This post is for you if you’re unsure what to include on your resume.
I’m going to tell you all you need to know to land more interviews.
We’ll take a look at:
- What to include in an experienced candidate’s resume
- What should you include in your resume if you have no prior work experience?
- What to leave from your resume (mistakes to avoid)
- My best recommendation for making your resume stand out from the crowd so you can get a better job in less time is to use it.
Based on my experience as a recruiter, here’s what to include in a CV…
What Should You Include on Your Resume If You Have Work Experience?
The areas below should be included on your resume if you have prior work experience and are looking for a job. (Don’t worry; later in this piece, I’ll discuss what entry-level job applicants should include on their resumes.)
These are the 7 key sorts of information that a resume should include for job seekers with work experience:
- Name and Contact Info
- Resume Summary Paragraph
- Employment History
- Skills
- Education
- Community Involvement (Optional)
- Awards/Achievements You’ve Received (Optional)
Now that you know what to include in a resume, let’s take a look at each area one by one to see how to write each one.
1. Name and Contact Information
Put your entire name and a professional-looking email address at the top of your CV.
Your phone number and street address are optional, although I’d recommend including them for most individuals.
If you’re applying for jobs outside of your state, it’s a good idea to leave your address blank.
Now it’s time to format and design…
I’d go for a simple, “clean” style. There are no distractions. There aren’t too many fonts or colors. This is actually sound advice on how to format your entire CV.
Here’s an example of a simple resume heading that includes your name and contact information:
The first thing you should put on your resume is a header.
In terms of design, you can go a little further, but don’t overdo it.
2. Resume Summary Paragraph
This is the following area of your resume, and in most situations, it should come after your name and contact information.
This is a two- or three-sentence description of your professional qualifications and achievements (or throughout your education if you just graduated).
This isn’t an “objective” area, so keep that in mind. I would not recommend including an objective on your CV.
Hiring managers are aware that your goal is to acquire a job in their business that will allow you to use your skills, among other things.
Instead, write a summary paragraph.
If you’re having trouble crafting this paragraph, check out this article for some outstanding resume summary samples.
In some circumstances, you can include the job title right in your resume summary, which shows companies right away that you have relevant experience.
Let’s say the job title on the job advertisement is “Senior Account Analyst.”
“Senior-level account analyst with five years of experience in…” might be your summary.
It’s fine if you haven’t written a CV before. Simply adapt these examples to create your own resume summary.
3. Employment History
If you’ve had any past jobs (including internships), list them in your experience area. This section of your resume should get a lot of attention because it’s one of the first things a hiring manager will look at.
The section should be written in reverse chronological order, with the most recent work at the top.
Include employment titles, company names, and dates (you can use just years or the month and year you began and ended each position — just be consistent).
And make sure you start this part in the top half of your resume’s first page.
One of the most common mistakes I saw job seekers do as a recruiter was burying their employment history at the bottom of the first page, or even at the top of page two.
It should be considerably higher up, and it should be seen without having to scroll down when they open your resume on a computer.
Hiring managers will usually look here first, even before your skills section, so search for ways to emphasize technical skills and relevant work skills here.
“What have I done in recent positions to show a hiring manager that I’d perform well in their job, too?” ask yourself.
When creating your employment history, keep this in mind. It’s all about tailoring your resume to the next position you want.
Hiring managers and recruiters are busy people who don’t have time to read long, winding paragraphs. Instead, use bullets to highlight your accomplishments at each employment. Per task, I recommend five to eight bullet points.
You can write a brief introduction for each task, but most of the content should be presented in bullet style.
Don’t only talk about your work responsibilities in these bullet points; talk about what you actually did. There is a significant difference.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about…
“Successfully guided 5 sales employees to accomplish 139 percent of team sales goals for the Fiscal Year 2022,” instead of “responsible for managing 5 sales associates.”
4. Skills
In any job hunt, this is the next important element to include on your resume.
You could be inclined to prioritize your skills over your work history… Others could have even advised you to do so. However, I believe that listing skills first makes sense only if you have no prior work experience. (I’ll talk more about what to write on a resume if you don’t have any experience in the future.)
However, if you have any prior work experience, hiring managers don’t want to see a big list of technical talents without being able to identify where each skill was employed (and how recently you used them).
This is why, before looking at anything else, they’ll check your resume for recent jobs. That’s why you should put it higher up on the page so they can readily access the information they need.
The important line is that your skills should come after your experience section if you want a decent CV.
You can include a list of your top skills that are relevant to the job you’re going for in your skills area, and you can group them under a few headings/categories if it makes sense for your profession and industry.
