How to Write the Perfect Resume

This article will walk you through the different sections to include in your resume and provide you with tips to write the best resume that will help your candidacy get noticed.

Admittedly, there isn’t a perfect resume, as a quick google search will show that there are many different ways to structure it, for example some have a summary while others don’t or some have the name on the center, others on the side. However, there are some best practices that you can follow to maximize your changes of getting to the next step of the recruitment process.

Resume Writing Structure

First, starting with the basics, when it comes to formatting keep it simple, using the same font and a dark text color is a safe bet. When it comes to size, the recommendation is one page. It can be longer than one page if you’re in academia, or if you have several years of experience. However, if you’re a student or a recent graduate, try aim for one page.

There’s no need for paragraphs or long sentences. Bullet points that are clear and concise are usually preferred. Put yourself into the shoes of the recruiter who reads resumes every day, the last thing they want is a dense piece of text, which will just lose their attention quickly.

As for the structure of the resume, if you’re a student this is the structure you should follow:

• Contact details
• Education
• Work Experience
• Leadership and Awards
• Additional Information

If you’re an experienced professional and it’s been a few years since you’ve left education, then you should have work experience at the top, and education lower down. The article will cover each section and what you should include in more detail later. Overall, the idea is to have what takes up the most of your time on the top. So, if you’re a full-time worker, work experience would go at the top, if you’re a student then it would be the education section first.

The structure above is the most common structure of a resume, but there are many different ways to construct it. For example, if you don’t have any leadership experience don’t include that section. Alternatively, if you have very little work experience because you’re still young, and your resume looks empty, just include a summary profile on top, where you highlight your skills and accomplishments in around 3 sentences, as that will make your resume look fuller.

Overall, remember that the resume is your pitch, and you want to make yourself look as attractive as possible, so you can add or omit sections depending on what makes you look like the best candidate you can be.

Let’s get into the details for each section:

Contact Details

Contact details is a fairly straight forward part. Your name should be in big, then your physical address, a profession email (remember it should be a professional one with your name!) and then your phone number. It is also increasingly popular to add a link to your LinkedIn, so you can consider that if you think your LinkedIn profile is strong.

‍Education

If you’re currently a student or a recent graduate, you should put your university first, with a location and an expected graduation date. You should also include a bullet point with your major, your concentration, and grades, as well as any achievements, such as if you got onto the dean’s list. Then include your high school, or your university exchange if you did one.

It is optional to put your high school, so only include it if it enhances your application. If you don’t have much to write about in other sections, such as work experience, it can be useful to go into more detail about high school and university to fill the space.

Lastly, you could include a relevant coursework section, this is especially useful to tailor your resume to the role you’re applying for and demonstrate your knowledge.

Work Experience

In this section you should list your roles in reverse chronological order, so your most recent job at the top. You want to include the name of your employer, your title, and the dates you worked there.

For the description of each role:

• Use bullet points, there's no need to have full sentences
• Use action words, like conducted, created, generated etc.
• Quantify things, by adding precise details of numbers and tasks

For example, instead of saying:

• “I was responsible for creating a marketing campaign to sell more products”
• Instead say “created a marketing campaign that increased sale revenue by 40% year on year”

The second sentence is to the point, it’s got action words, it quantifies and generally gives the recruiter more perspective on your responsibilities.

A good tip is to read the job description and look for keywords. Many companies have applicant tracking systems, which filter by certain keywords tailored to the job description. Thus, to ensure you’re not filtered out by a machine, scan the job description for the most relevant keywords and make sure to include them to help you resume pass that initial screening.

For the bullet points, try to use the XYZ formula. Essentially, it means:

“Accomplished X, as measured by Y, by doing Z”.

If you’re a sales rep for instance, it could be “grew subscriptions by 20% month on month, by pitching new product features”, where the accomplishment is the subscription growth, the measurement is the 20% month on month, and the pitching new product features is the doing.

Overall, the bullet points should be consistent, so either the same number for each job, or a decreasing number where your most recent job has 3, then the next one has 2 and so on.

If you feel like you have no relevant experience because you’re quite young, it’s still better to include bartending or tutoring than nothing. At the end of the day, these roles will show your work ethic and you’ll be able to demonstrate transferable skills.

Leadership and Awards

This segment can include anything you think is of merit from winning chess competitions, to volunteering work or being president of a school club. It could also include educational courses, such as a public speaking program, or a conference you attended. The same framework as the experience section applies here, so you can keep using the XYZ structure.

For example, if you’re the president of your school math club, one bullet point could be:

• “Increased the club’s national rankings by 25 positions after winning the municipal tournament by developing a rigorous calculus training program”

If you don’t have much to say in this section, you can always omit. It’s about what makes you look best in the resume.

Additional Information

Finally, we have the additional information section. There are no clear guidelines here, but you could add the languages you speak, your interests, your extracurricular activities, and any links you think are relevant etc.

This segment is often overlooked, but it is a great way to differentiate yourself from other competitive candidates. For example, maybe you played for the same football club as your recruiter, or maybe you both speak Italian, and through this you can connect. It can really make a difference, so it’s worth taking seriously and not putting something just to please the recruiter. If your interests are studying, reading and financial modelling it won’t come across as very genuine.

Final Remarks

Remember for a resume you want to play to your strengths, if you’re good at something highlight it, if you’re weak in something else, then there’s no need to include it. You have full control over what is on the resume.

Do you need to update your resume for each application you send? It’s advisable to have a couple of different resumes. If you’re a business student interest in banking, accounting, and real estate, then try to have three different resumes which are tailored to that field. Whilst many people advise that you tailor your resume to each application, realistically if you’re applying to 50 roles, that will take a while. Also, within sectors jobs require similar skills, for example, for an accounting role at any of the Big Four you could likely use the same resume.

Additional Resources

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