How to Write a Resume
Write a resume in the format applicant tracking systems read, with a clear header, a short summary, accomplishment bullets with numbers, and a version tailored to each job.
You will end up with a resume a recruiter can take in at a glance, with every section from the header to the skills list filled in, the wording for each, and a version tailored to the job you are applying for. The first look is short, and it has been measured. An eye-tracking study by the job site Ladders put the initial screen at 7.4 seconds in 2018. If you have seen 6 seconds quoted instead, that is the same study's 2012 result, and it is the older number.
You do not need fancy software or a designer template. A clean, single-column document works better, and step 1 explains why.
A computer with a word processor. Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or any word processor that exports a PDF works. You will also need your employment history, including job titles, company names, dates, and a rough idea of what you accomplished in each role. If you have trouble remembering specifics, check old emails, performance reviews, or LinkedIn for reminders.
Pick the right format
There are three standard resume formats: reverse chronological, functional, and combination. Use reverse chronological. It lists your most recent job first and works backward. It is what applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse most reliably, and it lets a reader see your timeline without having to reconstruct it. Functional resumes organize by skill rather than timeline. They were popular advice for career changers, but they make it hard to see when and where you did things. The risk with them is that hiding the timeline invites the question of what the timeline would have shown. Combination resumes put a skills section up top followed by a chronological work history. Use one only if you have 10 or more years of experience and want to highlight specific expertise. Otherwise, use reverse chronological. Use a clean, single-column layout. Two-column designs look sleek in a PDF and work against you twice. Applicant tracking systems can scramble them before a human sees anything, and the same Ladders study put multiple columns, cluttered layouts, and thin white space among the resumes recruiters did worst with. Stick to standard section headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills. Creative headings like "My Journey" or "Where I Have Made an Impact" confuse both software and human readers.
Write your contact header
Put your full name at the top in a slightly larger font. Below that, list your phone number, professional email address, city and state (no street address needed), and a LinkedIn profile URL if yours is up to date. That is it. For US and UK applications, do not include a photo, your age, or marital status (conventions differ elsewhere, and in parts of Europe a CV photo is still normal). Skip a personal website too, unless the website directly showcases relevant work like a design portfolio or writing samples. Your email should be a simple variation of your name. If you are still using the email address you created in middle school, make a new one for job applications. For your LinkedIn URL, customize it through your profile settings so it reads linkedin.com/in/yourname instead of a string of random numbers. A custom URL looks professional and is easier for recruiters to type if they see it on a printed copy.
Write a professional summary
This is a two-to-three-sentence paragraph at the top of your resume that tells the reader who you are professionally and what you bring. It replaces the old "Objective" statement, which was always about what you wanted rather than what you offer. A good summary names your profession, years of experience, one or two key strengths, and the type of value you deliver. For example: "Marketing manager with 7 years of experience in B2B SaaS. Specializes in content strategy and demand generation. Grew organic traffic by 140% at previous role through SEO and editorial program development." Notice how specific that is. It tells the reader exactly what to expect from the rest of the resume.
Good to know: Write your summary last, after you have finished the rest of the resume. It is much easier to summarize your resume when it already exists than to write a summary for a blank page.
List your work experience with accomplishments
For each job, list the company name, your title, the location, and the dates you worked there. Below that, add three to five bullet points describing what you accomplished. The key word is accomplished, not "did." Instead of "Managed a team of five engineers," write "Led a team of five engineers that shipped the company's mobile app 3 weeks ahead of schedule." Instead of "Responsible for social media," write "Grew Instagram following from 2,000 to 18,000 in 8 months through a consistent posting strategy and influencer partnerships." Use numbers wherever possible, such as revenue generated, percentage improvements, team sizes, project timelines, and customer satisfaction scores. Numbers are concrete and easy to compare across candidates. If you cannot quantify something, describe the outcome. "Redesigned the onboarding process, reducing new hire ramp-up time from 6 weeks to 3" is strong even without a dollar figure.
Add your education
List your highest degree first. Include the school name, degree type, major, and graduation year. If you graduated more than 5 years ago, leave your GPA off unless it was above 3.5. If you did not finish a degree, you can still list it. Write "Coursework in Computer Science, University of Michigan, 2018 to 2020" to show what you studied without claiming a degree you did not complete. For recent graduates with limited work experience, education can go above work experience. For everyone else, it goes below. If you have relevant certifications, licenses, or professional development courses, list them in a separate "Certifications" section or include them under education. Include an online course from a platform like Coursera or edX only if it is relevant to the job and comes from an institution a hiring manager would recognize, or if it directly matches a requirement in the job posting. Leave out short tutorials that do neither.
