Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Perfect Resume (With Examples!)

Whatever your concern, we’ll break down everything you need to know to create the perfect resume from scratch.

• What is a resume?
• What are employers looking for in a resume?
• How to write a resume?
  • Choose your format
  • Start with your basic information
  • Add in your work experience
  • Consider including volunteering or other experience
  • Don’t forget about your education
  • Top it off with some skills and interests
  • Write a resume summary (if relevant)
  • Adapt it to the job (and the ATS)
  • Edit and refine it
• What are some examples of a good resume?

What is a resume?

A resume is a summary of your career, regardless of whether your career is rec ht is begin or have existed for years. Roughly a page long (two under certain circumstances only), it shows the jobs you’ve held and currently hold, the responsibilities you’ve assumed, the skills you’ve developed, and the qualities you bring to the table as an employee. Together, these things make it super easy for any hiring manager to see your qualifications and suitability for a job.

Reading: How to create a good loooking resume

Despite all the work that goes into writing a thesis like this, hiring managers actually spend very little time – just seconds in many cases – when you look at your CV. But despite this sad fact, it’s safe to say that it’s still important to put together a great resume (rather than hastily throwing one together).

“If you miss the mark, your resume may never be read . Worse, you could be removed from the applicant pool by a computer before a human even knows you exist,” says Muse career coach Heather Yurovsky, founder of Shatter & Shine. So you want to do it right because, as she explains, the goal isn’t to “spend less time looking for a job and more time doing a role you love?”

You You may be wondering if you can base yourself on your LinkedIn profile instead of writing a resume. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Most hiring managers still expect you to submit a resume even if they also look at your LinkedIn. Even if you don’t need a resume for a job you’re applying for right now, you will need one at some point in your career – they’re far from going out of style. So it’s best to always have one handy should an opportunity arise.

And while LinkedIn offers many advantages, a resume has one clear benefit: While your LinkedIn typically represents a broader picture of your career path, Your resume gives you the opportunity to tailor your career history to a specific role or company (more on that later).

Oh, and you’ve probably heard of something called a resume? It’s slightly different from a resume and is typically more common among academics and job seekers outside of the US.

What do employers look for in a resume?

Hiring managers look for three things in your resume : “What did you do? Why did you do that? And what was the result?” says Muse career coach Martin McGovern, owner of Career Therapy. “If you can answer all three questions in… your resume bullet points, you’re on the right track.”

Clear, easy-to-understand language is key. “The truth is that most resumes don’t make sense. They are crammed with jargon, overly technical and full of redundancies. Try reading a resume that isn’t yours and you’ll quickly find that it feels like it was written by an alien,” adds McGovern. Put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter who has no idea how your role works – how can you make your CV available to him?

The hiring manager also cares about more than just you and you alone – he cares about you in relation to them. “Hiring managers want to see if a candidate meets the requirements of the position they’re hiring for,” Yurovsky explains. “Your resume should paint this picture so that the hiring manager not only knows what day-to-day tasks you can take on, but also why you, above all others, add value to their company.”

How do you write a resume?

Whether you’re someone who’s never written a resume in their life, or you need a nice, thorough refresher on the creation process, follow these steps to start from scratch Page to a complete – and dare I say beautiful – document.

Related: This free worksheet makes it easy to create (or update) your resume

1. Choose your format

Before you start typing a single thing, you need to decide how you want the entire resume to look like.

Resume creators can be helpful with this step – they’ll take all your basic I information and organize it for you, eliminating some of the legwork. You can also use a ready-made outline, such as For example, one of these free Google Docs templates.

But it’s often safest to start all by yourself with a clean slate and eventually progress to a more advanced layout. (Still, if you’re looking for a place to write down all the relevant information before you start, check out our resume summary.) This allows you to proofread, edit, and re-edit the course and choose a resume format that best suits your particular situation (after all, not everyone has a career path that’s easily broken down).

Im In general, you will most likely cover and/or add sections on:

• Your work experience
• Your non-work experience, including professional organizations, community involvement, or side projects
• Your education and certifications
• Your skills (especially hard skills) and interests

So how do you format and organize all this information?

By far the most common (and safest if you’re not sure which route to take) is reverse chronological order. That means organizing your experiences from most recent to least recent. So your work experience would extend beyond your education and your current role would extend beyond previous roles you have held. This, of course, has its exceptions — perhaps you’ve gone back to graduate school between jobs, or your most recent role is irrelevant to the position you’re applying for. Therefore, depending on your situation, the entire page may not be exactly in reverse chronological order. It is just a guideline.

