Consider Adding Optional Sections
If you have significant white space on your resume, consider adding an achievements or interests section. This can help supplement a shorter resume, especially for those with limited work and educational experience. Makes sure that the achievements and interests you list support your career goals and are relevant to potential employers.
Formatting Your Margins And Spacing
When you format your resume you want to make sure that your leave enough margin space to allow for printing. If you try to adjust your margins and make them too narrow in order to fit more into your page, you run the risk of critical information being cut off if an employer prints it out.
Inversely, making your margins too large will leave your resume looking boxed in and squished. The general rule is to set your margins at one inch on all sides.
Think of your resume as a piece of fine artwork. Your margins should create a beautiful frame around it. If youre truly desperate for space, you can slightly adjust your top and bottom margins but try to avoid adjusting your side margins.
In terms of the spacing, keep your resume to single-spaced with a blank line between each section of your content.
+ Effective Resume Examples
Knowing how to write a resume is one thing, actually creating a resume that stands out is something else entirely. Without inspiration, even top career experts might stumble on a roadblock or two.
Check out the following effective resume examples to get a better sense of what a good resume looks like…
Want to see more examples? Check out our compilation of 20+ resume examples for different fields.
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Resume Summary Or Objective
Its not a secret for anyone that first impressions matter, whether theyre in your personal life, or your career.
If you leave a bad first impression, chances are, its there to stay. After all, its very hard to change someones opinion of you.
The same applies to your job search – the HR manager spends around 6 seconds scanning each resume. Yep, your carefully-worded, hand-crafted resume only gets 6 seconds of attention. Unless, of course, you manage to leave an amazing first impression.
The way you accomplish this is through either a good resume summary or objective. Both are placed at the top of your resume, right around the contact information section:
So, heres what you need to know about the two:
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.
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Add Your Name And Contact Information
The top of your resume should include the following information:
- Name
- Location
- Email Address
- LinkedIn profile URL
It might seem obvious, but job seekers sometimes forget a key piece of contact information in this section. Double check and make it as easy as possible for recruiters to contact you for a job interview.
How To List Skills In Your Resume
When mentioning skills in your resume, there are 3 essential steps to follow:
Step #1 – List Hard Skills with Experience Levels. For each hard skill you list, you want to mention your proficiency level:
As a rule of thumb, you can divide them by:
Beginner – You have some experience with the skill, whether its from some entry-level practice or classroom education.
Intermediate – Youve used the skill in a work environment with a good level of understanding.
Advanced – Youre the go-to person for the skill in your office. You can coach other employees, and understand the skill on a high level.
Expert – Youve applied this skill in more than a handful of different projects & organizations. Youre the go-to person for advice about the skill, not just in your office, but even amongst some of the best professionals in your field.
Make sure to NEVER lie about your skill levels. Otherwise, its going to be pretty awkward both for you and your employer.
Imagine your first task at work as an Illustrator – to create a graphic vector to go nicely with an article. If you end up delivering a hastily drawn stick figure colored with a paint bucket tool in Microsoft Paint, youll be out of the job before your probation period ends.
Step #2 – Tailor Your Skills to the Job. You might have some super rare, awesome skills, but theyre not always going to be useful. For example, its awesome that you know accounting, but would you really need it at your new job as a line cook? Exactly!
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The Professional Summary Explains What Your Next Job Is
In the High Score Resume, the professional summary communicates your Next Level the job you want next. Very significantly, it is not a summary of your past professional experience, but a summary of where you will be next.
In the professional summary, you make your most effective, most concise, most powerful pitch for the job you want. Using short words and brief phrases, this section stands out from the rest of the High Score Resume in a dramatic and compelling way. Youll use that power to make clear to your future boss your capabilities and your expectations for your next role.
While it represents only 10% of the space on your resume, the professional summary should be where you spend a third or more of your resume writing time.
In total, your professional summary includes 12-16 phrases spread across three to four lines. The first of the four lines is a list of job titles you want. The next line is a list of professional skills you have. The third is a list of achievements that show how you excel. The optional fourth line can be used for more skills and achievements or can be used to explicitly indicate the kind of company, role or industry youre targeting.
