How to write a good resume

A recruiter spends about 7 seconds on a first look at a resume, and many companies run it through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a person sees it at all. A good resume is easy for both to read: clear sections, specific achievements and the words the job ad uses.

1. Structure your sections

Use standard section names in a sensible order, so readers and ATS software find everything where they expect it.

Recommended order (experienced): Contact → Summary → Experience → Skills → Education → Projects / Certifications → Optional extras.

Recommended order (student or career changer): Contact → Summary → Education → Projects → Experience → Skills → Optional extras.

Contact details

• Full name, professional title, phone, email, city and country (a full street address is not needed).
• LinkedIn and, where relevant, a portfolio, GitHub or personal website.
• Use a professional email address (firstname.lastname@…), not a nickname.
• Keep contact details in the body of the page, not in a header or footer, which some ATS skip.

Summary

• 2–4 lines at the top that say who you are, what you are good at and what you are aiming for.
• Lead with your title and years of experience, then one or two headline achievements or strengths.
• Hard-working team player looking for an opportunity to grow.
• Backend engineer with 5 years in fintech, specialising in Node.js and PostgreSQL. Cut payment latency 40% at Acme and led a team of 4.

Experience

• List jobs in reverse chronological order (most recent first).
• For each role: job title, company, location (or Remote), start and end dates, then 3–6 bullet points.
• Give recent and relevant roles the most bullets; older roles can have 1–2 or be dropped.
• Internships, freelance work and substantial volunteering count as experience.

Education

• Degree, institution, dates (or graduation year) and, if strong, your grade or GPA.
• Students can add relevant coursework, thesis title, honours and awards.
• Once you have a few years of experience, education moves below experience and gets shorter.

Skills

• Group skills so they are easy to scan: e.g. Languages, Frameworks, Tools, Soft skills.
• List skills you could discuss in an interview — anything listed is fair game.
• Use the exact names employers use (e.g. "JavaScript", "Microsoft Excel", "Google Analytics").
• Avoid rating bars and percentages ("Python 80%"): ATS cannot read them and recruiters don't trust them.

Optional sections

• Projects: great for students, career changers and technical roles. Treat them like jobs: what you built, with what, and the result.
• Certifications, awards, publications, languages, volunteering: include them when they are relevant to the job.
• Interests: only if short and genuinely interesting or relevant; skip them if space is tight.
• References: usually leave them out — employers ask for them when they need them. Include them only if the job ad asks.

2. Write strong bullet points

Every bullet should show impact, not just duties. Use this formula:

Examples

• Responsible for the company website.
• Rebuilt the company website in Next.js, cutting page load time from 4.1s to 1.2s and raising sign-ups 18%.
• Helped customers with their problems.
• Resolved 40+ customer tickets a day with a 96% satisfaction score, the highest on a team of 12.
• Worked on marketing campaigns.
• Planned and ran 6 email campaigns that generated $120k in pipeline in one quarter.
• Did data analysis for the sales team.
• Built a Power BI dashboard tracking 30 sales KPIs, saving managers 5 hours of reporting a week.

Rules for bullets

• Start with a strong action verb in the past tense for past roles (present tense for your current role).
• Quantify results: money, percentages, time saved, volume, team size, users, rankings.
• No exact number? Show scale or frequency ("weekly", "across 3 regions", "for 200+ users") or a before/after ("from manual to fully automated").
• One idea per bullet, ideally 1–2 lines (about 15–30 words).
• Drop "I", "my" and "we" — resumes are written in the implied first person.
• Avoid "Responsible for", "Helped with", "Worked on" — they describe duties, not achievements.

Action verbs to start with

• Leadership: Led, Directed, Managed, Mentored, Coordinated, Spearheaded
• Building: Built, Designed, Developed, Launched, Created, Implemented
• Improving: Improved, Streamlined, Automated, Optimised, Reduced, Accelerated
• Results: Increased, Grew, Delivered, Generated, Achieved, Won
• Analysis: Analysed, Evaluated, Researched, Forecast, Identified, Tested
• Communication: Presented, Negotiated, Trained, Wrote, Persuaded, Partnered

3. Tailor it to the job description

Sending the same resume everywhere is the most common reason good candidates get filtered out. Spend 10 minutes tailoring it for each application.

