Step-by-Step Resume Writing Guide

How to write a resume that will get the job done? This step-by-step guide will show you the best resume examples
and how to make a professional resume in a few easy steps

How to Make a Job-Winning Resume:

1. The chronological Resume Format

2. Add Your Contact Information and Personal Details
3. Start With a Heading Statement (Resume Summary or Resume Objective)
4. List Your Relevant Work Experience & Key Achievements
5. Reference Your Education Correctly
6. Put Relevant Skills That Fit the Job Ad
7. Include Additional Important Resume Sections
8. Complement Your Resume With a Cover Letter
9. Proofread & Email Your Resume the Right Way

You can also start by watching our video to get the basics of resume writing:

Alright, let’s dive right in!

1. The chronological Resume Format

See what it looks like:

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 2. Add Your Contact Information and Personal Details

Contact Information to Include

 Name: First name, last name.

 Job title: The one you currently have or the most recent one.
 Phone number: Personal cell phone
 Email address: Today's preferred means of communication.
 LinkedIn URL: Include your LinkedIn profile (hiring managers will look you up anyway).
 Photo/headshot:

Pro Tip#1: Give them a professional email address, not your old high school handle (gossipgirl212xoxo@…) or an
outdated email provider (…@hotmail.com). Studies have proven that a formal email address is more hirable than an
informal one.

Contact Information to Leave Out

 Date of birth: Adding your birthdate could lead to ageism. Add only if required, such as for jobs serving
alcohol, for example.
 Second email or phone number: A second email address, mailing address, or phone number will just
confuse them (and you).

Optional Contact Information

 Home address: Leave your address off your resume unless it’s required.
 Resume title: Your summary or objective would cover that part.
 Personal website: They’re becoming increasingly popular for creatives or jobs in information technology.

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 3. Start With a Heading Statement (Resume Summary or Resume Objective)

See an example:

You need a statement that paints an attractive image of your candidacy.

The only question is—which one should you choose?

Here's how to write a resume profile that makes the recruiter swipe right:

What Is a Resume Summary & When to Choose It

A resume summary is a 2-3 sentence paragraph that gives recruiters a gist of your relevant experience and boasts
about your accomplishments in the field. This statement aims to immediately draw attention to your candidacy and
paint a picture of a fit applicant.

Choose the summary if you have enough relevant experience to condense your position-related skills and
qualifications.

Let's take a look at how to write a professional summary :

RIGHT
A dependable senior graphic designer with 10+ years of experience, responsible for daily graphic
design content for a medium-sized firm. Recipient of the 2022 BigCommerce Design Award. Seeking
to grow professionally and increase client transactions for the DeZine team.
(gives evidence of graphic design skills, achievements, and experience. The RIGHT examples also mention the
company by name. That is a great way to make sure your resume feels personalized rather than just sent to every
company out there)

What Is a Resume Objective & When to Choose It

A resume objective is a short statement providing insight into the qualities and skills you can transfer to the
company. The goal of an objective is to show your potential employer what you can help them achieve, considering
your skill set.

Let's look at another example on writing a career objective:

RIGHT
Diligent customer support specialist with 3+ years of experience at a large computer hardware
company. Obtained the highest grades in build spec knowledge (100%) and quality (97.3%). Seeking
to leverage a broad spectrum of IT knowledge and tech skills to become the next IT technician at
BQNY.

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The RIGHT one uses some transferable skills from the previous company and proud achievements, with numbers as
they speak louder than words.

4. List Your Relevant Work Experience & Key Achievements

The experience section includes the most important things to put on a resume, like your work history and past
achievements.

Let's go through the various job history components of the perfect resume experience section now.

How to Design a Work Experience Section on a Resume

The recommended way to build your work experience section entries is this, in this exact order:

1. Job title: This should go at the very top of each work history entry so that it's easy for potential employers to
scan and find. Make it bold or increase the font size by 1pt or 2pts from the rest of the entry.
2. Company, city, state: In the second line, include the previous employer's company name and the city and
state of the location you worked at.
3. Dates employed: Thirdly, put the timeframe of your employment there. You should add the month and the
year, but there's no need to put exact days.
4. Key responsibilities: List only some tasks you did in your job history and focus on the few duties most
relevant to the new job.
5. Key achievements: Often overlooked but super important. Employers know what you did. They need to know
how well you did them.
Think about accomplishments you've had, not necessarily meaning solid sales numbers or percentages. Were you
involved in something that had great success? If so, include it! Showing what you've done beyond your daily duties is
what will prompt employers to call you. Employers want to hire someone who exhibits motivation, participation, and
ambition.
Now, this is how to format your entries:

 Reverse-chronological order: Start with the most recent position and go back from there.
 Bullet points: Use them to introduce a new line. That helps scan through them. Five to six, including the key
achievement, is the maximum.
 Present and past tense: Use present tense to describe your current job and past tense to discuss previous
experience.
 Active voice: it's concise and to the point.
 Action verbs and power words: Start every achievement statement with one of them to reinforce your
capabilities.

