How To Make A Resume (With Examples)

Before you ever come face-to-face with an employer to make your case as to why you’re the best candidate for a job, they’ll consult your resume. You need to communicate your years of experience, skills, and accomplishments using only a single-page resume.

Without a concise and professional resume that impresses a hiring manager, you won’t receive many calls for interviews or be offered a job anytime soon.

How to Create a Professional Resume

Whether you’re applying for your first job or need to touch up a pre-existing resume that you’ve had for years, beginning the process is daunting. Many people regard creating their resume as a bothersome task that they procrastinate until the very last moment.

Despite preconceived notions about making a resume, it’s a smooth process if you go through the proper series of steps.

1. Choose Resume Format And Layout Structure. The format and layout of your resume is the first thing an employer takes in. The layout is the visual aesthetic of your resume. It allows you to get creative, but it can quickly become distracting. The format describes how you put forth the information you’re communicating in your resume or CV.

   There are three general resume formats that job-seekers can choose from. These include:

   • Reverse-Chronological Order: Highlights work experiences by listing them from most to least recent

   • Functional/Skill-Based: Focuses on skills rather than work experience

   • Combination: Uses a chronological system to describe work history, as well as outlines skills

   Out of the three, reverse chronological order is the most popular and recommended for most job applicants.

2. Incorporate Your Name And Contact Details Boldly Your name and contact information must be easy to spot on your resume. Preferably, these details are at the top of your resume, clearly noticeable to a reader with your name in the largest font size.

   Job type you want

   Full Time

   Part Time

   Internship

   Temporary

   Examples Of Contact Details To Include:

   • Full name

   • Email

   • Website

   • LinkedIn profile

   • Mailing address (optional)

   • Phone number (optional)

3. Write A Resume Objective. A resume objective is a summarized biography of about three sentences long covering your career goals and briefly previews the information to follow.

   Many employers read hundreds of applications during a hiring process and use the objective to decide if the rest of the resume is worth reading through. Spending some time writing and editing your resume objective to make it enticing for a hiring manager dramatically improves your resume’s chance of being read through completely.

4. List of Professional Experience. Adhering to the format you’ve decided on, the resume section you’ll usually open with is professional experience. Prior experience shows an employer that you have what it takes to succeed in a role similar to the one they’re hiring for.

   The prior professional experience section should cover:

   • Your job title

   • The company name

   • Location

   • Employment dates

   • Description of duties

   • Accomplishments in the position

5. List Your Skills. Besides your work experience, your field’s useful soft and hard skills can make your resume even more impressive to a potential employer. Read through the qualities required for the position you’re trying to get and focus on the relevant abilities to those role requirements.

   In the skills section of your resume, include both hard and soft skills. Hard skills meaning technical abilities specific to your job, and soft skills being transferable qualities.

6. Describe Your Educational Background. Your educational qualifications can significantly impact a hiring manager’s opinion of your potential as an employee. Highlighting your academic achievements is especially helpful for recent graduates with limited professional work experience.

   Information To Include In An Education Section Includes:

   • The name of your school

   • Degree title

   • Field of study

   • Dates of enrollment and graduation

   • Grade point average (GPA)

   • Specific awards or achievements

7. Awards, Volunteer Experience, Hobbies Section (Optional). For applicants who have less professional experience or extended gaps in work history, adding a filler section can help round out their resume and make it look more complete. An optional section should be something relevant to your achievements and the job you’re applying for.

Tips For Creating A Professional Resume

1. Consider Keywords. Most employers looking to fill an open position run every resume through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which tosses out your resume if it doesn’t meet its requirements.

   They use these systems to narrow down the long list of applicants to only those who fit the right criteria. One way to improve your resume’s chances of getting past an ATS is by adding keywords that the employer used in the job listing when writing your resume.

2. Stick To Relevant Information. A colossal mistake when creating a resume is making it too long. Recruiters are busy, and their attention spans are short. If they come across a resume that’s five pages long, they probably will only get through the first page at best.

   The best technique for keeping your resume concise is only including the most relevant information that will help you get the job.

3. Customize Your Resume For Each Job Application. Every job you apply for will have different requirements and expectations for the employees they choose to hire. While it may be tempting to send out your resume to as many employers as possible without optimizing for each one, this lack of forethought can hurt your chances of being asked in for an interview.

   Considering the qualities that the job opening requires and tailoring your resume to reflect your relevant skills will make your resume more competitive.

4. Do Research. A great way to improve your resume is by researching what makes a resume compelling in the first place. The internet has lots of resources (like Zippia) to help you in the pursuit of creating the perfect resume.

   Read through articles that can teach you tricks and refer to resume templates and examples of what a strong resume looks like.

5. Hire A Resume Writer. Everyone has activities that they excel in, and if writing a resume isn’t one of yours, you can hire someone to do it for you.

   Rates for resume writing services vary from totally affordable to a luxurious investment in your career, depending on the experience level you’re seeking. Hiring a resume writer can take away a lot of job-search stress and improve your chances of having your application stand-out.

   Examples Of Websites To Hire Resume Writers Include:

   • Upwork

   • TopResume

   • ZipJob

6. Check Your Resume Before You Send It. After spending hours working tediously on your resume, you may forget to check it over before you send it to employers. Proofreading your resume after completion is vital to eliminate any careless mistakes or errors. For the best results, read through and edit your resume twice before sending it off.

Examples of Resumes

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.