Most resume advice is recycled filler. This isn't. We're going to walk through every section of a modern resume — what to include, what to cut, and the small choices that decide whether a recruiter reads past your header.
The goal of a resume is not to get you a job. It's to get you an interview. That reframing changes everything: you're not documenting your life, you're marketing the most relevant slice of it.
Pick the right resume format
Three formats matter in 2025. Reverse-chronological (the default, and what 9 out of 10 recruiters expect), functional (skills-first — usually a red flag, avoid unless you have real gaps), and hybrid (a combo of both — great for career changers).
Use reverse-chronological unless you have a specific reason not to. Recruiters are trained to scan it, and ATS software parses it cleanly. We break this down more in our guide to ATS-friendly resumes.
The essential resume sections (in order)
1. Header (contact info)
Name, phone, email, location (city and state is enough), and one link — LinkedIn or your portfolio. That's it. No full street address, no photo (in the US, UK, and Canada), no "References available upon request."
2. Resume summary (not objective)
A 2-3 line pitch at the top. Three sentences max. The formula: who you are + your strongest credential + what you're targeting. Skip the "objective statement" — those died in 2010.
Weak: "Seeking a challenging role in a growing company where I can use my skills."
Strong: "Senior product designer with 8 years shipping B2B SaaS. Led design on three products that crossed $10M ARR. Looking to lead design at a Series B+ startup."
3. Work experience
This is the heart of your resume. For each role: job title, company, dates (month and year), and 3-6 bullet points focused on impact, not duties.
Use the PAR formula: Problem, Action, Result. Or STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. The point is to show what you did and what changed because of it.
Weak: "Responsible for managing the email marketing calendar."
Strong: "Owned the email marketing calendar for a 2M-subscriber list, increasing click-through rate from 2.1% to 3.8% over six months."
Start every bullet with an action verb. Led, Shipped, Grew, Cut, Built, Designed, Launched, Automated, Negotiated, Hired. Quantify wherever you can — numbers are proof.
4. Education
Degree, school, graduation year. If you're more than 3-5 years out of school, keep this short. If you're a recent grad, you can add GPA (if 3.5+), honors, relevant coursework, and projects.
5. Skills
A scannable list. Group by category if it makes sense (Tools, Languages, Frameworks). Be honest about proficiency — claiming "expert" in something you can't answer a basic question about will sink an interview fast.
Optional sections that actually help
- Projects — especially for engineers, designers, and recent grads
- Certifications — only if relevant to the role (PMP, AWS, CPA, etc.)
- Publications or speaking — for academic, research, or thought-leadership roles
- Volunteer work — if it shows transferable skills or fills a gap
How long should your resume be?
One page if you have under 8 years of experience. Two pages if you have more. Three pages only if you're in academia, research, or have a genuinely long senior career. Anything beyond that is self-sabotage.
Formatting rules that matter
- Margins: 0.5–1 inch
- Font size: 10–12pt body, 14–16pt for your name
- Font: anything clean and readable (Inter, Calibri, Georgia, Garamond). Avoid Comic Sans, Papyrus, and anything decorative.
- Save as PDF. Always. Word docs render inconsistently across machines.
Tailor for every application
A generic resume sent to 50 jobs will get fewer interviews than a tailored resume sent to 10. Tailoring isn't rewriting from scratch — it's reordering and rephrasing so the most relevant evidence is impossible to miss.
Three things to change per application: the summary (mention the target role), the bullets (lead with what's most relevant to this job), and the skills (mirror the job description's vocabulary). Twenty minutes per application is plenty.
The final pass
Read it out loud. Every bullet should make sense spoken. If you find yourself tripping over a sentence, rewrite it. Then run a spell check, send it to one trusted person for review, and submit.
That's it. A good resume isn't magic — it's clear writing, real impact, and the discipline to cut anything that doesn't earn its place. ✨