A resume is a one-to-two-page document that summarises your work history, education and skills for a specific job. A good one matches the language of the job description, uses a clean layout and leads with your strongest qualifications. If you apply through a job portal, software parses it into structured fields and ranks it before a person reads a word.
What sections does a resume need?
Five carry the document: a contact header with your name, phone, email and LinkedIn; a professional summary of two or three sentences; work experience in reverse-chronological order; education; and skills.
Certifications, projects and languages are worth adding when they relate to the role you are applying for. Add them for that reason rather than to fill the page.
How do you write a professional summary?
Two or three sentences covering your title, your years of experience and your strongest result.
Marketing analyst with four years of experience in e-commerce growth. Increased organic traffic by 40% at a Series B startup using SEO and content strategy.
Rewrite it for each job. The summary is the one part of the page a recruiter definitely reads, so it should answer the posting in front of them rather than describe you in general.
How do you list work experience?
Most recent job first. For each role give the company, your title, the dates with month and year, and three to five bullets.
Open every bullet with an action verb and put a number in it wherever you honestly can. "Reduced customer onboarding time by 30%" tells a hiring manager something. "Responsible for onboarding" does not.
What skills should you list?
List hard skills: tools, programming languages, certifications, anything the job description names. Soft skills add little unless the posting asks for them specifically. Where you have the skill, mirror the exact wording from the posting, because keyword filters match strings rather than meanings.
Which hard skills carry weight is entirely field-dependent, and guessing costs you. In accounting it is the software and the specific returns you have filed, which the accountant resume example sets out. In automation engineering it is the PLC brand and series rather than the phrase "PLC programming", covered in the electrical engineer resume example. In performance marketing it is the budget you managed and the campaign types you ran, covered in the digital marketer resume example.
Each profession page lists the literal terms that role is screened on. Browse them at resume examples by profession.
How do you format a resume?
Pick one readable font and stay with it: Calibri, Inter or Garamond at 10 to 12 point. Keep heading sizes consistent, margins at about an inch, and background colours off the page. Save as PDF unless the posting asks for .docx.
Keep tables, columns and text boxes out of any section the parser needs to read. If you want a layout with more character than that, check whether a person or a portal will open it first, which ATS vs designer résumé walks through.
The editor handles the formatting side of this for you and shows a live ATS score while you type. It is free, with no login and no watermark on the download.
Free, no account, and the fixes are listed in plain words rather than as a number.
Frequently asked
- What sections should every resume have?
- Every resume needs a contact header, a professional summary, work experience, education, and skills. Optional sections include certifications, projects, and languages depending on your field.
- How long should a resume be?
- One page is ideal for candidates with fewer than 10 years of experience. Two pages are acceptable for senior professionals with extensive relevant history.
- Should I use a resume template?
- Yes. A clean template ensures consistent formatting, passes ATS scans, and saves time. PaperKit offers ATS-friendly templates you can fill in online without creating an account.