There is also what is known as a functional or competency-based resume. This is used fairly infrequently, mainly by career changers and those with limited or complicated work experience. It gets its name because its primary purpose is to list your skills, not your experience, and showcase them above your work history and education.

You can also opt for a combined CV, which is a mix of a reverse chronological CV and a skills-based CV. It highlights your skills at the top, but leaves just as much room at the bottom to cover your work and school experience.

Be careful when choosing these two formats: “Combined and competency-based [resumes] can be tricky too follow because [they] force the reader to look for connections between your skills and experiences and [not] provide the full context of your work,” says Muse Career Coach Angela Smith, Founder of Loft Consulting. “I’ve also heard many recruiters say that they automatically disregard competency-based resumes because they feel the candidate is trying to hide something. I don’t necessarily think so, but I think it’s important for job seekers to know that perception is out there.”

2. Start with your basic information

Your contact information should always be at the top of your resume. In this headline, you should include anything that might be helpful for a recruiter to get in touch with you. Usually this means adding:

• Your full name (preferably the name you use on the web)
• Your phone number
• Your personal e -Mail Address Address

You can also provide other basic information such as B. Your LinkedIn or personal website URL, your GitHub (for technical roles), your social media profiles (if relevant to the job). , or your address. If you’re relocating for a job, you can omit your address or write “open to relocate” to improve your chances of getting an interview.

The key is to make this part as clear as possible. If a hiring manager can’t reach you, there’s no point in perfecting the rest of your resume.

3. Add your work experience

This section will most likely make up the bulk of your resume. Even if you change careers, employers still want to see where you’ve worked, what you’ve done and the impact that work is having to get a feel for your background and expertise.

See also: Menus

Your ” Work Experience can be an entire category, or you can split it into Relevant Experience and Additional Experience to highlight the jobs hiring managers should focus on most importantly. In any case, you’ll almost always want your most recent experience at the top and your older experience at the bottom.

In your work experience, you should include each official job title, the company (and possibly its location), and the years in which you worked there. Below that, add two to four bullet points that explain what you did in that job, the skills you built and practiced, the tools you used, and the results you got. If you’ve accomplished a lot during your time there, focus on the responsibilities that have had the greatest impact or that you’re most proud of, as well as those that best fit you with the role you’re applying for ( more on this in the following sections). It is important here to list both quantitative and qualitative accomplishments where relevant.

For example, you could write:

Associate Accountant, Finances and Co., Ann Arbor, MI September 2017 – Present

• Manage billing and invoicing for 50+ customers and meet the deadlines and requirements of our corporate partners secure. including Big Company and Super Star Org
• Work closely with sales, account management and project management teams on project setup, maintenance and billing
• Streamline billing policies and procedures through documentation and the implementation of new software, resulting in an average two-week reduction in total time per client

Your resume bullet points should be in the past tense if you are referring to previous jobs and present tense when talking about your current roles. Also, your bullet points should always start with a strong action verb that best describes what you did. And if you have examples of your work, consider linking them here as well.

If you have a lot of experience and this category is starting to get too long (read: over a page), you should Throw out the oldest jobs unless they’re particularly relevant to the job you’re applying for or particularly impressive in your area of ​​expertise.

Not sure where to start? “It’s helpful to do a brain dump and create a document that includes everything that you consider an experience or an achievement,” says Yurovsky. From there, she explains, you can start to tone down what’s important and what’s not. And you can refer back to this document later if you ever decide to update your resume for a specific position.

Need more specific advice on including your work experience on your resume? Check out these additional resources:

• If you’ve had multiple jobs at the same company: 2 jobs, 1 company: How to show multiple positions on your resume
• When you not sure what your accomplishments are or how to explain them: Resume Revamp: How to Turn Your Dutys In Complishments
• If you want to brush up on a boring or insignificant job: How to do your most boring jobs sound more interesting on your resume
• If you’re considering spoofing a job title: The answer to “Can I change my job title on my resume to make it more accurate?”
• If you Had a few short-term gigs: How to list temporary jobs on your resume

4. Consider including volunteering or other experiences

Anything you’ve done that isn’t work experience — your side hustle, volunteering, special projects — can be broken down into clearly labeled sections (“Volunteer Experience,” or “Activities,” For example.) Depending on how solid your work experience is, these things can be worthwhile, especially if they’ve helped you sharpen your skills or better align you with your dream job, plus they make you look a lot more versatile, passionate, and hard-working.

If you’ve just graduated, you could also create a section for on-campus activities, such as clubs, organizations, or leadership experience.This can be a great addition if you’re missing from the jobs department. You can style these just like professional jobs—including your title, organization name, and bullet points en describing what your role was and what you have achieved.

