Specialist-small business resume examples from 2026

A well-written resume summary is basically an elevator pitch. You are summing up your skills and experience in a few sentences to wow recruiters, hiring managers, and decision makers into giving you an interview. Here are some tips to putting your best foot first with your resume summary:

Step 1: Mention your current job title or the role you're pursuing.

Step 2: Include your years of experience in specialist-small business-related roles. Consider adding relevant company and industry experience as relevant to the job listing.

Step 3: Highlight your greatest accomplishments. Here is your chance to make sure your biggest wins aren't buried in your resume.

Step 4: Again, keep it short. Your goal is to summarize your experience and highlight your accomplishments, not write a paragraph.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some specialist-small business interviews.

Your Skills section is an easy way to let recruiters know you have the skills to do the job. Just as importantly, it can help your resume not get filtered out by hiring software. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

1. Look at the job listing and skills listed. You need to include the exact keywords from the job description to get your resume in front of an actual human. Do you have those skills? Fantastic! Be sure to list them.
2. Include as many relevant hard or technical specialist-small business skills as possible for each job you apply to.
3. Be specific with the skills you have and be sure you are using the most up to date and accurate terms.

These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some specialist-small business interviews.

Next you should include your work experience. Structure your work experience section by listing your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order.

Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.

Include only recent, relevant jobs. Avoid including work experience over 20 years to avoid ageism.

Beneath each job, you should have bullet points to emphasize why you're the perfect fit for the specialist-small business.

Your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. Instead, it is your chance to show your accomplishments and show why you're good at what you do.

• Use the What, How, and Why format. Answering these questions turns a bland job description into an effective showcase of your abilities.
• What were your responsibilities or goals?
• How did you accomplish them?
• Why were your results important? (How did it impact your company? Can you quantify the results in numbers? )

Here are effective examples from specialist-small business resumes:

The education section should display your highest degree first.

Place your education section appropriately on your resume. If you graduated over 5 years ago, this section should be at the bottom of your resume. If you just graduated and lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.

If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education. If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries for resumes:

If you have any additional certifications, add them to the certification section.

Include the full name of the certification, along with the name of the issuing organization and date of obtainment.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your specialist-small business resume:

1. Certified Professional, Life and Health Insurance Program (CPLHI)