what do i put on my first resume

What to Put on a Resume in 2024 [7+ Job-Winning Sections]

Choosing what to put on a resume can be a real struggle even if it’s not your first time writing a resume.

After all, not every resume has the same sections. Depending on your experience level & where you’re applying, your resume might look completely different .

For example, you always need to include your contact information, but the resume objective can be very situational.

The content that goes inside each section can differ as well, depending on whether you are applying for a job, an internship , or for a Ph.D. program.

So, the key here is to tailor your resume content to the job you’re applying for. As long as you mention the right things on your resume, you’re bound to land a job you’ll love.

Read on to learn what to put on your resume, depending on where you’re applying. We’ve also added a little extra section at the end of the guide on what NOT to include under any circumstance.

Without the right tools, making a resume can be a major hassle. Want a modern-looking resume done in less than 5 minutes? Try our online resume builder . It’s free, and you can pick between 8+ resume templates .

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What to Include in a Resume To Land The Perfect Job

• Contact information
• Resume summary or objective statement
• Professional Experience
• Skills/ Certifications
• Other Important Sections
• Tailor Your Resume to The Job Description

In this guide, we’re going to go through all of them one-by-one and teach you what to write in each section.

1. What Contact Information Should Your Resume Have?

A great resume would contain the following contact information in the right order:

Full Name - The generally preferred format is Name, Last Name

Right under the name, you should include your:

Professional Title - this should always mirror the job position you are applying for. 

Let’s say you are applying for a “front-end web development ” position but your professional title says “Junior Data Scientist” .

Whoever picks up your resume will most likely discard it thinking that you are either overqualified for the position or your resume is in the wrong pile.

Professional Email Address 

Your email should be professional and not something you created back in primary school. ( “[email protected]” or “[email protected]” )

If you don't have one, make an email specifically for your career and make it something along the lines of [name] [last name] @ email.com

Check out our guide on how to email your resume to an employer for more tips!

Phone Number - If you are applying for a job outside your country, make sure to include your country code as well. If you have a US phone number, for example, you’d add (+1) in front of the number 555 555 5555.

Here’s an example of how this would look exactly.

So far so good. However, you can notice how there is a lot of valuable empty space for you to add more eye-catching information. 

Aside from the basic contact information, you should also put on your resume links to your social media handles and/or personal websites.

Relevant Social Media Handles

Here are some common social handles you could include that can help you get hired :

Many companies nowadays ask for a Linkedin profile when you apply for a job.

Your chances of getting hired will be greater if you keep your LinkedIn profile just as up-to-date as your resume.

In very specific cases, you can also include your Twitter profile (if it’s somehow relevant to the job).

Some marketing jobs ask for an existing social following, for example. In others, you could use it to display your witty, under-20-characters writing skills.

Quora questions and answers cover a wide range of business topics nowadays. 

Are you an expert at giving business advice with 100+ answers on the topic? You can show your authority by linking your Quora page.

StackOverflow

Mainly relevant for developers, coders , computer scientists . 

Having a very active Stack overflow profile can give you a big boost if you code.

Only for developers , coders , data scientists , etc.

Github is a great way to showcase your projects. Whether it’s a website you developed, or a mobile game, make sure to include it!

Freelancers , writers , bloggers , and entrepreneurs .

A rich medium profile can help you showcase your writing skills and personality before even getting to the interview or trial task. 

Make sure to only put the relevant social media handles on your resume. If you are applying for a software development position, for example, your StackOverflow profile will be more relevant than your Twitter account.

URL to your personal website/channels

Here are some typical examples of what you could include:

• Personal website - Include a link to your personal website if you have an established online presence. Don’t include it if it’s just a literal HTML copy of your resume. No one will want to read the same content over again.
• Personal blog - Only include this if it is relevant to the job you are applying for. For example, if you have a blog that positions you as an expert in your field. A personal blog on meditation and unlocking the power within won’t mean much when applying for an accounting position.
• URL to your personal portfolio - For web designers, illustrators, painters, photographers, etc...
• Youtube channel - A channel containing videos of you explaining quantum economics can be a great thing to put on a resume if you are applying for a job in the field of economics.

So in the end, your contact information section would look something like this:

This example was made with a Novorésumé template, and it took us less than 15 seconds! Give our online resume builder a try - we’ll save you from the hassle of manually formatting your resume!

2. Make the Right First Impression With a Resume Summary or Resume Objective

Nowadays, it takes less than half a second for someone to swipe left and discard your entire worth on Tinder. 

Luckily, when applying for a job, you won’t be swiped left based on how you look. You’ll get discarded if you fail to catch the HR manager’s attention.

On average, it takes an HR manager or recruiter around 6 seconds to decide whether your resume goes on the discard pile or not. 

That’s why you want to leave a good first impression. Just like you did with that Tinder profile photo you uploaded from the time when you still had abs!

When writing a resume, the best way to achieve that is by writing a killer resume summary or objective.

How to Write a Resume Summary

A resume summary is a 2-3 sentence summary of your entire professional career. If you have more than 2 years of work experience, you’d opt for the resume summary instead of an objective (we’ll explain why in a bit!).

The core structure of a resume summary should contain the following information:

Jobs and years of experience

• Senior front-end developer with 10+ years of experience in Angular and ReactJs

Relevant achievements and responsibilities

• Specialized in developing e-commerce solutions following agile development principles.

What you are looking for. Your goal. 

• Seeking a position as a front-end lead developer at a startup company

To make sure your resume summary is memorable, make sure to mention how your previous experience on motivation will be beneficial to the company you’re applying for. You should include the following information:

• What can you do for them?
• How will your previous experience fit in the company’s current environment?
• How can you help their company grow while pursuing your own personal goals simultaneously?

How to Write a Resume Objective

Just like a resume summary, your resume objective is also max 2-3 sentences. Rather than describing your work experience, the resume objective focuses more on your motivation for applying for a specific job.

If you're a professional with several years’ worth of work experience, you should always stick to the resume summary. You're much more likely to sell yourself with your experience, rather than motivation.

If you're one of the following, though, you might want to use a resume objective:

• Recent graduate with no work experience
• Professional going through a major career shift with no relevant preceding work experience
• Student looking for your very first internship
• Professional with a career gap

(1) [SKILL/EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION RELEVANT TO THE JOB WITH JOB TITLE] . Looking to apply my (2) [years/months of EXPERIENCE RELEVANT TO THE JOB DESCRIPTION] at [COMPANY YOU ARE APPLYING TO] to help (3) [TYPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES YOU WILL HELP OUT WITH SUCCESSFULLY] . 

And here’s how this looks like in practice:

“Driven and meticulous recent graduate with a B.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics with a 3.98 GPA. 6+ months of experience in forensic accounting and spreadsheet & data manipulation. Looking for an entry-level position as a forensic accountant at the XYZ Accounting Firm.”

To make sure your resume summary is memorable, as with the resume objective, you want to make sure that it’s tailored for the position you’re applying for.

In addition, make sure to mention:

• Your skills / experiences that are relevant to the job you’re applying for
• Exact keywords from the listing to increase chances of passing through application tracking systems
• How you’re going to help the company achieve its goals

3. How to Write Your Work Experience to Stand Out

This is the CORE section of your resume.

Here is where you get to “advertise” yourself by listing past responsibilities and achievements on a job. 

Whether you do this right or not is the main deciding factor between your Plan A job and your Plan D. 

You could have an outstanding history of professional experience. But if you don’t word it the right way, someone else might snatch away your dream job (even if you’re perfectly qualified for it!).

How to Include Your Professional Experience on your Resume? (Step-by-step)

Here’s a three-step process of how to list your work experience so that you can make it stand out:

1. Add Your Job Title  

This should be right at the top so that anyone scanning your resume won’t miss it.

2. A short 1-2 sentence description explaining what the company does. 

Certainly, if you have worked in a globally recognized brand like Apple, Google, McKinsey’s, etc, then you probably don’t need to include background information on the company.

Otherwise, add the company’s name, location of the office where you worked, and a one-sentence description of what the company does.

3. Include 4-6 bullet points describing the core duties and activities you performed for the company. 

Now, this is the tricky part - listing your work experience the right way.

Each bullet point here should be a one-sentence description of a duty or activity.

Most people, when writing their resume, simply list out their basic responsibilities.

Things like “Managed the sales at the company & dealing with clients” or “Marketed company products and drove sales.”

Well, here’s the thing. The hiring manager knows what your responsibilities are. What they want to know is how you drove results at the company and helped take it from point A to point B.

Here’s how a well-written achievements/duties/activities look like:

Describe your Achievements using Numbers and Percentages to Back Them Up

When possible, you should back up your achievements with numbers and percentages.

This is how you show the employer that you’re a high-achiever. 

To show you how this looks in practice, let’s take an example of an achievement for a customer support agent : 

“Increased customer support ticket closing satisfaction rate” 

While this is definitely a good start, it doesn’t actually mean anything. Anyone could say they’ve done this - but there’s a huge difference between someone who increased the satisfaction rate by 0.5%, and by 30%.

What if you rephrased it as:

“Increased customer support ticket closing satisfaction rate from 47% to 72% within 3 months.”

Now, this is a lot more actionable. The hiring manager can see how good you are, and how you’d be an asset for the company.

In this case, it’s instantly clear that you know what you’re doing, and your resume goes directly to the YES pile.

Should You Include Internships on Your Resume?

If you just graduated, chances are that an internship (or internships) is the only relevant experience you have. So, definitely mention it in your resume.

If you have already worked for a few years, though, you can completely get rid of internships from your resume. 

There are some exceptions to this rule, though. For example, if you did an internship at CERN (the particle reactor in Switzerland, one of the most renowned experimental physics institutes in the world), you would be better off keeping it. 

4. What Skills Should You Put on a Resume to Make You Stand Out?

“Roughly 75% of large companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). As a result, over 70% of resumes submitted to job-boards are never read.”

Luckily, getting past ATS is not that hard. All you have to do is mention the right skills in your resume .

By the right skills, we mean the skills asked for in the “requirements” or “qualifications” section of the job ad.

To figure out what they are for the position you’re applying for, simply go through the listing.

Let’s cover a real example to make this super clear.

Here’s a job listing for a UX/UI Designer position at XYZ Inc.:

As you can see, the skills required for the position are:

• Proficiency in standard UX software such as Sketch, InVision, Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, XD) and other relevant UX and UI design tools
• Good understanding of front-end web development (HTML, CSS, JAVA)
• Strong problem solving, project management and organizational skills.

Now, all you have to do is mention all of them individually in your resume Skills section.

NEVER lie on a resume about your skills’ experience level. Even if you do make it past the interviews and miraculously get the job, you’ll eventually be caught in the lie.

Hard Skills

Hard skills are the technical skills you pick at university or work. They can be measured, and are usually directly related to the tasks you complete at work

Think, anything from designing in Photoshop to using a specific ERP system.

Here’s how they’d look on your resume:

Looks neat right? 

That’s not just it, though. To write a good Skills section, you should also mention some of your soft skills.

Not sure which skills to use? It might be one of these 100+ essential skills to put on any resume !

Soft Skills

While hard skills are learned technical skills, soft skills are your personal attributes.

Here are a few, just to give you a general idea:

• Leadership skills
• Strategic management and planning 
• Communication

And here’s how they look on your resume:

Your skills section should be backed up by your work experience. If you say that you’re an expert at Java, but you’ve never worked as a Java developer , no one’s going to buy it.

Universal Skills

As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to also put some universal skills on your resume.

What are universal skills?

They are skills that fit in the description or requirements of most career fields. Universal skills can be both soft and hard skills.

Some soft universal skills are leadership, teamwork, and analytical thinking.

Ms Word, Excel, Powerpoint, writing skills, etc... are typical hard universal skills.

Regardless of the job you are applying for, these are the skills that will come in handy at some point.

5. How to List Education on a Resume

Another essential part of your resume is the Education section. Here, you describe your academic career with any relevant achievements.

Here’s how you’d format your education section:

And here’s how this would look on a resume:

Keep in mind that you should mention your education in reverse-chronological order . So, the most recent thing goes on top.

When writing your education section, here’s a couple of things you should keep in mind:

• Don’t mention your high school degree if you have a university degree
• Mention your GPA only if it’s above 3.5. Anything below that might not seem too impressive (especially if you’re competing with someone who listed a 4.0)
• Mention your education before your work experience if you don’t have any work experience.

