Choose The Best Resume Format
Several basic types of resumes are best for job openings. Depending on your personal and professional circumstances, choose a chronological, functional, combination, or targeted resume. Decide on one that best fits your work experience, educational background, and skill set. Take the time to customize your resume it is well worth the effort as it won’t seem copied.
Dont Use Tables And Columns In Your Resume
While tables, columns, and text fields help organize your resume information or create an attractive design, they wreak havoc within ATS that parse your resume information into a digital applicant profile.
Jobscans testing has found that many ATS scan your resume text left-to-right regardless of table borders, resulting in jumbled text and lost information.
For example, information in a table like this:
Work Experience |
Bachelor of Science: Applied Mathematics, 2016 University of Washington, Seattle, WA |
Could realistically end up like this in your digital applicant profile:
Work Experience
Education Jobscan, Seattle, WA Bachelor of Science, Applied Account Manager, 2016
Avoid tables, columns, and standalone text fields to ensure that your resume is accurately parsed within ATS.
Template Of A Resume For Assistant Managers
Here is a template of a resume for assistant managers:
Professional summary
- First bullet point to introduce yourself as a professional. Then, you can include your years of experience or special qualifications.
- Second bullet point to mention relevant qualifications and skills.
- Third bullet point to discuss any workplace achievements, awards, or honours.
- The fourth bullet point discusses any notable project or previous employees.
Academic background, -Name of degree/program
- Include any relevant courses or academic projects
Work experience, –
- Include specific details about your work duties and achievements.
- Quantify your achievements where possible, using figures and percentages.
Skills
- Relevant courses include budgeting, financial valuations, financial statement analysis, and financial reporting.
Work experienceShopnPay Retail Store, Toronto, Ontario-2018-2021Assistant manager
- Collaborated with the manager to create company policies regarding proper work conduct, interaction with customers, and disciplinary measures.
- Implemented manager’s policies and monitored workers to ensure they abided by them.
- Designed employee schedules and maintained accurate records of attendance.
- Held weekly meetings with employees to update them and receive their feedback about management, which improved morale.
World of Retail, Toronto, Ontario-2016-2018Assistant manager
Delgado Automobile Services, Toronto, Ontaio-2012-2015Accountant
Skills
Also Check: How To Upload Your Resume On Linkedin App
Create A Clear Education Section
Having a clear education section is essential for your resume, especially if youre a recent college graduate or have minimal work experience.
If you lack professional experience but have a good track record in school , your education section should be highly detailed to highlight all of your education-related accomplishments.
On the other hand, if you possess more than a few years of professional experience, then its appropriate to keep your education section short and sweet.
Additionally, if youre a student or recent graduate, list your education section above the experience section of your resume. This way, you emphasize your most marketable qualifications at the top of the page.
Here are the main points to include in a standard education section:
- The names of your university, community college, or technical school
- Location of the schools
- Date of graduation
- Degree
- GPA
Additionally, include relevant coursework on your resume if youre a recent graduate and dont have much work experience yet.
Here are two examples demonstrating how to format your education section:
How To Edit Your Resume

Youve written your resume, and read it twice, but thats not enough. A good editing job will take a little longer and some specific tactics meant to catch resume errors.
First, dont attempt to edit your resume until its done. Yes, it can be difficult to leave a glaring error while you move on to write your skills section, but force yourself to finish your resume before you edit it. Why? Youll save yourself time, and letting go of errors now could help you write a better first draft because youre focusing on the writing itself. Youll be glad you decided to go back and make all the edits at once.
Next, never try to edit your resume right after youve written it. In fact, you should give yourself a 24-hour break before editing your resume. With time away, youll see your resume with fresh eyes and for what it really isnot what you meant it to be.
When you give your resume a read, try reading your resume backward. It sounds odd and its not always easy but reading backward forces you to focus on each word, and helps you better catch both spelling and grammatical errors in the text.
Ask a friend or family member to read your resume, too. They may spot errors that you missed, or have suggestions for how to show yourself in an even better light.
And lastly, be sure to look for common resume pitfalls before you press send.
Don’t Miss: How To Write Phone Number On Resume
Recent College Grads Dont Let Me Know If Your Gpa Was Less Than 35 Less Recent Grads No Gpa At All Please
If you’ve just graduated college and had a GPA for 3.5 or higher, it’s normal to want to show that off and you should! But if it’s any less than that, you can keep it to yourself. Likewise, if you didn’t graduate very recently, people care less about your GPA and more about what you went on to do with that college degree.