Whichever it is, this bold, ALL CAPS, Professional Headline is the marketing pitch for you. Its worth spending several hours getting this exactly right.
While it might seem obvious to you what your Next Level is, it is not obvious at all to the people reading your resume.
Youd be surprised at the answers!
Outline Your Professional Trajectory
No matter your approach, your goal will be to produce a chronological list of experience that is relevant to the jobs youre applying for.
Although this should focus on professional work experience, you can also include awards or accolades, volunteer or community experience, post-grad coursework, and skills, as well as your college education, which can move to the bottom of your resume once you get your first job after college.
When youre working on your brain dump, 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.
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Start With Our Resume Writing Tips
Every list of resume writing tips will tell you the same thing: Start with your contact information. Your name, phone number, email address and, if applicable, links to your website and LinkedIn profile. Then list all the jobs you’ve had.
But there’s more to it than that. Here are seven steps for boosting your resume writing skills and building a resume that brings you success:
Choosing The Best Resume Template
Now that we know which software to use and the most common resume formats, letâs break down the actual template. This is the make-or-break deal. Picking the right resume template can be the deciding factor if a hiring manager gives you a call. Or if they skip past your resume and never bother to read it.
Our mission here at Easy Resume is to make sure that never happens to you! Weâre working hard to make sure your resume is high quality and presented in a way that will impress recruiters.
When speaking with hiring managers, we found that 78% of the time they skip your resume is because of the design. Again, we donât think thatâs fair.
Hereâs a checklist to use for your resume
We always use this checklist whenever creating any new resume template.
Use a clear heading structure
Incorrect: Donât make all headings and body copy the same size.
Correct: Do use typographic hierarchy by using varying heading sizes and font weights.
Use legible, friendly and professional font combinations
Incorrect: Donât use quirky and eccentric fonts like comic sans or papyrus.
Correct: Do use professional fonts that are easy to read and familiar. Fonts like Georgia, Helvetica, Calibri, and Cambia.
Use an ample amount of spacing
Incorrect: Donât go overboard with spacing. Using a lot of white-space might spark joy, but not when your resume becomes three pages long because of it.
Use 1 page
Use bullet points
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Resume Writing Tips For 2020
Think you’re following the best resume writing tips for 2020?
You may be missing the mark if you’re not hearing back from companies that should have been a perfect fit.
In this article, I’ll use my expertise as an executive resume writer to share what may be holding executives like you back when it comes to resumes. And you’ll learn what to do about it.
The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In The Hiring Process
When most people think of artificial intelligence , Siri, Alexa or even Tesla come to mind. In each case, engineers designed AI to make the user’s job easier.
So it should come as no surprise that employers and hiring managers figured out that AI could do the same for them in a business setting. But many executives I work with are surprised to learn just how prevalent artificial intelligence really is in the hiring process.
The most common AI in this realm is called applicant tracking software . Using algorithms and proprietary code, ATS scans a giant stack of virtual resumes to identify candidates meeting specific criteria.
Once the AI finds potential candidates matching those presets, the program whittles down that huge stack to a smaller, more manageable pile. Then only these applications get passed along to hiring managers.
Since ads garner nearly 250 applications per job posting, AI saves countless hours of work. That’s part of why these programs have grown in popularity so rapidly.
Stats show:
There are hundreds of different ATS in operation.
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.
Also Check: How To List Several Positions With Same Company On Resume
Tips For Proofreading Your Resume
- Read it line by line. Pay attention to how you have formatted the dates so they all look the same.
- Read it out loud. Its amazing what you pick up on when you hear it aloud.
- Use an external spellcheck tool. There are plenty of online sites you can use, or even better, enlist the help of a professional service.
- Get someone else to read it. Youd be surprised what a second, or third pairs of eyes pick up on.
- Print it out. Seeing things in printed form is different from reading on a screen, helping you notice errors previously overlooked.
