1. Choose the right resume structure
For almost every applicant the reverse-chronological structure wins: contact details, a short professional summary, work experience newest first, education, skills, then optional sections such as projects and certificates. Recruiters scan in that order, and applicant tracking systems parse it most reliably. Use a functional or hybrid structure only if you are changing careers and your job titles hide your relevant strengths.
2. Get the contact header right
Full name, job title, city and country, phone, a professional email address, and a LinkedIn URL. Skip your full street address, date of birth and marital status. If your work is visual or technical, add a portfolio or GitHub link. Keep every link clickable in the exported PDF so a recruiter can reach your profile in one tap.
3. Write a professional summary that earns the next 10 seconds
Two or three lines, written in the third person without pronouns: your role, years of experience, your strongest domain, and one measurable achievement. Example: 'Supply chain analyst with 6 years in FMCG logistics. Cut regional delivery costs 18% by rebuilding the carrier tendering model.' Rewrite this summary for each job family you apply to — it is the highest-leverage paragraph on the page.
4. Turn duties into achievement bullets
Every work-experience bullet should follow action verb + what you did + measurable result. 'Responsible for social media' becomes 'Grew organic Instagram reach from 4k to 61k monthly by shipping a weekly short-form video format.' Aim for three to five bullets per recent role and one or two for older ones. Numbers, percentages, timeframes and budget sizes make a bullet credible; adjectives do not.
5. List skills honestly, and rate them
Split hard skills (tools, languages, frameworks, certifications) from soft skills, and keep the list tight — twelve well-chosen skills beat forty generic ones. Rating each skill from beginner to expert tells a hiring manager where you actually sit instead of leaving them to guess, and it makes screening interviews far shorter.
6. Add education, certificates and projects
Put education after experience once you have two or more years of work behind you. Include degree, institution and year; add grades only if they are strong and recent. Certificates deserve their own section with name and year. Projects are the best way to show capability when your job history is thin — describe the problem, your role, the stack, and the outcome.
7. Format for ATS and for humans
Use a single-column or clean sidebar layout, standard section headings, a readable 10–11pt body font, and consistent date formats. Avoid text inside images, tables and text boxes — parsers drop them. Export as PDF with selectable text rather than a flattened image, and never split one job, project or education entry across two pages.
8. Tailor, proofread, and name the file properly
Mirror the vocabulary of the job advert in your summary and skills — if it says 'stakeholder management', do not write 'people wrangling'. Read the resume aloud to catch tense and spacing errors, keep tenses consistent (present for the current role, past for the rest), and save the file as Firstname-Lastname-Role.pdf.
Common resume mistakes to avoid
- One generic resume sent to every posting.
- Bullets that list responsibilities with no outcome.
- Three pages of history for a five-year career.
- Decorative fonts, photos where they are not customary, and unreadable colour contrast.
- Typos in the contact details — the fastest way to never hear back.
How long should a resume be?
One page for under ten years of experience, two pages beyond that, and longer only for academic CVs. If you need a second page, make sure it starts with a complete entry rather than an orphaned bullet — pagination that splits a single job in half looks careless.
Choosing a resume template
Pick the layout that matches your field: classic and minimal for finance, law and government; modern or sidebar for tech, design and marketing; compact when you have a long history to fit. Keep one accent colour, one heading font and one body font. PDF Resume Maker ships seven typeset templates you can switch between at any time without re-typing anything.