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:
Extracurricular Activities Sports And Clubs
After you awards and achievements, create a section for extracurricular activities. List anything you are passionate about that shows your positive attitude and aptitude for the job youre applying for, such as playing a musical instrument, clubs, sports and other activities. In your resume, list the relevant activity and include a brief description.
Example of how to list extracurricular activities, sports and clubs:Piano Has played piano for 8 years and practices, on average, 4 hours per day.Babysitting Babysits neighbors, 8 and 3 years old, twice a week.Swimming Competitive swimmer, having won multiple gold and silver medals in state competitions.
Why Bother Writing It
Its super important. We hate to use the word important, but
Your work experience section is the most important part of your resume. In fact, when you think resume, the work experience section is probably the first thing that comes to your mind. And youre not alone. Based on this section employers determine whether or not you have what it takes for the job.
It provides an overview of your past experience. A well-written work experience section is a crucial element because it shows that you have the necessary qualifications.
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What To Put On A Resume: 7 Things To Include
If youre wondering what goes on a resume, Im going to share everything you should include to get more interviews, including:
- What to put in a resume for experienced candidates
- What to put in a resume if you have no experience
- What NOT to include in your resume
- How to look at the job description for clues about what skills and experience to put on your resume to grab each employers attention. .
Heres exactly what to put on a resume, based on my experience as a recruiter
What Is A Resume Summary
A resume summary, also known as a professional summary or summary statement, is a short description at the top of your resume that describes your experience, qualities and skills. Including a resume summary allows you to showcase your strongest assets right away.
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Skills
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It can be helpful to think about a resume summary as an answer to the question, How would you describe your work experience in one sentence? For example, if you have 10 years of experience working as a registered nurse, youve likely developed a long list of accomplishments for your resume. Creating a summary that showcases the most relevant, key points for a specific position and employer offers a solid picture of your qualifications immediately.
Here are a few other ways including a resume summary can be helpful.
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Proofread Your Resume And Finish Strong
Once youve written your resume and cover letter, youre in pretty good shape to send out that first application. However, youre not quite done yet.
The most important step before sending out any resume is to read it over and make sure that there are no issues that could get your application discarded.
To help make that process easier, heres a checklist you can go through to make sure your resume is looking spotless:
The Resume Genius Resume Checklist
Is your contact information accurate?
Does your resume NOT include details like headshots or sensitive personal information?
Does your resume fit on one page ?
Is your information easy to read ?
Is the design of your resume appropriate for the position youre applying for?
Did you include all relevant sections on your resume?
Did you include quantified achievements in your work experience section?
Does your resume address the requirements stated in the job ad?
Is your resume free of typos and grammatical errors?
Is all of your information clearly formatted and professional?
Feel free to use our on-page checklist, or and begin reviewing your resume.
List The Timeline Of Your Experience
Make sure that you reveal the exact timeline when you started and finished your last tutoring position. You can still list your experience as present on your resume if you’re still a tutor, but you want to arrange your experience based on the timeline of when you held certain jobs. If you’re working in more than one job, list your tutoring experience at the top just below your other job as it’ll depend on the importance of these roles related to the position that you’re vying for.
You can also list this job as a volunteer experience, especially if it’s an unpaid position that you do in your spare time. Therefore, this can be stated under the volunteer experience section of your resume, which you’ll have if you’re applying for an internship or an entry-level position. However, you should list your volunteer experience on your professional networking website, so it can be seen by recruiters when they look at your experience.
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Summary Of Skills Section
Following your professional summary comes a summary of skills section. Alternative titles for this section could be technical skills, key skills, or core competencies.
Your skills section should be written in list form. Depending on the amount of skills you want to include, you can either list them out separately or arrange them into categories. A good rule of thumb is 10 skills or less should be separate, while more than 10 skills should be categorized.
Summary of skills resume example:
If You’re Aiming To Explain And Measure The Impact You Made On Students
You can use your tutoring experience as an ancillary example to the results that you can provide in the workplace. List the academic performance of your students and how many didn’t require tutoring once they worked with you. This way, you’re exhibiting how you’ve played an integral part in them acquiring knowledge in the classroom and how this can be transferrable to the workplace.
Read more:
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How To Write A Work Experience Section If Youre An Artist
Artists are, well, different. Because of that, it probably comes as a no surprise that their work experience is different too.
