply to somewhere between one and six jobs per day.
• LinkedIn overwhelmingly ranks at the top for the most preferred tool for finding a job in 2023! Up to 75.6% of job-seekers surveyed by Novoresume use the platform, followed by 66.6% going for online job boards and 64.4% directly using company websites.
• Meanwhile, 56.7% of job seekers seek referrals from friends and acquaintances, which could help them tap into the hidden job market that networking provides.
• And keep in mind that referred candidates are nearly four times as likely to get hired. (Zippia)
• At this time, only about 12.8% look at offline job ads. The tools job-seekers and recruiters both use are almost always online. (Novoresume)
• Applications that get sent before 10 AM have an almost 90% higher chance of getting noticed, while ones sent within the first week of the job vacancy being posted have a further 60% chance of making it in front of a recruiter. (Zippia)
• And finally, out of 5579 people surveyed, the Job-Seekers survey found that at 44.4%, most job-seekers are currently working full time, while 36.4% are currently unemployed.

Networking is one of the best ways to find a job in 2024. Check out these surprising networking statistics to learn how!

10 Resume Skills Statistics

After work experience, skills are the most important resume section for any candidate. Here are the top resume skill statistics to back this up:

• Not listing your professional skills on your resume can look as bad as a one-year gap of employment . (Zippia)
• In fact, 41% of recruiters look for skills on a resume first.
• Job descriptions tend to list over 20 required skills on average but most resumes only include 13.
• There’s a 20% increase in job postings that focus more on skills and responsibilities as opposed to qualifications, so skills are becoming even more important. ( LinkedIn )
• 91% of recruiters love seeing soft skills on resumes . (Finances Online)
• A further 16% of recruiters believe they’re even more important than hard skills.
• Over 40% of recruiters believe that candidates’ resumes lack much-needed soft skills. (Team Stage)
• Some top contenders for soft skills are attention to detail, leadership, time management, adaptability, and communication in the workplace .
• Don’t forget about hard skills though! Computer skills like Microsoft Office and Project Management are the most popular hard skills listed on resumes.
• Over 85% of recruiters believe that candidates exaggerate the skills on the resume they send. ( HRDive )

13 Cover Letter and Resume Statistics

Writing a cover letter is a must for any job application. Done right, a cover letter can provide the hiring manager with a more detailed view of you as a candidate and serve as a supplement to your resume.

So, we did some digging and found these cover letter and resume statistics:

• According to the Job-Seekers survey, more than 47.4% of applicants don’t include a cover letter with their application unless the employer specifically asks for one.
• Meanwhile, 31.1% of job-seekers don’t submit cover letters at all, even though it’s always recommended to submit one .
• The remaining 21.5% of those surveyed always submit cover letters with their job applications.
• Of those who send cover letters, 35.4% make adjustments to them according to each job they apply to.
• 34.1% prefer to tailor a completely new letter to each of their applications.
• And an additional 30.5% of job-seekers just submit the same letter everywhere they apply.
• 63% of recruiters say they would like to receive resumes tailored specifically to the job vacancy, which applies to the cover letters, too. (Zippia)
• And a further 61% of recruiters say that a guaranteed way to make your application stand out is customization. This includes providing a cover letter, addressing the hiring manager by name , and providing a link to your portfolio, website, or relevant social media.
• Nearly 40% of hiring managers say that cover letters make them pay more attention to an application. (Zippia)
• 26% of recruiters believe that cover letters are important when making a hiring decision. (Zippia)
• Almost 45% of recruiters say that not having a cover letter could get you rejected. 
• Not listing any skills in your cover letter could hurt your chances of an interview by as much as 35%. (Team Stage)
• And 70% of employers agree that the recommended length for cover letters is half a page.

Wondering how to submit a stellar cover letter? This article lists the most relevant cover letter tips in 2024 . 

10 Resume and Social Media Statistics

In the online age, social media’s role keeps growing and affecting the job market. 

We’ve found the following resume and social media statistics that show just how important an online presence is during a job hunt:

• 90% of employers use some form of social media when looking to fill a vacancy.
• A fully updated profile on LinkedIn is a necessary companion to your resume. Over 77% of recruiters use the platform when looking to hire. (Zippia)
• Over 75.6% of job-seekers first head to LinkedIn to find a job. (Novoresume)
• Less than 50% of resumes include a link to the candidate’s LinkedIn profile . (Forbes)
• Every week, over 52 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs. (Gitnux)
• Meanwhile, the same Gitnux study found that 79% of job seekers use social media to find their next job, with LinkedIn being at the top, followed by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Additionally, over half of the employers have rejected candidates based on their social media profiles, even when the candidates had good resumes. Be cautious of what you post on social media, especially if you have your legal name attached to it.
• Recruiters suggest putting more detail on your LinkedIn profile but keeping your resume short and relevant to the job you’re applying for. ( Business Insider )
• Up to 40% of recruiters may refuse to interview candidates without an online presence. (Career Builder)
• Smartphones have outplayed computers when it comes to job searches, and social media has played its part. Thanks to the ease of use that smartphone apps provide, 50.2% of job-seekers have used their mobile device to look for job openings, compared to 48.2% of people who used computers as their first choice. (Novorésumé)

13 Resume Rejection Statistics

What are some red flags that employers look out for in candidates and how can you learn from them? 

