How to Write a Resume in 2021: Complete Guide with Examples

Now that we’ve introduced the five primary sections of a resume, you’re ready to start writing. Read on to learn what to include in each section and how to structure your resume.

At the top of your resume, you will find your professional summary or career objective. This section functions as a type of sales pitch of yourself to your prospective employer. It consists of a two- to three-sentence-long paragraph that summarizes your top skills, accomplishments and qualifications for the job.

There are two strategies you can use to write this section. The one we tend to recommend to most candidates is the summary statement. The summary statement is written with the employer’s needs in mind. You should list a couple of hard and soft skills, background information that will pique the interest of your employer, and achievements that you can tie to the open position.

Check out this example of a summary statement:

The second strategy you can use is the career objective. The career objective is different from the summary statement because it focuses more on your professional goals and ambitions. A successful objective should explain what you hope to accomplish in this role and how you can help the company with your newfound knowledge and experience. The career objective is definitely more suited to young professionals and those applying for an entry-level position.

Check out the example below to learn how to write an exceptional career objective:

This section gives you another chance to highlight your technical know-how. When crafting your skills section, you should have around six to eight skills in a balanced variety of all skill types. Skills are divided into soft, hard and technical skills. Let’s break down what each skill type means:

Hard skills: These are objective and measurable qualifications you should present to a recruiter or hiring manager in your resume. Because they’re concrete, they serve as strong verification to a potential employer of your ability and skill set. Hard skills can include:

Soft skills: These skills are also helpful for you to showcase. However, unlike hard skills, soft skills are more subjective and harder to quantify. Most interpersonal skills fall under the umbrella of soft skills. These skills can include:

Technical skills: These fall under a specific umbrella of hard skills –– they involve nuanced or niche-specific technology and computer-based abilities. Technical skills often require more education, training or hands-on experience. They are very advantageous to showcase on your resume, especially if you’re applying to a job in the realm of computers and technology. These specialized skills can include:

You need to pick and choose these six- to eight- skills wisely. Will the skills you include make someone want to hire you for this role? Your hiring manager might be personally impressed that you can speak fluent French, but it’s best to save that fact for the interview portion of the job search if the job you’re applying to will never make use of this skill. Visit our Skills Library to review over 100 skills.

Personalize this section for each job you apply to. Scan the job ad for those crucial keywords we mentioned earlier and echo the exact same language it uses for skills. If it calls for a candidate with “strong customer service skills,” you need to duplicate this language in your skills section. Rephrasing the wording even slightly, like using a different tense, can make it challenging to get your resume past applicant tracking systems (ATS).

This step only takes a few minutes, but it might be the difference between getting your resume into a hiring manager’s hands or getting deleted by a computer program before you even meet a human decision-maker.

When writing a functional resume, it’s important to note that you will have an expanded skills section. Instead of writing a simple list of skills, you will pick three of your top skills that are relevant to the job and expand on them with three to four bullet points that describe instances where you’ve demonstrated your mastery of that skill.

Here’s an expanded skills list example:

Skills

The length of this section will depend on how long you’ve been in the workforce. A general rule of thumb is to add a page to your resume for every 10 years of experience — this section should take up most of that allotted space. Remember, your entire resume should be written in the third person — no first-person pronouns. Use four to six bullet points to break up the copy.

Elaborate: Do more than recount your past duties and responsibilities. Shed light on your accomplishments and achievements by using data to quantify those achievements. For example, if you introduced a new supply-ordering system that saved the company money by reducing duplicate orders, explain it with percentages and financial savings. “Consolidated weekly orders into monthly orders, thereby reducing duplicate orders and cutting spending by 7%.”

Be active: Use action verbs to describe your duties. Recruiters and hiring managers read several resumes on any given day — use dynamic words to stand out in your experience section. For example, suppose one of your responsibilities was to order office supplies. In that case, it’s more interesting to read that you “executed and maintained a new system for ordering supplies” than it is that you were “responsible for placing orders.”

Use relevant experience: Don’t stuff your resume with every job and responsibility you’ve ever held. Tailor your resume by focusing on the needs of the job at hand and what you can provide. If you’re a recent graduate or have a limited job history, this can be tricky. In these rare cases, you can list relevant summer jobs, part-time work, volunteer opportunities or internships that you’ve held. It’s still important to name any similar past work experience, and specifically call out the qualifications and qualities that made you good at your job — even if your past roles don’t relate to the current job you are seeking.

Your work history section is always going to include your job title, company name, location and dates of employment followed by a couple of bullet points outlining the accomplishments and work duties as we explained above.

If you need help visualizing it, check out this short work history example:

Work History

Employers are interested in your education, although the amount of detail you offer in this section changes depending on when you graduated. If you graduated more than three years ago, this section is sparse. You can list the name of the school you attended, the date of graduation, and the type of degree you earned. However, most hiring managers will be more interested in your practical work experience if you’ve been out of school for a few years.

If you graduated less than three years ago, it’s OK to elaborate on this section since you don’t have as many years of professional experience to showcase on your resume. You can list your grade point average (GPA), special awards or commendations you earned, or any specialized classes or coursework related to the open job.

Structure your resume’s educational information with the following format:

Check out this education section example:

There’s no point in creating a great resume if a recruiter isn’t able to contact you for an interview. It’s vital that you include your complete contact information in the header at the top of your resume.

Read on to learn what exactly to include in your contact information section.

Your name: This will be the first item read on your resume. You are establishing a professional relationship. Use your full professional name, and don’t include inappropriate nicknames. Consider making your name slightly larger than the rest of the header.

General location: Include your city and state so employers can know if you’re a local applicant. Some studies have shown that hiring managers have a preference for employees with shorter commutes, so this might act as an unconscious benefit to your application. You no longer need to include your mailing address, as most communications are handled through phone calls and emails.

Phone number: List a number that links to a professional voicemail greeting in case you can’t receive the call.

Email address: As we mentioned –– conventional mail is outdated. Most HR departments and hiring managers will communicate with you through email. Consider making a dedicated email for job applications that uses a professional handle like your first and last name. This dedicated account makes it easier to track communications during your job search.

Social media links: If you work in an industry that requires work samples, add live links to your professional websites, blogs or online portfolio. You can also include your LinkedIn portfolio. Remember, these are supplemental sites that help create a fuller idea of your professional expertise –– they don’t replace your resume.

Although the previous five sections are just what you need to write an effective resume, you have the chance to customize it further. You can add custom sections to share any other information you couldn’t fit in the existing sections.

For example, common extra sections you can add can be an Awards section, a Certifications or Licenses section, and even a Hobbies section if you feel like that would fit for the role and company you’re applying to.

There are many professions that require you to be licensed, such as brokers, engineers and teachers. You should make sure your licenses are up to date and include the license number, institution that provided it, and year of expedition.

The same applies to certifications, for example, if you’re a babysitter who’s certified in CPR and first aid, you should include all that official information in a separate section.

An Awards section can be especially helpful for professionals in advertising whose work is commonly submitted for award competitions, but also for individuals who have received awards inside their own company for excelling as employee of the month and such.