How to Write a Resume: Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

First of all–what is a resume?

A resume is a document with a purpose to win you an interview. A standard resume has six sections, fits on one page, and reads top to bottom in under a minute.

Think of your resume as a marketing document for one specific role, not a life story. The recruiter is comparing yours to hundreds of other applicants. They’re looking for fast reasons to say “yes” or “no.”

Bad news for job seekers–

Recruiters spend an average of just 7 seconds on your resume. That is less time than it takes to read this paragraph.

So, here’s how to write a successful resume from scratch.

Before we move on, let’s look at the difference between resume and CV.

In the US, a resume is a 1- to 2-page summary tailored to a specific job. In the UK and most of Europe, the word “CV” often means the same thing. A full academic CV is something different. It is multi-page, lists publications and grants, and matters most in academia or healthcare.

Before you start writing: what to prepare

Writing a resume starts before you open a template. Skip the prep work, and you'll spend an hour creating a resume that says nothing the job ad asked for.

Preparation is what separates a generic resume from a tailored one. It’s always the right way to start a resume, whether you are building one from scratch or refreshing an old one.

The job description

Read the job description twice. The first time, just read it like a candidate: do you actually want this job, and does it match your level? The second time, read it like a strategist. Highlight every required skill, tool, certification, and keyword. Also, note the order they appear in. The first three bullets in the “Requirements” section are usually the deal-breakers. Those are often the ones the recruiter is screening for first.

On top of that, pay attention to the language. If the ad uses “Google Analytics,” don’t write “GA” on your resume, if it says “stakeholder management,” don’t write “client communication,” etc. You get the point.

The ATS is looking for an exact match, and so is the human. Mirroring the job ad is the single fastest way to make your resume feel relevant in 7 seconds.

Your full work history

List every role you have held, in reverse chronological order. Include job title, company, location, dates, and 3 to 5 key responsibilities. Do this even for roles you don’t plan to put on the final resume. The point is to have a full picture before you start cutting.

Why bother with the ones you won’t use? Two reasons. First, you won’t have to dig through old emails next time you apply for something different. Second, an old role you wrote off as irrelevant might have a transferable bullet you forgot about–a project you led, a system you built, a number you hit.

This is your “master resume.” Write everything down once. Then duplicate it and trim it for every application. It saves hours over the next weeks or months of job hunting.

Your measurable results

For every role on your master resume, write down the numbers. These include revenue moved, team size, time saved, dollars managed, customers acquired. Anything you can put a figure on.

Skipping this prep step that’s arguably the biggest reason resumes get rejected. Bullet points without numbers read as duties, not achievements. And since recruiters want proof you moved the needle, it’s best not to give them a plain list of things you were “responsible for.” Instead, you should quantify your achievements.

If you don’t know the exact number, estimate. “Grew the newsletter” becomes “Grew the newsletter from 2K to 18K subscribers.” Approximate numbers beat no numbers every time.

Your references and links

Prepare your professional links like LinkedIn URL, portfolio, personal site, etc. Pick the two or three that make the strongest case for the role you’re applying for. Keep in mind that listing all of them is an overkill.

Before inserting the links to your resume, clean them up first. Your LinkedIn headline should match the role you’re targeting. Your portfolio should open on a project relevant to the job, not your oldest one. Broken links and outdated profiles look worse than no links at all.

How should a resume look?

So–what does a professional resume look like?

A professional resume should be one page with a clean layout. This includes single-column or simple two-column, clear section headers, around 10 point body text, and plenty of white space. And unless you’re in a creative field, skip the photos, graphics, and colored backgrounds.

Resume length: one page or two?

So, how long should a resume be? One page works for most job seekers. Two pages work for senior candidates with over 10 years of directly relevant experience. Three pages is almost never right outside academia and healthcare.

Visual structure: what a good resume looks like

Before anyone reads a word, your resume gets a visual once-over. The basics below are what makes that first glance work in your favour.

✅ Right: One column, clean headers, consistent font, achievement-led bullets under each role.

❌ Wrong: Two columns with a photo, coloured sidebar, icons everywhere. Looks great in Canva, but breaks in most ATS.

Why these two:

• Clear section headers (Experience, Skills, Education)
• Consistent date alignment, right-aligned throughout
• Bullet points, not dense paragraphs
• White space between sections
• No photos in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia (still common in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)

Professional resume layout: template structure

Here’s the standard top-to-bottom structure most recruiters expect:

• Header: name, location (city and country), email, phone, LinkedIn
• Professional summary: 3 to 4 lines, or resume objective for career changers
• Skills: hard skills first, grouped by category
• Work experience: reverse chronological
• Education
• Optional: certifications, volunteer experience, languages, projects

What font should a resume be?