6. Other Important Sections to Put on a Resume

By this point, you have already done the heavy-duty work. The previous sections are the MUST-haves of a resume.

There are, however, several other sections you can mention on your resume that’ll help you land the job.

Certifications and Awards

Do you have any certifications or awards that are relevant to your field or career? Make sure to put them on your resume!

If you are a software developer or engineer , you could mention things like your Java or AWS certification.

Similarly, if you are applying for a Digital Marketing position, those Google Analytics and AdWords certifications would come in very handy.

In today’s world, languages are one of the top distinguishing hiring factors. Since most companies nowadays are international, knowing two or more languages can become a HUGE advantage.

Countless companies nowadays value bilingual employees more than those speaking only one language.

Whatever job you are applying for, make sure to include all the languages you speak on your resume. Include your proficiency level next to each one.

You can see in the example below the different phrases you can use to describe your language proficiency levels.

• Native or Bilingual
• Full Professional Proficiency
• Professional Working Proficiency
• Limited Working Proficiency
• Elementary Working Proficiency

Make sure not to lie about this. It's not hard to figure out when someone doesn't speak a language. Your “Full Professional Proficiency” Spanish might go “adios” all the way down to “Elementary” if the interviewer speaks the language.

Hobbies and Interests

The hobbies and interests section can help you convey a little bit of personality. 

This is where you can show how big of an influence music is in your life. Or even reveal your Harry Potter addiction. Whatever it is, make sure you mention something that can really set you apart from the rest. 

You never know, maybe you end up having a lot in common with whoever picks up your resume.

Volunteering Experience

Altruism and generosity are characteristics that will make you stand out regardless of the environment you find yourself in, the office included. 

Hiring managers tend to prefer candidates who have some volunteering experience. This means that the employee is the type to spend their own free time on a worthy goal.

Chances are, the same dedication also transfers to the workplace.

If the volunteering experience is somehow related to your career, you can include it in the work experience section. Otherwise, you can create a separate section just for this.

Here’s how this would look like:

Publications

If you're a professional writer (i.e. journalist, researcher, scholar, etc.), you'd benefit from including your publications on the resume.

Maybe you have several blog posts published online, or a publication or two in an academic journal.

Whichever the case is, you can include them in your resume and make sure to mention the link.

Side projects are super important for many positions. They can help you make up for any lack of experience in a certain field, or display your passion for the job.

For example, if you are a developer or a coder, you must have a bunch of projects on Github. It could be a project you have done for a class or some app you started working on with your friends back in college (new Facebook, anyone?).

Projects aren’t just for coders, though. Maybe you attended a startup weekend at some point in your life? Or participated in a design hackathon?

Both of these examples can really add value to your application.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you can also mention some of your side hustles. Things like re-selling goods on eBay, selling your art on Etsy, and so on.

Next Steps: Tailoring Your Resume to the Job

Now that you know what sections to put on your resume, let's talk about its content.

It's essential that any information you've mentioned on your resume is relevant to the job.

We really can’t emphasize enough how important it is for you to check every section you have put on your resume and make sure each one is tailored to the job/position you are applying for.

Because the hiring manager wants the job seeker that's applying for THEIR position, not sending a mass application to 50+ different companies.

So, here’s how you’d tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for. As step #1, take a look at the job ad and identify top requirements and skills.

Let’s use the following ad as an example:

As you can see, the most important requirements are: 

• 5+ years of experience in the field
• Skills in Copywriting, Photoshop, and email marketing
• Practical experience creating and optimizing landing pages

Now, you need to make sure you mention all of these in your resume, in whichever section they’re relevant.

Now that you know exactly what to put on a resume, we thought it would be helpful to also cover what NOT to put on a resume.

20+ Things You Should NOT Include in Your Resume

• Date of Birth - Age should not matter to a hiring manager. It’s not important for their decision-making, and at worst, it might lead to age-based discrimination.
• An Unprofessional Email Address - Do: [email protected] Don’t: [email protected] 
• Photo - Especially in the US and in the UK (due to anti-discrimination laws). Hiring managers don’t need to know your appearance to evaluate your resume and application overall. 
• Your exact address - very few businesses use mailing services nowadays to communicate with potential hires. It’s inefficient, and it’s simply safer to use your email.
• If you have a few years of related work experience, then you should not include a resume objective.
• Your resume summary or objective should also not include any requests, demands, or salary requirements.
• Jobs that aren’t even remotely relevant to the position you are applying for. No one cares about your experience as a cashier if you’re applying for a designer gig
• Fluff that doesn’t say anything. This is a lot more common than you’d think. Make sure all your duties and activities listed are practical
• Jobs that you had for a short time period (a few weeks). This shows that you’re a job hopper and unlikely to stick around for job (even if the employer you quit on was horrible).
• Any illegal jobs
• Irrelevant skills to the job in question
• Fluff skills just to take up space. Fun fact - a TON of university students fill up their resume with buzzwords like “Leadership, Critical Thinking” and so on.
• Your GPA (if it’s lower than 3.5)
• Your high school degree (if you have a university degree)
• The entire list of all the courses you attended in college
• Hobbies related to controversial topics (politics, religion, sex) based on ideologies and cultural differences. You can never know if the person reading your resume is on the same page as you.
• Childhood hobbies. Sure, you were a great football player in high school. But how relevant is it for that junior accounting position you are applying to?
• Irrelevant projects and publications.

Key Takeaways - What to Put on a Resume

Now that we’ve covered all the sections & contents you need to put on a resume, let’s summarize everything we’ve learned:

• The core contents of a resume include: contact information , resume summary / resume objective , work experience , education and skills .
• The optional sections are: certifications & awards , languages , hobbies & interests , volunteering experience , publications , and projects .
• Make sure to make your work experience section shine by talking about results & achievements, instead of dull responsibilities
• Lastly, you should tailor your resume to each different job you apply for!

At Novorésumé, we’re committed to helping you get the job you deserve, every step of the way! Follow our career blog to stay up to date with the industry-leading advice. Or, check out some of our top guides:

• How to Write a Cover Letter
• CV vs Resume: What’s the Difference?
• How to Pick the Right Resume Format

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Tips for Writing Your First Resume

• Before You Write a Resume
• What to Include
• What Not to Include

Make Sure Your Resume is Perfect

Tips for designing your resume.

• Resume Sample & Template

If you are worried about writing your first resume or are struggling with the task, you’re not alone! However, it does not have to be intimidating.

Many students and recent graduates worry that they don’t have enough experience to create a compelling resume. However, don’t worry.

There are many ways to emphasize your skills and experiences, even if this is your first job.

What To Do Before Writing Your Resume

Before you even start to write your resume, there are a few steps you can take. Keep in mind that the goal of your resume is to show the employer that you are a strong candidate for the job and that you will  add value to the company.

To do this successfully, you need to know what potential employers are looking for:

• Start  by researching job postings  that interest you.
• Make a list of  keywords  you find in the job listings, such as frequently mentioned requirements or skills. You will want to focus on these in your resume to impress the employer.
• Ask experienced professionals what they consider important when they make hiring decisions.
• Consider holding some  informational interviews  with people in your field to get a sense of what is most important for the kinds of jobs you’re looking at.

You can also read professional publications and websites related to your target industry. Immerse yourself in your chosen field and learn as much as you can. Once you know what is important to employers, you can target your resume to address those issues.

Read below for advice on how to write a strong first resume that will generate interest and interviews.

What to Include in a Resume

Highlight education.

If you are a student or a recent student, your education is one of your greatest assets. Put the “ Education ” section of your resume towards the top of the page. Include not only the school you went to and the degree you received but also any other achievements.

When to Include Your GPA

Perhaps you had a high  GPA  or made the dean’s list. If you studied abroad, you might include that as well. Employers are impressed by recent graduates’ academic achievements, so highlight these.

Emphasize Related Experience

You might have limited work  experience , but you have plenty of other experiences you can draw on. Think about clubs you have participated in, internships you have held, and volunteer positions you have worked. All of these can be listed under “Related Experience” or a similar category.

Mention Achievements

Beneath each experience, you can list some of the responsibilities you held in that job or position. However, go beyond simply saying what you did. List any achievements that prove you can add value to an organization. For example, perhaps you won “Employee of the Month” at work. Or maybe you created a new filing system that increased efficiency at an office. Include any examples of times you added value to a company or achieved something.

Showcase Your Skills

Mention the skills you have that are most closely related to those listed in the job description. You can feature your relevant skills in a resume skills section and include them in the descriptions of your experience.

Use Keywords

Look back at the list of keywords you generated while researching common skills and requirements for the jobs you are applying for. Try to use some of these keywords throughout your resume. This will show the hiring manager, at a glance, that you are a good fit for the job.

What Not to Include in a Resume

Leave out what's not relevant.

The key is to emphasize the things that demonstrate your value to the company and leave out those that don’t. For example, if you are looking to work in information systems, your programming internship will be important, but the fact that you have won awards for water skiing won’t! Don’t include hobbies or experiences unless they relate to the job.

Keep it Short

Especially if this is your first resume, you might not have a lot of information to include. Your resume should not be longer than  one page . Aim to fill the whole page while still having a good amount of white space in the margins.  

Look at Examples

Especially when writing your first resume, it’s a good idea to look at resume examples. They can help you decide how to format your resume and what kind of information to include. Make sure to change any sample resume to include information that is specific to you and the job you are applying for. Check out these student resume examples and these other  resume examples .

Proofread and Edit

Because employers get so many job applications, something small, such as a typo, could cost you a job. Be sure to thoroughly  proofread  your resume before sending it to an employer. Read it for any spelling and grammar errors, as well as for any inconsistencies in format (such as using different styles of bullet points). Ask a friend or family member or a guidance or  career services counselor  to look at it for you as well.

Many people are surprised to learn that resume design is just as important as content, but it’s absolutely true. Research suggests that your resume has only seconds to make the right impression, so it must be eye-catching and easy to read.  

There are many different ways to design and format your resume . Check out these resume templates to help you format your own resume.

Using a template will make it easier to create your resume. Not only will it save you time, but it can also reduce formatting errors. You can look at these other resume templates available through Microsoft Word and Google Docs .

Resume Sample & Template

This is an example of a resume. Download the resume template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

First Resume Sample

Sam Student 123 Main Street Pleasantville, New York 10001 (123) 456-7890 sam.student@email.com

QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY

Self-motivated and highly reliable university student positioned to contribute strongly to customer service operations demanding tact, enthusiasm, and an exemplary work ethic.

• Customer Service: Able to utilize strong math skills, team orientation, and interpersonal strengths to ensure provision of high-quality customer service within fast-paced retail environments.
• Communication & Presentation: Charismatic communicator in speech and in writing. Build lasting relationships with both peers and customers.
• Organization / Computer Skills: Outstanding time-management and organizational abilities. Technical proficiencies include Microsoft Office Suite and social media.
• Key Strengths: Intelligent and loyal team member, readily listening to others, acknowledging peer accomplishment, and contributing to positive and productive work environments and team morale.

B.A., Business Administration (Anticipated June 2021); 3.87 GPA New York University, New York, NY Dean’s List; Rush Chairman, Alpha Beta Kappa; Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society.

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, New York, NY Student, Business Administration (2018-Present) Currently pursuing comprehensive four-year course of study in business administration, laying solid groundwork for eventual career in technology sales. Completed coursework includes negotiation, statistics, and principles of management. Enthusiastically lead group projects and mentor peers in subjects including writing and mathematics. 

• Earned Dean’s List recognition for every term of attendance.
• Volunteered as guide to high school students participating in college orientation sessions.
• Selected as dormitory RA tasked with ensuring the welfare of 50 student residents.

THE GAP, New York, NY Sales Assistant (Summers 2018 and 2019) Demonstrated engaging customer service skills and a solid work ethic as Sales Assistant for busy retail store. Greeted customers and helped in product selection, check-out, and merchandising.

• Willingly stepped up to work overtime to ensure adequate staffing during sales events.
• Earned ‘Employee of the Month’ awards during both summers of position tenure.

Indeed. " How Many Pages Should a Resume Be? " Accessed March 23, 2020.

The Ladders. " 2018 Eye-Tracking Study ." Accessed March 23, 2020.

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• 11 Key Things to Put on Your...

