One of the most common questions I get: “what do I need to put on my resume? And what order should I put it?”
There’s a lot of conflicting info out there about what goes on a resume and how to structure it. So I’m going to share exactly what to put on a resume, based on my experience as a recruiter.
Let’s get started…
What to Put on a Resume:
These are the key pieces you should put on your resume:
- Name and Contact Info
- Summary Paragraph
- Employment History
- Skills
- Education
- Community Involvement (Optional)
- Awards/Achievements You’ve Received
Now that you know what goes on a resume in general, let’s look at these sections step-by-step so you’ll know how to write each one…
1. Name and Contact Info
At the top of your resume, put your full name and a professional-looking email address.
Your phone number and street address are optional, but for most people, I’d recommend putting it. If you’re applying for jobs out-of-state, it might make sense to leave your address off.
Now, for formatting and design…
You can add a bit more in terms of design, but don’t go overboard.
2. Summary Paragraph
This is the next section of your resume, and should go right after your name and contact info in most cases.
This is a two or three sentence summary of your qualifications and accomplishments throughout your career (or throughout your education if you just graduated).
Note: this is not an “objective”. I’d advise against putting an objective on your resume. Hiring managers know your objective is to land a job in their industry that will utilize your skills, etc. So put a summary paragraph instead.
3. Employment History
If you have held any previous jobs (including internships!), this is where to put it. And it’s one of the first things a hiring manager wants to see on your resume…
So it should be on the top half of the first page — visible without scrolling down. Overall, you should put it in chronological order (most recent first), and list job titles, company names, dates (you can choose to put just years, or month and year you started and ended each job — just stay consistent).
And then of course, put bullets highlighting what you did in each job. I’d suggest 4–8 bullet points per job. In these bullet points, don’t just talk about job duties; talk about what you actually accomplished.
4. Skills
This is the next big section to put on your resume. You might be tempted to put it before your Employment History… and people might have even told you to do this. But the only time I think it makes sense to list Skills first is if you have absolutely no work experience.
Here’s why… Hiring managers don’t want to see a long list of skills without being able to see WHERE you learned/used each skill (and how recently you used them).
This is why they’re much more likely to scan your resume for your Employment History section. And that’s why we put it higher up!
Skills should come after that.
In your Skills section, you can put a list of your top skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for, and you can even put them under a few headers/categories if you think it makes sense for your job and industry.
There’s no “magic” number of skills to put. Some people might only need 3–10; others might put 20. It really depends on how long you’ve been working and what field of work you’re in.
Make sure you think about what’s relevant for the job though; don’t just list a bunch of skills that won’t help you in their job.
5. Education
Put the name of your school(s), your field of study, and graduation date — unless you feel your graduation date will leave you open to age discrimination on your resume. If you graduated a long time ago, feel free to leave the dates off.
You can also put your GPA in this section. I’d only recommend doing that if it was above 3.0/4. Otherwise, leave it off.
You might be asked about your GPA in the first few years of your career, but you’re very unlikely to be asked about it again after that, so don’t worry if your GPA is below 3.0/4. Just exclude it from your resume.
6. Community Involvement (Optional)
If you’ve done any volunteer work or helped in your community in other ways, this is where to put it. You can list the location, dates, and your contribution/work.
If you haven’t done any volunteering or community-related work, don’t worry — just don’t put this section on your resume.
7. Awards/Achievements (Optional — Can be combined with other sections)
Any time you’ve received awards or other recognition for your accomplishments, you should put it on your resume.
However, you don’t always need a separate section for it. That’s up to you… If you got an academic award, you can list it under your Education section (beneath your degree, GPA, etc.)
If you received an award or recognition for outstanding performance at a previous job, you can list it as a bullet point or a note underneath that specific job in your Employment History section.
So while awards and achievements are a great way to boost your resume overall, they don’t always need their own section.