Avoid A Generic Skills Section
Most applicants include a skills section in their resume, but how can you prove that you really possess the tools necessary for the job?
One of the best tips to make your resume stand out from the crowd is to balance your hard and soft skills so that you display a mix of interpersonal abilities with technical know-how.
Read Also: Should You List High School On Resume
Keep Your Resume File Name Professional
Your resumes file name will be listed front and center for the recruiter in some ATS interfaces. Keep your resume file name professional. Consider using your name and the position for which youre applying in the file name. For example: Jon_Shields_Project_Manager.pdf
Its a small thing, but it keeps your name at top-of-mind and shows that youre organized.
Also, avoid special characters in your file name as they can cause errors in some systems. Stick to letters, numbers, spaces, underscores, and dashes.
No Relevant Experience No Worries
Dont panic if you dont have any experience that fits the bill. Instead, Zhang explains, focus your resume on your relevant and transferrable skills along with any related side or academic projects, and then make sure to pair it with a strong cover letter telling the narrative of why youre ideal for the job.
You May Like: How To Add A Line In Word For Resume
Go Easy On The Buzzwords And Cliches
On a resume or in a job interview, everyone is a team player. Everyone is a go-getter who thinks outside the box. Everyone is detail-oriented and results-driven. Of course these are desirable traits thats why theyve become cliches.
Avoid empty jargon frequently used on business resumes, like synergy, best of breed, thought leadership, or dynamic. And please know that the rockstar, guru, and ninja trend started dying a few years ago.
Recruiters sometimes look at thousands of resumes per week. Whenever they see these words, they cringe.
Remove the fluff. Show, dont tell. Find ways to show what you accomplished and how you did it.
Focus On The Contents Of Your Resume
Using Google Docs allows you to focus on the contents of your resume rather than worrying about how to best design your resume. Aim to create a resume that represents your background and qualifications and demonstrates why you are the ideal candidate for the job. Consider reviewing the job posting to identify essential information to include on your resume, such as certain skills you have or job duties it lists that you have previous experience completing.
Recommended Reading: How Much Employment History To Put On Resume
Keep It Simple And Easy To Skim
Most recruiters dont read resumes anymore they scan them to find a first round of prospective employees, who are worth a second look. So make sure yours is succinctly written, well-organized and error-free, using powerful action verbs, as well as a simple design thats easy to skim for relevant information. .
Your Personality Is Your Skillset

Dealing with customers or the public requires people skills that many candidates take for granted and frequently neglect to mention.
Dont be afraid to add interpersonal skills, such as friendliness, positivity, patience, and reliability, if theyre mentioned in the job advert.
Even the most confident writer is not immune to typos. Once youve finished writing, double-check, and then triple-check your resume for small errors.
Also Check: How To Insert Horizontal Line In Word For Resume
Resume Format : Combination Resumes
A combination resume is a blend of the chronological and functional resume types. This resume format allows you to emphasize both your work experience and relevant skills. Because your skills and employment history will consume most of your resume space, you may need to eliminate optional sections such as a summary statement, volunteer work or special interests.
A combination resume format usually includes the following information in this order:
- Contact information
- Summary of most relevant skills
- Work experience
-
Education
The combination resume is a more flexible format, so you should list either your skills or your work experience first depending on which you consider more important for the role. For example, if you have many unique skills that are especially valuable to the industry in which youre applying to work, you might consider listing them above your work experience. It can also be helpful to look for clues in the job posting to understand what is most important for the employer in an ideal candidate.
How To Write A Resume In 2021
For most job-seekers, a good resume is what stands between a dream job and Choice D. Get your resume right, and youll be getting replies from every other company you apply to.
If your resume game is weak, though, youll end up sitting around for weeks, maybe even months, before you even get a single response.
So youre probably wondering how you can write a resume that leads to HR managers inviting you to interviews daily.
Well, youve come to the right place!
In this guide, were going to teach you everything you need to know about how to make a resume:
How to Write a Resume – Step by step
So, lets dive right in!
Recommended Reading: Resumes For Child Actors
Tailor Your Resum For Each Job
Employers can receive hundreds of resumés for one job posting. To make yours stand out, you need to put yourself into their shoes. What do they need, and what can you offer to meet that need? These tips can help you show an employer that youre the right person for the job:
- Learn as much as you can by reading the organizations website, researching labour market information, or asking others in the industry.