We’ve gathered some helpful resume rejection statistics to help you avoid some common resume mistakes .

• 1 out of 5 recruiters will reject a candidate in under 60 seconds and without finishing reading their resume. ( The Undercover Recruiter )
• And a further 25% will spend less than 30 seconds reviewing an applicant’s resume. (The Motley Fool)
• Over 10% of job seekers have applied to 50+ jobs without hearing back. (Team Stage)
• Nearly 80% of recruiters will reject a resume because of typos or grammar mistakes. This goes to show you can never proofread your resume enough. (The Motley Fool)
• Cliches get resumes rejected by over 50% of recruiters. Saying you’re “a team player” or “hard worker” on your resume won’t necessarily land you an interview!
• Overly-complicated design and layout choices , such as clashing fonts, lack of white space, cluttered images, or even emojis, can put off more than 40% of recruiters.
• Don’t be too casual when writing your resume - statistics show that 84% of recruiters may reject a resume written in an informal tone.
• Avoid writing about yourself in the third person (e.g: “John spent 3 years working as a data analyst until he was promoted.”) This makes over 40% of recruiters toss your application to the “No” pile. (Team Stage)
• There’s also no point in adding personal pronouns on your resume, such as I, me, we, or mine, since recruiters already know you’re listing your own experience. ( Business Insider )
• Over 35% of people reading your resume will reject it if you have an unprofessional email address. Stick to some variation of the [email protected] email address format. (The Motley Fool)
• Just under 50% of recruiters say that overly long resumes get candidates rejected, while 17% of hiring managers consider a resume longer than a single page to be a deal-breaker, so keep your resume relevant and no longer than two pages.
• Far too many candidates lie on their resumes, with up to 72% of people admitting to it. The lies are most often related to education, followed by years of professional experience , time spent at a previous job, and skills. ( Business Insider )
• But 75% of hiring managers have caught a lie on a resume! And once the lie was caught, those candidates were not hired. (The Motley Fool)

And those are our 100 resume statistics to get you hired in 2024!

Hopefully, now that you know what some HR trends and popular opinions are, they can help you on your job hunt.

If you need anything else, our career blog is here to help!

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Resume Examples & Samples

What to put on a resume to get you hired [examples].

Dayana Aleksandrova

Create a Resume in Minutes & Get More Job Interviews

Table of Contents

• The 7 most important things to put on your resume

Contact Information

Resume summary, accomplishments, hobbies and interests.

Creating the perfect resume is a balancing act. You don’t want to spill your entire life story and hand in a stack of paper thicker than War & Peace , yet you have to make sure that all of the key information the recruiter wants is available within a quick scan. So, let’s have a look at what to put on a resume that gets you hired.

From your correct contact information to a great resume summary, experience and hobbies, there is some key information that you must include if you want the job.

VelvetJobs Expert Tip

Don't have a resume yet? Check out our resume builder .

The 7 Most Important Things to Put on your Resume

#the-7-most-important-things-to-put-on-your-resume.

Recruiters want to make the hiring process as easy and quick as possible. They scan resumes with an eagle-eye and can tell right away if you’ve got the right information in place or if reading your application will be a waste of time.

Give the hiring manager what they are looking for, including these seven categories of information that all successful resume templates include:

• Contact information
• Resume summary
• Hobbies and interests

Let’s dive into each section to see what to put on your resume and how to format it.

#contact-information

The contact information section is extremely important, yet very overlooked. You need to ease the recruiter’s life by giving clear and straightforward information on how to reach you.

Your resume should include:

• Your first and last name
• Email address
• Physical address

Write out your name as spelled in your passport. While everyone may call you “Dick Nixon,” go with “Richard Nixon.” You want to keep your entire application consistent, meaning that your name should match on your resume as well as any supplements and social media.

Put down your telephone number so that the recruiter can reach you quickly. It’s best to include your cell phone, as you have it with you at all times.

Your email address can make a fool out of you without you even realizing it. Make sure to include a professional email address. While you could get away with “[email protected]” in high school, that address will make you look silly in front of the hiring manager.

Here is what to put on a resume in terms of email - a version of your First + Last Name @ provider. For example, someone named John Smith should go for “ [email protected] ” or “ [email protected] .”

Do you need to include your physical address? It’s a good idea to do so. The recruiter will know whether you’ll need to relocate or whether you’re in the right place already. Plus, you may get some mail if you continue with the application process.