11 Key Things to Put on Your Resume

15 min read · Updated on January 17, 2024

TopResume demystifies the content you need on your resume

As the job market becomes ever more competitive, it's more important than ever to create a resume that can help you to stand out from the crowd. Gone are the days when a mediocre resume was good enough to get your foot in the employment door. These days, you need a truly compelling resume that highlights your value if you want to ensure that you make the best possible impression on prospective employers.

In this post, we'll focus on one of the most crucial elements of the resume creation process: deciding which information needs to be included in your resume. In this guide, we'll examine 11 of the most important things to put on a resume if you want to effectively sell yourself as the best candidate for the job.

1. Contact information

Your contact details need to have a prominent place on your resume, to ensure that employers can easily find the information they need to call you in for a job interview. Like the rest of your resume, this section should be clean and easy to read. Use standard fonts like Arial, Calibri, Cambria, or Georgia, and stick to simple black text. Include the following information:

First and last name : Many job seekers use a larger font size for this line of their contact information section, to ensure that their name stands out.

Your location : You shouldn't add your street address to your resume, but it is acceptable to include the city and state. This is especially true if you're applying for a position in another area and need employers to know that you're willing to relocate. If the job is in another country, you'll also want to include your country of origin in this line.

Professional email address : Make sure that the email address you use for your resume isn't some novelty address that you created on a whim. For example, if the email that you use with your friends is something like [email protected], don't list that address on your resume. Instead, use a more professional address that includes some variation of your name.

Phone number : If you want prospective employers to call you by phone, there are a couple of things to remember. First, make sure that you have regular access to that phone. Second, make sure that the phone number is in working order. Double check the number you list on your resume to ensure that you've included the right area code and prefix. Even simple typos could make it impossible for employers to get in touch with you.

Professional social media (optional) : You should also include relevant social media URLs, if you think that they can help to highlight your qualifications or abilities. LinkedIn is the most obvious choice for most people, but technology professionals, for example, may also want to include their GitHub or StackOverflow profiles as well.

Website (optional) : For certain professions, it can also be helpful to include website addresses for personal websites or online portfolios. Some examples include Graphic Artists, Copywriters, or Academics with a significant online presence.

Related : Ask Amanda: How Should I Format My Contact Information on a Resume?

2. Resume Headline

A great resume headline can help to immediately draw a hiring manager's attention to your resume. If you're not familiar with this resume element, don't worry - you're not alone. But make no mistake: this simple headline trick can increase the odds of your resume making a powerful first impression on anyone who reads it. So, what is a resume headline, you ask?

A resume headline is a different way of dealing with the old resume title - that area where you list the job title of the position you're seeking. For example, if you were applying for a job as a Marketing Manager, your resume title would just include those two words:

Marketing Manager

Sure, that resume title might clarify which job you're seeking, but it doesn't tell the reader anything about you - either as a person or as a prospective employee. It doesn't say anything about your skills, experience, or personality. Worse, it doesn't do anything to help you to stand out from your competition. Fortunately, however, a resume headline can help you to create a more compelling message.

To create a resume headline, you need to take that job title and add some descriptive language that highlights your value as a potential employee. The following tips can help you to do just that:

1.      Research the job posting to identify keywords related to core skills needed for the position. Chances are that including at least one of these keywords can help to ensure that your resume earns the attention it deserves.

2.      Choose powerful adjectives to describe your capabilities and achievements.

3.      Include measurable results that help to highlight your value.

Sticking with our Marketing Manager title, let's see what that headline might look like if we incorporate those tips:

Dynamic Marketing Manager Consistently Exceeding Client Goals by 25%

Unlike our first example, this one highlights a record of success that any hiring manager can instantly recognize as potentially valuable for their company. Just as important, the addition of that specific information is more likely to help that resume stand out - especially if the other candidates are still relying on the more conventional resume job title option.

Related : 27 Great Resume Headline Examples to Stand Out

3. Summary Paragraph

Your resume should also include a resume profile statement, preferably a summary that helps to sum up your core qualifications. This brief, four or five-sentence paragraph can be thought of as your resume's version of the salesperson's elevator pitch. Done properly, it serves as an introductory statement that highlights your key skills and achievements in a way that captures your reader's interest.

This is important, since most employers only devote a few seconds to scanning each resume they receive. Yes, you heard that right: employers aren't reading your entire resume unless you somehow manage to capture their attention during that initial scan.

So, how do you do that? While the resume headline can help them to take immediate notice, your summary paragraph represents your first real opportunity to make a powerful first impression. It needs to quickly summarize your best qualifications and demonstrate your potential ability to provide real value to that employer. To create an effective summary, you need to:

Briefly highlight your experience

Mention one or two of your most important skills (preferably skills listed in the job posting)

Detail at least one important achievement, using real numbers to highlight value

Below is an example of a great resume summary paragraph for our hypothetical Marketing Manager, that incorporates all the elements we've just mentioned:

Results-driven Marketing Manager with 8 years of experience in client relations, project development, and campaign execution. Core competencies include market analysis, research, resource management, and innovative team leadership. While managing ABC Corporation's marketing team, successfully increased yearly revenues by 35%.

Related : 27 Great Resume Summary Examples to Get Hired

4. Core Competencies or Skills

Your resume also needs to include a section that highlights your relevant skills. This section should be labeled using a title like “Core Competencies” or “Relevant Skills” and include a list of all the skills you want to highlight for the employer. The key is to figure out which skills deserve a place in your core competencies section, since the last thing you want to do is waste precious space on irrelevant abilities that won't impress anyone. These tips can help you to identify the right skills for your resume:

• Begin by reviewing the job posting. Take note of any abilities or traits that the employer included as necessary qualifications. If there are specific skills that you need to possess, you'll need to include those abilities in your skills section.
• Create a list of all the marketable skills that you've developed throughout your career. This list should include both hard skills - abilities that you use to complete your job duties, as well as soft skills, that help you to manage those duties, interact with others, and solve problems.
• Narrow your list of hard and soft skills to 9-12 total abilities, making sure to include each of the required qualifications from the job posting. You should also use the exact terminology in the job posting when listing those required skills. Chances are that those words are keywords that the employer's applicant tracking system will be looking for when the employer conducts a keyword search.
• Once you've identified the skills that you'll be including in your resume's core competencies section, add them to the resume. For example:

Marketing research   |   Strategic planning   |   Budget management   |   Account management

Project management   |   Content creation   |   Team building   |   Digital marketing

Problem-solving   |   Brand management   |   Resource allocation   |   Time management

Related : What Are Skills? (With Examples and Tips on How to Improve Them)

5. Work Experience

Of course, prospective employers will want to see more than just your claimed skills. They'll also want to review your previous work experience to see how you've applied those skills in a real-world setting. That's why it's important to know how to list your past jobs in your work experience section. The following tips can help.

Decide which jobs you want to include. As a rule, you should include jobs going back only ten or fifteen years. Most employers are more interested in your most recent experience.

Start with your current position (or the last job you held if you're unemployed). Then list your other jobs in reverse chronological order.

For each job, list your job title or position, the name of the company, and your dates of employment.

Here's what that might look like in a hypothetical Marketing Manager resume:

ABC Digital Marketing

2018-Present

Assistant Marketing Manager

Excyte Solutions

Repeat that process for other relevant experience. Of course, that basic information is just the outline of your work experience section. We still need to add one more critical thing to this section to ensure that it properly highlights your value as an employee. What's missing, you might ask? Measurable achievements that demonstrate value - which brings us to our next topic of discussion.

Related: Work Experience for a Resume: How to Add it to Get Hired

6. Measurable Achievements

Those employment listings can help the employer to understand the types of jobs you've held, but they don't really provide the type of detail that they need to see to determine your worth. The problem is that you can't really highlight the impact you've had throughout your career if you just provide a dry, dull list of those past jobs. Instead, you need to use that work experience section to show how your actions have created real value for previous employers.

The best way to highlight that value is with measurable, or quantifiable, achievements. Yes, there was a time when job seekers would simply list the duties that they performed at each company. These days, however, serious candidates understand that they need to focus more on value than core responsibilities. Every employee has responsibilities. What matters is how your fulfillment of those responsibilities provides value for an employer.

So, how do you highlight value? It's simple: you just need to list some of the key achievements you delivered in each role, using real numbers to demonstrate your impact on the company's success. To do that, you should include three or four bullet point achievements below each company. Let's look at what that might look like, using our previous examples:

Successfully led reorganization of marketing department that improved efficiency by 43%

Expanded new client acquisition by 33% in two years, increasing revenues by $35 million

Oversaw global expansion effort into 23 new countries

Managed project budgeting and resource allocation for 23 campaigns worth $12 million

Led successful effort to redesign ABC Corporations's digital presence, increasing customer engagement by 78%

Developed new project research process that reduced research and analysis costs by 10%

As you can see, rather than focusing on the duties of each job, this hypothetical candidate instead emphasized real accomplishments that added real value to each company.

Related : Resume Help: Are You a Doer or an Achiever?

7. Education

Your educational achievements are also important things to put on your resume. In most instances, you won't have to devote too much space to this section, but you neglect it at your peril. In fact, if the job posting lists specific educational qualifications, omitting this section would be a huge mistake that could end any consideration of your candidacy.

The good news is that the education section of a resume is one of the easiest to create. You only need to add a few bits of relevant information to complete this part of the resume, including:

The degree that you earned

The name of the school you attended

Your dates of attendance

Relevant coursework, if appropriate

Of course, you can also include some other details, like your GPA or distinctions such as summa cum laude - though these types of information are unnecessary once you've been in the workforce for a few years.

You can also add relevant certifications and extracurricular activities that might help to bolster your case for being the best candidate for a job. In most instances, though, the important thing is to include just enough detail about your education to show that you meet any specified educational requirements for the position.

Related: How to List Education on Your Resume (with Examples)

Thus far, we've identified seven key things to put on your resume - and each of them is considered an essential element of any great resume document. Our last four details for a resume can all be considered optional. Their inclusion will depend on the type of job you're seeking and the things you need to highlight for an employer.

8. Languages

While most Americans speak English, recent migration and globalization trends have increased the importance of language skills. If you're proficient in more than one language and seeking a job where those skills can give you an edge over other candidates, you may want to consider including a language proficiency section in your resume. That section may be necessary if your desired job:

Involves regular contact with non-English speakers

Requires travel to foreign countries where your language skills can be vital for the company

Of course, you should only list your foreign language skills if you are truly proficient in the language and if those abilities are relevant for the position you seek. 

Related: How to List Language Skills on a Resume

9. Awards and Accolades

If you're wondering what to put on a resume for your first job, or just looking for unique things to put on a resume to catch a hiring manager's attention, awards and accolades may be an option. Of course, they need to be the right kind of achievements if you want to earn anything more than a snide eye roll from that hiring manager. Some examples of worthy awards and accolades include:

Awards relevant to your specific industry, demonstrating industry recognition of your achievements

Company awards you've earned in past jobs

Extracurricular awards involving volunteering or community service

Academic accolades - if you're a recent graduate and need to boost your experience with other types of achievements

If you decide to include awards among the things you put in your resume, make sure that you add enough detail to explain why they're relevant, including the issuing organization or body, the date you received it, and some information that quantifies its meaning.

Related : How to List Awards on Your Resume and Wow Recruiters

10. Community Involvement

If you're new to the job market, you may be wondering what to put on a resume with no experience. Obviously, you don't want to leave out your work experience section altogether, since that can be a clear sign to employers that you may not be a viable candidate for their job. Fortunately, your community involvement can sometimes be used to show some real-world experience.

For example, have you spent any time volunteering with charities? Are you actively involved in community organizations? Have you spent time mentoring youth or serving the public in some other valuable way? If so, then any of these experiences can be listed in a community involvement section to demonstrate your commitment to others. Just be sure to include some bullet point achievements that quantify the value your service provided for those groups or causes.

Related : How Do I Add Volunteer Experience to My Resume?

11. Publications

Publications are another of the important things to put on your resume, if your area of expertise involves research or other writing. The use of a publications section is mostly reserved for academics and people who work in various scientific fields, but can also be relevant for some content creators and marketing professionals. As a rule, though, you should only include your publications if you know that they're something the employer will want to see.

Related : How to List Publications on a Resume (with Examples)

Knowing which things to put on your resume can help to ensure success

When you put the right things on your resume, you can improve your odds of making the right impression on prospective employers. The best approach is to start with the essential components we listed above, and then decide which - if any - of the optional elements you need to include to bolster your candidacy. Just remember to include only relevant information that highlights you as the best person for the job, and you'll be one step closer to career success!

