Are you struggling to get shortlisted for companies and not able to get your dream job? Millions of people get rejected only because they don’t have a convincing resume.
Your resume is the most important tool for the first stage you will be stepping into after a recruiter or HR reaches you. In fact, People who even have professional skills and ample amount of work experience, get rejected because their resume is not even considered for an interview.
This beginner-friendly resume guide is a simple 7-step-by-step guide specialized for enhanced results for job seekers in all spheres and +dos and don’ts are provided in every step for you!
After this guide, you will be able to create a resume that is :
- ATS Friendly ✅
- Comprehensive ✅
- Unique ✅
And that has :
- The Best format (for ATS Friendliness) ✅
- A Standout Headline ✅
- Visibility and doesn’t look crowded ✅
Table Of Contents
- Step 1. Choose the right resume format
- Step 2. Provide Your contact details
- Step 3. Write an eye-catching resume headline
- Step 4. Add your resume summary Or resume objective
- Step 5. Describe your work Experience(in Detail)
- Step 6. Embody your skills section
- Step 7. List out your Education and Certifications
Step 1. Choose the right resume format
Choosing the right resume format is essential for highlighting your strengths or downplaying your weaknesses. It also helps the recruiter better search the key information they are looking for so that you can get faster reached than anybody else.
There are over three main types of resume formats- Chronological resume, Skill-based resume, and Hybrid resume. Let’s get to know about each one of them one by one:
1. Chronological resume
The chronological resume is the most popular resume which is mainly used by experienced people as this type of format mainly focuses on your work history and timeline.
It is ideal for –
- Experienced candidates who have lots of work exp. in one skill set.
- People with no career gaps.
- People who have worked with big companies over time.
People use either the reverse-chronological format or the simple chronological format-
Reverse Chronological Resume vs Chronological resume
People mostly use the reverse-chronological format which means that your most recent jobs are displayed here instead of the simple chronological format because-
- Big names play first in the career timelines.
- Most recent skills that are displayed can be an eye-catching advantage.
- Higher designations come first.
2. Skill-based Resume
The functional resume (also known as a skill-based resume) is used to highlight your skills and abilities rather than your work history. It helps you to downplay the pressure of work experience.
This format is best for-
- Freshers
- Recent Graduates
- Career changers
- Candidates with large employment gaps
3. Combination Resume
The Combination Resume (also known as a hybrid resume) is a great way to showcase both your work experience and skills. In this format, you begin with brief information about your skills and accomplishments and then your experience timeline.
This type of format is ideal for:
- Job seekers with some experience and relevant skills
- Career changers with related skills
- Experienced professionals with diverse skills
Step 2. Provide Your contact details
As long as hiring managers can’t contact you, the rest of the resume is useless. So the contacts section is the most important part of your resume.
Thus make sure that your contact details are accurate and up-to-date.
Let’s get to know some of the dos and don’t of this resume writing step. It might seem familiar but sometimes job seekers leave some important piece of content that leaves them behind. Make sure you don’t fall into these mistakes-
Dos
- Include your full name. This will help hr managers better search for you
- Always provide your Pincode, city, and state because hr managers prefer local candidates first.
- Include a link to your online portfolio or website that you have made if you have one.
- Create a Linkedin account and Always include it in your resume.
Don’ts
- Never include a working number. Always provide your personal phone number.
- Recent research has shown that professional email ids perform well on resumes than informal emails, so always include your formal email id.
- We recommend that don’t include your photo in your resume because how you look doesn’t concern the HR Manager as it takes up valuable space of your resume where you can better define yourself.
- Always prefer Gmail accounts instead of outdated email services like Hotmail and yahoo because the first impression is the last impression. Hr managers might think you are outdated when you have employment gaps.
Step 3. Write an eye-catching resume headline
Do you remember the “Subject” section that we write in formal emails and letters? What does it convey?
It describes the whole letter in one single line, Pretty Powerful!
Headlines play the same role here in a resume just like the subject of a letter. It is a one-line description of who you are as an experienced candidate.
HR Managers who have to check 1000s of Resumes don’t see your resumes properly sometimes. A standout headline can help grab HR’s attention and encourage them to take a deeper look at your resume.
How to write one?
A standout headline is generally used to highlight your most relevant skill or experience like the below example-
Dos
- Use title case (capitalize the first letter of every word) in your headline.
- Use a bold font weight and a slightly large font size so that your headline stands visually in your resume.
- Best for candidates with lots of experience so try to always include your experience.
- Introduce yourself as an expert, not like the ones who may not be as confident with their skills and abilities.
- Try to always include numbers in your headline like “10 Years of Experience teaching junior software developers”, etc. because numbers can be catchy.
Don’ts
- Try to make your headline short (under 7-10 words) so that HRs do read it.
- Always give a quick snapshot of your skills and experience.
- Be straightforward and avoid using jargon, so that it is easily read and understood.