Your contact information should look like this:

• Experience Details June 2013 – August 2015

Make sure to be as clear and as concise as possible. There are plenty of essential things to add to your resume, so the contact section should only take 1 - 2 lines.

#resume-summary

The summary is essentially the first impression your resume makes on the recruiter. If you lead in with a great intro, you will have their attention. If not, well, you’re off to the shredder.

What to put on a resume summary that grabs the hiring manager’s attention:

The ideal resume summary is between 3 and 6 sentences . They have to be engaging and clear. Let’s look at an example:

Hospitality professional looking to leverage existing skills in a good company.

The applicant hits all six points and even throws in a numerical value. Using numbers in your summary make information easier and faster to process, so definitely include them whenever possible.

Your title is important, as the recruiter will know right away whether to keep reading or move on. For example, if you’re applying for a hotel job and say that you’re a “Concierge,” that’s relevant, and you’ve got their attention. If you lead in with “Financial Analyst,” on the other hand, the recruiter will toss your resume immediately.

Same goes for your industry. Make sure to identify right off the bat what area you work in to avoid confusion.

What to put on your resume summary in terms of education is very straightforward. Mention your school and degree, that’s it.

Your accomplishments, skills, and goals should be mentioned very briefly and have to be extremely relevant to the job. You should use the job description to identify the keywords that will catch the recruiter’s eye.

Make sure you land that job! Learn How and Why To Tailor Your Resume to the Job (10+ Examples)

#experience

Your experience is the flesh of the resume. This is the most important section, so if you forget to include it, might as well save yourself the trouble of applying altogether.

The experience section will take up about 60% of your entire resume. It has to show exactly why you are the perfect candidate for the job. How do you do that? Tailor your resume to the job ad. Just like you can identify the keywords from the job description, you will be able to tell which of your experience is relevant.

Let’s say you were the best pizza chef in town. Unfortunately, that won’t help if you’re applying for a marketing executive position. If you worked at a magazine, however, that will score you points with the recruiter.

In the experience section, you have to make sure to put:

• Company name
• Dates you worked there
• Responsibilities
• Accomplishments, ideally quantifiable whenever possible
• Boston Foodie Magazine Boston, MA
• Managing Editor September 2015 - July 2017
• Produced and edited content on food-related topics
• Managed a team of 5 writers
• Piloted a new column that became #1 in popularity within 6 months

Keep your experience clear, in order, and detailed enough for the recruiter to see that you’re the answer to their prayers. Adding three-four lines per job experience is an ideal amount of information. Steer clear of fluff and confusion.

Your education section comes secondary to the experience, yet is still important. If you’ve got the right degree, you might just beat the competition. The most important details about your education on the resume are:

• Your degree
• School you attended
• Year of graduation

Remember to list your highest degree first. For example:

MA in Philosophy, Yale 2015

BA in Greek Literature, Yale 2013

BA in Chemistry, Harvard 2013

Ph.D in Chemistry, Harvard 2017

MA in Chemistry, Harvard 2015

You can add your GPA as well if it’s higher than 3.5 .

If you’ve been a part of Phi Beta Kappa or another honor society, feel free to mention it. Just make sure not to make this section too long. After all, seeing that you studied the industry is good, but proving through experience that you know how to do the job is best.

Need some inspiration? Check out these resume templates

The skills section of the resume is a bit tricky. While it’s tempting to say “I’m the best for the job because I’m a people-person and the best negotiator you’ll see,” you have to keep your cool and show your talents instead.

So how do you delicately demonstrate to the recruiter that you’re the perfect candidate? Read the job ad carefully. Pinpoint the skills required and then match them to your own.

For example, if a job calls for someone to “Manage a team of 5,” say that you’ve got a high level of emotional intelligence and are a great listener.

The trick here is not to be copying the job description word for word. Find what the needs of the company are and show that you’ve got the skills to fulfill them.

We know you've got skills, but which ones do you put on your resume? Find out 50+ Skills to Put on a Resume [Key to Get a Job] .

#accomplishments

Think of your resume as your private magazine where you’re the star. This is your time to shine, so don’t skip the accomplishments section.

List your most relevant successes and rewards that are directly applicable to the position you’re applying for. For example, if you’re after a sales job, mention that you reached and exceeded your old quota which got you promoted in a year.

The key here is to keep your accomplishments relevant.

Show the recruiter that you're a winner - learn How to Mention Accomplishments on Your Resume (10+ Examples) .

#hobbies-and-interests

Every category of information on your resume is strategic. What to put on your resume under “hobbies and interests” is a part of the main plan to tailor your resume for to the job.

While you may have awesome hobbies like laser tag or playing video games, that won’t be of much help if you’re applying for a position at a fashion magazine. Yes, your hobbies and interests should represent your personality appropriately, but they are on your resume to show that your personality is the best fit.

