Does your resume speak to employers?

The top of your resume offers your first chance to communicate your strengths; it includes your contact information, followed by a brief summary of your professional experience.

Your Summary is a high-level description, and it should be about 2-4 sentences or 3-5 bullet points.  Lead with a strong statement overviewing of your professional identity such as “Auto mechanic with 5+ years of experience, specializing in electronics and diagnostics.”  Then you can add any of these that are appropriate for you:

• Highlight a professional achievement, and if possible, use numbers in a short phrase such as: Saved 125 hours per project, Increased sales by 15%, or Trained 32 new staff
• Include an example of recognition from leadership, colleagues, or customers
• List any specialized training or skills that are directly related to the job
• Describe how you would uniquely benefit the business or employer

While your Summary reflects your unique strengths, it should also resonate with the employer for the specific job they’re hiring for. The key is to use language that fits the employer’s priorities, and answers the questions identified above. Find language that will resonate with the employer by:

• Reviewing the job description, paying attention to how the employer describes the skills, experience, values, and other qualities they are looking for.
• Researching the organization’s culture and values, current projects, and their preferred terminology, using these tips to conduct employer research.

Learn more about how to craft the Top Section of your resume, and you’re on your way to writing a summary that will really engage the employer’s attention.

Your Work Experience section tells prospective employers about your skills, accomplishments, and personal characteristics that make you right for their position.

• List your work history starting with your current/most recent job, moving backwards in time. For jobs unrelated to your current goal, it’s fine to leave them off or describe them briefly. Aim to include up to the past 10-15 years of work history.
• For each job, include job title, name of the organization you worked for, city and state of the organization, and employment dates. Include 5-8 bullet points that describe important tasks and accomplishments under each job. Aim to keep each bullet point to only one or two lines in length.

To ensure your work descriptions shine, use these tips, and check out an example of a Work Experience section:

• Where feasible, use the same language as the job posting. Include terms from the noted type and years of work experience, technical skills, soft skills, personal qualities, training, credentials, or other.
• Use specifics, including numbers, dollar amounts, and percentages. Don't just say what you did; include why you did it, for whom, and what the outcome was. For example: In first three months of employment, brought in new customized purchasing software to increase consistency in finding the lowest-priced products on the market. Resulted in $57K annual savings.
• Transferable skills matter! On the posting, zoom in on the transferable skills you see the employer looking for, and highlight those you have.  Examples include collaboration, excellent people skills, precision, follow through, etc. This is especially important if you’re applying for a “reach” position, or one in a new field.

The way your resume looks can be almost as important as the content. If a reviewer has trouble quickly scanning or understanding what a resume is saying, they’re likely to dismiss even a qualified candidate. Top frustrations voiced by resume experts include spelling errors, too many different fonts, inconsistent punctuation, or an overall messy layout.

Here are some basic tips to keep your format crisp and clean (find more at Resume formatting):

• Keep it to 1-2 pages. Only use 2 pages if necessary due to your amount of experience.
• Use standard section headings like "Work Experience," "Education," and "Skills" so human readers can find them quickly, and ATS are programmed to look for these.
• Use the same amount of space before and after headings, between bullets, etc. for a clean, uniform look. Use 1-inch margins to allow for white space. 
• Avoid using tables, text boxes, logos, columns, images, and graphics, as ATS may scramble the content.
• Avoid putting important information in the header or footer, since some ATS systems cannot read text placed inside these.

You can find examples of good resume formats on CareerOneStop (or by searching the internet). You can also ask an AI agent like ChatGPT or Claude to format your resume for you (find tips on using AI effectively).

Remember to keep the employer in mind as you format and finalize your resume. Make it easy for them to read and to quickly identify the skills and experience that make you a good fit for their position.