Step 4. Add your resume summary Or resume objective
Just like the headlines resume summary or resume objective plays an important role in defining you in front of the HRs. According to one research, most HRs spend only about 7-9 seconds deciding whether a candidate is a good fit for the company or not.
Now, what is the difference between a Resume Summary and a Resume Objective?
A resume summary is a set of bullet points or a short paragraph of about 2-4 lines that describes your career, skills, and accomplishments.
In most cases, the resume summary is used to put more emphasis on your resume headline by providing evidence and past accomplishments on your skills and achievements.
So what do we get to know from this?
That resume summary is most beneficial for experienced job seekers as they have big names and numbers playing in their favor.
A resume objective is a short 2-3 sentences summary that is used to explain what are your career goals or why you want to choose one.
It’s useful for job seekers who are recent graduates or career changers who want to highlight transferable skills or show why they are a perfect fit for a position.
Dos
- Keep it brief and not more than 2-3 sentences or bullet points.
- Focus mainly on your most relevant skill, accomplishment, and experience.
- Use big numbers and percentages wherever possible.
Don’ts
- Don’t make big claims that don’t have any evidence.
- Focus more on your accomplishments rather than your job duties.
- Don’t tell stories about yourself, HRs may get negatively impacted.
- Avoid using personal pronouns like I, me, and my.
Step 5. Describe your work Experience(in Detail)
Now, it’s time to get to the most important part of the resume, the work experience section. If you manage to build your own work-experience section, you will get to know that about 70% of the resume is just taken by this section alone.
The first thing that a recruiter sees is the companies you have worked with and the job titles you have held, so make sure that you choose the reverse-chronological resume format so that the first thing that the HR managers see is your latest companies and Big job titles that you have held.
The format of a work experience section comprises the following parts –
- Job Title – The first thing that you want to convey to HRs is that you have the relevant experience and skills required for the job position you are applying for.
- Company Name and Location – Provide the full name of the company that you have worked for, followed by the city and state as HRs generally prefer local candidates.
- Dates Employed – Use the mm/yyyy format as it is the most ATS-Friendly format for writing dates and is preferred by most resume writing experts.
- Accomplishments and Responsibilities – This is the core of every entry that you make in the work experience section. Try to include big numbers and metrics and make it a bit eye-catchy so that HRs start taking interest in you.
Step 6. Embody your skills section
Showcasing the right skills in front of the HRs is essential for your selection as it lets them know how you are a perfect fit for the position.
In fact, most people get rejected by the ATS only before they reach the HRs!
Let’s get to know Why and How to pass over it?
Most people don’t include the ATS-Friendly keywords and use the same old, scribbled resumes that instantly get rejected.
Now, What are these ATS-Friendly Keywords?
ATS-Friendly Keywords are those special keywords that are specialized for ATS algorithms.
There are mainly two types of skills that you can include in your resume- Hard Skills and Soft Skills.
Hard skills are the compulsory skills and knowledge that are required to perform a certain task or job. These are mostly job-specific skills and are easy to measure.
HRs also term Hard skills as “resume keywords” due to their effectiveness and importance in ATS algorithms. These keywords help the HRs to gauge how well a candidate can perform for a position.
Again, For a resume to be highly conveyable, it should include the exact hard skills and keywords that are provided in the job description of the organization for a position.
Soft skills are personal skills. These skills are important because they are transferable and useful in workplaces. For example, if you are applying for a sales job, here soft skills such as communication, relationship building, and flexibility could be the core soft skills and hard skills may include basic knowledge of computers, Excel, CRM, etc.
So, We can depict from the above example that sometimes soft skills and hard skills are equally important. Unlike hard skills, which become outdated quickly, soft skills are evergreen skills and are always in demand as technology advances.
Step 7. List out your Education and Certifications
You have to include your education somewhere of course in your resume.
You can either include it at the bottom of your resume or right on top of the resume depending on your circumstances.
For example, if you are a recent graduate or in a career that puts lots of emphasis on education like pharmacy, teaching, or law then it’s essential for you that you put your education section on the top.
Else if you are an experienced candidate or a candidate with some experience only then you should include the work experience section on top and the education section at the bottom.
If you have earned some certification or achievements of your own then you are sure to add them in order of each one’s relevance corresponding to the name of the universities and schools.
Professionals generally use the following format for providing information about their education on the resume –
- Name of University / School
- Location of the University
- Degree
- Year of Graduation
Conclusion
I hope you got to know tons of valuable information from my Resume Writing Guide.
Now I’d like to hear it from you-
Which resume format are you going to use for your golden resume?
Or maybe I didn’t point out your favorite tips or practices for resume writing?
Either way, let me know in the comments section below so that other people in need don’t miss out on something.
Make sure to check out our- Expert Tips on Resume Writing to get some more basic information and guidelines for resume writing.