Let’s say that you’re after a job at a fashion magazine. Then you would want to add hobbies and interests like photography, drawing, social media and boutique shopping. It’s a good idea to mention that you’ve got an interest in reading famous designers’ biographies and that your favorite documentary is “The September Issue.”

Keep this section genuine and make it work for you by skillfully demonstrating why you’re an amazing fit.

Want to learn how to add hobbies and interests on a resume? Check out our guide on How and Why Put Hobbies on a Resume (20+ Real Examples) .

#bonus-tips

Now that we’ve gone over the seven core things to put on your resume let’s look at how to score some bonus points.

• Consider adding a social media section to your resume

Recruiters already know that you’re on social media because, you guessed it, they are too. Include your LinkedIn profile up top with your contact information.

Make sure to change the URL to your first and last name instead of having a dozen random symbols and numbers. That way the recruiter will be able to do a quick search on you and pull up your nice, polished profile.

• Follow the company and the recruiter on LinkedIn

Give the company a follow. Do some research to find out what news they care about. Then engage with their content and tag them into smart posts on the same topic. If the recruiter sees your name a lot on LinkedIn, chances are that they will remember while looking at your resume.

Don’t be shy and connect with the recruiter directly. Send a quick invitation to connect and comment on the content they post. You can follow them on Twitter as well. Just remember to keep it professional.

• Make sure that your resume sections align

Pay attention to formatting because while it’s the information that gets you the job, it’s the formatting that gets the recruiter to look at the information. Organize your sections neatly, so there aren’t awkward symbols and scattered letters. Take a look at this well-aligned example:

So what do you put on a resume if you want to get hired? Check off as many of the seven key categories as possible - contact information , resume summary , experience , education , skills , accomplishment s , and hobbies and interests .

Remember that each of these sections (ok, except the contact info) has to be tailored to the job description in a relatable way. You’re going for the “show, don’t tell” effect, so prove that you’ve skillfully managed to accomplish what the position requires you to do.

Pay attention to the formatting. Keep all of your sections clean, organized and straightforward. Add your LinkedIn profile and engage with the company and the recruiter for extra points. Follow these basic steps and you’ll be all set!

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Sample List of Accomplishments for Resume (35+ Examples)

By Biron Clark

Published: March 1, 2024

Biron Clark

Writer & Career Coach

Listing accomplishments on your resume can get you more job interviews and get you hired faster.

Yet many job seekers don’t know the right way to list accomplishments and professional achievements on a resume.

Coming up, we’ll look at:

• 35+ resume accomplishment examples
• How to brainstorm your own list of achievements to write about
• Where on your resume to include this information

35+ Professional Achievement and Accomplishment Examples

Below are 35 examples of good accomplishment statements for your resume. Coming up after this, I’ll share more on how to brainstorm a list of your own achievements.

Accomplishment Examples for Students and New Grads:

• Led class project to research and present financial forecasts for global markets
• Dean’s List 2019
• Delivered presentation on diffusion and osmosis as a part of Biology 301 course, earning a 100% grade in the class
• Active member of university debate club
• Varsity soccer, 2018-2019

As you can see, you can mix a variety of academic awards, club and sport participation, presentations and projects, and your grades! These are all fair game when writing resume achievements as a student.

When you don’t have any full-time work experience yet, your academic work is your experience, so it’s important to show details beyond the name of your university and the degree you earned! Share more detail and you’ll stand out from other students and entry-level candidates.

Sample Accomplishments for Administrative Assistants:

• Administrative assistant to 12-person digital marketing team responsible for driving $1.9 million in annual revenue and an average of 180 new business leads per month
• Administrative assistant to a team of 10 Account Managers, overseeing $109 million in client accounts and growing 19% in 2020
• Promoted from Administrative Assistant to Senior Administrative Assistant due to consistent above-average performance and recognized as a “rising star” in 2020, an award given to just 2% of new employees
• Spearheaded a record-keeping process reorganization that led to a 20% time savings across the administrative team in Q4 2020
• Scheduled and coordinated meetings and travel arrangements for 11 managers and supervisors with 100% accuracy
• Trained two administrative assistants during a period of company expansion to ensure attention to detail and accuracy of work
• Implemented new document filing and organizational procedure resulting in a $9,200 annual savings in contracted labor costs

Note that you can vary how you begin each resume bullet. While many of your bullets should begin with verbs like, “Spearheaded,” you can also start others with a job title, like “Administrative Assistant.” You can see this in the first two examples in the list of bullets above.

Having some variety in language makes your resume more interesting to the reader, and using your job title in a few bullets is an effective way of adding some great keywords to your resume to get past any automated application systems the employer is using.

