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Learning how to write a resume that gets interviews is essential in today’s hiring process. Employers rely heavily on applicant tracking systems (ATS) and AI screening tools to filter candidates.
A strong resume includes ATS-friendly formatting, a clear structure, and quantifiable achievements. These elements highlight your strengths, align with employer expectations, and increase your chances of landing interviews.
Before writing your resume, gather the key details you’ll need to build a complete and targeted document. This helps you create a resume faster and ensures nothing important is missed.
Here’s a quick resume prep checklist:
Once you have this information, you can build a targeted, ATS-friendly resume aligned with the job description. Use LiveCareer’s Resume Builder to turn your details into a polished resume in minutes, or watch our step-by-step video to see exactly how to write each resume section from start to finish.
Learn how to write a resume for a job in seven simple steps, from choosing the right format to polishing your final draft. These steps will help you create a clear, professional resume that highlights your strengths and performs well with recruiters and ATS.
Step 1
Choose a resume format that best highlights your experience, skills, and career goals. The right structure helps present your qualifications clearly and effectively for the job you’re targeting.
There are three common resume formats:
Chronological Resume Format
The chronological format is best for:
Functional Resume Format
The functional format is best for:
Combination Resume Format
The combination format is best for:
“While preferences can vary by industry, most employers favor chronological resumes because they clearly show career progression and relevant skills. Functional resumes can be effective in certain situations, but they may require extra explanation to highlight experience in a way hiring managers can quickly grasp.”
—Jasmine Escalera, Career Expert
Step 2
Add your contact information to your header by placing your full name at the top, followed by your phone number, professional email address, and location.
For example:
Here’s a closer look at what to include in your resume header:
Step 3
Your resume summary or objective is the first section employers see. It briefly highlights your experience, skills, and career goals and helps recruiters and hiring managers understand why you’re a strong fit for the role.
A resume summary is a short paragraph highlighting your experience, skills, and key achievements. It’s best for professionals with relevant work experience and measurable results.
Here’s a resume summary template you can use to write your own:
[Soft skills to describe you as a professional] + [job title and years of experience] in [area of expertise as stated in the job description]. Adept at [two or three of your best, job-relevant hard skills]. [One impressive career accomplishment and any other skills or qualifications.]
Here’s an example of how to write a good resume summary:
Analytical finance professional with 5+ years of experience managing budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting for midsized and enterprise organizations. Skilled in financial modeling, variance analysis, and process optimization, with a proven track record of reducing operating costs by 15% year over year. Adept at collaborating with cross-functional teams to streamline reporting and support strategic business decisions.
A resume objective is a short statement focused on your career goals and the value you aim to bring. It’s best for entry-level candidates, career changers, or those reentering the workforce.
Here’s a career objective template where you can fill in the blanks:
[Your profession] + [education or experience and top skills] seeking [desired job and company] to [goal you aim to accomplish in the job] with [professional skills and knowledge required in job description]. [Mention two or three soft skills and any additional qualifications.]
Here’s an example of how to create a resume objective:
Customer service professional transitioning into project management, bringing strong organizational, problem-solving, and team coordination skills. Recognized for leading cross-functional initiatives that improved response times by 20%. Seeking an opportunity to support projects through effective planning and execution.
Step 4
List your work experience and accomplishments by including your job titles, company names and locations, and dates of employment. Use bullet points to highlight measurable achievements rather than listing job duties.
Here’s a checklist of every detail you must include for each job you list in your resume’s work history section:
Here’s an example of how to prepare a resume work history section:
Sales Associate | Target | Orlando, FL
March 2020—Present
Your work experience section should outline your past roles, but it’s not enough to simply list the job title and years of employment. You have to show employers real examples of what you achieved in each position.
To create a work history section that’s informative and helps you stand out, follow this guidance:
Not every resume follows a perfectly linear career path—and that’s okay. Nearly 1 in 4 job seekers has employment gaps in their resume, according to a recent LiveCareer report.
