Monday, March 18, 2024
HomeHow To Make A Basic Resume

How To Make A Basic Resume

Choose A Word Processor

How to Write a Basic Resume in Microsoft Word

Before you start to work on your resume, youll need a word processor. If you dont have word processing software installed on your computer, here are free online word processors, like Google Docs, you can use. One of the benefits of working online is that you can update, send, and share your resume from any computer or device youre using. That makes the application process much simpler because youll be able to easily apply for jobs from anywhere that may be convenient for you.

Which Resume Type Is Right For You

Which resume type should you use for your job search? That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. The goal of any resume is to show a hiring manager the applicant’s strengths, skills, and experience in as short a time as possible. According to one study, recruiters spend as little as seven seconds reviewing a resume before moving on to the next, so it’s in your best interests to put your finest qualities and accomplishments in a prominent position on the page.

In addition, functional or combination resumes may also be useful if you’re trying to draw the reader’s attention away from somethingnamely, large gaps in your work history or detours into unrelated fields.

Choose The Most Suitable Format

Before you start writing anything, the first step is to decide on the right format for your resume. There are three basic resume formats used by job seekers today: reverse-chronological, functional, and combination. Each format has advantages and disadvantages based on how the resume sections are arranged:

Don’t Miss: Sending Resume To Hiring Manager

Detail Your Work Experience

The work experience section is the heart of your resume. Employers look at this section closely to determine whether your job history and prior accomplishments make you a promising candidate.

Thats why its important to detail not only your job responsibilities but also your competence in prior roles. The work experience section is your chance to show recruiters and hiring managers how you have added unique value to other companies.

The first things a recruiter looks for on your resume are the job titles youve held and the caliber of companies youve worked with. Make this information easy to find by sticking to a familiar format.

List each job in reverse-chronological order. Each job should have its own subheading that includes the following information:

  • Company

Simple Resumes For Graduates

Sample of Simple Resume

Each year the working population is growing exponentially as more and more people graduate college and go on to look for a professional career. This means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a job based solely on your academic accreditations. Recent grads are having to use new methods to make their resumes stand out more than in the past and to add other information that helps convince hiring managers to meet for a job interview.

Whether it is a first job resume or as a fresh graduate, youve had previous work experience, simple resumes are a good springboard to launch yourself into the working world. Beginning with a simple resume objective, graduates can position themselves in the eye of a recruiter by using the right action words and highlighting relevant achievements.

The most important thing to remember is that there will be a large number of jobseekers who will be equally or more qualified, in terms of training. Therefore, freshman jobseekers should always adapt their simple resume by adding sections that relate to their specific individual professional profile such as honors and awards or internships.

These additional sections can help provide evidence that you can adapt your training and education to the workplace. 80% of employers want to see this capacity on your resume according to research from Ladders, so having this information is crucial

Read Also: How To Add Conferences To Resume

How To Make A Resume

Before you even start working on your resume, you need to decide how youre going to build it.

And no – you shouldnt use a basic text editor. While this IS the most popular method for creating a resume, its very far from the best.

With a basic text editor resume, youll need to spend hours playing with the formatting. You make a minor change and BAM! Your entire resume layout gets messed up.

Instead of using a text editor, we recommend choosing a resume builder, such as Novorésumé. Our resume builder is fast, easy, and to put the icing on the cake, a Novorésumé looks much better and can fit more information than your average, cookie-cutter resume…

To get the most out of this guide, you can head over to the resume builder and start building your resume on-the-go as you read this guide.

List Any Awards You’ve Won And When You Won Them

When you’ve been recognized by someone else, you should let potential employers know about it. But you shouldn’t worry if you haven’t received any awards just skip this section.

Examples:

Richmond County National Essay Contest, Honorable Mention, May 2006.

Honor Roll, South Satchewan High School, Junior and Senior Years, 20082010.

Also Check: Whats A Good Wpm For A Resume

Free To Download And Use In Microsoft Word As A Pdf Or In Google Docs

The power of a simple resume template is that it allows you to focus on your unique qualities and get hired in the shortest amount of time possible. So dont get hung up on the last step. Once you choose your perfect template, try out our easy-to-use builder tool to add your work experience, soft skills, hard skills and achievements. Our builder tool has already been tested by thousands of satisfied customers who have found their dream jobs hassle-free.

Finish your application strong by choosing the right file format to keep your resume consistent no matter how you send it. Within our builder tool, you can download your resume as a MS Word or Google Doc version completely free. You can also download your resume as a PDF.

When youre ready to submit your resume, you want to be sure that the format you created is the format the hiring manager sees. Thats why our templates give you the option to download your resume as a PDF or Word docx file without changing the formatting. A PDF guarantees your resume will look the same on any screen or device. However, docx files are requested by some online application systems and are useful if you need to adjust your resume offline. Our docx file downloads match the exact layout of the PDF, so whichever file type you choose you can rest assured that a perfectly formatted resume is in your hands.