Accomplishments for Customer Service:

• Achieved a customer satisfaction rating of 98.2% in 2020, 3rd best among customer support team of 100+ employees
• Addressed an average of 200 inbound customer requests per week while also educating the customer about up-sells and additional ways our company could help them, which led to an additional $188,000 in revenue in 2019
• Decreased average customer wait time for service requests by 3% company-wide by creating email response templates for the department
• Managed training and onboarding of new customer service associates, in partnership with Department Head, for all 12 new customer support associates hired in 2020
• Managed 50+ daily inbound enterprise customer requests via phone and email in support of enterprise division’s 244% year-over-year growth in 2020

As you can see from the examples above, you can mix in achievements that highlight your day-to-day work, but also any projects you led, process improvement actions you implemented to save the department time or money, etc.

You can also mention any leadership skills used, such as training new team members, participating in the interview process when hiring new staff, etc.

These work achievements all show potential employers that you were trusted by your previous company and can bring valuable skills to your next position!

Accomplishments/Achievements for Sales & Marketing:

• Increased division revenue by 4% by achieving 212% of personal sales quota in 2020
• Developed cross-selling promotional campaign to bundle 3 top-selling products, increasing department revenue by 12% in 2020
• Orchestrated new social media marketing campaign resulting in a 309% increase in online leads generated in Q1 2020
• Achieved third-highest sales total in 2019 among a team of 50+ sales associates
• Increased sales by 9% through the successful rollout of a new subscription service spearheaded by myself and 3 team members

Sales jobs tend to be some of the easiest in terms of coming up with professional accomplishments on a resume, so I won’t put too many here.

Just remember, always look at the job description and demonstrate skills that are relevant to the jobs you’re applying to now.

And always think about how your duties and responsibilities can be quantified.

Accomplishment Examples for Human Resources:

• Trained and onboarded 22 new team members in Q4 2020, ensuring an understanding of company policies, goals, and mission
• Managed 12 contract recruiters and successfully hired 19 new team members in 2020 to help the company grow 22% year-over-year
• Implemented new onboarding process resulting in 20% less manager time required to onboard new employees through the use of software learning tools
• Promoted from Human Resources Associate to Human Resources Supervisor position in 2020
• Facilitated successful move to new office in 2019, coordinating more than 200 employees across 6 different departments to limit downtime and maximize productivity during office transition

Accomplishments for Software Developers:

• Managed the development of new subscription video platform, which earned the company $3.1 million in the first year after launch
• Performed code optimization on online customer dashboard, eliminating 2,000+ lines of code and reducing server resource usage by 19%
• Managed and led 9-person development team building the company’s new mobile apps (iOS and Android), successfully launching both projects in 2020, with an average app store review of 4.6 stars
• Spearheaded quality assurance project for company’s new Android app, diagnosing and eliminating 104 bugs/errors in the first 3 months after launch, resulting in a 22% increase in average user rating in the following 3 months
• Interviewed 22 potential new software engineering candidates for our company, ensuring adequate knowledge of software development and computer science, as well as cultural fit

Work Accomplishments for Managers/Directors:

• Oversaw 12-person marketing team responsible for 22% of the total revenue in the business, while growing the team 108% in 2020
• Managed 22 staff, overseeing 25+ projects per quarter with total project budgets exceeding $2.5 million
• Developed new recruiting & hiring plan, helping the department fill average job openings 29% faster compared to prior year
• Managed 29 staff (11 direct reports; 18 indirect) across 2 office locations and 2 business divisions, including hiring, performance reviews, and day-to-day guidance and oversight
• Saved business $29,000 in 2019 by implementing new customer service process that reduced refund requests by 9%

Next Steps: What Are Good Accomplishments for Your Resume?

The best accomplishments to put on your resume are work accomplishments, especially those that are relevant to the jobs you’re pursuing now.

Always check the job description when deciding which achievements are best to mention. This will help you stand out from other candidates.

Your work accomplishment examples should demonstrate to a hiring manager that your past work prepared you to step into their job and succeed now.

That’s the main goal of listing achievements on a resume.

Always review the duties and responsibilities from the job description and then think about which of your achievements relate to that type of job. That’s what you should emphasize on your resume.

Also, hiring managers will view your accomplishments and work experience as more relevant/significant if you performed them somewhat recently. So your resume should include more achievements that occurred in your two or three most recent positions.

For example, for your most recent role, you may want to include eight to ten bullet points. For the next role, maybe only six or seven. After that, for older positions, you may want to include even fewer.

Types of Accomplishments to Include on a Resume:

Numbers paint a clearer picture and grab the reader’s attention on your resume, so include numbers and data when possible. Consider including the following:

• Dollar amounts
• Percent increases or decreases
• Number of people (for example, the number of people you supported as an administrative assistant, the number of people you managed or trained as a supervisor, the number of customer requests you handled per day if you’re in customer service)
• Time periods (for example, saying you helped the company acquire 25 new customers in three months or that you completed a specific project in six weeks and ahead of the deadline)

Of course, you can also include non-numerical achievements, such as:

• Industry awards
• Academic achievements (if you’re a recent graduate or student)

You may need to ask colleagues and coworkers for ideas or do some research to quantify everything, but the more you can assign specific numbers and results to specific job tasks on your resume, the better.