The best resume fonts are clean and professional. Use sans-serifs or serifs at 10 to 12 points for body text and 14 to 16 points for headers. Here are the top picks for the font:

• Calibri: default in Word, clean, ATS-safe
• Arial or Helvetica: universal and neutral
• Garamond: elegant serif, good for traditional industries
• Georgia: serif, reads well on screen
• Cambria: serif, Microsoft default
• Lato: modern sans-serif, popular for design-forward resumes

How to format a resume (including ATS formatting)

Formatting is where most resumes get filtered out. To format a resume well, use a single-column layout. Also, add standard section headers (Experience, Skills, Education) and use 10 to 12 point body text and consistent date alignment. At the end, save the document as PDF. Skip tables, text boxes, headers and footers, and graphics as these break ATS parsing.

A clean job resume format is not fancy. Instead, it’s predictable. Resume formatting that follows the standard professional resume format reads quickly to a recruiter and parses cleanly through an ATS. That is the whole job.

When it comes to the format, you have three options: reverse chronological, functional, and hybrid. Most people would do best with the first one, but there are exceptions.

So, which resume format should you use? Here’s a comparison table:

Read more: Learn how to optimize a resume for ATS and pass the screening. Also, check out how to tackle resume gaps and still get hired.

ATS formatting non-negotiables

There is no creative wiggle room in this list. Break any of these six rules and the ATS may filter your resume out before a human ever sees your name.

• Use standard section headers like “Work Experience”
• No tables, text boxes, or columns that split content
• No images, logos, or icons: ATS cannot read them
• Left-align everything: centred text parses inconsistently
• Save as .docx or PDF: follow what the job ad specifies
• Use standard fonts

What skills to put on a resume

The skills to include on a resume depend on the role. But the principle stays the same. Put a mix of hard skills (tools, software, certifications, languages) and soft skills (communication, leadership, problem-solving) on your resume. Also, prioritize the skills the job ad asks for and group them by category if you have over 10.

Hard skills vs. soft skills: what recruiters look for

Hard skills are teachable and measurable. On the other hand, soft skills are how you work with people. You need both. But the ATS filters on hard skills first.

In fact, Jobscan found that as many as 76% of recruiters use the skills filter in their ATS. It is the most-used filter when narrowing down candidates. If your skills section is missing the exact terms from the job ad, you may never reach the human stage.

How to pick the right skills for your role

The easy answer is: pull them from the job description. Don’t copy a generic “top 10 skills” list but write “Salesforce” if the ad says “Salesforce.” It’s quite simple really if you keep in mind that the ATS is looking for an exact match.

How to list skills: format and placement

Picking the right skills is half the battle. The other half is laying them out so the ATS and a recruiter can read them fast. Here are a few tips you can use:

• Group into 2 to 4 categories (e.g. Technical, Tools, Languages)
• Use commas or bullet points, not proficiency bars (ATS cannot read them)
• Place skills above work experience for career changers, below for experienced candidates applying in the same field

Work experience: how to write it to land interviews

Your work experience section is the biggest factor in whether you get the interview. It’s also where most people go wrong. Make sure to list work experience in reverse chronological order.

For each role, include the job title, company name, location, dates (Month/Year), and 3 to 6 bullet points.

It’s important to remember that you should write achievements, not duties. Opt for writing about what you accomplished with numbers instead of a vague list of responsibilities.

This is the top fix that makes a resume stand out. Every bullet should answer: “So what? What changed because you did this?”

✅ Right: “Launched a referral programme that generated 32% of new customer sign-ups and saved around $40K in paid acquisition costs.”

❌ Wrong: “Responsible for managing the referral programme and working with the marketing team.”

Have you ever heard of the XYZ formula?

It was made famous by a former Google recruiter, and it works because it forces specificity:

Accomplished [X], as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].

Example: “Reduced customer onboarding time by 40% (from 10 days to 6) by redesigning the welcome flow and automating three manual steps.”

Also, lead with power verbs: Led, Built, Launched, Reduced, Increased, Designed, Negotiated. Skip weak starters like Responsible for, Helped, Worked on. They say nothing.

How many bullet points per job on a resume?

A good rule of thumb is using 3 to 6 bullet points per job on a resume. Give your most recent and relevant roles the full 5 to 6. Older or less relevant roles get 2 to 3. But remember that every bullet should earn its spot. If it doesn’t show a measurable achievement or a relevant skill, cut it.

A simple rule for deciding:

• Current or most recent role: 5 to 6 bullets
• Prior relevant roles (past 5 years): 3 to 5 bullets
• Older roles (5+ years ago): 2 to 3 bullets
• Roles over 10 years old or not relevant: 1 line, or drop entirely

How to list education on a resume

List education in reverse chronological order. Include the degree, institution, location, and graduation year. Add your GPA only if it’s 3.5 or higher and you graduated in the last 3 years. Moreover, certifications, relevant coursework, and honors go under the education entry.

