Résumés
Career Readiness
Personal Branding
1 hr 28.5 min
Updated Jan. 31, 2024
At the core of most job applications is a résumé (or resume). These 1-page documents overview an individual’s relevant skills, knowledge, and experience. Often featuring bolded headings, bulleted lists, and sentence fragments, resumes are designed to communicate large amounts of information in a highly organized and concise way.
CORE CONTENT | 8.1 min read
It can be tempting to cram your entire academic and professional background into the sections of a resume template. Do not fall into this trap. Instead, focus that material into an itemized report of your qualifications for a specific role. Though a resume should be compelling, above all else, it is brief, with additional context coming from cover letters, CVs, portfolios, and interviews.
Sections of a Resume
There are an unlimited amount of ways to mix and match resume sections. However, there are a few sections that you’ll want to include on just about any resume you submit.
Name
Your resume should begin with your full, preferred name. A resume is not a legal document; you do not need to provide your full government name if you’d prefer not to do so. For example, if you go by Tony instead of Antonio, or if you go by your middle name instead of your first. This way, you are introducing yourself as what you’d prefer your associates call you. This can also be useful if you are worried your application may be subjected to discrimination based on your name. Remember, official documents, such as paperwork used by HR, should use your legal name.
Contact Information
This section needs to be immediately easy to find. It is recommended you place your contact information either with or in the area immediately after your name. Include an email and, if applicable, phone number on your resume. Use a professional-sounding email you check regularly (e.g., firstnamelastname@email.com or flastname123@email.com). If you only have a non-professional email, create a new one.
When applying for non-remote positions, you can also include either the city where you live or plan to work. In a largely digital world, including your full address on a resume is unnecessary. In this section, you can also include links to a portfolio, personal website (if appropriate), LinkedIn profile, etc.Work Experience or Professional Experience
List work experience in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent/current job first). Each entry should include the following:
Job Title: The name of the position you worked. If you were hired under a vague title, such as “Student Worker” or “Volunteer,” yet had a specific role, it may be beneficial to expand on it, using a more accurate and identifiable title. For example, “Desk Worker” or “Volunteer Chef.”
Company and Job Location: List the organization’s name and the location of the job. Whether you lived in a different city and commuted or worked at a franchise separate from the corporation’s headquarters, list the city where you did the [in-person] job. If the job was entirely or primarily remote, you can write “Remote” instead. If the business has rebranded, particularly if it is commonly known by its previous name, you can add “Formally [Previous Name]” in parentheses at the end of the company’s current name.
Dates of Employment: List the dates you worked the position using a Month Year to Month Year format. If you are still working in this role, use “Present” or “Current” instead of an end date.
Role Description: This is a bulleted list of the tasks that comprise the job. Each bullet should begin with a strong verb in past tense (for past positions) or present tense (for current positions).
You can play around with the formatting of these entries so long as you are consistent. Here is an example:
Rebranded Inc. (Formally Outdated Inc.), Atlanta, GA
Career Coach • Aug 2023 - Present
Education and Training
List the institutions where you received your formal education, possibly including vocational, college, university, experiential, and specific technology boot camp experiences. If necessary, list your high school or equivalent education. For each entry, include the institution name and location, date (month and year) of completion or expected completion, and the associated accreditation (e.g., Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology, High School Diploma, etc.).
Some people choose to list other information under institutions. For instance, you may want to list your senior capstone project under the school you completed it. Moreover, you could list relevant classes you took or clubs you were involved with under this section. Though these details could fit into other areas (e.g., Research, Relevant Coursework, and Associations), placing them is entirely up to you. So long as you are consistent, you can go with whatever best communicates and structures your ideas.
Georgia State University • May 2022
Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership
Minor in Educational Psychology
Skills
This is a short list of [typically 4-6] applicable skills you possess. Both hard skills and soft skills can be listed here. Examples include interpersonal skills, technologies you are proficient with, equipment you are qualified to operate, and programming languages you can code in. This is a convenient place to list languages you can speak at a conversational or higher level and certifications you have earned (e.g., First Aid).
Though this section is essential, it must remain brief. You want to highlight skills that are impressive or specialized while directly relevant to the job. If you need to cut down your list, prioritize keeping hard skills above soft skills. You can also choose to break up the “Skills” area. Perhaps you are a polyglot and would like a section just for languages. Or, if you have numerous certifications, it may be wise to expand on them under a separate heading.
