A resume is more than just a summary of your employment history and associated experience, skills, and education; it’s a marketing tool [1]. A recruiter will tend to pass over applicants who provide only the boring basics. Instead, they would rather see your accomplishments and what you can do for the company.
Your resume is the ticket to an interview, so it’s important that your resume template shows the best you possible to a potential employer. Because times change, you can’t simply use the resume you wrote a few years back or, possibly, even last year. Choosing the right format and providing the proper information can land you that interview for your dream job.
The format you choose for your resume is just as important as what information is actually provided within. The way your resume is set up can either help or hinder a potential employer’s ability to quickly scan to see what they’re looking for in a candidate.
Imagine getting between 75 and 250 resumes for one position [2]. There’s no way you’re going to have the time to read each and everyone to select just a few candidates for interviews. Although part of a recruiter’s job is to go through resumes, they have other responsibilities as well. This means that they’ll only be able to scan through resumes and select a handful to read more thoroughly. A properly formatted resume is more likely to be read.
When you don’t choose an appropriate format for the position that you’re applying for, recruiters get a negative impression of you and your ability to do the job, no matter how qualified you may actually be. Not only that, but a recruiter will skim to see if you actually want the specific position within their company rather than just any ol’ job.
Furthermore, an improperly formatted resume looks messy and unprofessional when information isn’t organized into appropriate sections. It can make it difficult for a recruiter to find the specific information that they’re seeking as a good match for the position they’re offering. With more and more employers turning to applicant tracking systems to filter through large numbers of resumes, improper formatting becomes an ATS nightmare that will cause your resume to be dismissed before human eyes ever have a chance to look at it [3].
While there are many formatting options that can be used, these three resume formats are typically the most popular for 2024:
When a resume is written in a reverse-chronological format, your past employment and experience are what stand out. A prospective employer can readily see a progression of your work history and how long you stayed with each company or organization.
When using a reverse-chronological resume, you should include certain sections in the following order:
The functional resume highlights the skill sets that qualify you for the position. You’ll still include your employment history, but the main focus for recruiters is the skills that you bring to the table.
When creating a functional resume, these are the sections to include in the preferred order.
A combination, or hybrid, resume places equal focus on your skills and your job history. The in-depth skills section comes first to grab the potential employer’s attention before showing your previous employment. This format is often used by those with extensive experience in one field to show how they stand out from other applicants or for those who are changing careers that require a similar skill set.
Creating a combination/hybrid resume requires these sections in the following order:
Depending on your situation, you may think that a specific resume format would work better than the others to show off your skills and experience. Honestly, in today’s job market, the reverse-chronological resume is the top choice for just about everyone. This is, in part, because this format gives you the best chance of passing through ATS systems and making its way to human eyes. With other resume formats, ATS may reject your resume on the first pass.
Additionally, recruiters prefer the reverse-chronological resume because it gives them the information they’re looking for in the areas where they expect to see it, making their jobs easier [4]. Instead of looking at other resume styles as a way for you to better showcase your fit with the company, hiring managers see red flags when viewing other formats because they wonder whether you’re trying to hide something.
It can be really helpful to consult with a professional to help you build a resume that works. Right now, we’ll walk you through each resume format, taking into account skills and employment history. However, at the end of the day, we still recommend the reverse-chronological format, and we’re here to help you overcome potential obstacles that you may face in your specific situation.
If you’ve worked in similar fields and have a consistent employment history, you might be tempted to go with a combination/hybrid format for your resume to help you stand out from other applicants. Unfortunately, this style may not pass through ATS, and it’s very difficult to pull off correctly.
Whether you’ve only been working a few years or for decades, the reverse-chronological resume format is going to be your best choice. While recruiters are looking for proof of steady employment over the years, they’re also looking for job progression. They want to see if you’ve changed jobs because you’ve acquired additional skills or if you’ve simply moved laterally from one job to the next. With the reverse-chronological resume, you’re able to tell a story of job growth that potential employers want to see.
Furthermore, the reverse-chronological format makes it easier for recruiters to see your specific work accomplishments so that they know what you can bring to the position. Your short sections of skills can be easily verified with this format. You’ll also avoid the potential red flags that could prevent a recruiter from actually looking at your resume.
Don’t worry—if you feel you have more to offer your prospective employer than other applicants, you can still let your skills and experience shine with a reverse-chronological resume by writing job experience bullet points that reflect your specific skill set. We can help you arrange your skills and employment in the preferred reverse-chronological format to maximize your resume’s impact with recruiters.
In the past, you may have been encouraged to use the functional format for your resume. Unfortunately, these days, it simply makes potential employers wonder why you’re not using a reverse-chronological style. What are you trying to hide? Instead of reading the relevant skills you can provide, they may just pass over your resume completely, especially if they’re limited on time or have other qualified candidates already on the interview list. This is all assuming your functionally formatted resume even makes it past ATS.
