What is a Resume?

1. Contact information

At the top, provide your full name, followed by your city, state, and zip code, phone number, email address, and a URL for your LinkedIn profile. Carefully review your information for accuracy to ensure the hiring manager can easily reach out to schedule you for an interview.

Example:

2. Summary of qualifications

Open your resume with statements that demonstrate that you can address the company’s needs. Use the remainder of the summary to highlight a few of your most notable achievements and contributions that are related to the company’s objectives and goals.

For example, if you’re a senior executive with experience bringing in revenue by directing multi-million dollar initiatives for enterprises, this information should be featured in your summary. If you’re a registered nurse who has maintained a patient satisfaction rating of 93% in high-volume hospital environments throughout your career, highlight these insights at the top of the resume.

Profile Example: 

3. Professional experience

While every section of your resume is important, your work history is the foundation. When a hiring manager reviews your application, this is mostly where they’ll decide whether or not to bring you in for an interview. The strength of your professional experience is what potential employers will be most interested in, as it helps them better understand how your unique expertise can benefit their organizations.

The key is to emphasize your career accomplishments, rather than describing your day-to-day job responsibilities. Even a mundane task can be reframed as an achievement when you add how that task improved the company somehow. Incorporating hard numbers, monetary figures, and metrics is a great way to prove your point.

For example, say you’re an executive assistant who manages calendars and client communications for a CEO. While you aren’t personally generating revenue, you are communicating directly with clients, which means you play a key role in maintaining these relationships. Highlighting the monetary value of the customer accounts establishes a sense of value-add for the reader and shows that you’ve accomplished a lot in your organization.

Professional Experience Example:

4. Education and certifications

Your industry certifications and academic degrees demonstrate that you’ve cultivated the formal knowledge needed to succeed within your field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 178 occupations require a bachelor’s degree. That isn’t to say there aren’t alternatives, or that you can’t succeed without one, but it does indicate that reaching that level of education will open more possible career paths and benefit you in the long run. Also, some online job applications contain “knock-out” questions that include questions about education that you must answer before you get a chance to upload your resume.

Another way to strengthen your application is by pursuing relevant certifications that are widely recognized in your industry. This also demonstrates that you’re committed to helping the company by growing as a professional by expanding your expertise. For instance, a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) credential isn’t always required for project managers, but it could be a valuable asset for some jobs.

Examples:

5. Key skills and technical proficiencies

Most organizations utilize some form of applicant tracking system (ATS) to identify qualified candidates for job openings. Before reaching the hiring manager, the ATS might rank or grade your resume according to parameters or set searches that compare your resume to the posting. If your document fails to meet the required threshold, you might not advance to the next stage.

To mitigate this risk, it’s essential to feature a robust skills section that is fully tailored to the job description. Feature a blend of technical and interpersonal skills to show potential employers you have what they need. For instance, if you’re targeting a role as a UX designer, you should certainly include terms such as information architecture, wireframing, and prototyping if these tools and skills are in the job posting. However, a trait like empathy is also worth including, as it shows that you will understand the user better and get along better with your colleagues.

List of 30 Possible Key Skills: 

• Account management
• Accounting
• Administrative support
• Agile methodology
• B2B marketing
• Business development
• Client relations
• Cloud technology
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Customer service
• Data analysis
• Data analytics
• Data science
• Digital marketing
• Financial analysis
• Graphic design
• Health care administration
• Marketing strategy
• Mobile-first design
• Operations management
• Patient-centered care
• Project management
• Risk management
• Sales management
• Scrum
• Software development lifecycle (SDLC)
• Strategic planning
• Team management
• User-centered design
• Program management