How to Create an Awesome Resume From Scratch

After talking with recruiters and hiring managers I’ve changed my mind on how best to approach writing a resume. In this post, I’m going to show you some of the best practices I’ve learned. This will be particularly useful for college graduates and others who are early in their careers.

The goal here is to put a resume across HR’s desk that is easily scan-able and shows you have the chops to “make the cut.” After college, I originally started out creating “unique” resumes that would set me apart with beautiful typography and personal branding to signal that I understood both the business and the creative side. I spent hours creating the perfect layout. Turns out that was the wrong approach. Use your time to focus on great content, not a pretty layout.

Stick to One-Page

If you’ve seen the desk of an internal recruiter it’s usually a mess of manila folders and stacks of resumes with various notes scrawled across them. If you’re early in your career, with between 0-3 jobs under your belt you don’t really have the content that warrants multiple pages. Having multiple pages that need to be stapled together gets messy when your resume is distributed across the organization. And the second page is bound to get lost.

Academics can ignore this advice and go hog wild with multi-page resumes detailing research projects and dissertations.

Follow a Logical Layout

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Coming up with your own system will only cause people to miss information as they have to search for it. Your resume only gets a moment of attention.

At the top of the page on line 1, you should have your name centered. Underneath that, on the next line put your address, cell phone number, and your email address, also centered. Make sure this fits on one line. If not reduce your font size (but try not to go below 10 pt or else it will be difficult to read.) We want to make sure this info is included, but that it doesn’t take up too much space and steal real estate from your accomplishments.

Ideally, it looks something like the below. I’ll include a template as an update to this post later so you can easily plug in your own information.

John Smith

123 Wallaby Terrace, New York, NY 10001 – 610-200-1000 – jsmith@gmail.com

Next, include your most recent role. If this is your first job, then this is your college experience. You’ll want to include the month and year you started and the month and year you ended. If you’re still these use “present.” Next, you’ll add your job title and company name. All entries should follow this same format:

May 2015 – present Securities Analyst JP Morgan Chase

Responsible for lorem ipsum – here put a paragraph on your general responsibilities so that those scanning your resume can understand your job responsibilities at a glance.

• Achieved 99% accuracy with the widget process by doing x, y, and z.
• Put your accomplishments in bulleted form and be sure to make sure they are measurable
• Three at least. Be sure to mention how you achieved said goals.
• Four is the recommended number

Use plenty of verbs and action words to make your resume shine

• Achieved
• Coordinated
• Delivered
• Drove
• Designed
• Developed
• Formed
• Implemented
• Spearheaded
• Overhauled
• Updated
• Transformed
• Headed
• Oversaw
• Advised

It’s even better if your word choice suggests responsibility and leadership of other people and process. Of course, don’t lie and claim to be responsible for something you weren’t’.

Responsibilities show you can perform a job well and take on more

Here you want to convey that you understand the role you were in, did a good job and received additional responsibilities as a result of your hard work. Easy right? You want to be perceived as a “value-add” person that can make things better.

Resume Don’ts

• Don’t include interests if they are not relevant. Hiring managers don’t care if you like knitting and the New York Yankees
• Don’t lie about your role or what you accomplished. In most professions, it is a small world. You might get away with it. Many people build their whole career on lies. But get found out and poof goes your chances at an interview. Quite a few companies will pull offers and even terminate if they find a hint of lies in your qualifications.
• Don’t think too highly of yourself. It’s important to come off as confident and competent but don’t make the hiring manager roll her eyes when you dolled up some responsibility to be greater than it is, or say you managed a 50-person team when it’s clear that you didn’t. They’ll see right through it.