Still confused about which things to put on your resume? Get a free resume review from our team of experts today!

Recommended reading:

The Best Resume Format to Get Hired

How to Advance Your Career (plus 10 Insightful Tips)

Top 15 Professional Goals and How to Achieve Them

Related Articles:

Do Hiring Managers Actually Read Cover Letters?

How to Create a Resume With No Education

Why You Lose When You Lie on Your Resume: Learning From Mina Chang

See how your resume stacks up.

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Your resume is the first thing a company sees when you apply for a job. Usually, it’s the deciding factor in whether you get an interview or not. On your resume, you’ll list your contact information, skills, prior work experience, education, and any other relevant information pertinent to the role you’re applying for. 

You should tailor your resume any time you apply for a role, even if the job appears highly related to your current and prior work experience. Insert relevant keywords and phrases from the job description, but rephrase them so your tailoring seems entirely natural.  Of course, you want to remain honest in your application, so don’t include skills or experience you don’t possess. If you do, the hiring manager will likely discover your misstatements during an interview, and this may cause them to reject your application.

The following are all the components you should include in your resume to ensure you put your best foot forward in the application process.

If you’re wondering what to put on your resume, this article is for you.

I’m going to share everything you should include to get more interviews.

We’ll look at:

Resume Basics

• What to put in a resume for experienced candidates
• What to put in a resume if you have no experience
• What NOT to include in your resume (mistakes to avoid)
• How to address employment gaps on a resume
• My best tip for getting your resume to stand out from other job seekers so you can land a better job in less time

Here’s exactly what to put on a resume, based on my experience as a recruiter…

Your resume is a one- or two-page document that outlines your experience, education, and skills related to an open position. Recruiters and hiring managers will review your resume to determine whether you are a suitable fit for the job.  Remember that they’re likely looking at many different resumes — not just yours — so it’s crucial to showcase your strongest attributes and tailor your resume to suit the specific job position.

There are three basic types of resumes: chronological, functional, and combination.

A chronological resume starts with your most recent work history and works backward. It’s the most common type of resume people use when they’re presenting their professional background.

A functional resume is skills-focused and is more appropriate for individuals with less experience who are looking for a job in a new profession. Applicants also turn to functional resumes when they’d rather not emphasize a few gaps in their work history.

A combination resume provides an equal balance of skills and work history. Typically, it will start with critical skills related to the position before following with the applicant’s work history.

Watch: What to Put on a Resume

What to put on your resume if you have experience.

If you’re entering a job search with prior work experience, the following sections should be included on your resume.

(And don’t worry, I’ll share what entry-level job seekers should put on their resume coming up later in this article).

For job seekers with work experience, these are the 9 key types of information that a resume should include:

• Name and Contact Info
• Resume Summary Paragraph
• Employment History
• Social Media
• Community Involvement (Optional)
• Awards/Achievements You’ve Received (Optional)

Now that you know the 9 main things to include in a resume, let’s look at these sections step-by-step so you’ll know how to write each one. 

1. Name and Contact Information

At the top of your resume, put your full name and a professional-looking email address. Your phone number and street address are optional, but for most people, I’d recommend including them. If you’re  applying for jobs out-of-state , it might make sense to leave your address off.

Now, for formatting and design…

I’d keep it simple and “clean”-looking. No distractions. Not too many fonts and colors. In fact, this is good advice for  how to format your whole resume .

Here’s an example from our Free Resume builder of what a simple resume header with your name and contact info might look like:

You can add a bit more in terms of design, but don’t go overboard.

2. Resume Summary Paragraph

This is the next section of your resume, and should go right after your name and contact info in most cases. This is a two or three sentence summary of your qualifications and accomplishments throughout your career (or throughout your education if you just graduated).

Note: this is not an “objective” section. I’d advise against putting an objective on your resume. Hiring managers know your objective is to land a job in their industry that will utilize your skills, etc. So put a summary paragraph instead.

If you need help writing this paragraph, here’s an article filled with great  resume summary examples .

You can also include the job title right within your resume summary in some cases, which will immediately show employers that you have some relevant experience. For example, let’s say the job title on the job ad is “Senior Account Analyst”. You could write your summary like: “Senior-level account analyst with five years of experience in…”

It’s okay if you’re not a resume writing expert. Just use these examples here to craft your own resume summary.

Lets take a look at another example from our Free Resume Builder :

3. Employment History

If you have held any previous jobs (including internships), your experience section is where to put them. Focus heavily on this experience section, as it’s one of the first places a hiring manager looks on your resume.

Write the section in reverse chronological order , which means your most recent work should be at the top.

Include job titles, company names, and dates. You can choose whether to put just years, or months and years for each job; just be consistent throughout the document. And always begin this section within the top half of the first page of your resume.

As a recruiter , one of the top mistakes I saw job seekers make was burying their employment history on the bottom of the first page, or even the beginning of page two. It should be much higher up, and should be visible when they open your resume on a computer without having to scroll down.

Hiring managers will typically look here even before your skills section, so always be looking for opportunities to highlight technical skills and relevant job skills here. Ask yourself: “What have I done in recent jobs that will show a hiring manager that I’d do well in their job, too?” That’s the mindset to take when writing your work history. It’s all about writing your resume to fit the job you want next. And since hiring managers and recruiters are busy, they don’t want to read big, bulky paragraphs. Instead, put  bullets highlighting what you did in each job . I’d suggest five to eight bullet points per job.

You can write a small introductory paragraph for each job, but most of the content should be in bullet format. In these bullet points, don’t just talk about job duties; talk about what you actually accomplished. There’s a big difference.

Here’s an example…

Rather than saying, “responsible for managing 5 sales associates”… say, “successfully led 5 sales associates to achieve 139% of team sales goals for Fiscal Year 2020.”

The image above is an example of a resume work experience section with accomplishment-driven bullets. Take the time to understand the difference and you’ll be far better than most job seekers at resume writing.

This is the next big section to put on your resume in any job search.

You might be tempted to put your skills before your employment history… and other people may have even told you to do this. But the only time I think it makes sense to list skills first is if you have absolutely no work experience. (I’ll share more about what to put on a resume with no experience coming up, by the way).

But if you have any prior work at all in your career… hiring managers don’t want to see a long list of technical skills without being able to see where you used each skill (and how recently you used them). This is why they’re much more likely to scan your resume looking for recent jobs before anything else. And that’s why you should put it higher up, so they can find this key info that they’re looking for quickly.

The bottom line is: If you want a good resume, then your skills should come after your experience section.

In your  skills section , you can put a list of your top  skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for,  and you can even put them under a few headers/categories if you think it makes sense for your job and industry. You should focus mostly on hard skills. The best skills to put will be found directly on the job description. It’s better to highlight soft skills (like “team player”) in your cover letter, where you can tell a story and share more detail on how you used this skill to succeed.

On a resume, hiring managers mainly look for hard skills and skills relevant to the job requirements.

There’s no perfect number of skills to put. Some people might only need 3-10; others might put 20. It really depends on how long you’ve been working and what field of work you’re in. Make sure you think about what’s relevant for the job though; don’t just list a bunch of skills that won’t help you in their job. And think about keywords too – this is a great place to put keywords on your resume so you can  get past online job application systems .

5. Education

Put the name of your school(s), your field of study, and graduation date – unless you feel your graduation date will leave you open to age discrimination on your resume. If you graduated decades ago, feel free to leave the dates off. You can also put your GPA in this section. I’d only recommend doing that if it was above 3.0/4. Otherwise, leave it off. You might be asked about your GPA in the first few years of your career, but you’re very unlikely to be asked about it again after that, so don’t worry if your GPA is below 3.0/4. Just exclude it from your resume.

6. Social Media

Nowadays, everyone has a social media account — many times on various platforms. In some cases, you’ll want to include your social media account handles if they’re relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Most people have a LinkedIn profile to connect with colleagues and other professionals in their industry. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you should certainly include a link if it’s correctly filled out and reflects similar content to your tailored resume.

Other social media accounts, like Twitter, StackOverflow, Github, and Medium, may also be helpful to include in some instances. For example, if you’re a noted journalist, you likely have a Twitter account you use to share important news or communicate with the community. In this case, it would be appropriate to include your Twitter handle.

Sites like StackOverflow and Github are popular for coders, developers, and data scientists. If you’re very active on these sites, it might be worth including your account on your resume.

Freelancers, content writers, and entrepreneurs regularly posting to Medium should share their channel information. Bonus points if they have many shared articles and comments on their content.

7. Language

Some companies actively seek to hire employees who are fluent in languages besides English. If you are fluent in another language or know it well enough to speak or write it in a professional environment, include it on your resume. 

Languages like Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Portuguese are often especially valuable to organizations with a global footprint, although others can also be beneficial.

8. Community Involvement (Optional)

If you’ve done any volunteer work or helped in your community in other ways, this is where to put it. You can list the location, dates, and your contribution/work. If you haven’t done any volunteering or community-related work, don’t worry – just don’t put this section on your resume.

9. Awards/Achievements (Optional)

Any time you’ve received awards or other recognition for your accomplishments, you should put it on your resume. However, you don’t always need a separate section for it. That’s up to you… If you got an academic award, you can list it under your education section (beneath your degree, GPA, etc.) If you received an award or recognition for outstanding performance at a previous job, you can list it as a bullet point or a note underneath that specific job in your Employment History section.

So while awards and achievements are a great thing to include on any resume, they don’t always need their own dedicated section. You should also mention awards and recognition you’ve received in your cover letter, especially if it was a work-related award (such as employee of the month , salesperson of the year, etc.)

What to Put on a Resume if You Have No Work Experience

Now, if you just graduated and have absolutely  no work experience , here’s what to include on your entry-level resume.

(Note that if you even have an internship or part-time job that you’ve worked while going to school, you should use the steps above! Any work experience at all is worth showing on your resume).

However, if you have absolutely no work experience, here’s what to put on your resume…

As mentioned earlier, you should put your full name and professional-looking email address. Your street address and phone number are optional, but for most people, it makes sense to include those too.

The big exception: If you’re trying to get a job in another state . If so, consider leaving the address off.

2. Resume Summary Section

Even if you have no work experience, you can write something like:

“Recent Finance graduate with training in ____ and ____ seeking an opportunity to do ____.”

Or, look at the job title on the job description and try to incorporate that phrase into your resume summary. I discussed this strategy earlier, too, when showing the resume format and what to put for experienced candidates.

For more help, read our full article on  resume summaries for students and fresh graduates .

3. Education

If you have no work experience, then you need to put more information in your education section, to show employers you’re a fit for their job.

Were you involved in any clubs/activities at school?

What were some key projects you completed or coursework you did? (Specifically, key projects that are related to the jobs you’re applying for now).

Your resume should take up one full page, even if you have no work experience, and your education section is a place where you want to provide additional detail to fill out the page.

You can list skills that you learned in your studies or skills you’ve developed on your own. Only put skills you’re really comfortable talking about and using, because it’s very likely they’ll ask about this in an interview. If done right, the skills section can be a powerful tool to help you get more interviews though, for two reasons:

First, it’s a great way to put a lot of relevant keywords onto your resume, so that you get past computerized job application systems.

Second, it’s an easy way to show employers what you know that’s going to help you succeed in their job. Always re-order and re-adjust your skills section to fit what you think this specific employer wants!

More info on how to do that is coming up, but let’s finish the list first…

5. Community Involvement (Optional)

Any volunteer work or community service you’ve done. This  shows employers that you’re enthusiastic  and involved in the community, which can help set you apart (while also filling up your resume).

6. Awards/Achievements (Optional)

If you have no work experience, these would likely be academic achievements. Go ahead and list them underneath your education section. So don’t put this as a separate section, but do include awards, achievements, and any recognition you received when you write your education section in Step 3 above.

You now know what to include on a resume, even if you’ve never held a job! Keep reading though, because next – we’re going to look at mistakes to avoid.

Ideal Resume Format

Whether you have work experience or not, you should use reverse chronological order resume format . This is the resume format that recruiters and employers are used to seeing and prefer to read.

Don’t get fancy when it comes to your resume writing. Don’t use some unusual format, like a functional resume, that hides dates of employment and the order of the jobs you’ve held. This will only frustrate employers and cost you job interviews. It could also prevent you from getting through a company’s applicant tracking system .