You should concentrate primarily on hard skills. The most important abilities to include will be listed right on the job description. Soft talents (such as “team player”) should be highlighted in your cover letter, where you can tell a narrative and elaborate on how you used this skill to succeed.
Hiring managers look for hard talents and skills that are relevant to the job needs on resumes.
There is no ideal number of talents to include. Some people may only require 3-10, while others may require 20. It all depends on how long you’ve been employed and what industry you work in.
Don’t just mention a bunch of abilities that won’t help you in their work; make sure you think about what’s relevant for the job.
Consider keywords as well — this is an excellent area to include keywords on your resume to help you get passed online job application systems.
5. Education
Unless you believe your graduation date may expose you to age discrimination, include the name of your school(s), your subject of study, and your graduation date on your resume. Feel free to omit the dates if you graduated decades ago.
In this box, you can also include your GPA. I’d only do it if the score was higher than 3.0/4. Leave it off if you don’t want to use it.
You may be questioned about your GPA in the early years of your work, but you’re unlikely to be asked about it again after that, so don’t be concerned if your GPA is below 3.0/4. Simply leave it off your resume.
6. Community Involvement (Optional)
This is where you should put any volunteer work or other community service you’ve done.
You can include information such as the location, dates, and your contribution/work.
Don’t worry if you haven’t done any volunteer or community service work; simply leave this item off your resume.
7. Awards/Achievements (Optional)
You should include any awards or other forms of recognition for your accomplishments on your resume.
However, a distinct section isn’t usually required. It’s entirely up to you…
You can include an academic award in your schooling area if you have one (beneath your degree, GPA, etc.)
If you got an award or recognition for exceptional performance at a former work, you can add it in your Employment History section as a bullet point or a remark beneath that specific employment.
While medals and accomplishments are valuable additions to any résumé, they don’t always require their own section.
In your cover letter, you should also highlight any honors or distinctions you’ve won, especially if it was for work (such as employee of the month, salesperson of the year, etc.)
What to Include on a Resume If You’ve Never Worked Before
Here’s what to include on your entry-level resume if you just graduated and have no work experience.
(Note that you should use the processes above even if you have an internship or part-time job that you worked while in school! Any work experience is worthwhile to include on your resume).
If you don’t have any work experience, here’s what to include on your CV…
1. Name and Contact Information
As previously said, include your entire name and a professional-looking email address.
It’s up to you whether or not to give your street address and phone number, but for most individuals, it’s a good idea to do so.
The only exception is if you’re looking for work in a different state. If that’s the case, remove the address.
2. Resume Summary Section
You can write something like this even if you have no professional experience:
“Recent Finance graduate with experience in _ and _ looking for a chance to do .”
Alternatively, have a look at the job title in the job description and try to include it in your resume summary.
This method was also mentioned earlier when I showed the resume format and what to include for experienced candidates.
Read our complete article on resume summaries for students and recent graduates for more information.
3. Education
If you don’t have any work experience, you’ll need to provide more details in your education section to convince companies that you’re a good fit for their position.
Were you a member of any clubs or extracurricular activities at school?
What were some of the most important projects or classes you completed? (In particular, major initiatives connected to the jobs you’re seeking right now.)
Even if you have no work experience, your resume should be one page long, and the education part is where you may add more content to round out the page.
4. Skills
You can include talents you learnt in school or skills you’ve developed independently.
Only list abilities you’re confident talking about and using, as they’ll almost certainly ask about them in an interview.
The talents section, on the other hand, can be a great tool for helping you get more interviews if done correctly, for two reasons:
To begin with, it’s an excellent technique to include a large number of relevant keywords on your resume in order to get past computerized job application processes.
Second, it’s a simple approach to demonstrate to prospective employers what you know that will help you thrive in their position. Always re-arrange and re-adjust your talents section to match what you believe this particular business is looking for!
5. Community Involvement (Optional)
Any community service or volunteer activity you’ve done. This demonstrates to employers that you’re passionate and interested in the community, which might help you stand out (while also filling up your resume).
6. Awards/Achievements (Optional)
These would most likely be academic achievements if you have no professional experience. Put these in the education part of your resume.
As a result, don’t make this a distinct section; instead, incorporate honors, accomplishments, and any other recognition you’ve achieved when writing your schooling section in Step 3 above.
Even if you’ve never worked before, you now know what to include on a CV! Keep reading, though, since we’ll discuss how to prevent common blunders next.
Ideal Resume Format
Whether you have employment experience or not, you should format your resume in reverse chronological order.
Recruiters and employers are used to seeing and liking to read this resume format.
