How to Write a Resume in 8 Simple Steps

Craft a professional summary or career objective.

The professional summary grabs a reader’s attention and expresses your career goals and interest in three to five sentences. It is usually the section hiring managers spend the most time on, so when learning how to create a resume, remember that it should be both succinct and customized for the job posting.

Pro resume tip: Most applicants will want to use a professional summary as it is the industry standard and provides a more descriptive cataloging of your accomplishments in an active voice. Career objectives are one to two sentences that solely convey the job seeker’s goals. They are useful for job seekers who have experience in an unrelated field or are recent graduates.

Here are two examples of a professional summary statement:

• “Skilled property management professional experienced in overseeing operational aspects, tenant relations, office management and maintenance coordination. Successful balancing tenant’s rights with business considerations to achieve financial targets. Excellent interpersonal, communication and leadership abilities.”
• “Analytical technical writer with five years of experience writing about engineering. Extensive knowledge of editing and distribution processes with fluency in JavaScript. Able to conform writing style, content and formatting to proprietary style guides. Dedicated to thorough and accurate writing.”

Here are two examples of career objectives:

• “Dedicated marketing professional with 12 years of experience looking to explore a career in design.”
• “Recent graduate looking to pursue a career at a pharmaceutical company in chemical research.”

Resume writing tips for your professional summary or career objective include:

• A professional summary should focus on how you can help meet the employer’s needs.
• A career objective focuses more on the job seeker’s overall professional goals.
• Articulate your value to the employer with callbacks to their job posting.
• Emphasize your skills and experiences as they relate to the role.

Capture your most notable skills.

A great list of skills tells employers at-a-glance about your technical acumen and hard and soft skills. One of our top resume tips is to revisit the list of skills you created during your writing prep and be sure to focus on those that were pulled directly from the job ad. The more relevant skills your resume contains, the more likely it is to pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS).

An ATS is programmed with critical skills for the role and applicants whose resumes do not contain those keywords are often deemed unqualified. For that reason, when considering what to include in a resume, remember that it’s critical to list skills using the same language as the job ad.

Here is a quick tutorial on the different types of skills you’ll want to add to your resume:

• Technical skills are industry or program-specific. They require either a certain level of education or certification and are specific to a particular industry.
• Hard skills can be learned, taught or measured and aren’t dependent on your industry.
• Soft skills are personality traits that are hard to measure, but that make you great at your job.

To further illustrate, here are some common resume skills for each category:

Soft skills:

• Multitasking
• Customer service skills
• Problem-solving
• Communication

Hard skills:

• Presentation skills
• Project management
• Database management
• Writing skills

Technical skills:

• Excel
• Constant Contact
• Adobe
• Google Suite

Resume writing tips for your skills section:

• Make note of the skills listed in the job ad and be sure to emphasize those you possess on your resume.
• Put your strongest skills upfront.
• Don’t mention skills that are irrelevant to the role or outdated, like knowledge of defunct software.

Write your work experience section.

Employers want to see the impact your work has had in your previous jobs, so your work experience should be more than just a list of responsibilities. When considering what to put on a resume and what to leave out, remember that results matter and numbers are powerful. The more mundane aspects of your day-to-day responsibilities are less critical to include. Regardless of your role, it’s usually possible to find data or metrics that prove your impact in previous roles.

Here are some examples from various industries:

• Human resources manager: “Reduced labor budget by 15% by devising innovative methods for adjusting salary ranges while preventing layoffs.”
• Teacher: “Evaluated and revised lesson plans and course content to facilitate and moderate classroom discussions and student-centered learning ranging from 22 to 37 students.”
• Concierge: “Greeted and assisted +70 guests per day by gathering information pertaining to reservations or requests.”
• Senior pharmacist: “Oversaw work activities, performance and service quality of an eight-member pharmacy staff over a two-year period.”

Resume writing tips for your work experience section:

• List your jobs in reverse-chronological order, with your most recent position first. If you have many years of experience, focus on the first 10 years of your employment history.
• Use data and metrics whenever possible to show off the impact of your work.
• Use your experience to prove that you’re a great fit. Don’t forget keywords. Whenever possible, use keywords from the job ad to describe your accomplishments and job duties. However, don’t clutter your resume with buzzwords.

Complete the details of your resume.

Now that you’ve written the bulk of your resume, focus on the finer details. Paying attention to these points is how you create a resume that gets you noticed. Here’s how to add the finishing touches:

• Write your header in a professional and easy-to-read font.
• Make sure to double-check your contact information for accuracy.
• Add links to your portfolio or website in the header of your resume, if applicable.
• Add a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one.
• List out your educational experience, including degrees, certifications and special training. Doing so lets employers know you have the training required to get the job done.
• Add information about awards and honors you’ve won if they are relevant to the role.
• Mention languages you speak other than English.
• Add details about relevant volunteer work.
• Mention industry conferences you’ve attended.

Edit and proofread your resume

• Fact-check the details.

  Double-check information like dates and the spelling of company or school names and make sure your contact information is accurate and up to date.

• Proofread your resume.

  It won’t matter if you’re the most qualified candidate in the world if your resume is full of spelling and grammatical errors. Check each of your resume sections for typos and formatting errors. Read the page from top to bottom before deeming it ready for recruiters. Whenever possible, send your document to a trusted friend for a fresh set of eyes.

The resume-writing process isn’t as daunting when you do the prep work and break down your experience into small, easy-to-work-with sections. Our professional Resume Builder can provide you with that extra boost to take your resume to the next level and provide you with the confidence that comes with knowing your resume sections are well-written and properly formatted.

Here’s what we offer:

• A range of templates
• Pre-written content suggestions for your summary, skills and work history sections
• Customizable formatting
• Spelling and grammar check
• Resume resources
• Integration with the top job boards