What Not to Include on a Resume: Mistakes to Avoid

Now we’ve looked at what should be included in a resume and how to write those sections to grab attention.

We’re not done yet though – there are a few things that you should leave off of your resume if you want to get interviews… and you may not have been warned about these. So let’s cover that next…

1. Irrelevant Jobs

If you have a long work history, consider removing some jobs that aren’t relevant, or were at the very beginning of your career (especially if you’ve been working for 15-20 years or more). Note that you shouldn’t remove an irrelevant job if it’s going to leave your employment history empty. For example, if you’ve only held one job but it’s not relevant to what you want to do next, you should still keep it.

Why? It’s better to put a job that doesn’t seem closely related to your current job search than to put absolutely nothing in your employment history. And you can always show traits like leadership, accountability, hard work, problem-solving, etc., in your past work history, no matter what job you had! So hiring managers might still find it relevant and impressive.

2. An Objective Statement

It’s a mistake to write a resume with an objective. This is outdated and no longer necessary. Employers will assume that your objective is to obtain a position at their company if you’ve applied, so this is not something to include on your resume. Instead, put a  career summary section, as mentioned earlier in this article.

You can read more about why a resume doesn’t need an objective  here .

3. Anything That Makes Your Resume More Than Two Pages

Unless you have a Ph.D. and are writing an academic CV… or unless you’ve been working for 10-15+ years… your resume should not be more than two pages.

For 60-70% of people, your resume should only be one page. So focus on what’s most important and keep the length short.

As a recruiter, I’d rather see 8 specific skills that are relevant to the job I’m hiring for, rather than a list of 30 general skills that you’ve used throughout your career but might not be relevant to the job. So  make your resume laser-focused and target their needs!

4. More Soft Skills Than Hard Skills

As mentioned earlier, employers care mostly about hard skills on a resume. Your cover letter and job interview is where you should be demonstrating soft skills like communication, interpersonal skills, active listening, etc.

So as you review your resume, it’s a problem if you find many soft skills but few hard skills and job-related skills. In fact, you should be looking to highlight these job-related skills in practically every resume section, starting with your resume summary paragraph .

5. Spelling or Grammar Mistakes

Proofread and spellcheck everything.

You are very unlikely to get called for an interview if you have a spelling or grammar mistake on your resume – and nobody’s going to tell you either. So you need to find it yourself, or have a friend proofread it carefully for you!

Here’s a little trick if you proofread it yourself: temporarily change your resume to an unusual font before proofreading. It will help you spot errors (sounds crazy, I know. But it works). Now you’ve hopefully gotten answers to your questions about what should a resume include, and you’ve seen the top things to leave off as well.

ATS Optimization

Most companies use an automated tracking system (ATS) that scans all resumes before passing them on to recruiters. The ATS will automatically flunk the resumes of candidates who don’t appear to have the appropriate experience or education to qualify for the role.  You’ll want to ensure your resume includes keywords and phrases that are relevant to the position so you will make it past the ATS scanner .

How to Address Employment Gaps on a Resume

If you have any gaps in your employment history, you’ll want to explain them — especially if they’re longer than a year. 

You can usually “disguise” small gaps of less than a month by simply omitting the month. That practice is entirely acceptable, and if it comes up during the interview, you can explain you took a few weeks off before starting a new job.  However, for lengthier leaves of absence, you’ll want to describe what you did when you weren’t working full-time. For instance, if you took off a few years to raise young children or care for an elderly parent, simply list your reasons and the date.

There’s one final step, though, that’s going to get you far more interviews from all of this…

Final Step to Make Your Resume Stand Out: Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description

I recommend tailoring your resume to match the job description before sending it out for each job. Look at the skills and keywords listed on the job description as you’re writing your resume, and include matching information as much as possible.

Recruiters are always evaluating your resume relative to the job opening, so the more you can include skills and professional experience from their job posting, the more interviews you’ll get. Customize your career summary statement, work experience, and even skill list. You can use the job posting to discover new ideas of what to include. You can also reorder your content and even remove one or two areas that aren’t relevant to the jobs you want next.

Here’s a full article on  how to tailor your resume for each job .

It will take you slightly longer to customize each job application, but  you’ll get far more responses.

Would you rather apply for 50 jobs and hear back from one? Or apply for 25 jobs and hear back from four? That’s the type of difference tailoring your resume can make.

Now you know what goes on a resume and how to make each section attractive to employers. If you follow the steps above you’re going to have a great resume that grabs attention and shows recruiters and hiring managers why they should interview you immediately.

Conclusion: What Should Job Seekers Put on a Resume?

If you read everything above, you now know what sections to include when writing your professional resume. You also know which format to use: reverse chronological order. Plus, you know the top mistakes to avoid, such as including a resume objective.

IF you follow this advice, you’ll have a resume that shows relevant skills and experience, in the order that employers want to see it.

Your resume will get past applicant tracking systems and recruiters/HR, so you can win more interviews for the jobs you want.

Note that you can either do this resume writing yourself or use a resume builder . Either way, you can follow the advice above to ensure you finish with the right resume format.

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, 2 thoughts on “what to put on a resume: 9 things to include”.

If someone is a new grad looking for their first “real job” out of college, is it okay/recommended to split work experience into 2 sections like “relevant [major/industry] experience” and “additional experience”, or just to lump everything into 1 section called “work experience” and list everything in order relevant or not?

I would like to know one more thing I could put on there because I have all of these but im just not sure its enough. Thanks

Comments are closed.

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How To Write A Resume In 7 Steps (With Examples)

• How To Write A Resume
• Resume Skills Section
• Resume Objective Section
• Career Objective Section
• Resume Reference Section
• Resume Summary Section
• Resume Summary Example
• Resume Interests Section
• Address On Resume
• Relevant Work Experience
• Anticipated Graduation Date On Resume
• Education Section On Resume
• Contact Information On Resume
• Statement Of Qualifications
• How To List Publications On Resume
• Accomplishments On Resumes
• Awards On Resume
• Dean's List On Resume
• Study Abroad On Resume

Resumes are still the most important document in your job search . Generating a professional and interesting resume isn’t easy, but there is a standard set of guidelines that you can follow. As hiring managers usually only spend a short time looking over each resume, you want to make sure that yours has a reason for them to keep reading.

If you’re looking to write a resume, rewrite a resume you already have, or are just curious about resume format, then you’ve come to the right place. This article will go through the steps to writing an excellent resume, as well as offering examples for what sections of the resume should look like.

Key Takeaways:

A resume is a short document that details your professional history in a way that tailors your experience and skill set for the particular job you’re applying for.

Resumes follow a few standard formatting practices, which hiring managers and recruiters expect to see.

Highlighting your work experience, skills, and educational background with relevant keywords can help you get past applicant tracking systems and into more interviews.

How to write a resume

Writing a resume involves using the proper formatting, writing an introduction, and adding your work experience and education. Stuffing your entire professional life into a single page resume can feel overwhelming, but remember that you’re distilling the relevant parts of your professional experience in order to catch the eye of the recruiter .

Formatting your resume. To start, use a word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google docs. Standard resume formatting calls for:

1 inch margins

10-12 point font

A professional, commonly-used font

Additionally, there are three resume formats that are commonly used. Most people should stick with a chronological resume format , but the combination resume format and functional resume format can be effective for more advanced workers or those who have significant gaps in their resume.

Write a resume header . It doesn’t matter if you have the best resume in the world if the hiring manager can’t contact you. Every single resume should include the following contact information:

Your full name. First and last.

Your phone number. Use a personal phone number, and make sure your voicemail is set up properly.

Your email address. Nothing inappropriate — [email protected] is a safe choice.

Location. City, State, Zip Code is fine, but you can include your full mailing address if you think it’s appropriate.

Your social media (optional). LinkedIn is the obvious one you’d want to include, but make sure your profile looks good. If you have an online portfolio , either on a personal blog/website or on a site like Journo Portfolio , feel free to include that here as well.

Your job title. Also optional, but can be useful for applicant tracking systems.

Resume introduction. You have four options for your resume introduction: a resume objective, summary statement, resume profile, or qualifications summary. For most job-seekers, a resume summary statement is the best choice. Regardless of which resume introduction you choose, avoid first-person pronouns (I/me/my).

Resume objective. A resume objective is the goal of your resume. Since the objective of every resume is to land a job, this is not the most original or impressive opener you can have.

On the other hand, it’s a good choice for an entry-level applicant or someone who is changing career paths . This should be a 1-3 sentence summary of why you’re motivated to get the position you’re applying for.

Who should use a resume objective: Entry-level applicants, career-changers, and recent college graduates.

Resume summary. This is the best opener for most job-seekers. As the name suggests, a resume summary highlights the most salient aspects of your resume.

It should include your current position, how many years of experience you have, some of your biggest achievements, and possibly your career goals. This should be a 1-3 sentence spiel and should include some quantifiable experiences.

Who should use a resume summary: Most job seekers; anyone with quantifiable accomplishments to emphasize and a broad range of skills.

Qualifications summary. A bullet point list (4-6 points is the sweet spot) of your qualifications for the position. It’s best used by applicants going for jobs that require a fixed skill set. It’s not a great choice for entry-level applicants who lack quantifiable achievements.

You’ll notice that a qualifications summary takes up more space than a resume objective or summary, but it can actually save the hiring manager time if you provide a bunch of valuable information right off the top.

Who should use a qualifications summary: Those applying to a job with requirements for certain skills and job-seekers who have a lot of experience in their industry and/or field.

Resume profile. A resume profile is similar to a resume summary, but goes into more detail about your accomplishments at your current or former job, while also telling the reader about your career goals. Think of a resume profile as a section that pulls all the best parts of your work experience section into one place.

Who should use a resume profile: Anyone with significant accomplishments under their belt, expertise in a niche field, or applying to a job in the same industry that they have lots of experience in.

Resume headline. Resume headlines aren’t necessary, but you can include one alongside any of the four types of resume introduction listed above. A resume headline comes between your contact information and the resume introduction of your choice.

Headlines can be used by entry-level applicants and experienced job-seekers alike. The important point is that your headline should be short and to the point. Additionally, you should use title case when writing your resume headline (capitalize words as you would for a book title).

Who should use a resume headline: Any job-seeker who wants to showcase their experience or unique value right off the bat.

Work experience. Your work experience section is the place to let hiring managers know that you have relevant experience that would allow you to handle the job you’re applying for.

If you’re using the chronological resume format, your work experience section would come after your resume summary/objective. In a funcitonal reumse, it would follow your skills section. Either way, work experience should be listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent experience at the top).

When listing your work experience, you should include all of the following information:

Job title. Start by stating the position you held at the company. These are easy cue for the hiring manager to look at and determine whether your past positions would help you succeed at their company.

Company Info. Include the name of the employer, the location where you worked, and perhaps a brief description of the company, if it isn’t a well-known name.

Dates Employed: Use the mm/yyyy format if you want to be sure that most applicant tracking systems (ATS) will pick it up. Whatever format you use for dates, be consistent, or your resume will look sloppy.

Job Description. Don’t just list your job’s responsibilities; hiring managers and recruiters already have an idea of your duties based on the job title. Instead, list your most important and impressive responsibilities/achievements at the job with bullet points. Determine which of these are most relevant for your new role based on the job description.

Ideally, each bullet should be no longer than a single line. However, two lines is acceptable, if used sparingly.

Always start with a strong action verb, followed by a quantifiable achievement and a specific duty. For example: “Developed ad campaigns for clients, increasing sales by an average of 27%.” Each job title should include 3-5 bullet points.

The order that you include this information can be changed around, as long as you are consistent throughout your resume. However, the bullet points detailing your job’s achievements should always be the last item for each entry.

It’s important that you tailor your resume’s work experience section to the job you’re applying for. We recommend reading the job description carefully and highlighting the action verbs in one color and the skills, adjectives, and job-specific nouns in a different color.

Educational background. In almost all cases, your education section should come after your professional history. If you’re a recent college graduate with limited work experience, you may choose to put your educational achievements first.

Like the section on your professional history, educational experiences should come in reverse-chronological order, with your highest level of education at the top. If you have a college degree, you don’t need to add any information about your high school experience. If you didn’t finish college, it’s okay to give a list of what credits you did complete.

Each educational experience can be listed in the following format:

Degree/Program Name College/University Name Dates attended

You don’t need to add anything else, especially if your resume is already impressive enough. But if you’re struggling to fill up the page, or you feel that aspects of your educational experience will help make you a standout, you may consider also including:

Minor. If you think it rounds out your not-exactly-relevant-to-the-job major nicely.