One of the fastest ways to make your work history stand out is to use the same keywords employers include in their job postings. Recruiters and ATS scan for specific skills, responsibilities, and qualifications, so matching that language helps your resume get noticed.
Before writing your bullet points, review the job description and highlight the skills and requirements you already have. Then, work those keywords into your work experience descriptions to show clear alignment with the role.
Here’s a sample job ad that highlights in bold important resume keywords to consider adding:
Job ad example:
We are hiring a dynamic and motivated sales associate for our new Altamonte Mall location.
You will be responsible for various tasks on the sales floor, at the cash registers, in the fitting rooms, and in the stockroom.
Key responsibilities
Qualifications
Once you’ve identified the relevant keywords, select the ones that accurately reflect your experience and incorporate them into your work history.
Sales associate work history example:
Sales Associate | Urban Outfitters | Tampa, FL
November 2021—Present
Cashier | AVO Boutique | Tampa, FL
August 2019—November 2021
Sales Associate | The Gap | Tampa, FL
January 2019—August 2019
Start each resume bullet point with a strong action verb to clearly show the impact you made. Phrases like “Developed a new social media strategy” are more results-focused than weak openers such as “Was responsible for managing social accounts.”
Use varied, job-relevant action verbs to keep your resume clear, impactful, and ATS-friendly. Check out the action verbs below to start:
Step 5
Your skills section highlights your most relevant qualifications. Include six to eight skills that match the job description and reflect your experience.
For example:
To build a strong skills section, include a mix of skill types:
“As AI takes on more routine tasks in the workplace, employers are increasingly focused on soft skills when hiring. Highlighting transferable soft skills like collaboration, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence can help candidates stand out by showing they can navigate complex situations and work effectively with others.”
—Jasmine Escalera, Career Expert
Use a mix of hard, soft, and technical skills to create a balanced and effective resume.
10 hard skills examples:
10 soft skills examples:
10 technical skills examples:
Step 6
To complete your resume, include an education section and any additional sections that highlight your qualifications, training, and achievements. These sections help demonstrate your skills and strengthen your application.
List your education in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent degree or diploma.
For example:
Include the following details for each program:
Here’s an example education section for a high school student:
Lincoln High School, Dallas, TX
High School Diploma | GPA: 4.0
Here’s an example education section for a higher education graduate:
PhD in Molecular Biology
University of California, Berkeley – Berkeley, CA
Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry
University of Texas – Austin, TX
Adding additional relevant sections to your resume helps you showcase skills and qualifications that can set you apart from other candidates and enhance your application.
Some jobs, like nurses, EMTs, or therapists, require you to possess certain certifications or licenses to legally perform the job.
Here’s an example for a nursing job:
Licenses
Registered Nurse – License #000000
Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing | Expires: 2027
If you have multiple certifications, add those in a separate section like this:
Certifications
Add an honors or awards section for any academic or professional recognition you’ve received. “Honors” relates to academic achievements, whereas “awards” refer to academic and professional accolades.
Here’s an example section for your resume:
Honors
Awards
Include a projects section on your resume to highlight major career initiatives or personal projects you’ve led or contributed to.
Here’s an example:
Projects
Include volunteer work in your resume to demonstrate cultural fit, transferable skills, and, for inexperienced candidates, relevant experience.
Here’s an example:
Volunteer Work
Digital Marketing Volunteer
Habitat for Humanity | East Bay/Silicon Valley, CA | January 2022—March 2023
List your languages on your resume and, if relevant, note your fluency. Language skills are especially valuable in customer service, retail, and healthcare roles.
For example:
Languages
Writers and researchers can list publications on their resumes. For extensive lists, consider writing a CV instead.
Here’s an example of a publications section:
Publications
Step 7
The final step in the resume-writing process is to ensure proper formatting, correct grammar, and relevance to the specific role you’re applying for.