In short, as an artist you should say goodbye to wordy descriptions and focus almost entirely on your portfolio. But you already know that, dont you?
There are several options available and its only up to you which one will suit you the best. Polish up your social media profiles, create your own website, make sure to upload your portfolio to Behance or Dribble.
How To Write A Cover Letter With No Experience
If you are in an early stage of your career and only fresh out of school, do not despair. A cover letter can be your biggest help in this situation. As opposed to your resume, in a cover letter, your positive attitude can change a lot. Make it clear how enthusiastic and eager to learn you are.
Focus on your qualities, skills, extracurricular, or volunteering experience. Possibly, you may have some related experience from your personal life. If it is truly relevant, include it, too.
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What Are Examples Of Soft Skills For A Resume
Make no mistake, the soft skills on your resume can be of as much interest to a hiring manager as the technical skills you offer. Smart managers know that an experienced, highly trained new hire who doesnt fit into the office culture, communicates poorly with clients and colleagues, or freezes under deadline pressures can take a heavy toll on the workplace. Your resume and, later, how you present at the interview should assure the employer that you not only can do the job, but youll help the team thrive.
Unsure which soft skills can send that message? Remember, every job application should get a tailored resume. So review the duties of the position youre applying for, and determine which of your personal strengths would help you be a success at the job and in the work environment.
Consider these 15 soft skills and personal attributes, and why employers value them:
When You’re Showing Your Leadership And Organizational Skills
Tutoring can be used to apply for entry-level and senior roles within an organization. If you’re looking to work in a management role, you can say that your tutoring experience is composed of leading students and successfully managing a classroom of students for a specified period. On the other hand, you can exemplify your organizational skills by stating that you created and developed the curriculum for students to follow, so they can get caught up with their coursework.
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How To Include Education On A Resume With No Experience
When youre creating your first resume, its important to highlight your education. This will show employers youre able to overcome challenges, stick to your commitments and learn new things. You can also take this opportunity to share coursework youve completed that are relevant to the job.
For example, if youre applying to a retail associate position, heres how you might highlight your high school experience:
And here is how you might highlight your college experience if youre applying for a role as a receptionist at a spa:
New York UniversityMajor: Pre-Med with a Concentration in Holistic HealthExpected Graduation Date: May 20XXGPA: 3.7Relevant coursework: Customer Discovery & Development, Introduction to Interpersonal CommunicationAwards and Honors: Deans List Fall 20XX through Spring 20XXClubs: Women in Business, Center for Holistic Healing
Related Article:
Other Cover Letter Tips And Ideas
- Make it easy to read, always. A simple and larger font, shorter sentences, and captivating beginning of paragraphs will get you far.
- Put the most important information at the beginning.
- Do not send the same cover letter to multiple openings. Always tailor the perfect resume for each job offer.
And there you go! Now when you know how to write the perfect cover letter. For the best result, use one of our Kickresume cover letter templates!
Kickresume wishes you the best of luck with your application. Get that dream job!
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Customer Service Resume Examples And Writing Tips
Are you applying for a customer service position? If so, you’ll want to emphasize some of the soft skills commonly required for customer service employees, such as being an excellent communicator and having strong interpersonal skills.
Employers will also be looking for candidates who are punctual and responsible, because customer service workers often handle cash registers and replace other employees during shift changes.
When To Include A Resume Summary
You should use a resume summary if you have more than three years of professional experience. The accomplishments youve earned in that time should allow you to create an effective and impactful statement. If you have fewer than three years of experience, such as new graduates or career switchers, a resume objective may be a better option.
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Create A Summary Focused On The Employers Needs
A summary, objective, or About Me statement is an excellent way to introduce yourself and quickly advertise your qualifications. This statement should be brief and focus on your relevant experience as well as your career-developed skills. Its also a great idea to tailor your summary according to the employers needs, rather than your own. If the employer mentions specific desires in their job posting, figure out a way to incorporate the highest priority ones into your statement. Not only does this show the employer that youve paid attention to what they want, but also that you’re responsive and willing to meet their needs.
Personal Project Relevant To A Job:
For example, lets say you hosted a bake sale in your neighborhood and are now applying for a job as a cashier at a grocery store. You could explain that while selling your baked goodies, you practiced your customer service, money handling, and food service safety skills.