GPA. Only if it was 3.5 or higher. Otherwise, it’s not going to do you any favors to include this.

Honors. Dean’s List, Cum Laude, etc.

Achievements. If you wrote a killer thesis/dissertation that showcases intimate knowledge relevant to the job to which you’re applying, you can include its title and a very brief description.

Extracurricular activities. Only include if they’re relevant. For example, if you’re applying for a management position and you were president of your student government.

Certifications/Licenses. If the job you’re applying for requires/likes to see certain certifications or licenses that you have, you may include them in this section as well.

Skills section. Your impressive skills should be scattered logistically throughout your professional history section, but you should also include a section solely dedicated to highlighting your skill set . Skills can be broken down into two categories:

Hard skills are skills you learn through training and indicate expertise with a technical ability or job-specific responsibility.

Soft skills are your personality traits, interpersonal abilities, and intangible qualities that make you more effective at your job.

Your resume should have a healthy mix of hard and soft skills, as both are essential to job performance. However, since soft skills are harder to prove in the context of a resume, we recommend leaning more toward hard skills. Additionally, whenever you list a soft skill, make sure that it has a correlating item in your work experience section.

For example, if you say you are skilled in collaboration, you should mention a time when a team project was a major success somewhere in your work experience section.

Optional sections. If you still have space left or there’s more you want to show off that doesn’t quite fit in any of the above sections, you may consider adding an additional section covering one or more of the below categories:

Language . Being bilingual is always impressive, and can be included on a resume for any company. Highlight this more if your position involves liaising with international distributors and/or clients. Don’t lie about your proficiency level.

It may be best to not mention it if you’re not particularly proficient speaker . Such as if you took courses in school, or haven’t really managed to gain fluency. It can end up looking like an attempt to inflate your credentials, which you want to avoid.

Volunteer experience . Always a good thing to include. It shows you’re a team player who behaves in a way that promotes the greater good, without thought of personal gain. Especially good for entry-level candidates and those applying for jobs at a non-profit. If you have gaps in your work history, you can also consider including volunteer experiences in your work history section instead.

Personal projects. A personal blog, published works, or a portfolio of your past projects are all good things to include. They show you take initiative, enjoy and take pride in your work, and that you can handle the responsibilities of the job, if relevant.

Certifications/licenses. If you didn’t include these in your education section, this is another good place to list relevant certifications or licenses that you have.

Interests . This is largely just a space filler if your resume is light in other areas. However, if your hobbies are directly related to the job that you’re applying for, it’s not a bad idea to include them. And it might draw a recruiter’s attention if you end up sharing some of the same interests as they do.

If you have several seemingly random items that are valuable, but don’t warrant creating a whole separate section for, you can also make a section called “Additional Experience.” Here you can include all of the above categories in one place. Just make sure that each item is clear and easy for readers to understand.

Resume samples

Now that we have a good idea of how to write a resume, let’s take a look at some example resumes:

Jack Pilgrim Washington , DC 14015 – (555) 444-3333 – [email protected] – www.linkedin.com/jpilgrim Resume Summary Graphic designer with 3+ years of experience creating and implementing promotional materials and social media graphics. Worked with sales and marketing teams to increase inbound calls by 23% YoY through compelling digital media. Adept at planning, managing, and prioritizing multiple deadlines at once, and thrives in fast-paced work environment. Work Experience Creative Designs | Washington, DC Lead Graphic Designer | June 2018-Present Worked with sales and marketing teams to create landing pages, sales proposals, and supporting media elements to drive sales by over $250,000 per quarter Trained, managed, and mentored team of 4 junior designers to fulfill 40+ project orders on a weekly basis Conducted UX research through surveys, usability testing, and data analysis to plan content marketing strategy, driving organic search traffic by 12% Presented proposals, results, and status updates to set of 4-7 clients, ensuring customer satisfaction at or above 95% for 3 years straight Happy Place | Alexandria, VA Junior Graphic Designer | July 2016-May 2018 Translated client needs and branding strategies into design and content strategy, increasing client retention by 22% Reduced project turnaround time by 8% by Utilizing web-based ticket system for completing and archiving finalized pieces Posted digital artwork to network IPTV using web interface to produce high-end info-graphics and other materials Happy Place | Alexandria, VA Marketing Intern | September 2015-July 2016 Assisted marketing team with data collection, analysis, and presentation using Google Analytics Drew up storyboards for new marketing campaigns alongside sales team, increasing brand awareness through social media Wrote 500-1000 word articles to pair with graphical elements on page, leading to a 40% boost in engagement on company website Education Savannah College of Art and Design | Savannah, Georgia May 2016 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design Skills Adobe Creative Suite Typography HTML/CSS WordPress Collaboration Organization

Allison Neederly Chicago, Illinois , 60007 | (333) 222-1111 | [email protected] | www.linkedin.com/allison.neederly Resume Summary Dedicated customer service representative with 4+ years experience resolving customers’ needs in-person, online, and over the phone. Top achiever at XYZ Inc. with a 100% customer satisfaction rate for Q1 of 2020. Friendly personable, and knowledgable about company’s products and services. Relevant Skills Customer Service Responded to upwards of 200 customer queries daily with XYZ Inc., reducing the average wait time by 56% and increasing customer satisfaction rates by 13% Ability to resolve conflict and create a positive atmosphere for shopping for both new and existing customers through technical proficiency Expert product knowledge and communication skills, and experience training and mentoring new customer service staff Web Chat and Phone Skilled in 3 web chat platforms for helping online customers resolve their queries quickly and accurately Achieved fastest call resolution rate at XYZ Inc., with an average resolution time of under 5 minutes per customer Performed outbound calls for customer satisfaction surveys, as well as writing web-based surveys for 10,000+ customers Troubleshooting Detailed product knowledge allowed for customer technical issues to be resolved at rate within top 5% of all customer service associates at XYZ Inc. Created manual for step-by-step directions for troubleshooting that was implemented for team of 100+ customer service reps Positive attitude took average tech-related negative response from 1/5 stars to 4/5 stars, increasing trust in brands and services Work Experience XYZ Inc. | Philadelphia, PA Customer Service Associate New Look Global | Burlington, VT Junior Customer Service Representative L.L. Bean | Burlington, VT Sales Associate Education University of Vermont | Burlington, VT May 2012 Bachelor of Arts in Humanities

Priya Laghari New York, NY | (222) 111-0000 | [email protected] | www.priyabizdev.com Resume Profile Strategy Development: Grew John Deere’s international sales by 13% by tapping into undeserved countries in Southeast Asia Management: Oversaw a team of managers representing marketing, sales, and product teams. Streamlined collaborative, cross-functional communications through agile and scrum management system CRM: Developed, customized, and implemented new customer relationship management database for accounts totaling over $10M in value Work Experience Business Development Manager 01/2015-Present Microsoft | Redmond, WA Developed product strategies and roadmap for Google AdWords, increasing inbound traffic by 26% YoY Reduced time training on new software by 50% for new and existing employees by implement e-learning programs Spearheaded digital marketing campaign worth $1M that saw a return of 200% in first year by qualifying leads earlier in the sales funnel Regional Sales Manager 11/2012-01/2015 Big Things Inc. | St. Louis, MO Managed territory encompassing 29 regional locations with an annual revenue of approx. $55M Worked with C-level executives to plan business strategies, resulting in 20% reduction in overhead costs Increased client retention by 12% in first year by implementing a CRM approach based on account profiling and elevating levels of relationship selling Account Manager 02/2009-11/2012 Solutions Corp. | Chicago, IL Implemented and developed CRM strategic plans, increasing retention of long-term clients by 22% Maintained 50+ accounts totaling over $35M in value Generated leads through one-on-one consultation via phone inquiries, online check-ins, and meeting office walk-ins Relevant Skills CRM: Proficient with Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot; some experience with Keap. Used various CRM software over a decade to successfully manage customer relations and quick to adapt to new software and tools that aid in quality of customer experience. Salesmanship: Negotiated and closed over several deals worth $1M+ and skilled in upselling and cross-selling. Adept at working closely with marketing and product teams to maximize the efficiency of the sales funnel for both inbound and outbound traffic. Presentation: Represented Microsoft Northwest Region at quarterly board meetings, ensuring all stakeholders were kept abreast of new developments and opportunities. Also deliver monthly presentations to big clients and vendors to maintain positive relationship. Data analytics. Expert at integrating data from various analytics platforms, including Google, Microsoft Power BI, and SAP BusinessObjects Education Colgate University | May 2008 MBA Fordham University | May 2006 Bachelor’s Degree in Business

For more resume examples and templates:

Resume examples by job

Google docs resume template

Resume templates

Resume builder

Resume Headers Samples:

Tip : Never put your contact info in the header of your document; some applicant tracking systems might miss it.

For more on how to write a resume header:

Resume Header

Resume Titles

Resume introduction examples

Entry-Level Resume Objective.

Recent graduate with a bachelor’s in Marketing from the University of Virginia seeking an entry-level role in content marketing. Excellent copywriter with 2+ years experience editing content as a member of the UVa Writing Center.

Career Change Resume Objective.

Eager to apply 7+ years of experience with customer success management to make successful outbound B2B calls, deliver customized business solutions to new and existing customers, and provide expert product knowledge in the role of Account Manager for XYZ Inc.

Example Resume Summary Statement.

Accountant with over 8 years of experience in the medical industry. Adept at advising on management of cash deficits, reconciling departmental accounts, and creating new accounts and codes. Coordinated invoice preparation system for ABC that reduced contractor overhead by 19% YoY.

English teacher with a love of language and 6 years of experience teaching high school students. Developed new curriculum that boosted freshman reading comprehension scores by 12% and created after school book club for AP Lit class, resulting in 100% of participating students achieving a 5 on the AP Lit test.

Example Qualifications Summary.

Executive assistant with 5+ years experience helping maintain efficiency in an office of 25 employees Communicated directly with internal and external stakeholders, helping Senior Vice President manage projects worth $5M+ Proactively managed office schedules, identifying and prioritizing changes to ensure client satisfaction Recognized in a company of 500 for “Outstanding Achiever” in May 2019

Example Resume Profile.

Detail-oriented IT Specialist with 4 years of experience overseeing and improving the infrastructure of IT systems. Adept at building and running troubleshooting systems and testing services. Decreased security risk by 47% through continual optimization, while also improving the speed of client portal by 22%. Excellent communicator both internally and for client-facing discussions. Achieved 98%+ customer satisfaction ratings through weekly and monthly check-ins with accounts valued cumulatively at $500,000.

Entry-Level Resume Headline.

Bilingual College Graduate with 80 WPM Typing Speed and Tutoring Experience

Experienced Resume Headline.

Business Development Specialist with 6+ Years Experience Scaling Start-Up Tech Teams

For more on resume introductions:

Resume objective statement

Resume summary statement

Resume summary statement examples

Qualifications summary

Sample resume work experience sections

Work Experience XYZ Industries | Seattle, WA Marketing Associate | May 2019-Present Delivered weekly presentations to client-base to communicate brand messaging, increasing client retention by 11% Served as liaison between marketing and product teams, resulting in projects finishing 2 weeks early, on average Leveraged Excel skills to create and maintain spreadsheet to track consumer insights, emergent trends, and inform decisions of marketing team through competitive analysis Managed team of 5 contractors to juggle multiple priority projects simultaneously, never missing a deadline Initiated an affiliate referral program that PR team went on to turn into a revenue-generating stream valued at $30,000 annually ABC Corp | Seattle, WA Marketing Intern | September 2018-May 2019 Developed, maintained, and processed 20+ digital consent forms and distributor forms Worked collaboratively with a team of 10 marketing professionals, closely aligning our goals with the PR team Provided data analysis using Google Analytics and performed keyword research to increase blog traffic by 56% over six months Answered up to 50 customer queries by phone and email each week

For more on building the perfect resume work experience section:

Resume work experience section

First resume (no experience)

Examples Of Education Resume Sections

Graduated recently from a 4-year program.

Western Illinois University | Macomb, Illinois May 2020 Bachelor of Arts in Sociology | Minor in Psychology 3.95 GPA magna cum laude Dean’s List all semesters

Two degrees.