Types Of Resume Formats

How to Create a Basic Resume in Microsoft Word

As with many writing tasks, composing a resume is as much about how you write it as what you write. In the case of a resume, it’s vital to be as organized and structured as possible. Your prospective employers will spend, at most, a few minutes going over your resume. There are three main ways to organize your resume.

You May Like: How To Email A Recruiter Your Resume

Add Your Professional Resume Summary Statement

A resume summary statement is a short paragraph or section of bullet points at the beginning of a resume that highlights your professional skills and experience. Your summary should expand on your headline and communicate to recruiters and hiring managers why you are a good fit for the job.

Summary statements are not ideal for all job seekers. If you dont have much job experience or are changing careers, you might use the space to expand on your work history section, skills section, or write a strong resume objective statement instead.

Note: Career experts rarely recommend including a resume objective statement, but these summary alternatives can work in special circumstances such as in the case of career changes.

Decide Your Resume Length

While its tempting to include as much of your work-related experience and skills in your resume, keep this information to one page . Knowing this from the start helps you consider only relevant information and decide on ways to keep the information short and sweet. Recruiters have a limited amount of time they can spend reading resumes from quite possibly hundreds of candidates, so a one-page resume is generally the best choice.

A one-page resume:

However, if youve worked in the same field for more than 10 years, you might find you need to use two pages to show a progression in duties and responsibilities in your field. Additionally, if youre a high-level executive, scientist or professor, you may need additional room to provide enough information for a potential employer to gain a full understanding of how youre the best candidate for the position. If you must use two pages, be sure that the second page is full for consistency.

You might notice that some employers ask specifically for a resume, a CV or they use resume and CV interchangeably. Whereas a resume is meant to be short and to the point, a curriculum vitae, or CV, is designed to provide more in-depth information. There are a few differences between a resume and a CV:

Also Check: Resume Publication Format

Use The Right Language To Stand Out

Trite, lackluster descriptions of your job duties and accomplishments won’t do you any favors. Make sure you’re using strong action words like “achieved,””designed,””improved” and “established” to describe your roles and projects, said Sade. This, he said, will make you sound confident while imparting vital information. But be cautious about depending on action verbs make sure to include details about how you improved a process or achieved a goal.

“Words such as ‘professional,”results-driven’ and ‘detail-oriented’ provide very little helpful information,” Sade said. “It’s better to use actual job titles than these words.”

Diya Obeid, founder and CEO of applicant tracking software company JobDiva, also said that you should remove buzzwords like “go-getter,””team player” and “go-to person” from your resume. These come off as fluff and only take up precious space on your resume.

What To Include In Your Resume

Sample of Simple Resume

An effective resume lays out a summary of qualifications that will push the hiring manager or employer to move forward and invite you to interview for the position.

For many people, it can be helpful to sit down with a pen and paper, or a blank Word or Google document, and jot down their work history from start to finish. Of course, if you have been in the workforce for many years, this is not going to be time-efficient, so you may choose to focus on your most prominent and relevant positions.

No matter your approach, your goal will be to produce a chronological list of experience that is relevant to the jobs youre applying to.

Required and Optional Resume Sections. As well as details on skills, education, and work history, resumes can also have optional sections, such as an objective, summary statement, skills, or career highlights. Those sections can be added after youve compiled all the factual information you need to list on your resume.

List the Details. Make sure to include the name of the company, its location, dates of employment, and several bullet points describing your role and responsibilities for each position you list. Although you may need to expand on the bullet points later on, youll need this information at the minimum.

Match Your Resume to the Job. Be sure to match those accomplishments to the criteria the employer is seeking in the job posting.

Review Your Job Descriptions. Review the descriptions you’ve written for each job you’ve held:

Don’t Miss: Conference Presentations On Cv

When To Pick A Basic Or Simple Resume Template

Basic or Simple templates are best for situations where your experience needs to speak for itself. Candidates applying for positions in transportand logistics, maintenance and repair, retailor food service can all benefit from simple resume templates. A basic or simple template sends the message that youre a clean and organized candidate whos ready to get the job done.

While professions involving physical activity and labor can benefit from a simple layout, these templates are also great for students and those applying to entry-level positions. Before you go bold with loud colors and untraditional fonts, you may want to test the application pool waters with a simple template that keeps the focus on your experience.

To make the most out of your basic template, make sure to keep the writing clean and professional. Since you dont have many pictures or colors to catch a recruiters eye, youll want to use strong action verbs that accurately capture your accomplishments. As always, proofreading your resume for grammar and spelling errors is a must.

Present Your Skills In A Unique Way

On average, recruiters take six seconds to look at a resume. So, if youre looking for a distinctive way to highlight your skills, Canvas templates offer unique designs that will help you stand out.