- Identify your most relevant skills and training to show how you can add value to the company.
How Long Should My Resume Be
Your resume should be approximately two pages long. If it is substantially longer, eliminate information that isnt relevant to the role or industry. For instance, look back at the key skills and attributes required for the job in question and then review your resume are you using valuable space to describe skills, attributes and responsibilities from roles that dont match up to the job in question? If so, remove this content or, at the least, simplify your language. On your resume, you must get to the point, so dont use ten words to say something you could say in five.
On the other hand, one page may suffice in certain circumstances. The main thing to keep in mind when youre writing your resume is that you must be able to demonstrate and articulate your skills, experience, and future potential to the reader. If you can do that well in one page, thats great. However, the average length of a resume is usually around two pages.
Recommended Reading: How To Insert A Line In Word For Resume
Try The Hybrid/combination Resume Format Instead
If functional resumes are out and the traditional chronological resume doesnt allow you to effectively tell your story, try the hybrid resume format. Its also known as a combination resume because it combines the best elements of the functional and chronological resume formats.
With the hybrid format, you can create a top-loaded resume using a summary statement or skills section without stripping useful context away from your work experience.
How To Write A Golf Professional Resume
If you’re passionate about teaching golf or interested in business administration, you may consider a career as a golf professional. These individuals have a variety of professional tasks that allow them to combine their enthusiasm for the sport with their practical corporate skills and competencies. Understanding how to craft a strong and compelling resume may help you if you’re applying for a position in this field. In this article, we review what a golf professional does, how to write a resume for this role, tips that may help you through this process and a template and example to guide you.
Related:How To Become a Golf Pro
Recommended Reading: Should You Include High School On Resume
What Is A Video Resume
A video resume is a short video clip of a job candidate seeking employment, in which they give a brief overview of their skills and relevant experience. A video resume, like a paper resume, highlights what makes you stand out and why youre suited to the position youre applying for.
A paper resume is a quick snapshot of you as a potential hire, and most hiring managers wont spend more than six seconds glancing it over. A video resume should be similarly short and to the point anything longer than two minutes will lose your audiences attention.
You can use a video resume as a supplement to a paper resume, to make yourself stand out from the competition. Theyre especially useful in creative professions to show off your presentation skills and creative talents.
Technical Skills And Proficiencies

What technical platforms and tools are you proficient? List all that apply to your work. Be specific and as comprehensive as possible. This list can include anything from social media platforms to project management systems and computer languages. If you’ve worked with proprietary platforms, list those as well.
Need to brush up on a skill or tool that’s routinely popping up in the job descriptions you’re targeting? Check out edX, Coursera, and SkillShare for free or low-cost online courses.
Don’t Miss: Resume Typing Speed
The Creative Angle: An Infographic Resume Or Resume Website
This resume type is characterized by how its formatted visually. You may choose a reverse chronological order or skills-based style to organize your information, but also use graphics, colors, unique fonts, and even multimedia elements to help that information pop. Keep in mind that any creative resume is still likely subject to an ATSand certain elements may be unreadable by a robot. So consider going this route only if you know a human will be reading your resume .
Who its good for: People applying to creative roles , startups, or fun companies, or to jobs where a creative resume is encouraged, if not required.
Not a designer but want your resume to look just as pretty as this example? Check out these articles:
Your resume is a living, breathing document. So while you wont go through this whole process every time you apply for a job, you should be thinking about all these things as you go to update your resume for your next career step. You might decide later on to switch up the order, or remove or add things, or even get creative and try out a whole new format. If youre not getting the calls back you expect, you may decide to scrap it and start overand thats totally OK.
Fast Company
Add Personal Projects Open Source Contributions And Blogs
One of the things that excites me the most is when I see a github or stackoverflow link on a resume. Why? Because I can look into what youre actually working on and see if youre trying to tinker with new tech on the side. The tech world is always rapidly changing and new tools are continuously coming out. It goes a long way to show that you are trying to keep up with it and my tech teams always appreciate people who are taking that initiative. Teams also want to hire people that are passionate about things and passionate people are doing side tech projects because they love it. However, keep these off of your resume if you dont actively update them. Its great you had a github in college, but if youre three years out and havent made any commits, its not showing me much.
Don’t Miss: How To Make Resume Template In Word 2007