Fordham University | Bronx, New York April 2016 Master of Chemical Engineering Stony Brook University | Stony Brook, New York April 2014 Bachelor of Science in Chemistry

Anticipated graduation date (not yet graduated).

DePaul Univeristy | Chicago, Illinois Bachelor of Arts in History – Degree anticipated May 2021 Current GPA: 3.8

Older job seeker (graduated 10+ years ago).

University of Chicago | Chicago, Illinois Bachelor of Business Administration

High school graduate (no college degree).

Johnston High School 2016-2020 Head of Computer Club

More on crafting the perfect resume education section:

Education resume section

GPA on resume

Dean’s list

Magna cum laude

Examples Of Skills For Resume

Examples of hard skills include:

Examples of soft skills include:

Here’s more information on how to incorporate skills into your resume:

Resume skills section

Hard skills

Soft skills

Top skills for professionals

Skills-based resume

Resume writing FAQ

What is a resume?

A resume is a one to two-page document that focuses on professional experience, past achievements, education and certifications, and specific skills tailored to the job you’re applying for.

Almost every job application requires a resume, and hiring managers use them as a first impression in determining which applicants get a shot at an interview.

Whether you’re fresh out of college or have 30 years of professional experience, this guide should help craft a resume that stands out from the crowd and get you one step closer to landing your dream job.

What is the format for writing a good resume?

Most people will want to use a chronological or reverse-chronological resume format. This format is compatible with most applicant tracking systems (ATS) and is easy for employers to read. Additionally it helps highlight your experience, which helps prove your qualifications.

How far back should a resume go?

A resume should go back no further than 10 to 15 years. However, it is important that all your information is relevant. Therefore, do not include job experience that is irrelevant to your application, even if it’s fewer than 10 years old. Save that information for later discussions.

Should you personalize your resume for each job?

Yes, you should personalize your resume for each job you apply to. Many recruiters use ATS now, which will search for keywords in a resume and reject those that don’t have them. That means that the skills you choose to highlight as well as your opening, such as your resume summary, should be altered to suit each job you apply to.

You don’t need to rewrite the entire resume for each job, but it does show attention to detail and initiative to make sure that your resume is customized. It also makes it more likely that you’ll get past the first step of the process.

State of New York Department of Labor – Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications

Harvard University – Create a Resume/CV or Cover Letter

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Matthew Zane is the lead editor of Zippia's How To Get A Job Guides. He is a teacher, writer, and world-traveler that wants to help people at every stage of the career life cycle. He completed his masters in American Literature from Trinity College Dublin and BA in English from the University of Connecticut.

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• Customization choices: Users can personalize their resumes by selecting from various font styles, colors, layouts, and sections to align with their unique style.
• Comprehensive content suggestions: Access to a collection of expertly curated bullet points, action verbs, and industry-specific phrases to craft impactful resume content.
• Real-time previews and editing: Real-time previewing and editing capabilities ensure a visually appealing and error-free final resume.
• Integration with professional networking platforms: Integration with LinkedIn allows users to maintain consistency between their online presence and resume.
• Tailored resumes for different job applications: The duplication feature facilitates the creation of multiple resume versions, each customized for specific job applications or industries.
• Resume analytics and tracking: Users can monitor the views and downloads of their resumes, gaining valuable insights to optimize their job search strategies.
• Professional Resume : $169
• Resume With Cover Letter : $199
• All-Included : $199

>> Use Super Star Resume to Secure Your Dream Job

ZipJob - Best Resume Builder for Guarantees

Star Rating: 4.7/5

ZipJob is widely regarded as an excellent option for resume creation, especially for those who value guarantees. Their impressive 60-day assurance ensures that individuals searching for employment will experience a surge in interview invitations within this period.

If this desired outcome cannot materialize, ZipJob proactively offers a complimentary review and revision of your resume. This guarantee highlights their commitment to client contentment and showcases their unwavering belief in the superior quality of their resume writing services.

• The starting package is cost-effective
• Complimentary ATS check included
• 60-day interview assurance with higher-tier packages
• The design and layout made it challenging to read the resume
• The summary section was overly lengthy and filled with clichés
• The formatting of the education and training sections was subpar
• Expert resume writers: ZipJob provides access to a team of expert resume writers with the skills and knowledge to review, evaluate, and optimize your resume for compatibility with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and hiring managers.
• ATS optimization: Meaning they ensure your resume is structured and formatted to navigate and succeed in ATS filters effectively. Employers commonly use these filters to assess and rank resumes during the initial screening process.
• Keyword optimization: The resume builder online offered by ZipJob assists you in identifying and integrating pertinent keywords and industry-specific terminology. This practice heightens the visibility of your resume, making it more likely to capture the attention of hiring managers.
• Job-specific content suggestions: ZipJob provides valuable advice regarding the most relevant and influential content to include in your resume for different job titles and industries. This guidance is invaluable in customizing your resume for specific roles.
• Cover letter writing assistance: ZipJob supports the creation of impactful cover letters that complement your resume, strengthening your overall job application.
• Unlimited revisions: One noteworthy feature of ZipJob is the option for unlimited revisions and updates to your resume. This ensures that your resume not only meets but continues to meet your specific requirements and mirrors your professional growth.
• Collaboration with resume writers: the platform facilitates direct collaboration with the resume writers, enabling you to share additional information, discuss specific requirements, and seek clarifications at any stage of the resume creation process.
• Launch Package: $139 (or $48/mo)
• Fast Track Package: $189 (or $65/mo)
• Premium Package: $299 (or $27/mo)

>> Use ZipJob to Secure Your Dream Job

Resumeble - Best Resume Builder With Custom Bundles

Star Rating: 4.3/5

Resumeble is a highly efficient and user-friendly resume builder that empowers individuals to create professional and compelling resumes. With Resumeble, crafting a standout resume becomes a streamlined process thanks to its intuitive interface and extensive range of customizable templates.

Whether you’re a recent graduate, a seasoned professional, or someone looking to change careers, Resumeble caters to all needs and skill sets. It offers helpful suggestions and expert advice to ensure your resume showcases your unique qualifications and achievements in the best possible light.

• A 60-day interview guarantee is included
• Budget-friendly package deals are available
• It’s more established than some other websites
• Keyword optimization: This feature helps optimize your resume by suggesting relevant keywords aligned with your target industry or job, enhancing your visibility to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and recruiters.
• Content import: Resumeble allows you to import your existing resume or LinkedIn profile, saving you the time and effort of manual data entry.
• Real-time editing: You have the convenience of editing and modifying your resume in real time, providing the flexibility to experiment with various formats, sections, and content.
• ATS compatibility: Resumeble ensures your resume is ATS-compatible, essential for better visibility and a higher chance of being shortlisted by employers using Applicant Tracking Systems.
• Download options: The platform offers various download formats, including PDF, Word, and plain text, ensuring compatibility with diverse application processes.
• Cover letter builder: Resumeble features an integrated cover letter builder, streamlining the creation of professional and personalized cover letters that complement your resume.
• Career Pro Package : $159.00
• Professional Package : $299.00
• Premium Package : $399.00

>> Use Resumeble to Secure Your Dream Job

Let’s Eat, Grandma - Best Resume Builder for Range of Career Service

Star Rating: 4/5

Let’s Eat, Grandma is an inventive and progressive tool for creating impressive resumes. The platform streamlines the resume-building process, making it easier for job seekers to craft exceptional resumes. With Let’s Eat, Grandma, individuals can create unique resumes that catch the eye of employers and set them apart from the competition.

This user-friendly platform offers a range of customizable templates that allow users to tailor their resumes to showcase their specific skills and experiences. Let’s Eat, Grandma also provides expert advice and recommendations to help ensure that your qualifications and achievements are effectively highlighted in your resume.

• Complimentary resume evaluation
• Choices available for individuals from entry-level to executive-level positions
• Extensive collaboration opportunities
• Not specialized in academic CVs or federal resumes
• Relatively higher pricing compared to some other services
• Potential for a longer turnaround time compared to competing services
• Expert choice: You can save your resume in multiple formats (PDF, Word, plain text) or easily share it with potential employers via email or a link, simplifying the distribution of your resume.
• Error highlighting: The builder can identify potential errors, inconsistencies, or missing information within your resume and provide suggestions or alerts for improvement.
• Section prompts: Pre-written prompts for various resume sections (e.g., work experience, education, skills) can help you structure your resume effectively and ensure you include essential details in each area.
• Customizable sections: You can add, remove, or rearrange sections to tailor your resume to emphasize your strengths and relevant experiences.
• Keyword optimization: The resume builder can recommend industry-specific keywords based on the job description, enhancing your resume’s chances of passing through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and grabbing the attention of hiring managers.
• Starter Package : Priced at $439, but there is an anti-inflation sale price of $389.
• Accelerated Package : $549.
• The premium Package : $689, but the anti-inflation sale price is $614.
• Executive Concierge Service : $1,899 or as low as $119/month.

>> Use Let’s Eat, Grandma to Secure Your Dream Job

ResumeSpice - Best Resume Builder for Job Seekers of Any Level

Star Rating: 3.8/5

ResumeSpice , a renowned online resume builder, streamlines crafting professional resumes. This platform provides job seekers with a user-friendly interface and a wide selection of templates, enabling them to create impressive resumes that align with their career objectives.

With ResumeSpice’s seamless experience, users are guided through each resume section effortlessly while receiving valuable tips throughout the process. From personal details and work history to skills and accomplishments, this platform ensures that all crucial aspects of a resume are comprehensively addressed.

• Additional assistance
• Timely service
• ATS optimization
• Guaranteed interviews
• Restricted revisions
• Insufficient customization options
• Restricted refund policy
• User-friendly interface: ResumeSpice boasts an intuitive and user-friendly platform, simplifying the resume creation process and offering a seamless experience to users.
• Extensive template library: The platform offers a vast selection of professionally designed templates tailored to various industries and job positions. Users can explore different styles and layouts to find the perfect match for their needs.
• Import and export options: ResumeSpice enables users to import their existing resumes in formats like PDF or Word for easy editing and updates. Users can conveniently export their finalized resumes in multiple formats, facilitating sharing with employers or uploading to job portals.
• Mobile-friendly design: ResumeSpice is optimized for mobile devices, allowing users to create and modify their resumes using smartphones or tablets.
• Cloud storage: The platform provides secure cloud storage for users’ resumes, ensuring accessibility and updates from any device with an internet connection.
• Resume tracking: ResumeSpice includes tools for tracking the performance of submitted resumes, such as monitoring views, downloads, and application outcomes. These features empower users to evaluate their progress and make data-driven enhancements to their job search strategies.
• Entry Level Resume : $479
• Professional Resume : $589
• Executive Resume : $699

>> Use ResumeSpice to Secure Your Dream Job

TopResume - Best Resume Builder for Customer Service

Star Rating: 3.6/5

TopResume is an outstanding resume builder explicitly tailored for customer service professionals. It offers a seamless and user-friendly experience, enabling users to create exceptional resumes effortlessly. The platform goes beyond just providing a basic resume template, offering valuable suggestions and tips to optimize the content.

This ensures that each resume created on TopResume is unique and attention-grabbing in the highly competitive job market.

Besides its user-friendly interface, TopResume provides expert review services. These services allow skilled professionals to provide personalized feedback on resumes, helping enhance their overall quality further. By leveraging this feedback and incorporating attention to detail, customer service professionals can create compelling resumes that effectively capture the attention of potential employers.

• Streamlined registration process
• Well-designed and formatted one-page resume
• The summary and Job Scope sections were overly extended
• The training section needed to have prominence
• Skill-based sections: The resume builder features dedicated sections highlighting essential customer service skills, including communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and relationship building.
• Expert review services: TopResume provides expert review services where experienced professionals offer personalized feedback and recommendations to enhance the overall quality of your resume.
• ATS compatibility: The platform ensures that the resumes created are compatible with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which employers commonly use for scanning and filtering resumes.
• Download and sharing options: Users can download their resumes in various formats, such as PDF or Word, and easily share them with potential employers or upload them to job portals.
• Industry-Specific Tips: TopResume offers industry-specific tips and guidance to assist users in tailoring their resumes to the customer service field, helping them stand out among competitors.
• Cover letter builder: Besides resume building, TopResume provides a builder that empowers users to craft professional and compelling cover letters customized for customer service roles.
• Mobile accessibility: The platform is mobile-friendly, allowing users to create, edit, and update their resumes while on the go, using their smartphones or tablets.
• Entry level : Up to 200$.
• Professional level : Up to 200$-400$.
• Executive level : Up to $350-$700.