Recruiters understand that you may lack an employment history because you’re new to the job market. Instead, they want to see if you’ve been spending your time preparing for entering the workforce rather than goofing off or procrastinating. To the potential employer, what you’ve done in the time before work can tell a lot about what type of employee you’ll be.
You may not know how to use your previous activities in place of work history, but that’s okay. We’ll show you how you can use any volunteer work or completed projects in place of employment in the preferred reverse-chronological format. Fortunately, the career objective near the top of your resume can also be used to your advantage when you have little or no actual work experience.
If you’ve had non-traditional work experience, such as serving in the military, or you have career gaps, you might think the combination/hybrid format will work best for you. This will allow you to showcase the skills you’ve gained that are relevant to the position you’re applying for while then providing evidence for those skills with your previous experience.
While this resume type does have advantages in cases such as these, you should still be concerned if you try to use this style. It’s very difficult to make a combination/hybrid resume look professional and to use the appropriate keywords to draw the reader in. Furthermore, this format typically won’t make it past the first ATS scan. Also, many potential employers will assume you have something you’re trying to hide when you use a different format. Why put all of your thoughtful work to waste if someone isn’t going to be able to get their hands on your resume and read it?
It is more than possible to place your accomplishments and work skills in a chronological order that’s easy for recruiters to skim. We can help you make the most of your abilities using the reverse-chronological format in a way that fits with the proposed job position. Additionally, an attention-grabbing career objective can effectively highlight your skill set to portray you as a valuable asset to the company or organization.
In addition to the basic resume formats described, you need to think about formatting your information for visual appeal and ease of access to specific key points. The best way to do this is to put yourself in the shoes of the recruiter. What layout will be the easiest to get the information across as quickly and organized as possible? Remember that hiring personnel only take about six or seven seconds to gather information from your resume, so it’s vital to make your important information easy to access [5].
Although you want to stand out, the layout isn’t the place to get over-the-top creative. If your information isn’t organized or set up in a logical sequence, would you want to waste your time reading it when you have so many other documents to sort through? In all truthfulness, you’d probably give up on that resume and move on to someone else with an easier-to-read document.
Let’s walk through the following points to keep in mind when creating your resume:
The design of your resume determines whether someone will continue to read it after the introductory six-to-seven-second skim. It will help if you remember these key principles in formatting:
To professionalize your resume, begin by using one-inch margins and single or 1.5-inch spacing in between each section. If you need more space, you can reduce the margins to 0.75; however, avoid using less than 0.50 of an inch because it’s too crowded and information can get lost through ATS translation.
You can choose serif or sans serif for your font, but stick with just one in a style that’s not too cramped or ornate. As a good rule of thumb, you can aim between 10- and 12- point font throughout the document, though you can increase font size for your name, title, and section headers.
Adding a splash of color gives personality and highlights pertinent information. Using the company’s main color can be a plus and subtly demonstrates your initiative to research the company. Also, take advantage of bullet points, but use simple, round bullets because other characters may not translate well through ATS.
Recruiters have clear expectations of what they expect a resume to look like and what should be included within it. First and foremost, your contact information and job title should be the first thing they see; they shouldn’t have to hunt for it. Include your name, job title, phone number, and a professional-sounding email address. Unfortunately, [email protected] can land your resume in the trash bin before the recruiter reads any further.
Keep your resume to one page, and use a recognized file format, preferably pdf. An appropriate amount of white space breaks up the content into easy-to-find sections. Use bold font or underline the font for section headers. Increasing header fonts to 12 or 14 provides contrast that makes them easier to spot. If you don’t have a lot of color in the rest of the document, consider using it in header text.
Along with color and font style, you have some leeway on being creative with your sections. However, you need to format with both yourself and the potential employer in mind. If you work in a professional field, your resume should demonstrate this through its layout as well as the wording you choose. On the other hand, an artist may look for a more creative approach, though professionalism will always be king.
Don’t just list your job title or job duties at your previous places of employment. Use action words that promote achievement in a way that is factual and quantifiable, such as with numbers, percentages, or dollar amounts.
Editing and proofreading are essential. Recruiters believe you’re going to put your best effort into a resume, so be sure that it’s free of errors and is grammatically correct. If there are any typos in a document that’s supposed to show you at your best, they’ll assume you’ll make even more mistakes when you’re on the job. You only have one chance to make a good first impression.
If all of this sounds complicated, it’s because it can be. That’s why our free resume checker will enable you to show your best self while still portraying the level of professionalism that recruiters expect to see.
This line cook resume includes all you’ll need in a successful resume format, and by clicking below, you can start editing your own copy now:
