How to Write your First Real World Resume
Okay so raise your hand if you ever tried writing a resume but had no idea what the eff you were doing?
I’ve been there.
As a first-gen college student, I really had to make a lot of stuff up as I went, so when I look back at my past resumes I cringe a little at all the little things I just had no idea about and I’m sure i’m not alone.
After realizing that if I intended to create a meaningful career for myself I had to get my ish together, I dedicated myself to finding out everything I could to help me get my foot in the door of my dream companies.
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That two-year journey eventually led to my tutoring college students on how to make their resumes stand out. Since then I’ve learned a lot and you know what the biggest things that I’ve noticed? There isn’t enough specific resume advice that will let you know the nitty-gritty of crafting a resume you love.
We all get the templates and are just expected to fill them in, but what should you include? Or what’s a big no-no?
Well, look no further because in this article I’m going to be sharing exactly what you need to fill out your resume from start to finish.
Pick a resume template that suits your needs:
There are tons of resume templates out there and I hate to be that person, but most of them are TRASH, so you need to be extremely picky about which one you end up using because whichever one you choose will ultimately be the biggest factor in formatting and writing space which are crucial in creating a successful resume.
For professional career resumes, I would recommend using a resume template from big universities like Harvard or Yale. For people with careers that are more creative or flexible, I would recommend using free templates from Canva.
Makes sure that any resume you end up using has all of these:
Enough writing space to write insightful bullet points
Not too many graphic elements (they won’t make it past automated resume readers!)
Not distracting to look at
Sections that are relevant to your career interest and industry
Correct length for your experience level ( 1 page maximum for early and mid-career)
Pick your most relevant positions to highlight:
Once you’ve settled on a resume template that has everything you need, How do you even decided what to put on there? Well, every resume should be customized to the type of jobs/ industries you are trying to target.
You’ll want to check the job description and posting of any positions you might be interested in and pick 3-4 experiences that highlight the specific skills that they are looking for. (DO NOT just rewrite all the skills they listed on your resume, it’s very obvious when you do!) Focus on keywords that you find and use those to integrate or highlight in your bullet points on your resume. It looks way more organic than copy and pasting all their desired skills, that way automated tracking system can scope out those keywords but also the recruiter who will eventually be looking at your resume doesn’t feel like you just lazily copied their job posting.
When trying to make a connection between the skills they have listed and what you choose to put on your resume this doesn’t have to be a direct translation for each job but be mindful of transferable skills such as communication skills you might have learned from a service job or management skills you learned from leading a team project.
The most important thing is not regurgitating what you think they want but being able to figure out how does the experience you have translate to the skills that they are looking for. Anything can be experienced if you know how to talk about it!
These are the key things you want to ensure are on your resume
At Least 3 work experience that has transferable skills to the job you're interested in
Your most recent education level
Your Hard Skills (software skills, languages, certifications)
Any Certifications or Awards you may have
Your Past Job Outcomes/ Accomplishments (whether formal or informal!)
Describe what your results were for each position
Now, this is absolutely crucial, once you’ve decided on 2-4 positions that highlight the relevant skills needed for the job and additional accomplishments like skills and awards, you’ll want to ensure that your bullet points are written in a way to highlight what you accomplished. Here is how I like to format my bullet points utilizing the SAR Method.
Bullet point one: Describe what the job entails (what were you expected to do)
Bullet point two: Describe what you did on a daily basis (your most frequent tasks)
Bullet point three: Describe how you added value to the workplace, e.g how many people did you serve, how did you meet or exceed expectations, what improvements did you make, what tangible end products do you have to show?
Think about it this way: if you weren't there what wouldn’t get done?
Here’s how bullet points using the SAR format would look:
Go over grammar and formatting:
Lastly, you want to make sure the grammar and format are clean and legible and not too distracting or incorrect. One important thing to note is that you want to keep the formatting consistent throughout so your resume looks seamless. This means if you put your dates in italics then all your dates should be in italics, if one of your headings is in 14 pt font then all of them should be. Just make sure that what stylistic choices you make you keep them throughout.
Things to look out for in formatting
Make sure you write your dates all the same way (be wary of using long dashes and short dashes interchangeably!)
Start each new sentence with a capital letter
Keep font style and size consistent throughout
Keep your punctuation consistence
Use only past tense or present tense (no -ing verbs!)
So there you have it! How to write a resume from start to finish. I hope this article was helpful and remember that building professional skills takes time, but it’s all about being persistent and finding tiny ways to improve. If you can I would recommend having your resume peer-reviewed if you can because it will allow someone else to pick up on weird tone changes or grammar that you might overlook. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to answer them!
