How to write a resume: a step by step guide

For almost everyone, the right choice is the reverse chronological format: your most recent job first, then the one before, and so on. It's what recruiters expect, and it's what applicant tracking systems parse most reliably.

Keep the layout to a single column with clear section headings. Two column designs, tables, text boxes and graphics look polished but often come out scrambled when software reads them. The resume format guide covers the other formats and when they make sense.

Your name goes first, large and clear. Under it, on one or two lines:

• Phone number and a professional email address
• City and state (or city and country). A full street address isn't needed any more
• LinkedIn profile, if it's up to date
• A portfolio, GitHub or personal website, if it's relevant to the job

Leave out your date of birth, marital status and, in the US, UK and Canada, a photo. They take up space, can invite bias, and many employers prefer not to receive them.

Put contact details in the body of the page, not in the document's header or footer area. Some tracking systems skip those areas, and your phone number is the one thing they can't lose.

A summary is two or three sentences at the top of the page that tell the reader who you are and why you fit. A good one names your role, your experience, what you're strongest at and one piece of proof.

The weak version could describe anyone. The strong one could only describe this person. There are 20 more in the resume summary guide.

This is the section that gets you hired, so spend most of your time here. For each job, list your title, the employer, the location and the dates (month and year). Then add three to five bullet points.

The most common mistake is writing duties: what the job was meant to involve. A hiring manager already knows roughly what a nurse or an accountant does. What they don't know is how well you did it. Write achievements instead:

Numbers make an achievement concrete: money saved or earned, time saved, percentages, volumes, team sizes, rankings. If you don't have exact figures, a careful estimate you could explain in an interview is fine. Start each bullet with a strong verb; the action verbs list has 180 of them sorted by skill.

List your degree, subject, school and graduation year (or expected year). If you've been working for a few years, that's all you need, and education moves below experience.

If you're a student or recent graduate, education goes first and can include a strong GPA (3.5 or above is a common rule of thumb), honours, relevant coursework and major projects. The student resume example shows how.

Your skills section is where tracking systems and recruiters look for specific words: software, tools, languages, methods and certifications. Group them under short labels so they're quick to scan:

List the hard skills you actually have, using the same words as the job posting. Leave soft skills like "communication" or "teamwork" out of the list; they're more convincing when a bullet point shows them. Skip skill bars and star ratings too: they can't be parsed and don't mean anything to a reader.

Only add a section if it strengthens your case for this job. Good candidates:

• Certifications and licenses, essential in fields like nursing, accounting, IT and project management
• Projects, for students, career changers and technical roles
• Volunteering, especially when it shows relevant skills or fills a gap
• Languages, with your level (fluent, conversational)
• Awards, when they're specific and recent

Leave out "References available on request" (it's assumed) and hobbies, unless they're directly relevant.

Sending the same resume everywhere is the easiest way to be overlooked. Before each application, read the posting, note the skills and responsibilities it repeats, and make sure the ones you genuinely have appear in your summary, bullets and skills, in the posting's own words.

You don't need to rewrite everything. Reordering bullets, adjusting your summary and adding a few keywords usually takes 15 minutes. The tailoring guide walks through it.

• Use a readable font at 10 to 12 points, with margins of about half an inch to an inch
• Keep dates in the same format and position throughout
• Use standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills
• Read it aloud, then have someone else read it. Typos are an easy reason to be rejected
• Save as a PDF made from your document (not a scan), and name it with your name, such as jordan-lee-resume.pdf

Finally, check what software will see. Upload your PDF to the free ATS resume checker: it shows the exact text a tracking system pulls out, and flags anything that comes out scrambled or missing.