This article has examples of good power words and verbs for a resume to help you start brainstorming. It also explains why you never want to start bullets with, “Responsible for…”

List Team and Company Accomplishments Along With Individual Results

You can also name group and company achievements to give context to the impact of your work. For example, if you’re an administrative assistant supporting a certain team, you can talk about how much revenue that team brought in.

Even if you only played a small role, you were a part of that effort!

The bottom line is, don’t feel like you can only include individual resume accomplishments. If you were part of a group, list what your group achieved, too!

Why Do Employers Care About Past Achievements?

Now that we’ve looked at some resume accomplishment examples above, let’s talk about why it’s so important to show specific accomplishments in your resume.

The reason resume accomplishments are so powerful is that they provide proof of your past successes and abilities, and also paint a detailed picture for the employer in terms of what you could do for them.

Sharing a few examples of past successes is the best way to prove that you’ll have strong future performance as well.

For example, if an employer sees that you helped your last company grow a key metric or succeed and grow, they’ll be thinking, “Wow, imagine what this person could do for us now!”

It’s always more convincing and memorable to provide specific proof of what you’ve achieved rather than only listing duties and responsibilities on a resume.

Here’s an example of what a great professional accomplishment on a resume can do for your job search…

Imagine you’re writing your resume and trying to describe your contribution to developing a new product.

If you’re like most people, you might write a bullet point like this:

• Assisted in the development of new product suite launched in 2020

Now imagine you list this work accomplishment on your resume like this instead:

• Key member of development team for company’s new product suite in 2020, earning $12 million in the first 10 months after launch

In the second example above, instead of just talking about your basic duties, you’re showing the exact impact your work had on a company’s success. That’s going to set you apart and make recruiters and hiring managers more excited to talk to you.

Final Step: Write Your Own Work Accomplishments

To start writing your own accomplishment list for your job search, it may be helpful to look at past job descriptions of the roles you’ve held. Or, use your memory and begin to write down your typical work in a day, week, and month.

What were your main job duties?

Where did you spend the bulk of your time? What were you responsible for? Most importantly, what did you help the company achieve or improve?

That last part is the most important for impressing a hiring manager and winning interviews.

A list of resume bullets starting with, “Responsible for” is generic and NOT going to win over a hiring manager.

So always think about how your work tasks and duties actually helped the company, and then quantify them as much as possible!

Resume Format: Where to Place Accomplishments on Your Resume

The best place to list accomplishments on your resume is under your work experience, particularly in your bullets. Your resume bullets are the ideal place to list work accomplishments because bullets stand out visually and grab the reader’s attention. They are almost always one of the first places that recruiters and hiring managers look at on a resume.

You can also write a couple of key accomplishments in your resume summary paragraph at the top of the document. But then list even more in your bullets under your employment history.

Those are the two most important places to put this information on your resume.

Should You Include a Separate “Key Achievements” Resume Section?

If you read everything above, you now know that the best place to list key achievements on your resume is in your chronological work experience and your professional summary.

But if you want to provide some additional info, then you can consider adding a dedicated “Key Achievements” section.

This can help you include some additional keywords on your resume and variations of keywords. And if you’ve racked up many professional awards and impressive results across a long career, it allows you to show everything in one place at-a-glance.

However, I recommend keeping the list short (eight to ten bullets or fewer).

As a recruiter , I prefer to see context for where/when you used each skill, which I see in your resume work history. So that’s where most of your time/effort should go in terms of writing your resume.

Anything you include in a “Key Achievements” section should also be listed under your work experience.

For more help structuring your resume and deciding which sections to include and where, read this article about everything to put on a resume.

Bonus Tip: Use LinkedIn to See Real-World Examples of Work Accomplishments

Different positions and industries will have vastly different accomplishments.

So one more way you can write a stand-out list of achievements and separate yourself from most candidates is to look at top talent in your industry on LinkedIn.

Most people list key accomplishments beneath their various jobs on LinkedIn.

So you can gather far more examples there, and see some of the best achievements of your industry peers.

This may remind you of your own work achievements, and will surely give you more examples to take inspiration from.

Or, if you’re an entry-level job seeker, look at other recent graduates and see how people are listing their academic awards and other relevant accomplishments.

If many other people are listing their academic achievements in a certain way and have good jobs now, it’s a sign they’re attracting potential employers.

You’re more likely to get an interview for a position if you list results and accomplishments on your resume, especially if those results are relevant to the employer’s needs.

Don’t think of your resume as just a list of what you were responsible for in past roles. Instead, share achievements and results, and quantify them whenever possible.

There are a variety of achievements you can list, from managing a project, training a new team member, helping to sell more products, creating a new process, or receiving an award.