Keep your resume easy to scan by using bullet points, consistent date formats, and standard margins while ensuring it remains ATS-friendly and free of unnecessary design elements.
Follow these tips to make sure your resume appears polished and professional:
Confirm that your resume is tailored to the job by aligning your skills, experience, and keywords with the specific role and job description.
Here are a few ways you can update your resume to reflect your target job’s requirements:
Before submitting, make sure your resume is error-free and fully optimized.
Here are a few key things to check before you send in your application:
Optimize your resume for ATS by using relevant keywords from the job description, choosing a simple format, and organizing content with clear headings so applicant tracking systems can accurately scan and rank your application.
Here’s how to make a resume stand out to ATS:
“Ensuring that your resume is in the correct format for an ATS to scan and parse the information is the first step. Beyond that, making sure you highlight the key skills you have that are mentioned in the job description will help your resume stand out from other applicants.”
—Toni Frana, Career Expert
Seeing a completed resume example can help you understand how all the sections—summary, skills, work experience, and education—come together. To get started, we’ve compiled a variety of sample resumes tailored to different career levels, industries, and job types.
Once your resume is polished, strengthen your application by pairing it with a customized cover letter. Resumes and cover letters together give employers a clearer picture of who you are, what you offer, and why you’re a strong fit for the role.
We already covered how important it is to tailor your resume for every job application to increase your chances of getting hired. The same goes for your cover letter—another document you should continually customize to show different employers why you’re a great fit.
A complete, well-written application highlights your skills, accomplishments, and impact, and becomes a powerful tool for opening doors to the opportunities you’re aiming for. You can use our Cover Letter Generator to make a personalized cover letter quickly and easily.
Let’s review the major steps for how to write a resume that stands out and wins interviews:
To start writing a resume, first identify your target job and gather your work history, skills, and achievements that match the role. Then, choose a clear format, write a summary, and list experience with measurable results. This approach ensures your resume is focused, relevant, and easy for employers to review.
Writing a simple resume means starting with the basics: Include your contact information, a summary or objective, work experience, education, and key skills. Use a clean, single-column, simple resume template with bullet points, action verbs, and measurable achievements. Focus on clarity and relevance, keeping the design ATS-friendly.
The best way to write a resume with no experience is by highlighting transferable skills from school, internships, volunteer work, or personal projects. Use a resume objective to show your career goals, emphasize relevant skills, and include education, certifications, or awards. Focus on what you can do rather than what you haven’t done yet.
The five golden rules of resume writing are:
Following these rules helps ensure your resume is clear, relevant, and effective for both recruiters and ATS software used to screen candidates.
You can easily make a resume for free by following this page’s guidance and formatting a template using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You can also use LiveCareer’s Resume Builder to create a resume and download it for free as a TXT file—all you need is an email account, with no payment required.
The seven basic steps to write a resume are:
Following these steps helps you create a clear, structured, and job-focused resume.
A resume should go back 10 to 15 years, focusing on recent and relevant experience that aligns with the job you’re applying for. Older roles can be summarized or omitted unless they’re highly relevant. This keeps your resume concise and focused on your most impactful and up-to-date accomplishments. If you’re unsure how long your resume should be, follow the simple rule of one page per 10 years of experience.
A good resume looks clean, well-organized, and easy to scan, with clear headings, consistent formatting, and concise bullet points focused on measurable achievements. It highlights relevant skills and experience tailored to the job, uses strong action verbs, and avoids clutter or unnecessary design elements so employers can quickly understand your qualifications.
Update your resume regularly—at least every six to 12 months, or whenever you gain new skills, certifications, or accomplishments. Regular updates ensure it’s always ready for new opportunities and reflects your most recent experience.
Over the past 15 years, we’ve helped more than 10 million job seekers build stronger cover letters, discover their career paths, interview confidently, and boost their chances of finding the right job faster. Review our Editorial Policy to learn more about our process.
Join 28M+ others who’ve built a resume that works.
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