Include a focused skills section
Add a short section listing your relevant hard skills. These are specific, teachable abilities like programming languages, software tools, foreign languages, or technical certifications. List them in a simple comma-separated format or a clean grid. Prioritize skills mentioned in the job posting. If the posting asks for Excel, Salesforce, and SQL, those three should appear in your skills section, assuming you actually have them. Do not list soft skills like "teamwork" or "communication" here. They cannot be verified from a resume, so they take up room without telling the reader anything. Your work experience bullets should demonstrate soft skills through examples instead.
Heads up: Never list a skill you cannot back up in an interview. If you took one Python tutorial 3 years ago, do not list Python as a skill. An interviewer can ask about anything on your resume, and getting caught exaggerating a skill is worse than not listing it at all.
Tailor it for each application
Read the job posting carefully and identify the top three to five requirements. Then adjust your resume to reflect those priorities. Do it without inventing experience. Move the most relevant bullet points to the top, use the same terminology the posting uses (if they say "project management," do not write "project coordination"), and rewrite your summary around what this specific employer is looking for. Tailoring makes the resume answer this posting rather than a job nobody advertised. Applicant tracking systems scan for keyword matches, and hiring managers skim for relevance. A tailored resume gives both what they are looking for. Save your tailored versions with the company name in the filename so you can reference them later. If you get an interview, you will want to review the exact resume that got you in the door. It also lets you compare which phrasings and bullet orderings led to callbacks.
Proofread and check the formatting
Export your resume as a PDF before submitting, unless the posting asks for a Word file, in which case send what they asked for. Word documents can render differently on other computers, and formatting that looked clean on your screen can break on someone else's. PDFs preserve your layout exactly as you designed it. Before sending, read the entire resume backward, starting from the last line. This forces your brain to read each line independently instead of skimming past errors because it knows what the sentence is supposed to say. Check for consistent formatting: same font size for all body text, same bullet style, same date format throughout. If one job uses "Jan 2022 - Mar 2024" and another uses "January 2022 to March 2024," pick one and apply it everywhere. Run a spell check, but do not rely on it. Spell checkers miss correctly spelled wrong words like "manger" instead of "manager" or "form" instead of "from." Have someone else read it if possible. Fresh eyes catch things you have looked at too many times to see.
If you are not getting callbacks, go back to step 7 and check that the posting's own terms appear in your summary and your first bullets, then read your accomplishment bullets against step 4 and replace any that still describe duties. If the posting asks for a cover letter, our guide on how to write a cover letter takes the same tailored approach. When an offer arrives, our guide on how to negotiate a salary covers the next conversation. Keep your resume as a living document. Update it every few months, even when you are not job hunting, because an accomplishment is easier to write down while it is fresh than to reconstruct 2 years later.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
One page if you have less than 10 years of experience. Two pages if you have 10 or more years or are in a field where detailed project descriptions matter, like engineering, academia, or healthcare. Academic CVs are the exception, since they list publications and grants and run as long as they need to. For a standard resume, if yours is longer than two pages, you are including too much detail or listing jobs that are no longer relevant. Cut anything older than 15 years unless it is directly relevant to the role you are applying for.
No. Do not include references, and do not write "References available upon request." Employers know you will provide references if asked. That line wastes space. Keep a separate reference list ready in case an employer asks for one, but it does not go on the resume itself. Prepare three to five references with current contact information and a brief note about your relationship to each person. Give your references a heads-up before listing them so they are not caught off guard by a call.
Be honest but strategic. If you took time off to care for a family member, travel, go back to school, or deal with a health issue, you can note it briefly. Something like "Career break for family caregiving, 2022 to 2023" fills the gap without inviting unnecessary questions. If you did freelance work, volunteering, or skill-building during the gap, include it. A labeled gap reads better than an unexplained one, because it answers the question instead of leaving it open. What matters to the person reading is that you can do the job now.
You need a tailored version, not a completely different resume. Keep a master document with all your experience, accomplishments, and skills. For each application, copy it and adjust the summary, reorder bullet points to match the job requirements, and make sure the keywords from the posting appear naturally in your resume. Do it for every application, for the reasons step 7 gives.
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