Example of how to list a personal project in a resume:Summer Bake Sale Hosted a summer bake sale in my neighborhood every weekend from April to August 2018. Created and handed out flyers, took and fulfilled customer orders, handled cash payments, and home baked all products. Skills learned include customer service, money handling, and food service safety.
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Hard Vs Soft Skills: Whats The Difference
Heres the difference between hard skills and soft skills:
Hard skills
Hard skills are quantifiable, job-specific abilities learned through education, training, or on-the-job experience. Language skills, computer skills, and being able to operate heavy machinery all count as types of hard skills.
Heres a list of 24 popular hard skills to put on your resume:
Pay Attention To Technical Details
When editing your resume, make sure there are no punctuation, grammatical, spelling, or other errors that will make your resume look unprofessional. Then, have a friend or family member read it again to catch any mistakes you might have missed you can’t afford a typo or missing word as a candidate with no prior work experience. Also, be sure to vary your language and utilize action verbs throughout your resume to keep your reader engaged.
Related: How to Make Your Resume Stand Out With Action Verbs
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Write Bullet Points For The Job You Want
Create each of your work experience bullet points with the job posting in mind. Each bullet should showcase your skills and experience thats related to the job opening.
You can also use specific keywords from the job description. These keywords are skills and qualifications you may have. Including resume keywords from the job posting ensures you address the hiring managers requirements.
It also helps you to write an applicant tracking system ready resume. An ATS is software that scans resumes for keywords and shows the hiring manager applications that include them.
Dont go back further than 1015 years to avoid the hiring manager discriminating against you based on your age.
Arrange Your Contact Information
Now that you know the format youre going to use, its time to start your resume. First things first, employers need to know who you are and how to contact you.
List the following contact details in your resume header at the top of the page:
- Name
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Link to online portfolio
- LinkedIn profile
Traditionally, you would also include your mailing address on your resume. However, this is no longer mandatory because most job applications are sent via email.
Here are two examples of how you can format your contact information section:
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Keep Your Experience Section Relevant
Employers dont need to know about the summer job you had at a pizza shop or about that one time you sold perfume at the mall. Your experience section shouldnt be limited to just paid jobs nor does it need to include every job youve ever had. Hiring managers will be looking to see whether you have job experience thats relevant to the position they are hiring.
In Jonathans resume above, notice how he only includes his work as a Freelance Web Developer. This is his only experience thats relevant to the positions for which hes applying. Jonathan doesn’t need to include his part-time job stocking shelves at Costco or his sales associate position at Champs during his first year in college. Not only can that distract from his qualifications, but it can clutter up his resume and make it seem like he doesnt understand the employers wants or needs.
If you have very limited or no work history at all, you can change the name of this section from Work Experience to Relevant Experience. Then add in internships, volunteer work, leadership experience, extracurricular activities or any other related involvement or training you can think of to compensate for your lack of workplace experience.
Prioritize Education Vs Experience
For college students or recent graduates, it can be difficult to decide whether to list your education or experience first. Notice in Jonathans resume below, he lists his education history first to showcase his student activity and accolades, like the Best Student Web Developer Award. Thats because his educational accomplishments demonstrate more enthusiasm and mastery of his technical abilities than his limited experience as a freelance web developer with just two work projects completed.
Not sure whether to list your education or experience section first? Figure out which one allows you to present your most pertinent and remarkable information. If your main selling points come from your college experience, then be sure to list your education section first. Then you can get really creative in emphasizing your academic history and accomplishments, as discussed next.
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Carefully Tailor Your Work Experience Section To The Job
Dont confuse your resume with a CV. There is no need to list every little thing youve ever done. Instead, focus on the work experience that is most applicable to the job for which youre applying.
Most job seekers list out everything and leave it up to the hiring manager to connect the dots. Instead of These are the types of things Ive done in the past, think more along the lines of I am the best person for this job because of these specific skills and accomplishments. Its a subtle difference and takes practice.
One recruiter told Jobscan that job seekers should strive to answer the question of the job description. Promote the skills and experience hiring professionals will find most valuable when it comes to solving the companys problems.
Analyze the job description for the most important resume keywords. These are the skills that recruiters and hiring managers are looking for whether theyre skimming your resume or plugging search terms into an ATS.
With Jobscan, you can get an instant breakdown of which keywords and skills from the job description are missing from your resume . Try it out right here on the blog:
Jobscans new Predicted Skills feature even leverages machine learning technology to show hard skills that the recruiter will likely find valuable but failed to list in the job description.