Your resume may be the most important page you write in your life. Follow our top 20 resume writing tips to make yours a success.
You know all about the importance of a great resume. It’s the document you need to get a great job, and a great job can lead to a great life. That’s why we’ve compiled 20 resume tips to help you write (and design) this critical job-search document.
Resumes come in all shapes, sizes, styles and lengths. And let’s face it – many of them are terrible. So what are the basic tips for resume writing? What makes a good resume and what should you avoid?
Here’s what we’ll cover in this comprehensive blog:
Structural tips for including all the right resume sections
Writing tips for making your words leap off the page
Formatting tips to increase readability and attractiveness
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
If you do this job right, hiring managers should say, “Oh, wow, I have to talk to this person immediately.” If that’s the reaction you’re looking for, read on for our top 20 resume writing tips, as well as some sound advice on structure, design and layout to help you build your resume.
Our top tips for structuring your resume
- First, study the job posting.
You need to figure out what to say before you figure out how to say it. And that starts with knowing what the employer wants, because you’ll never catch any fish if you’re using bait they don’t like.
Employers know what they’re looking for, and they usually spell this out explicitly when posting a job listing. What you need to do as a job applicant is to make the language of your resume match the help-wanted ad as closely as possible.
One reason this is so important is because of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) , which rank resumes according to whether or not they contain the keywords an employer is looking for. The place to find these keywords is in the job posting. This is also why you should tailor your resume for each employer, changing it up each time you apply for a job in order to highlight the qualifications that each employer is seeking.
- Structure your resume properly.
How many pages should a resume be? A resume should usually be one page only, though two pages are sometimes considered OK if you have a lot of experience in your field.
So what are the five main things your CV should include? It should be structured as follows, with these five components:
· Header
· Summary/profile
· Employment history
· Education
· Skills
These elements don’t necessarily have to be in this order. If you have little or no experience because you’re still in college or just got your degree, education can come before employment history. In rare cases, employment history can be left out entirely if you have none, though it’s best to include one with at least internship or volunteer experience.
In many resume designs, the skills list appears in a margin under the contact info, fairly high on the page. In others, it appears at the bottom, and in still others, it appears somewhere in the middle.
Most experts say you should leave references off your resume, or if the employer requests them, they can be included in a separate document. Do not include the phrase “References available upon request.”
- Create an eye-pleasing header.
The header is the space at the top of the resume that contains the following contact info:
Name: This comes at the very top, and should usually appear in the largest font size on the page. (Do not include the word “Resume” at the top, as it should be pretty obvious this is a resume.)
Occupation: List your occupation under your name (“Painter,” “Plumber, “SEO Marketing Specialist,” etc.).
Address: Some say your snail-mail a is unnecessary in today’s digital world, especially if applying for a remote job. But we recommend you include it unless there’s a good reason not to. At the very least, include your city and state/province (if applying for a job in your own country), or city and country if applying for a job in a foreign market.
Email address: Use a professional email address that contains part or all of your name, hosted by a recognized email provider. Do not apply for a job using an email like partygirl@cheapemails.com – unless, of course, your job is planning parties.
Phone number: Don’t forget the area code, and the country code if applying for a job outside the country.
Optional photo: Some resume designs include a head shot of the job candidate, but be careful with this, as resume photos are mostly frowned on in the U.S., though they are more common in Europe.
Optional web link: You can include your LinkedIn page, your Twitter handle or a link to your blog if these sites reflect your professional accomplishments more than your private life.
Your header needs to be attractively designed and laid out, with smart use of typography, white space and perhaps an accent color. The same is true of the rest of your resume, and we’ll talk more in a bit about how to pull this off.