Read more: This is How to properly list volunteering on your resume

5 . Don’t forget your education

If you’re still in school or just graduated, your education may be at the top of your resume, but for pretty much everyone else it’s at the bottom. Most people list their school, senior year (out of school for less than a decade), major, and degree. Brand new graduates may also write their GPA, honors and awards, study abroad, thesis, or other notable achievement. But keep this section super simple as you don’t want it to take up too much space above your work experience.

You may have unique educational experiences such as B. Taking an online course or certification. If you did this specifically to improve in your industry, by all means include it. Again, list everything in more or less reverse chronological order—so a graduate degree would be above an undergraduate degree, and a more relevant more recent online course would be above that.

Learn more about the pros and cons listing your education on your resume:

• How to (and how not to) list your education on your resume
• How to properly list online courses on your resume ( because yes , there is a wrong way)

6. Top it off with some skills and interests

The skills section of a resume gets a bad rap, but it’s just as important as the rest of the stuff you add. It’s a quick list that a recruiter can scan to see if your skills match what they’re hiring for. And it’s super ATS-friendly (ATS stands for “Applicant Tracking System,” the robot that reads your resume in front of a human in some cases) because it lets you add keywords for the machine to look for.

Usually this section is at the end of your CV, but in special cases – such as a competency-based resume or if someone changes disciplines – you can place it higher up.

What exactly are you entering here? You should list any hard skills and applications you are familiar with (Photoshop, SEO, JavaScript to name a few) and, if relevant, your level of proficiency. Avoid including soft skills like time management or public speaking here — save those for your bullet points instead.

Be strategic when writing down your skills. Don’t list things you actually can’t do at a high level of competency (I consider those of you who say you’re “great” at Excel) and maybe not skills that are totally relevant to the job you want are irrelevant. For example, you may not even need to provide Excel when applying for say a design position unless it is listed as a job requirement.

You may think I’m a really good volleyball player, but that’s not a ” skill, right? No it’s not, but it’s a hobby. Adding a hobby section to the end of your resume is underrated and often a wise choice. It can be a good conversation starter with a hiring manager and show that you’re a good culture fit — or a culture asset — for the company. Plus, it’s just a nice way to add some of your personality. So append a bullet point listing some of your interests, like hiking, rowing, or crafts (no more than five to seven verbs appropriate for the work), and you’re done.

7 . Write a resume summary (if relevant)

You may have heard of a resume summary. They’re not all that common, but including them at the top of your resume can be useful if you want to add clarity or context to your resume. If you’re a career changer, you might find a summary explanation helpful to explain your jump and tie your experience to your new path. Or if you’re a more seasoned professional, you can use a summary statement to highlight a topic that ties your career path together.

Overall, you probably don’t need a summary statement if your career is nicely linear and your bullet points emphasize excellent what you have to offer in terms of skills and experience. But if you think it’s worth adding one, “Take the time to think about what the person reading your summary wants to know before you write it,” says McGovern. “Good summaries explain why you are doing what you are doing and how it can help. For example: By combining a background in ABC, I help companies improve XYZ to 123. Summaries shouldn’t be more complicated.”

So, taking McGovern’s example, you could say:

I combine a background in social media marketing and PR with seven years of experience in consumer tech space and help companies improve their internal and external communications and brand awareness through data-driven, high-quality content and strategies that align with the world’s modern trends. Spaces.

Yurovsky adds, “You don’t want to that your summary statement is one dense paragraph with too much information. It should be easy to read, concise and memorable. Almost like a slogan.”

Read more: 3 examples of resume summaries that will make writing your own resume easier

8. Match it to the job (and the ATS)

Once you’ve written your resume – you’ve broken down your work experience, marked some activities and additional experiences, and listed your skills – it’s important to go back to the job description ( or to multiple job descriptions if you are applying to multiple similar positions) and ensuring that the information in your resume matches the type of candidate the employer is looking for. In other words, customize it.

See also: How to Create an App from Scratch in 2023 [Follow These 8 Steps]

Let’s explain further. You should start by tackling the ATS. That means combing through the job description to see if individual words and phrases go together. What skills are they asking for, and have you listed them (if you actually have them)? What words do they use to describe their ideal attitude, and do you use similar language on your resume?

Next, take a bird’s-eye view of them. If you were the hiring manager for the position, what would your resume be drawn to? And what would you be looking for? Whatever you think will be most important to the recruiter, make sure it’s at the top of your resume or highlighted in some other way.

Finally, look at the role and responsibilities of the recruiter instead. Does your CV reflect similar experiences? If not, is there a way to flip it in a way that’s clear you’re capable of getting the job done (and doing it well)?

