To make a resume for a job, you need five core sections: your contact information, a professional summary, your work experience with measurable accomplishments, your skills, and your education. The whole document should fit on one page, use a clean single-column layout, and be tailored to the specific job you’re applying for. Here’s how to build each piece from scratch.
Pick the Right Resume Format
Three formats dominate, and the right one depends on where you are in your career.
- Chronological: Lists your work history starting with your most recent job. This is the standard choice and works best if you have a steady employment record in your field.
- Functional: Leads with your skills and accomplishments instead of a timeline. This works better if you’re changing careers, entering the workforce for the first time, or have gaps in your employment history.
- Combination (hybrid): Opens with a skills and qualifications section, then follows with a chronological work history. This suits experienced professionals who want to highlight specific expertise while still showing a solid job history.
If you’re unsure, go chronological. It’s what most hiring managers expect, and it’s the easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Set Up Your Page Layout
Keep your resume to one page. Use a single-column layout with no tables, text boxes, or multiple columns. Set your margins to no smaller than half an inch on all sides, and choose a standard font like Arial, Calibri, Verdana, Georgia, or Tahoma in 10 to 12 point size. Don’t mix different fonts or sizes throughout the document.
Skip borders, lines, shading, heavy graphics, and decorative templates. These elements can look polished on screen but often break when the file passes through an applicant tracking system (ATS), the software most employers use to scan and filter resumes before a human ever sees them. Stick with simple formatting and standard bullet points.
Write Your Contact Information
Put your name on the top line by itself. Don’t attach credentials like MBA or CPA next to your name; list those on a separate line underneath. Below that, include your phone number, professional email address, and city. A full mailing address isn’t necessary. If you have a LinkedIn profile or portfolio site that’s relevant, add the URL.
Don’t place your contact information inside a header or footer. Some ATS software can’t read text stored in those areas, which means your name and phone number could get stripped out entirely.
Add a Professional Summary
Replace the old “objective statement” with a two- to three-sentence professional summary at the top of your resume. This is your elevator pitch: who you are, what you bring, and what kind of role you’re targeting.
Avoid generic filler phrases like “results-driven professional” or “proven track record of success.” These sound impressive but say nothing specific. Instead, lead with a concrete detail. Compare the difference:
- Weak: “Dynamic, results-oriented professional with excellent communication skills seeking a challenging opportunity.”
- Strong: “Marketing coordinator with four years of experience in B2B SaaS, specializing in email campaigns that increased lead generation by 28% year over year.”
The strong version names an industry, a skill, and a number. That’s what makes a hiring manager keep reading.
Describe Your Work Experience
This section takes up the most space and carries the most weight. For each role, list your job title, the company name, and the dates you worked there. Include months with your dates (for example, 06/2021 to 03/2024) because some ATS software uses them to calculate your tenure.
Write Accomplishments, Not Tasks
The biggest mistake people make is listing duties instead of results. “Responsible for managing social media accounts” tells the reader what your job description said. It doesn’t tell them what you actually achieved. Strong bullet points follow an action-plus-result-plus-metric formula: start with a specific verb, describe what happened, and attach a number.
Here’s how that looks across different types of work:
- “Reduced monthly supply expenses by 15% while maintaining service quality across three locations”
- “Processed 500+ customer applications weekly with a 99.8% accuracy rate”
- “Supervised a 12-person warehouse team and cut order fulfillment time by two days”
- “Exceeded quarterly sales targets by 120%, generating $2.3 million in new revenue over six months”
Notice that each bullet opens with the number or the action, not with “Responsible for” or “Worked on.” Place the most important figures near the beginning of each line so they’re easy to spot during a quick scan.
Choose the Right Metrics
Use percentages to show improvement, dollar amounts to show scale, and comparisons to show context. “Increased customer retention by 40%” is more compelling than “retained 20 additional customers monthly,” even though the underlying performance is the same. If you can benchmark your results (“performed 15% above industry average” or “exceeded target by 120%”), that gives the hiring manager a frame of reference.
Mix up your metric types within each role. If every bullet mentions revenue, the reader won’t get a full picture of what you contributed. Combine revenue figures with team sizes, efficiency gains, volume handled, and customer satisfaction scores to show range. If you’re in a role where hard numbers are scarce (teaching, administrative support, creative work), think about time saved, error rates reduced, people served, or projects completed on deadline.
Don’t downplay leadership just because your title wasn’t “Manager.” If you trained new hires, led a project, or coordinated across departments, say so with specifics.
List Your Skills
Create a short skills section with 8 to 12 relevant abilities. Be specific: “Adobe Photoshop” is more useful than “image-editing software,” and “SQL” is more useful than “database experience.” ATS software scans for exact terms, and hiring managers want to see that you know the specific tools they use.
Pull skills directly from the job posting. If the listing says “project management” and “Salesforce,” those exact phrases should appear on your resume, assuming you actually have those skills. Spell out full terms alongside abbreviations the first time: “Certified Public Accountant (CPA)” rather than just “CPA,” since different systems may search for either version.
Don’t pad the section with soft skills like “hardworking” or “team player.” Those are better demonstrated through your accomplishment bullets than claimed in a skills list.
Include Your Education
List your degree, the institution, and your graduation year. If you graduated more than a few years ago, you can drop the year. Recent graduates can add relevant coursework, academic honors, or a GPA above 3.5. For everyone else, keep this section brief: it rarely needs more than two or three lines.
Professional certifications, licenses, and relevant training go here as well, or in a separate “Certifications” section just below education.
Tailor It for Every Application
A single generic resume sent to dozens of employers is one of the fastest ways to get filtered out. Customize each version for the specific position you’re applying to. Read the job description carefully, identify the key skills and qualifications it emphasizes, and mirror that language in your summary, bullet points, and skills section.
If the posting uses the title “Customer Success Manager,” use that exact title in your summary rather than a close variation like “Client Relations Specialist.” ATS software often searches for the precise job title, and small mismatches can cost you a match. This isn’t about stuffing keywords into every sentence. It’s about naturally incorporating the terminology the employer already uses so your resume reads as a clear fit for that role.
Save and Submit the Right File
Save your resume as a .doc (Word 97-2003) file unless the employer specifically requests a PDF. Not all applicant tracking systems can reliably parse .docx, PDF, or other formats, and a file that can’t be read is a file that gets skipped. Name the file clearly: something like “Jane-Smith-Resume.doc” rather than “resume_final_v3.”
Before you submit, do a final check. Make sure all your formatting survived the save, your contact information isn’t trapped in a header, and your bullet points still display correctly. Print it out or zoom in on a screen to verify nothing got cut off at the margins. A resume that looks clean and reads quickly gives you an edge before the hiring manager finishes your first bullet point.