Where you place this section depends on where you are in your career. Recent graduates and students should put education near the top, above work experience. Experienced professionals push it below work experience–once you have a few years on the job, your career story matters more than where you studied. But, career changers with a new relevant degree go near the top as the degree is the reason for the move.

✅ Include: Degree, school, graduation year, honors, relevant coursework (if recent), certifications, academic projects.

❌ Skip: High school, GPA under 3.5, dates if you graduated over 15 years ago.

If you have directly relevant certifications (PMP, AWS, CPA, Google Analytics), give them their own “Certifications” subsection. Include the issuing body and the date as recruiters tend to check those.

How to write a resume with no experience

To write a resume with no experience, start with a strong objective statement. Emphasize relevant coursework and academic projects. Also, add internships, volunteer work, freelance projects, and transferable skills. Focus on what you have done, not what you have not.

So, here are a few steps to follow:

• Restructure the order: the standard layout doesn't work without paid experience. Instead, use: Header → Objective → Education → Projects, volunteer work, internships → Skills.
• Swap the summary for an objective: summaries are for experienced candidates and objectives are for career starters. Aim for 3-4 lines on what you're looking for and what you bring.
• Turn projects into “Experience”: academic, freelance, and side projects all count, so give each a title, dates, and 2-3 achievement-led bullets.
• Lean on transferable skills: retail = customer service and conflict resolution. Team sports = collaboration and discipline. Name the skill, then show where you practised it.
• Include internships, even short ones: a 6-week internship with one measurable outcome should be written up like a job with dates, role, and achievement-led bullets.

How to list volunteer experience on a resume

List volunteer experience on your resume when it’s relevant to the job, fills an employment gap, or shows a skill you are otherwise missing. Format it the same way as paid work, so include the role, organization, dates, and 2 to 3 achievement-led bullets under a “Volunteer Experience” heading.

When to include it:

• You have under 3 years of paid experience
• The volunteer work is directly relevant
• You used it to fill an employment gap
• It shows leadership, team management, or a hard skill

When to leave it off:

• It’s old and irrelevant
• You need the space for paid work
• It’s not something you would want to discuss in an interview

Example: Tom was applying for a product manager role after a year-long career break. He listed six months of volunteer work running a community coding club. He framed it as “led a 12-person volunteer team” and “designed and delivered an 8-week curriculum to 40 students.” He landed two interviews in three weeks.

How to make your resume stand out

Okay, let’s put it all together now and make it catch the recruiters’ eyes.

The recipe for standing out is short: tailor every resume, lead with numbers, optimize for ATS keywords, and cut everything generic.

Tailoring isn't optional. Generic applications get filtered out, so spend ~15 minutes per role rewriting your resume summary and top 3 bullets. Pull 8-12 keywords from the job ad and weave them into your skills, summary, and bullets.

The payoff is real: Jobscan found candidates whose resume includes the exact job title from the posting are nearly 11x more likely to land an interview. Same role, same experience, the only difference were the words on the page.

Numbers are the next differentiator. If you can put a percentage, a dollar figure, or a timeframe on a bullet, do it.

Your professional summary is where most recruiters look first. Use 3 to 4 lines at the top, in this format:

[Role + years of experience] + [2 to 3 core strengths] + [headline achievement].

✅ Right: “Senior marketing manager with 8 years of B2B SaaS experience. Specialist in paid acquisition, lifecycle marketing, and content strategy. Scaled MRR from $400K to $2.1M at [Previous Company] in 18 months.”

❌ Wrong: “Motivated marketing professional seeking a challenging opportunity to grow.”

Last but not least, cut the filler. Remove “team player,” “hardworking,” “results-driven,” etc. They say nothing. Choose specifics instead.

Senior candidates can add a “Selected Achievements” section at the top–3 to 4 career highlights before work experience–to make the recruiter's 7 seconds count.

Also, remember to proofread before submitting your application. Read it out loud, run it through Grammarly, and ask a friend to ensure you’re happy with the results.

Conclusion: how to write a resume

A great resume is not about clever design or buzzwords. It’s about clarity and tailoring. So, to write a successful resume you should prepare before you write, lead with measurable achievements, and format for both machines and humans. Also, don’t forget to rewrite the document for every role.

Whether you’re making a resume for the first time or rebuilding one after years out of the market, the rules are the same. Do that, and you are already ahead of the 98% of resumes that never make it past the first scan.

The fastest way to get there is with a platform built for it. For example, JobLeads is the all-in-one resume builder for serious job seekers. It combines ATS-tested templates, AI-powered tailoring, a free resume review, and over 15M live job matches in one place. Stop sending resumes into the void. If you want to create a resume that actually lands interviews, JobLeads is built to help you do exactly that.