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Resume 101—How to Write a Resume [Templates and 25+ Examples]
Quick resume guide with resume templates, resume examples, and expert tips on how to write a resume fast.
What to include in a resume? Which resume sections to keep off? This complete guide outlines exactly which things to put on your resume to make it shine.
In 5 minutes you'll learn what to put on a resume, but first think about this—
You have years of skills, goals, work history, and education.
You’ve only got an 8x11” piece of paper in front of you (or maybe 210×297 mm).
How can you squeeze all that into such a limited space?
Which resume sections are a must? Which to leave off? Where do you put what?
Well, the first thing to put is your mind at ease.
In this resume guide, you’ll learn:
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As you get ready to tackle how you’re going to write that resume, here’s a quick and easy resume outline of what to put in a resume:
Not so bad, right?
(The asterisks mean those sections aren’t obligatory.)
In a second we’ll go into detail on each of these resume sections, resume types, and critical elements. Read on!
Expert Hint: The key to resume sections and their order is importance and relevance. Naturally, the HR manager reads from the top down, so if you have little experience but impressive education, put that up top!
I know, I know. You learned how to write your name and address back in preschool.
But, before you skip right past this part of a resume, there’re a few important things to know to get your resume contact info right.
Here are which contact details to put in a resume header:
Don’t include personal information like your gender, birthday or marital status in your contact section.
Forget about adding a photograph, too, if you are looking for a job in the US or the UK.
Expert Hint: If you’re adding social media profile links, clean them up! Remove unprofessional content from Facebook, and fix up that LinkedIn profile. Knowing how to make a resume work includes a lot of off-resume parts!
Below your contact info comes your heading statement.
That prominent placement means the HR manager’s eyes see it first.
(Which means it’s one of the most important sections of a resume.)
Here’s what should be included in a resume profile area:
Resume Summary Statement—a short statement providing a summary of your work experience and relevant qualifications.
Resume Objective Statement—a concise paragraph, tailored to the position, stating your career goals and how you want to achieve them at this employer. Also called a resume career objective.
Pick one or the other, as you don’t use both resume headings.
Good resume heading introductions should be around 2-4 sentences in length—a neat, 3- or 4-line paragraph.
Use an objective statement when you either have a little or no experience resume related to the job you’re applying for, or when you’re targeting a very specific position. Otherwise, choose the resume professional summary.
Expert Hint: How long should a resume be? Job resumes should be one page for most candidates. Two pages is okay, but just make sure everything on your resume is adding value. Don’t go back more than 10 years in your work history, except when applying for senior positions.
The employment history area is the centerpiece of a resume.
It goes just below the resume introductory statement.
However, if you have little to no employment history (no experience resume, college resume, student resume, etc.), this will go under the education section, which we’ll get to shortly.
Here’s what to include in a resume work experience section:
That’s what to include on a resume experience entry.
Repeat it for the following entries, but don’t go back more than 10-15 years—they’re not looking for a Walter Isaacson-length biography!
Begin each job description entry with powerful words and action verbs.
Also, add any internships you may have had here to your job experience section, but only if they’re relevant or if you lack work experience.
Expert Hint: Use 4 or 5 bullet points to support each work experience entry. Also, keep the job ad handy as you write your employment history section so you can tailor the contents to what they’re looking for.
The education resume section will usually go just after (below) your work history resume section.
However, if you are a recent graduate, writing an academic CV, or a professional returning to school, bump this section up to just under your resume intro.
Here’s what to include in a resume education section:
If you’ve completed a degree, don’t add your high school diploma. However, if you haven’t, or if you are still in progress, be sure to mention it.
Also, dates may be left off, especially if your years at the institution were 10 years or more in the past.
Expert Hint: GPA is unnecessary on a successful resume. If you’re thinking of adding GPA on resumes, make sure it’s 4.0 or very close to that, or else this will backfire.
Finally, the skills resume section, the last of the must-include areas.
Add 5-7 relevant resume skills, along with a level of proficiency for each.
Here are the best types of skills to put on resumes:
Use work skills and resume qualifications they’re looking for on the job ad to make your own job skills list. Make them as close to the wording from the job ad as possible for the best resume keywords.
Expert Hint: Your arsenal of job-related abilities and skills to put on a resume is called your skill set. Just make sure to only put relevant skills on your resume rather than just a list of skills you know. Everybody and their goldfish adds they’re “proficient in Microsoft Office.”
All those parts of a resume we’ve discussed up until now are the standards.
That means everyone will have them.
If you want to distinguish yourself from the rest, it’s good practice to add some extra resume sections.
Here are the extra resume sections to consider:
Expert Hint: Don’t add the resume references section! You can add a reference page along with your resume, but only if you must.
Here are some other essential items to consider when writing a resume:
Expert Hint: “Build your resume first to be scanned, then to be read." says Dan Clay, the author of How to Write the Perfect Resume. So, make sure your section headings pop out on your resume!
Ways that you can tailor your resume include:
Got any questions on what to put on a resume? Not sure which of the additional resume sections to add? Let’s have a convo about it in the comments below, and, as always, thanks for reading!
Quick resume guide with resume templates, resume examples, and expert tips on how to write a resume fast.
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