From infographic timelines to one-page pitch decks, and even pie charts, with a few simple clicks you are able to clearly display all your career highlights so far.

Don’t Miss: Declaration In Resume

Polish Up Your Grammar And Formatting

Resume writing is a unique style. It can be tricky to remember which tense to use or when to omit pronouns. How can you use language to tell a more compelling story? Which fonts and formats are ATS-friendly? Lets take a look.

Resume Fonts

Its important to use a font that is easy to read on screen, ATS-compatible, and commonly available. A few traditional resume fonts to consider include Helvetica, Garamond, or Georgia. Avoid using script fonts or custom fonts unless you are a designer. Dont use a font size below 10.

Tense and Pronouns

Use past tense when talking about jobs in the past, and present tense when describing the work you are currently doing. Traditional resume writing leaves out personal pronouns and gets right to the action. Ex. Spearheaded a new email marketing initiative that increased revenue by 10 percent.

Resume Action Words

Action verbs help liven up your writing, making your resume more readable for recruiters and hiring managers. Consider beginning each bullet point on your resume with an action verb and replacing generic verbs like managed or led with more engaging words like mentored or accelerated.

Determine Your Section Organization

How to Write a Basic Resume

Once you have built the base format of your resume, itâs time to determine if your sections are in the optimal location.

For instance, if you are creating a Reverse-Chronological style resume you will want your Work Experience section to come first.

Comparatively, if you are creating a Functional style resume you may want your Skills or Education section to come first.

The order and organization of your sections will impact the impression your resume makes on hiring managers.

Read Also: How To Put Ged On Resume

Whats A Resume Summary & When To Use It

A resume summary is a 2-3 sentence summary of your career. You should use a resume summary in basically any situation, unless youre a recent university graduate or switching careers .

In your resume summary, you need to mention:

  • Your job and years of experience. E.g.: Customer support representative with 5+ years of experience in the IT industry.
  • 1 or 2 top achievements . E.g.: Specialized in technical support, customer care, and user retention.
  • Desired goal . E.g.: Looking for new opportunities as a support lead for a SaaS company.
  • List Your Relevant Skills

    Include skills relevant to the position you’re applying for in this section. Skills can be technical, such as proficiency in using certain software programs and tools. Comparatively, soft skills include communication, teamwork, adaptability, and leadership. You can also include specific skills the employer mentioned in the job description. When listing skills, start with hard skills and, if required, mention your proficiency, such as beginner, intermediate or advanced.

    Related:How to List Proficiency on Your Resume

    Don’t Miss: How To Add Bilingual To Resume

    Section 2 How To Write A Resume

    Now that we have a general idea of what a resume should include, lets look at how to write one that helps you stand out from the crowd.

    Again, lets go back to our poor beleaguered hiring manger toiling away over mountains of unfocused resumesand while were there, Im going to let you in on a little secret.

    Out of all of those resumes, there are hundreds of qualified candidatespeople who would probably do an amazing job and would be great additions to any company.

    Sure, there are those in that pile who have NO business applying for the jobbut I guarantee theres a big chunk of applicants who are qualified and would be great hiresproblem is, their resumeswellsuck.

    Luckily yoursdoesnt. In fact, yours is brilliant and you are the perfect candidate! Youre the answer to the hiring managers prayers. Youre the reason they post jobs and slog through piles of paper poo and when they finally stumble on your little nugget of job history gold, jump to their feet in excitement and yell Bring this one IN!

    Or at least, if you follow these guidelines and rules, you will be!

    Why Do I Need A Resume

    best simple resume best simple resume examples ideas on a sample resume ...

    I know the

    If thats true, then hey, you probably dont need a resumeyoure essentially guaranteed the job alreadybut what about when that job ends?

    Betcha no matter how great your hookups are right now, at some point in your career, youre gonna need a killer resume, and luckily were here to tell you how to create a resume.

    And not just any resumea professional resume.

    For those of us who dont have direct connections to killer jobs, a resume is essential to getting your foot in the door.

    Employers use resumes as a way to quickly screen potential applicants, selecting only the individuals they feel are right for the position, so making sure your resume is in tip-top shape is absolutely vital.

    Here, let me walk you through a quick little scenario and well see just how important those little pieces of paper actually are:

    Imagine youre a hiring manager and its your job to find the perfect candidate for an open position with your company.

    Youve trolled the usual job listing sites and posted what youre looking for and the response has beenoverwhelming.

    Your desk is COVERED with resumes. Pile after pile. Stack after stack.

    You call maintenance and ask them to empty your trash can, again. Its filling up too quickly with all these rejected candidates.

    You continue to slog through the pile of papers, your eyes growing heavy with each rejection. Youre sleepy, youre bored, and youre frustrated. Does NOBODY really qualify for this job?

    No fun, eh? Absolutely not!

    Also Check: What Font Size To Use For Resume

    RELATED ARTICLES

    Most Popular