Other Common Resume Headings
- Achievements or Honors
- Areas of Expertise
- Associations or Extracurricular Activities
- Certifications, Formal Qualifications, or Licenses
- Client Work or Freelance Work
- Conference Involvement, Presentations, or Speaking Engagements
- Hobbies or Interests
- International Experience or Study Abroad
- Languages
- Leadership
- Portfolio or Publications
- Professional Summary or Profile
- Projects
- Relevant Coursework
- Research
- References
- Service or Volunteer Experience
- Technologies
Formatting and Design Best Practices
- One Full Page: Your resume should be in full pages, ideally just one. It is better to have a 1-page resume than a 1.5-page one. At the absolute longest, your resume can be two full pages. If you do get to this point, review the document to see if any information can be rephrased or removed.
- Use Reverse Chronological Order: For all sections in which you are listing dated entries, it is standard to do so in reverse chronological order. This means the most recent entry is listed first.
- Tense Agreement Current engagements should be described in the present tense, while past tense is used for past engagements.
- Use Lists over Sentences
- Be Consistent: Whether you format your dates as Jan. 2023, January ’23, 01/2023, or some other way is up to you. However, this style needs to be applied universally across your resume. The same applies to fonts, underlining, heading styles, etc. For example, don’t mix serif and sans-serif fonts.
- No Empty Sections: A common mistake when working from a template is leaving areas blank or simply reading “Not Applicable.” Never do this! If you have nothing to put in a certain category, omit it entirely.
- Balance Visual Space: Your resume should fit on one page without excessive spacing between items or excessive amounts of information crammed into it. Choose and format your words in a way that does not leave large blocks of white space or create clutter.
- Professional Appearance and Legibility: Avoid illegibly tiny font sizes, difficult-to-read fonts, or distracting/low-contrast text colors. Though artistic industries may appreciate a beautifully designed resume, it is often better to err on the side of professionalism.
Tips for Special Circumstances
Little-to-No Experience
Emphasize transferable skills from part-time work, freelance work, volunteer work, internships, or relevant activities. Highlight any achievements or leadership roles in extracurricular activities or community involvement. Highlight relevant coursework or academic achievements.
Non-Relevant Experience or Career/Industry Change
Emphasize transferable skills from your previous roles and highlight achievements and experiences that are in some way related to the desired field. In mant cases, such as applying to a first job out of college, it is not uncommon for previous work experience to be largely unrelated to your field. In less apparent cases, use a professional summary to explain the transition and your motivation.
Lots of Experience or Many Years Experience
Remember that you do not need to include your entire background in your resume. If you need more space in your resume, prioritize recent and relevant experience. You can also utilize an Accomplishments section to summarize career highlights. Utilize a curriculum vitae (CV) to keep a comprehensive list of experience and qualifications. Once you’ve been out of school or in your career for five years, avoid including high school activities or hobbies on your resume or CV.
Frequent Job Changes
If the jobs were contract or seasonal positions, specify them as such. In other words, these positions were short due to the nature of the work rather than because of personal reasons. If the case is promotions or role changes, format the job entries in a way that makes that clear. Some other situations where frequent job changes are less of an issue include industry-wide turnover events or start-up work, which may require additional context. If this switching is not easily explained, using a functional resume, which prioritizes skills, ignoring career chronology, may be beneficial.
Re-entering the Workforce After Career Gap or Unemployment
Consider what you were doing during this time. Was it a form of academic or professional development? Were you self-employed, doing part-time work, or volunteering consistently? All of these things can be worked into a resume. Keep your skills and certifications updated, and highlight previous experiences and how they can be beneficial in the current role. If you choose to explain the reason for your employment gap in your resume, it should be done briefly and with positive framing in a Profile or Professional Summary.
Coming from Freelancing or Self-Employed Work
When applicable, prepend job titles with “Freelance” for clarity. Emphasize projects, clients, and skills gained during self-employment. Highlight specific achievements and results in each project or client interaction.
Special Industries
Some industries, like film or government, may ask for a resume that deviates from this standard style. Make sure to use the format which is required by the role.
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE | 0.1 min read
KEY TAKEAWAYS | 0.3 min read
- Just about any resume should include your name, contact information, work experience, education or training, and skills. How you order and format this information is, in many ways, customizable.
- Do not overload your resume. Aim for a one-page document, and, whenever possible, opt for bulleted lists over paragraphs.
- Your main priority is to quickly and clearly communicate information. Other factors (e.g., design) are secondary.
PRACTICE | 1 hr 20 min activity
I do not have a resume: Create your first resume. (Est. 45min - 1hr 20min)
I have a resume: Update your resume. (Est. 10min - 45min)