When it comes to resume writing, don’t be too elaborate. Use a traditional resume structure rather than a functional resume, which hides dates of employment and the order in which you’ve held jobs.
Employers will become irritated, and you will lose job interviews as a result.
It may also make it impossible for you to get past a company’s application tracking system.
What Not to Put on a Resume: Common Errors to Avoid
We’ve gone through what should be on a resume and how to construct those sections to catch people’s attention.
But we’re not done yet – there are a few items on your CV that you should leave out if you want to get interviews… There’s a chance you weren’t told about these. So let’s have a look at it next…
Irrelevant Jobs
Consider deleting certain positions that aren’t relevant or were at the start of your career if you have a long work history (particularly if you’ve worked for 15-20 years or more).
It’s important to remember that removing an unimportant job will leave your employment history barren. If you’ve only had one job and it’s not related to what you intend to do next, for example, you should keep it.
Why? It’s preferable to include a position that doesn’t appear to be relevant to your current job hunt than to leave your career history blank.
And, no matter what job you had before, you can always demonstrate leadership, accountability, hard effort, problem-solving, and other skills in your previous work experience! As a result, hiring managers may still find it useful and impressive.
An Objective Statement
Writing a CV with a purpose is a bad idea. This is obsolete and no longer required. If you’ve applied, employers will assume that your goal is to get a job at their organization, thus this isn’t something you should state on your resume.
Instead, as suggested before in this post, including a career overview section.
More on why a resume doesn’t need an objective may be found here.
Anything That Makes Your Resume More Than Two Pages
Unless you’re drafting an academic CV and have a Ph.D.…. Unless you’ve been working for at least 10 years… Your resume should not exceed two pages in length.
Your CV should just be one page for 60-70 percent of individuals.
So concentrate on the most crucial points and keep the length to a minimum.
As a recruiter, I’d prefer to see a list of 8 particular abilities relevant to the job I’m hiring for than a list of 30 generic skills you’ve utilized throughout your career but aren’t necessarily relevant to the job. As a result, make your CV laser-focused and specific to their requirements!
More Soft Skills Than Hard Skills
Employers desire to see hard talents on a résumé, as previously noted. Soft talents should be highlighted in your cover letter or during an interview, where you may better exhibit communication, interpersonal skills, active listening, and other skills.
So it’s a problem if you have a lot of soft skills but a few hard skills and job-related skills when you go over your resume.
In fact, you should strive to highlight these job-related talents in nearly every element of your resume, beginning with the resume summary paragraph.
Spelling or Grammar Mistakes
Everything should be proofread and spellchecked.
If you have a spelling or grammar issue on your CV, you are unlikely to get contacted for an interview — and no one will tell you.
So you’ll either have to look for it yourself or have a friend proofread it for you!
If you’re proofreading it yourself, here’s a tip: before proofreading, change the font on your resume to something distinctive. It will assist you in detecting faults (I know, it sounds strange). However, it works).
You should now have answers to your queries regarding what should be on a resume, as well as a list of the most important things to leave off.
But there’s one last step that will help you land a lot more interviews as a result of all of this…
The final step in making your resume stand out is to tailor it to the job description.
Before sending your CV out for each job, I recommend adapting it to the job description. As you’re drafting your resume, pay attention to the abilities and keywords given on the job description, and add as much information that matches as feasible.
Recruiters are always comparing your resume to the job posting, so the more abilities and professional experience you may incorporate from the job posting, the more interviews you’ll get.
Personalize your job summary phrase, employment experience, and even your skill list. You can use the job posting to come up with new content ideas. You can also rearrange your material and delete one or two sections that aren’t relevant to the positions you wish to apply for next.
Here’s a complete guide on customizing your resume for each job.
Customizing each job application will take a little longer, but you’ll get a lot more responses.
Would you rather apply for 50 jobs and just get one call back? Or do you apply for 25 jobs and only get responses from four?
That’s the kind of difference resume customization can make.
You now understand what should be included on a resume and how to make each part appealing to employers.
If you follow the steps above, you’ll have a terrific CV that captures recruiters’ and hiring managers’ attention and demonstrates why they should interview you right away.
Conclusion: What Should Job Seekers Include on Their Resumes?
You now know what sections to add when producing your professional resume if you read everything above.
You also know how to present the information: in reverse chronological order.
You’re also aware of the most common blunders to avoid, such as including a resume aim.
If you follow this advice, you’ll have a resume that highlights key abilities and experience in the order in which employers prefer to see them.
Your CV will get past applicant tracking systems and recruiters/HR, allowing you to land more job interviews.
You have the option of writing your own resume or using a resume builder. In either case, you can use the tips above to ensure that your resume is formatted correctly.