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Good Resume Words to Describe Creativity and Problem-Solving

Try these resume power words to highlight your creative skills and problem-solving activities:

Altered Built Corrected Crafted

Designed Determined Devised Drafted

Enhanced Established Fashioned Fixed

Initiated Invented Overhauled Patched

Piloted Pioneered Rebuilt Resolved

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Words to Use in a Resume Instead of Managed

Try to change the word “manage” to one of these resume action verbs:

Aligned Cultivated Directed Enabled

Facilitated Fostered Guided Hired

Inspired Mentored Mobilized Motivated

Recruited Regulated Shaped Supervised

Taught Trained Unified United

Assist Resume Action Verbs

Here are 10+ resume power words to use instead of “assist”:

Abetted Aided Advanced Boosted

Helped Counseled Coached Cooperated

Collaborated Dispatched Expedited Endorsed

Facilitated Maintained Promoted Reinforced

Supported

Words to Use in a Resume Instead of Utilize

Try changing the word ‘utilize’ on a resume with the ones below:

Applied Adopted Deployed Employed

Exerted Handled Mobilized Operated

Promoted Put to Use Restored Revived

Specialized in

Resume Adjectives

Verbs aren’t the only resume words that are good to know. There are also resume adjectives. You know, like hard-
working, creative, or diligent. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to come up with too many clever words to describe
yourself on a resume. And that’s why we’ve compiled a handy list you can use.

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How to Tailor Work History Entries to a Job Description

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To tailor a resume means to make it as relevant to the job description as possible by including keywords taken out of a
job ad and scattering them throughout the resume. Tailoring is an absolute must, and your experience section is
where you'll do most of it.

 Duties (coordinate marketing campaigns, plan and implement promotional campaigns, etc.)
 Skills (project management, marketing communications, B2B marketing, etc.)
 Qualifications (5 years of experience, marketing or business-related degree, etc.)
 Qualities (creative mindset, etc.)

Later, when writing your work history section, use (or refer to) as many of the above as possible in your duties and key
achievements.

How Much Work Experience to Include on a Resume

A resume should go back at most 10-15 years.

5. Reference Your Education Correctly

Many people consider the education section an afterthought, but you shouldn't. It's an essential part of your resume
structure. Why? Because it’s an excellent opportunity to prove your qualifications and gain some bonus points for
relevancy.

See how to list your credentials in the exact order:

1. Degree: Place your highest degree first.

2. University: Add the name and location.
3. Dates attended: List your dates of attendance, mentioning the month and the year. There’s no need to be as
specific as including the days.

 Completed credits if your education is ongoing or unfinished. (Some college on a resume is better than
none.)
 Relevant coursework and major and minor to exhibit your knowledge of the subject matter.
 Relevant extracurricular activities for proof of job-related skills.
For example:

6. Put Relevant Skills That Fit the Job Ad

What Skills to Put on a Resume

Remember that job description you had handy from earlier? Reread it, paying attention to any specific skills that it
mentions. If you have any of them, great—those are the keywords to put on your resume.

See what skills the job ad might include:

Communication skills:
 Active listening
 Collaboration
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  Confidence
 Counseling
 Cross-cultural communication
 Diplomacy
 Empathy
 Feedback
 Friendliness
 Leadership
 Mediation
 Negotiation
 Open-mindedness
 Phone calls
 Presentation
 Public speaking
 Summarizing
 Teaching
 Language skills
 Nonverbal communication
 Verbal communication
 Written communication

 Leadership skills and management skills: An ability to be a good manager, leader, and supervisor.
 Integrity
 Honesty
 Ethics
 Empathy
 Confidence
 Passion
 Commitment
 Vision
 Providing support
 Accountability
 Decisiveness
 Creativity
 Empowerment
 Trustworthiness

 Critical thinking skills: Making your own thought-based decisions and taking the initiative.
 Analysis: the ability to collect and process information and knowledge.
 Interpretation: concluding what the meaning of processed information is.
 Inference: assessing whether the knowledge you have is sufficient and reliable.
 Evaluation: the ability to make decisions based on the available information.
 Explanation: communicating your findings and reasoning clearly.
 Self-Regulation: the drive to constantly monitor and correct your ways of thinking.
 Open-Mindedness: taking into account other possibilities and points of view.
 Problem-Solving: the ability to tackle unexpected problems and resolve conflicts.

 Organizational skills: A knack for planning, organizing, and seeing initiatives through.
 Attention to detail
 Documenting
 Office management
 Planning
 Record keeping
 Stock inventory

 Transferable skills: For career changers, these are abilities you learned that you can carry over to your new
position.
 Technical skills: Knowledge required to perform specific tasks, like computer skills or clerical skills.
 Job-specific skills: Particular prowess the company specifically requires.
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How to List Skills on a Resume

There are several ways to include a list of skills on a resume. For most, a simple skills section that contains 5-6 key
abilities and your proficiency level is enough:

For specific job titles and technical skills, you may want to list your particular knowledge per item to give them specific
detail into the areas of the skill you excel at:

7. Include Important Additional Resume Sections

Here's the thing—everyone's job resumes include those sections above. But what should a resume have to make it
personalized?

Here's how to make your resume stand out with extra sections:

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Hobbies & Interests
8. Proofread and Email Your Resume the Right Way

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