>> Use TopResume to Secure Your Dream Job

Resume Writing Services - Best Resume Builder for Affordability

Star Rating: 3.3/5

While Resumewritingservices.org may be a different size than its competitors, it stands out due to its team of talented and experienced resume writers. The website is user-friendly and provides exceptional service. However, this service’s true strength lies in its writers’ expertise.

Resumewritingservices.org sets itself apart by offering a comprehensive consultation process and goes beyond expectations by providing unlimited calls with its resume writers. This personalized approach distinguishes them from other companies and guarantees each client receives individual attention and support.

• Experienced resume writers of the highest caliber
• Unlimited phone consultations and revisions
• More expensive than rival services
• A limited range of products
• Skilled and experienced resume writers: Resumewritingservices.org takes pride in its team of highly trained and professional resume writers who possess a deep understanding of crafting effective resumes.
• Personalized service: Resumewritingservices.org offers a personal touch by providing unlimited calls with their resume writers. This unique feature allows clients to engage in direct communication and close collaboration with the writers throughout the resume creation process.
• Competitive job market expertise: The writers at Resumewritingservices.org have knowledge of current job market trends. This ensures that the resumes they create are optimized to excel in today’s fiercely competitive job market.
• Quality Assurance: The service maintains a rigorous quality assurance process to guarantee that the resumes delivered to clients meet the highest standards and align with their expectations.
• Timely delivery: Resumewritingservices.org is committed to delivering resumes within the agreed-upon timeframe, ensuring clients receive their documents promptly.
• Client satisfaction guarantee: Resumewritingservices.org offers a client satisfaction guarantee, assuring clients are fully content with the final resume. The service is ready to provide revisions if necessary.
• Affordable pricing: Resumewritingservices.org provides pricing options that are competitive and transparent, making professional resume writing accessible to a wide range of job seekers.

Resumewritingservices.org employs a pricing system that is clear and easy to understand for their resume-building services. The initial package begins at $270 , including a comprehensive consultation with a skilled resume writer and developing an individualized resume.

They offer extra options that enable customers to personalize their packages based on their unique preferences. This adaptable pricing strategy guarantees that clients can choose the services that align with their requirements and financial constraints.

>> Use Resume Writing Services to Secure Your Dream Job

Craft Resumes - Best Resume Builder for Quick-Turnaround

Star Rating: 3/5

Craft Resumes stand out as a well-established writing and editing service known for its ability to deliver effective outcomes. Our dedication to providing a 24-hour turnaround guarantees you’ll receive the initial version of your resume promptly.

Navigating our user-friendly website is effortless, making it easy to use our services. At Craft Resumes, we specialize in crafting customized resumes to match your skills, qualifications, and aspirations for your career.

• Speedy completion
• Customized CVs
• Intuitive site
• Insufficient details
• Absence of assurances
• Quick turnaround: Craft Resumes commits to delivering the initial draft of your resume within 24 hours, ensuring a speedy and efficient service.
• Expert Writers: Craft Resumes prides itself on its team of experienced writers who possess expertise across various industries and stay up-to-date with current hiring trends. They’re dedicated to making your resume stand out and catch the attention of potential employers.
• Unlimited revisions: We provide unlimited revisions to guarantee your complete satisfaction. If you have specific changes or additions in mind, our team will collaborate with you closely to implement the modifications.
• Confidentiality and Privacy: At Craft Resumes, we prioritize the confidentiality and privacy of your personal information. You can trust that your data will be handled securely and with the utmost discretion.
• Tailored resumes: We specialize in tailoring resumes to align with your career objectives, industry, and job requirements. Each resume is personalized to accentuate your unique strengths and qualifications.
• Resume Writing : $229.00
• Basic : $279.99
• Optimal : $339.99
• All-In-One : $499.99

>> Use Craft Resumes to Secure Your Dream Job

Resume Companion - Best Value Resume Builder

Star Rating: 2.8/5

Resume Companion is a virtual platform and service that specializes in aiding individuals in creating resumes that are professional and impactful. It offers an array of resources and tools to assist job seekers in crafting interesting resumes that effectively showcase their skills, experiences, and qualifications.

A prominent feature of Resume Companion is its user-friendly resume builder. This tool allows users to select from various professionally designed templates and personalize them based on their specific requirements.

Users can effortlessly incorporate their personal information, employment history, educational background, skill set, and other pertinent details to produce a customized resume tailored to their needs.

• Intuitive user interface
• High-quality templates
• Efficiency-boosting functions
• Cost-effective choice
• Restricted editing features without subscription
• Absence of extensive customization options
• Limited availability of extra services
• Cover letter builder: Resume Companion goes beyond resumes and provides users with a tool for crafting customized cover letters tailored to specific job applications. This feature guides users through the process, helping them effectively present their qualifications and make a compelling case to prospective employers.
• ATS optimization: In today’s job market, many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen resumes. Resume Companion helps users ensure their resumes are ATS-friendly. The platform offers valuable tips and insights on incorporating relevant keywords, formatting the document correctly, and increasing the likelihood of passing through the ATS screening process.
• Educational resources: Resume Companion extends its services by offering an informative blog and educational materials that cover various aspects of resume writing, job search strategies, interview techniques, and career development guidance. These resources provide users with valuable insights and advice to help them create impressive resumes and enhance their job search efforts.
• Download and sharing options: Upon completing their resumes, users can conveniently download their documents in multiple formats, including PDF and Word. Resume Companion also makes it easy for users to share their resumes online or print them offline.
• Customer support: Resume Companion values user satisfaction and offers customer support to assist with users’ questions or concerns while utilizing the platform. Users can access support through email or the platform’s contact form.

Resume Companion provides a cost-effective solution for individuals seeking an all-inclusive service. It’s vital to remember subscription renewal is required to access future editing services. In summary, Resume Companion offers a wallet-friendly option for those who desire a user-friendly resume-building experience without needing advanced writing abilities.

>> Use Resume Companion to Secure Your Dream Job

Our Ranking Methodology for Best Resume Writing Services

To comprehensively and objectively rank the top resume writing services, it is essential to have a thorough methodology. The first step in this process was conducting extensive research and analysis. This involved gathering a comprehensive list of reputable resume-writing services from multiple sources such as online searches, customer reviews, industry directories, and personal recommendations.

• Feature analysis: Evaluate the functionalities provided by each resume builder, considering elements like template variety and quality, customization flexibility, user-friendly editing and formatting options, import/export capabilities, spell check and grammar tools, and integration with job search platforms and professional networks.
• Template collection: Examine the assortment and quality of templates. Look for a wide range that suits various industries, job levels, and design preferences, considering these templates’ aesthetics, readability, and contemporary design.
• Editing and customization: Scrutinize the adaptability and user-friendliness of the editing and customization tools each resume builder provides. Assess the capacity to add or modify sections, reorganize content, and tailor resumes to specific job requirements.
• User interface and experience: Analyze the user interface and the overall user experience each resume builder offers. Evaluate the ease of navigation, instruction clarity, guidance or prompts, and the platform’s responsiveness.
• Integration with job search platforms: Determine whether resume builders offer seamless integration with popular job search platforms and professional networks like LinkedIn or ATS systems. Consider how well the resumes can be transferred and their compatibility with these platforms.
• Additional resources: Evaluate if the resume builders provide extra resources such as sample resumes, tools for creating cover letters, interview tips, or career advice. Consider the breadth and practicality of these supplementary resources.
• Mobile-friendliness: Gauge the mobile-friendliness and responsiveness of the resume builders, recognizing the growing trend of mobile job searching and application processes.
• Customer support: Reflect on the accessibility and quality of customer support services, encompassing options like live chat, email support, or knowledge bases. Assess the responsiveness and helpfulness of the support team.
• Pricing and value for money: Appraise the pricing plans presented by the resume builders in terms of the value they offer based on features, usability, and overall service quality.
• Industry reputation: Consider the standing and trustworthiness of the resume builders, considering factors such as awards, recognition, partnerships, and user feedback from reputable sources.

Buyer’s Guide: Why Use a Resume Builder?

Crafting a well-crafted CV comes naturally to particular job seekers. However, even the most seasoned experts may need help in resume writing. If you find yourself in need of help with creating a compelling resume, here are several ways in which the best online resume builder can be beneficial:

Resume builders provide users with pre-designed templates and helpful tips, streamlining the process of writing a resume and alleviating stress.

Offers Writing Tips

Promoting oneself requires considerable effort. Only some people possess writing skills, even if they enjoy self-promotion. To showcase one’s experience and knowledge effectively, a resume builder can help select the most appropriate words and phrases.

Improves Design

In every field, there are unique standards for an impressive resume. If you need to gain knowledge in design or the tools, resume builders can provide free templates to enhance your resume’s visual appeal and quality.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Recruiters often use ATS systems to scan resumes. A good resume builder will help with formatting to ensure that your resume is easy for these systems to read.

What’s the Best Resume Builder?

The ideal resume builder for each individual may differ according to their specific requirements. If you prefer a tool that offers step-by-step guidance in creating your resume, we suggest using a builder that provides helpful tips and recommendations. If you prefer a resume builder that auto-generates a summary, we recommend using a tool that extracts information from your LinkedIn profile.

For those who enjoy having creative control over their resumes, we suggest using a platform with features. By selecting the resume builder that aligns with your needs and suits your industry and personal style, you’ll significantly increase your chances of capturing the attention of hiring managers.

Resume Builder vs. Resume Writing Service: What Matters for You

When it comes to crafting a resume, there are three options available. You can opt to create it independently, use a resume builder tool, or enlist the services of a professional resume writer. Your best choice will depend on your writing abilities, available time, and financial resources.

Do-It-Yourself

You have the choice to construct a resume entirely by yourself. The benefit of this option is that it costs nothing but requires a significant amount of effort. Along with composing all the information, you must possess graphic design skills.

This approach works well if you have these abilities, but with them, your options for creating a resume are unlimited. To overcome this limitation, you can use a resume builder or enlist the help of a resume writing service.

Resume Builder

A tool for creating resumes allows you to input your details into a template, resulting in an original appearance and layout with no design work. The top resume building tools also offer suggestions on enhancing your resume and tailoring it to match the specific job you are applying for.

While you are still responsible for writing the content, once it is written, you can quickly transfer that information into any other template with just a few simple clicks. Some of these services are free and many like to promote themselves as such, but most require a small payment to download your finished resume.

Professional Resume Writing Service

Professional resume writing services are expensive, but they offer the convenience of handling all the work for you. An experienced writer will gather relevant information about your background and transform it into a unique and engaging resume.

The process typically takes a few days, and the level of originality in the outcome largely relies on your choice of company and writer. However, we will not delve into these services further in this guide.

Are Resume Builders Worth It?

Definitely, without a doubt. An effective resume creator will guarantee that your CV is formatted correctly to navigate Applicant Tracking Systems and ultimately reach the hands of recruiters.

Is It Unprofessional to Use a Microsoft Word Resume Template?

Relying on a template will not set you apart, and there is a high likelihood that your application will be dismissed because your resume is identical to those of other job seekers.

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right resume builder is crucial in today’s competitive job market. Creating a professional and impactful resume that stands out from the crowd can significantly impact your job search. With the right tool, you can save time, improve your chances of landing an interview, and ultimately secure your dream job.

When selecting a resume builder, consider your specific needs and priorities. Look for features like customizable templates, industry-specific examples, and the ability to export your resume in different formats. Consider user reviews and ratings to ensure you choose a reputable and reliable platform.

Remember, an exceptional tool for crafting resumes should give you the power to present your skills, experience, and accomplishments effectively. It should simplify and expedite creating a resume without hassle. Investing in a reliable resume builder is investing in your professional future.

Therefore, explore the different options available for resume builders. Test out their free trials or demos and choose the best fit for your objectives. Our top recommendation is Super Star Resume . This meticulously designed resume can open doors to exciting career prospects and be a dependable companion on your journey toward success.

Ahad Waseem is a business, blockchain, and cybersecurity writer who often takes on art, politics, and economics too. As a linguistic engineer who writes to solve problems, he’s written for various tech and business publications. When he’s not writing, he’s probably on horseback, caring for his houseplants, or training Bonsai trees. He can be reached at [email protected] . McClatchy’s newsrooms were not involved in the creation of this content. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links.

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