How to match keywords for ATS

1. 1Copy the job description and highlight the hard skills, tools, certifications and job titles it mentions — especially anything repeated or listed under "requirements".
2. 2Check which of those words already appear in your resume. Paste the job description into the ATS check to see matched and missing keywords.
3. 3Add missing keywords where they are true — in your skills section and, better, inside bullets that show you using them.
4. 4Use the employer's exact wording: if the ad says "project management", don't only write "managed projects".
5. 5Write acronyms both ways at least once: "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)", "Amazon Web Services (AWS)".
6. 6Match your headline or summary to the job title you are applying for when it honestly fits.

Tailoring beyond keywords

• Reorder bullets so the ones most relevant to this job come first.
• Adjust your summary to the role and industry.
• Cut or shorten experience that is not relevant to make room for what is.

What not to do

• Don't paste the job description into your resume or hide keywords in white text — ATS and recruiters catch it.
• Don't claim skills you don't have; interviews will test them.
• Don't overload the skills section with 50 buzzwords — keep it to what matters for the role.

4. Common mistakes to avoid

• Walls of text: long paragraphs are skipped. Use short bullets, white space and clear headings.
• Vague claims: "excellent communicator", "results-driven", "detail-oriented" mean nothing without proof. Show it with a result instead.
• Listing duties instead of achievements: say what changed because you were there.
• Inconsistent formatting: mixed date formats (Jan 2022 vs 01/2022), different bullet styles, uneven spacing or random bold text look careless. Pick one style and use it everywhere.
• Typos and grammar errors: a single typo can cost an interview. Proofread, read it aloud, use a spell checker and ask someone else to check it.
• Unexplained jargon and internal acronyms: write for someone outside your company.
• Outdated or irrelevant content: high-school details once you have a degree, jobs from 15+ years ago, or skills like "Microsoft Word" for a senior role.
• Unprofessional details: a jokey email address, a photo where it isn't expected (US, UK, Canada, Australia), age, marital status or religion.
• Too long or too short: don't cram everything in, but don't leave a half-empty page either.
• Hard-to-parse design: text inside images, tables, text boxes, headers or footers can be lost by ATS. When applying online, a single-column template is the safest choice.

5. Formatting and length

One page or two?

• One page: students, graduates and anyone with under ~5–7 years of experience.
• Two pages: experienced professionals with 7+ years of relevant work, or senior roles. Fill at least half of the second page.
• Longer: only for academic CVs (publications, grants, teaching) and some government applications.
• Never shrink the font or margins below the limits below just to fit onto one page — cut content instead.

Fonts and sizes

• Use one or two clean, standard fonts (e.g. Inter, Lato, Roboto, Source Serif, Merriweather, Garamond).
• Body text: 10–12 pt. Section headings: 12–14 pt. Your name: 18–28 pt.
• Use bold for job titles and headings only; use italics sparingly.

Margins and spacing

• Margins: 0.5–1 inch (1.3–2.5 cm) on all sides.
• Leave clear space between sections and between jobs, with consistent spacing throughout.
• Line spacing of 1.0–1.15 keeps text readable without wasting space.

Dates, files and details

• Use one date format everywhere (e.g. "Jan 2022 – Present").
• Right-align or consistently place dates so they are easy to scan.
• Save and send as a PDF unless the employer asks for Word. Name the file clearly: Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.
• Keep colours for accents only and make sure the resume still reads well in black and white.

6. Final checklist

• Contact details are complete, correct and in the page body.
• The summary is 2–4 lines and matches the job you want.
• Every bullet starts with an action verb and most include a number or clear result.
• Keywords from the job description appear naturally in your skills and bullets.
• Dates, bullets, fonts and spacing are consistent throughout.
• The resume is 1 page (or 2 if you have 7+ years of relevant experience).
• No typos: spell-checked, read aloud and checked by someone else.
• Saved as a PDF with a clear file name.