These articles can help if you’re sweating over the word “tailoring”:

• What it really means to “tailor” your resume
• Your guide to making independent experiences relevant in your resume
• A cool trick: how to rotate 1 resume bullet 5 different ways

9.Edit and Refine It

Please, please don’t just write your resume and shoot it without a second look. Hiring managers might not spend hours poring over it, but when something catches your eye more than anything else, it’s a blatant typo.

Best approach? Write a rough draft, leave it, and come back to edit it later with fresh eyes.

Cover the basics: Is your contact information accurate and up-to-date? Are you using the correct tenses? Does everything look consistent and correct in terms of spelling and grammar?

If your CV is quite long, shorten it a bit. It’s no longer a hard-and-fast rule that all resumes must be one-page long — but consider it a wise guideline for most applicants, especially if you have less than 10 years of work experience. The exception is if you are very senior or very established in your career; In this scenario, a two-page resume is not entirely out of the question. Everyone else, read this article for advice on how to trim your resume.

Regarding formatting, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. First, what font are you using and is it readable (for a human and a robot)? When in doubt, choose one of these simple yet elegant options: Arial, Arial Narrow, Calibri, Cambria, Garamond, or Helvetica.

Second, will you save it as a Word doc or Pdf? Neither option is wrong, although a PDF helps ensure your formatting is preserved no matter what type of computer the hiring manager uses to open the document.

Third, your resume is formatted so that it can be flown over ? If it’s feeling crowded or swamped with words, read: 12 small changes that will make your resume easy for recruiters to scan.

Once you’ve given it a few good looks, it can be worth sending it to a friend or colleague (or even a career coach) for a second opinion. Don’t just let them edit it for spelling and grammar — they should look at your bullet points and provide feedback on whether your resume represents you in the best possible light (it’s smart to also send them the job description for comparison). it too).

What are some examples of a good resume?

Here’s the thing: your resume will never look exactly like anyone else’s, nor should it. How you format it, organize your information, and talk about specific experiences depends not only on your career path, but also on your area of ​​expertise, the job you’re applying for, the company you work for, and more.

There is no universal way to create a resume. But there are common themes. Here are three examples of different resume types to give you some context on what your resume might look like.

The most popular: A reverse chronological resume

As mentioned, a reverse chronological CVs are preferred by many coaches and HR professionals, mainly because they are super readable. When everything is in a clear order, it’s easy to skim experiences and even easier to draw boundaries.

Who it’s good for: Pretty much everyone – from students who from applying to internships to senior executives (with optional resume summary)

Download a sample chronological resume for a software developer

The Unorthodox Route: A Functional or Competency-Based Resume

Rather than listing your experience in reverse chronological order, a functional or competency-based resume includes bullet points that reflect how each of your skills is demonstrated through the work you have done in the course of your career. At the very bottom add everything else, e.g. B. Your education, work history, professional achievements, community involvement and other technical skills. This is a good option if you have a rather varied professional background and want to tie everything together neatly.

Who is it good for: Career changers, for whose work experience that may don’t seem relevant, and people with a plethora of temporary jobs or gaps in their careers.

Download a sample functional resume for a project manager

The Creative Angle: An Infographic Resume or Resume Website

This resume type is characterized by its visual formatting. You can choose a reverse chronological order or a skill-based style to organize your information, but you can also use graphics, colors, unique fonts, and even multimedia elements to make that information stand out. Keep in mind that any creative resume is likely still subject to an ATS — and certain elements may not be readable by a robot. So only consider this route if you know that someone will read your resume (and that person might enjoy it).

Who is it good for: People, applying for creative positions (e.g. designers, editors, writers, marketers, video producers), startups or fun businesses, or for jobs that encourage a creative resume when not required.

Download Sample Infographic Resume for a Designer

Not a designer but want your resume to look just as pretty as this example? Check out these articles:

• 5 websites to create an awesome resume with infographic (even if you’re the least creative person ever)
• How to create a resume -Website built that makes it Impress every hiring manager who sees it
• 5 digital tools that will make your CV infinitely more beautiful

Your CV is a living, breathing Document. While you won’t go through this whole process every time you apply for a job, keep all of these things in mind when updating your resume for your next career move. You can later decide to change the order, remove or add things, or even get creative and try a whole new format. If you don’t get the callbacks you expect, you can choose to scrap it and start over – and that’s totally fine.

No matter where that piece of paper goes and how it grows, if you give it the care and attention it deserves, you’ll be on your way to success. And you make it all the more likely that you’ll get an interview and a chance to show the hiring manager what you have to offer, over the phone or in person.

See also: How to Set Up Environment To Test Websites Locally