What does a good resume look like in the modern job market?
Olivia Attwood
Certified Professional Resume Writer ● Career Coach ● Executive Resume Writer ● MBA, BEng, CPRW, CPCC
If the recruiter goes “Meh,” while reading your resume, there’s a good chance that your resume’s next trip will be to the trash folder than to the interview shortlist. When creating a resume, it is vital to ensure that a hiring manager finds all the necessary and impressive pieces of information there easily.
Your resume is a comprehensive document that describes your professional achievements, career history, educational qualifications, skills, and personality. If your resume lacks any of these elements, the resulting document will get you kicked out of the race before you can even say “recruitment.”
So, let’s a have a look at what your resume must look like to get hired in the modern job market.
A good resume contains these elements
Your resume is a credential-based document that you must update each time you apply for a new job. A resume must contain the following sections:
Other than these basic sections, there are tons of extra resume sections you can add to highlight your unique value proposition to employers. Here are some examples:
Although these sections made it to our list, they are not the only ones that you should consider adding to your resume, depending on the nature of the job for which you are applying.
How to write the contact information section for a good resume
The main purpose of creating a contact information section for your resume is to give the employer a way to get in touch with you to discuss the next steps in the hiring process. Therefore, your contact information sections has to be brief and contain only the most important pieces of information. We suggest displaying your:
Other than these, you should also include important links in the contact information section of your resume. Here are some links that we encourage job seekers to display on their resumes:
Here’s how you must write a summary statement for a winning resume
Although the summary statement is next in line in the order of appearance, this resume section is better left off until the very end. Start writing your summary statement after you have completed your entire resume. This will help you identify the most important pieces of information to highlight through your summary statement. Generally, a resume summary is:
Some things that you can highlight through your resume summary are:
Be sure to use active language when creating your personal summary. You can also add a few action verbs in there to make it an interesting read.
What does the work experience section of a good resume look like?
The work experience section is undoubtedly the most important section of any resume. This is where the hiring managers immediately visit when they want to see your qualifications and experience. Therefore, getting the work experience section of your resume right is essential to ensure your job search success.
Essentially, the work experience section of your resume consists of multiple job entries. You should list your relevant work experience on your resume in the reverse chronological order. Each job entry must contain the following information:
Writing a job entry with these elements will ensure that the hiring manager finds everything that they want in your career history. However, the most important stuff in your work experience section is the bullet points that you use to describe each job. You can use 1-3 bullet points for older jobs and 3-6 bullet points for more recent and relevant experiences. Here are some valuable tips to get your bullet points right:
We recommend displaying your educational qualifications like this on your resume
Now that we’ve covered work experience, it is time to show the employer your educational background through your resume. For certain jobs in competitive industries, a strong educational background is essential. Job seekers who fail to emphasize their education on their resumes will be overlooked in most cases.
Just like your work experience section, your education section too should highlight your qualifications in reverse chronological order so that the most relevant and important items are listed first. Be sure to list the following details for each entry you make in the education section:
If you are a student or a recent grad, we recommend expanding your education section to include more details. If you are a professional with over five years of experience, you can simplify your education section.
Here’s what the skills section of a good resume looks like
Now, all that’s left for you to do is to get the skills section of your resume right. This is an important section because it allows you to place a lot of keywords within your resume. We recommend displaying your skills section toward the top half of your resume, where it is bound to catch the eye of a recruiter.
Use your skills section to highlight 10-15 of relevant skills to the job. You can use the job description to guide you on this. Use bullet points to differentiate between individual skills. We recommend adding a good mix of hard skills and soft skills, depending on the employer’s demands. If you are a career changer, transferable skills should have the spotlight on your resume. If you are applying for a technical position, you should ensure that the tech skills stand out more.
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6 小时前Nice ??