Find as many accomplishments as you can for your resume, and you’ll stand out from other job seekers.

If you take this approach with your resume, you’ll get more job interviews.

About the Author

Read more articles by Biron Clark

More Resume Tips & Guides

Crafting the perfect resume for teens (template & expert advice), career change interview tips, resume tips and more, how much does a resume writer cost (average price and ranges), walk me through your resume: answer examples, applying for jobs out of state this resume tip can help, how long should a resume be, how to put direct and indirect reports (and other data) on your resume, what makes a good resume 9 ways to know, 11 common resume mistakes to avoid, career change resume: examples and tips from experts.

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Free Teacher Resume Template and Tips, Plus 21 Teacher Resume Examples

Make a great first impression!

Whether you’re searching for your first teaching job or you’re ready for a change, you’ll need a solid resume. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there on how to write a resume that will land you an interview, so it’s worth taking some time to review teacher resume examples first. We’ve rounded up examples for pretty much any kind of educator and assembled tips for how to write a strong modern teacher resume.

Best of all, we’ve got a free, fully customizable teacher resume template to get you started quickly and easily. Fill out the form on this page to grab your template, then use our tips to start building your resume today.

Teacher Resume Tips

Teacher resume examples.

Resumes have changed a lot in recent years, so do your research to find out what the latest trends are. For instance, while an “objectives” section used to be a resume standard, people often drop this section today in favor of more space to highlight their accomplishments. Start with these general resume tips, then get more advice for completing our free teacher resume template, section by section.

General Tips

• Keep it to one or two pages. Hiring managers don’t have time to read overly long resumes. Put the most important information up front, and remove anything that doesn’t truly strengthen your application.
• Be honest. While you want to highlight your strengths and achievements, don’t go overboard. If you exaggerate your experience but are unable to perform certain tasks, you may put your future job at risk before you even get started.
• Skip the gimmicks. Some people will tell you the way to make your resume stand out is to use fun fonts or a “creative” design. The fact is, people who are hiring want an easy-to-read, clear presentation that highlights your achievements and credentials. That’s what will land you an interview.
• Tailor your resume. Keep a standard resume document that you can customize for the specific job you’re applying for. That might mean moving sections around, highlighting specific skills or experiences, or deciding which parts of your career deserve to be placed up front. Take a close look at the job description, and tailor your resume accordingly.
• Don’t try to circumvent the system. Years ago, people would tell you to ignore requests to send your resume and instead show up in person. Our advice: Don’t do it! Application systems are nearly all online these days, and for good reason. This helps hiring committees by organizing information efficiently and ensuring they meet all anti-discrimination laws. So just send your resume and application using the method requested.
• Don’t forget a cover letter. A great cover letter really can help your resume stand out. Learn how to make your teacher cover letter special here.

Contact Information

On today’s resumes, your mailing address is optional. In fact, if you’re looking for a job outside of your current geographical area, it can sometimes be helpful to leave it off. This way, employers won’t worry about whether you’re willing to relocate for the job.

Email addresses are not optional. This is the way most schools will contact you today, so be sure to provide yours. You might want to take a look at your address to make sure it sounds relatively professional too. Ideally, it simply contains a version of your name (e.g., “[email protected]”); don’t forget you can grab a free email address from sites like Gmail if you need to. But other addresses are fine too, as long as there’s nothing questionable. “[email protected]” is fine. “[email protected]” is not.

Professional Objective/Summary

As mentioned earlier, resume objectives are used less and less today. Recent college grads or those transitioning to teaching careers might still decide to include a professional objective statement. Those with more experience have replaced objectives with a summary statement that provides an overview of their career. It’s also OK to delete this section altogether if you’d like more space in the Relevant Work Experience section.

Education and Certifications

Include your undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as any certifications or licensures you hold. Note: It’s up to you whether you include your graduation date. Some people worry it can open them up to age discrimination. You’ll likely be asked for this information if you continue in the hiring process, so they can verify your degrees.

Related Experience

This is the real meat of your teacher resume. You can list jobs chronologically starting with the most recent, or choose to place your most relevant experience first. Either way, include your employer’s name, dates of employment, and the position/s you held. Then, highlight your experience and achievements. Strive to make your statements measurable and quantifiable rather than just a listing of your job duties.

Weak statements:

• Taught fifth grade science and math
• Prepared students for standardized math tests
• Oversaw annual school science fair

Strong statements:

• Instructed 100+ students each year in fifth grade science fundamentals, including human anatomy, electricity and magnetism, and earth and space science
• Improved standardized testing math scores by an average of 8% over a period of five years
• Organized seven annual school science fairs by coordinating 200+ participants, finding qualified judges, and arranging for prizes donated by the community

New college grad? You should definitely include your student teaching or internship experience in this section!