Can I Use Any Of These Examples To Help Write My Own Resume
Yes, we have plenty of examples you can use. Select any resume example from the list on this page, and youll find the following:
- A professional template with job-specific bullet points and information
- Sections to present your skills, experience, education, and professional accomplishments
- A free download in Microsoft Word format for you to personalize
- All resume information provided in text format ready for you to copy and paste
- Writing tips for creating a resume in that particular industry
We also have guides on how to write your own resume introduction, how to use resume action verbs, and articles outlining every other part of resume writing and formatting imaginable. Theyre all accessible on our resume help blog.
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How To Make A Professional Resume With Templates From Envato Elements
Now that you know where to find great resume templates, lets take a look at how to create a professional resume with an Envato Elements template. For the purposes of this tutorial, Ill be using the CV Resume template from Envato Elements:
This template has a simple and versatile design that can be used for any type of corporate job application.
How To Choose The Best Resume Format For You In 2021
The first thing you have to do when settling on what type of resume you plan to write , is figure out which resume format or resume layout matches your needs and who you are. While its true that in 2021 you tend to see less chronological resumes out there, the fact is your resume format choice should depend more on your experience and situation more than anything.
CHRONOLOGICAL RESUMES are great for people who have had a steady career path in the same field for a long period of time or are applying for jobs in similar fields and has few, if any, gaps in their employment history.
Employers like chronological resumes because its easy to see, at a glance, what an employee has done in the past. For people who have stayed within the same industry their whole career and havent moved around much, its a great option as it shows a potential employer quickly and easily your progression.
For example, executives who have had a steady progression to the top would benefit from a chronological resume.
Chronological resumes are also great for people who are just starting out or find themselves in the mid-level of their careers.
When organizing your chronological resume, you want to make sure you keep the following categories in this order
- Objective Statement or Summary Statement
- Experience/Qualifications
- Education
People just entering the job market can also benefit from a functional resume as it focuses more on skills than past work history.
- Objective Statement or Summary Statement
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Customer Service Resume Objective
Obtain a position as a customer service representative with a company that allows for the application of strong organizational, communication and customer retention skills when interacting with clients and providing them with the level of support they expect.
To obtain a position as a customer service manager overseeing a team of customer service representatives while applying conflict resolution, leadership, oral and written communication and organizational skills in a way that improves processes and enhances employee and customer satisfaction rates.
List Relevant Skills And Keywords
Resume keywords are important terms of interest that recruiters look for whether skimming a resume or searching within an applicant tracking system . The more role-specific keywordsoften hard skillsyour resume contains, the better optimized your resume is.
99 percent of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems to sort, filter, and search applicants. Some ATS, like Taleo, can automatically rank your resumes content against the job description, allowing recruiters to focus only on the best applicants. Recruiters often also search their applicant pool for important resume keywords, like customer service, accounts receivable, or Adobe Photoshop.
Where on your resume should you include important skills?
Its crucial to incorporate important skills throughout your entire resume, beginning with your headline which should, when possible, include the most relevant keyword: the job title. You can also list skills in a dedicated skills section of your resume if using the hybrid resume format.
How do you find keywords to include in your resume?
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Work Experience: Show Your High Scores
From our experience at Ladders, the most successful resumes all have one thing in common: they display the past successes of the professional. One common resume error seen in less effective resumes is a reliance on listing job descriptions, duties, or staff size.
The High Score Resume approach to resume writing is to make each bullet a High Score. That means sharing, with numbers, how well you did at that part of your job. And it means bringing a players enthusiasm to how to you retell it.
A bit tongue-in-cheek, but when youre telling your friends, or if you were trying to join a team, you wouldnt say this:
But you might say this:
All high scores have numbers its easier that way for people to understand how good you were at Tetris, tennis, or tax strategies. Same for your past experience let your future boss know how good you were at the role, by providing your score. The High Score Resume constructs each bullet of your work experience with a success verb and a number whether it be units, a dollar sign or a percentage. Thats the most effective way to convey your past successes.