Before You Write Anything
Most resume advice starts with formatting. That is backwards. Before you open a template or type a single word, you need to answer two questions:
- What role am I targeting? A resume is a marketing document, not an autobiography. Every line should be selected to convince a specific hiring manager that you can do a specific job.
- What are my strongest proof points? Think about the 5-8 accomplishments that best demonstrate you can succeed in the target role.
If you skip this step, you end up with a generic resume that reads like a job description in reverse. Hiring managers see hundreds of those. They do not call those people back.
Choosing the Right Format
There are three standard resume formats. Here is when to use each one:
| Format | Best For | Avoid If |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse-Chronological | Steady career progression in one field | You have major employment gaps |
| Functional | Career changers, returning to workforce | You have relevant recent experience |
| Combination | Senior professionals, career pivoters with some relevant experience | You are early-career |
For 90% of job seekers, reverse-chronological is the right choice. It is what recruiters expect, what ATS systems parse most reliably, and what best shows career growth.
Contact Information
This section seems obvious, but people consistently get it wrong. Here is what to include:
Sean Conroy
Seattle, WA | [email protected] | (555) 123-4567
linkedin.com/in/seanconroy | github.com/seanconroy
Include: Full name, city and state (not full address), professional email, phone number, LinkedIn URL, portfolio or GitHub if relevant.
Leave off: Full street address, photo, date of birth, marital status, and that Hotmail address from 2004.
One common mistake: using your current work email. Recruiters notice, and it signals poor judgment.
Writing a Professional Summary
The professional summary sits at the top of your resume and gives the reader a 2-3 sentence overview of who you are and what you bring. It has replaced the objective statement, which was always about what you wanted rather than what you offered.
A strong summary follows this formula:
[Title/identity] with [X years] experience in [key skill area]. [Strongest accomplishment or differentiator]. [What you bring to the target role].
Here is a concrete example:
Full-stack engineer with 6 years of experience building high-traffic web applications. Led the migration of a monolithic Rails app to microservices, reducing deployment time by 80%. Looking to bring deep expertise in distributed systems and team leadership to a senior engineering role.
Compare that to this:
Hardworking and passionate professional seeking a challenging opportunity to leverage my skills and grow my career.
The first one tells the hiring manager something specific and verifiable. The second one says nothing. Every word in your summary needs to earn its place.
Work Experience That Proves Impact
This is where most resumes fail. People list responsibilities instead of results. Your job description already lists responsibilities. The hiring manager already knows what a "Marketing Coordinator" does in general. What they want to know is what you specifically accomplished.
Use this structure for every bullet point:
[Action verb] + [what you did] + [measurable result]
Bad:
- Responsible for managing social media accounts
- Helped with quarterly reports
- Worked on customer issues
Good:
- Grew Instagram following from 2,000 to 45,000 in 8 months through a user-generated content strategy
- Built automated quarterly reporting pipeline that reduced finance team's manual work by 12 hours per month
- Resolved an average of 47 customer tickets per day with a 96% satisfaction rating
Notice the difference. The good bullets have numbers. They have specific outcomes. They show the scale of your work. When you cannot quantify something, at least be specific about what changed as a result of your work.
How Many Bullet Points?
- Current or most recent role: 4-6 bullets
- Previous roles: 3-4 bullets
- Roles from 10+ years ago: 1-2 bullets, or omit entirely
Action Verbs That Work
Start every bullet with a strong verb. Avoid "responsible for," "helped with," and "assisted in." These verbs communicate ownership:
Built, Led, Designed, Increased, Reduced, Negotiated, Launched, Automated, Migrated, Implemented, Managed, Created, Delivered, Optimized, Established
Education Section
For most professionals with 3+ years of experience, education goes near the bottom and stays brief:
B.S. Computer Science, University of Washington — 2018
That is it. No GPA (unless it is 3.7+ and you graduated within the last 2 years), no coursework list, no high school.
Exceptions: If you are a recent graduate, education moves near the top. If you have a graduate degree directly relevant to the role, it deserves more prominence. If you attended a bootcamp or earned a certification that the job posting specifically asks for, include it.
For recent graduates who lack work experience, you can expand this section with relevant coursework, academic projects, and honors. But the moment you have real work experience, trim it back down.
Skills Section
The skills section serves two purposes: it helps ATS systems match you to keywords, and it gives the hiring manager a quick scan of your technical capabilities.
Do this:
- List skills mentioned in the job description that you actually have
- Group skills by category (Programming Languages, Frameworks, Tools, etc.)
- Include both the spelled-out name and abbreviation where applicable (e.g., "Amazon Web Services (AWS)")
Do not do this:
- List "Microsoft Word" or "email" (these are assumed)
- Rate your skills with progress bars or star ratings (they mean nothing)
- Include every technology you have ever touched
A strong skills section looks like this:
Languages: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL
Frameworks: React, Next.js, Django, Flask
Cloud: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda), Google Cloud Platform
Tools: Git, Docker, Terraform, Datadog
Keep it to 8-15 skills. If you list 30 skills, the hiring manager trusts none of them.
Formatting Rules That Matter
Formatting is not where you win, but it is where you can lose. A badly formatted resume gets skipped regardless of your qualifications.
Length: One page if you have under 10 years of experience. Two pages maximum for senior professionals. No one needs a three-page resume.
Font: Use a standard, readable font. Calibri, Arial, Garamond, or Cambria in 10-12pt. Do not use decorative fonts.
Margins: 0.5 to 1 inch on all sides. Anything tighter looks cramped.
File format: Submit as PDF unless the application specifically asks for .docx. PDFs preserve your formatting across every device.
Consistency: If you bold one job title, bold all of them. If you use periods at the end of one bullet point, use them on all of them. Inconsistency signals carelessness.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
After reviewing thousands of resumes, these are the mistakes that show up most often:
- Typos and grammar errors. Run spell check. Then read it aloud. Then have someone else read it. One typo can end your candidacy.
- Including "References available upon request." This is assumed. It wastes a line.
- Using a generic resume for every application. You should be adjusting your summary and bullet points for each role. Not rewriting from scratch, but tailoring the emphasis.
- Listing every job you have ever had. No one cares about your summer cashier job from 15 years ago. Keep it relevant and recent.
- Burying the best stuff. If your strongest qualification is a certification or a specific project, do not hide it at the bottom. Restructure so the most compelling information comes first.
Start Building Your Resume
Writing a strong resume takes time, but it does not have to be painful. Focus on proving your impact with specific numbers and results, keep the formatting clean, and tailor it for every application.
If you want to move faster, Superpower Resume uses AI to help you write targeted bullet points, optimize for ATS systems, and generate tailored resumes in minutes. Upload your existing resume and a job description, and get a finished, optimized resume you can submit today.
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: Resume Tips — BLS career guidance on resume structure, what employers look for, and formatting best practices
- Indeed Career Guide: How to Write a Resume — Comprehensive resume writing research with recruiter-backed advice on formatting, bullet points, and common mistakes
- Harvard Office of Career Services: Resume Guide — Harvard's framework for writing impactful resume bullet points using action verbs and quantified results