Additional Experience

You can use this section to include jobs you’ve held that aren’t quite as relevant to the one you’re applying for. If you’re new to the working world, it’s OK to include non-teaching jobs here. For those with longer careers, it’s probably not necessary to list every job you’ve ever had. Just highlight any experience that helps support your application or fills any employment gaps.

Professional Honors and Leadership

If you’ve received awards or honors related to teaching, share them here. The same goes for any leadership roles you’ve held in educational professional orgs.

Professional Affiliations

If space allows, you might want to include a short list of respected professional organizations you belong to. You should definitely include them if you play a very active role, have been invited to speak as an education expert at a conference, etc. Otherwise, this section is optional.

Other Teacher Resume Sections

Here are some sections you might consider adding if you have space, and a few to skip altogether.

• Professional skills: Don’t include this section if your skills are simply those expected of any teacher. But if you’ve built up any unusual and relevant teaching skills through experience or professional development, you could include them here. (Fluency in multiple languages, for example.)
• Community involvement or volunteer work: If you’ve been heavily involved in community organizations that work with children or education, consider highlighting those achievements on your resume.
• Publications: Have you published articles in an educational or professional journal, or had your work featured on a trusted, well-known website? Include any relevant articles and links.

Here’s what you don’t need on your resume:

• Hobbies or “unique” unrelated skills (like “juggling” or “Cordon Bleu chef”).
• Any information about religious or political affiliations, or your marital status, gender, race, or age. These could lead to potential bias or discrimination in the hiring process.
• References: Most people leave this section off their resume these days, as job applications or hiring committees will ask you for them separately. Line up your references and gather their contact information, but hang onto them until you’re asked to provide the info. You don’t even need to put “References available upon request,” since hiring managers already assume that.

As you complete your teacher resume template, use these examples for ideas about what to include and how to word it.

1. First-time teacher

This is a great resume for teachers with little to no experience.

2. Another first-time teacher example

Here’s one more example of a great teacher resume for those with limited experience.

3. Experienced elementary teacher

This one allows you to showcase your skills in a compact, visually appealing design.

4. Another experienced elementary teacher

This is one of those teacher resume examples that work best for those with some experience but who are still early in their career. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

5. Summer school teacher

Use this resume to highlight the unique skills of summer school teachers who work with students who are either repeating a course or trying to get ahead for the following school year.

6. Assistant teacher

Applying for an assistant teacher job will be much easier using one of the five fantastic teacher resume examples through this resource.

7. Special education teacher

As a special educator, your responsibilities may change from minute to minute and your skills need to adapt. This template helps you simplify your experience in a one-page resume.

8. School counselor

This resume will help you showcase your excellent mentoring, counseling, and leadership skills.

9. School guidance counselor

As a guidance counselor, your role is to guide students through academic development as well as personal growth. Use this template to show you how to highlight your unique talents.

10. Library media specialist

Showcase your ability to collect and maintain the valuable resources needed to foster a strong learning environment for students.

11. High school English teacher

Use this guide to create a great English teacher resume that will highlight your communication, interpersonal, and planning skills to edge out the competition.

12. Technology teacher

Emphasize your commitment to the ongoing professional development necessary to continue integrating the latest technology into the existing curriculum, and coming up with new lesson plans for today’s classrooms.

13. Music teacher

Share and showcase your love of introducing music to students with this straightforward teacher resume.

14. Drama teacher

This resume example is simple but perfect for drama teachers who want to emphasize their experience as well as their knowledge of acting techniques and production.

15. World language teacher

Establish yourself as the ideal candidate by demonstrating teaching skills, language proficiency, communication, and organizational skills.

16. Sports coach

As a coach, this template will help you demonstrate your ability to manage teams and sports programs as well as encourage academic performance.

17. ESL teacher

This teacher resume example allows you to highlight your classroom management skills, as well as your commitment to empathy, patience, and cultural awareness. (Note: Click the link above and scroll down to find it.)

18. Math teacher

This clean resume template showcases a math teacher’s ability to break down complex math concepts through patient, meaningful engagement with students.

19. Pre-K teacher

It takes a special person to be a great pre-K teacher. Working with young children while creating lesson and activity plans, monitoring progress, and providing quality supervision takes patience and kindness.

20. Business teacher

Put your best foot forward with this business teacher resume that emphasizes teaching methods and a commitment to ongoing professional development.

21. International school teacher

Use this resume to let hiring managers know that you’re not only motivated to help students learn but uniquely qualified. Be sure to highlight any experience living or traveling abroad as well as foreign language skills.

Get Your Free Teacher Resume Template

Just fill out the form on this landing page for instant access to a free Google Doc featuring a fully customizable teacher resume template.

Plus, check out tips for teacher job fairs and the most common teacher interview questions.

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25 Teacher Cover Letters Examples To Help You Get Hired

Your guide to a killer cover letter that will get you that interview. Continue Reading

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Kickresume’s AI Resume Writer is able to generate a work experience section based on a provided job title.

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