From the course: A Career Strategist's Guide to Getting a Job

How to write a resume

From the course: A Career Strategist's Guide to Getting a Job

How to write a resume

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- You're now officially ready to construct or update your resume, and I'm going to take you on a quick section by section walk through the process. So here's what I would do. You, of course, have your contact information at the top of the resume. Next, I recommend that you create a headline that accurately and loudly introduces you, with your target audience in mind. Use job titles or phrases that point you toward the roles that you're most interested in. Then, construct a summary or an overview section. Here's where you lay out who you are as a professional and what you specialize in, again, with your target job in mind. In other words, here's where you spell out your professional brand and you tell that reader, "hey, look, I'm exactly what you're looking for." After the summary, consider adding a key skills or an areas of expertise section. This is your opportunity to make your resume rich in the key words that you're seeing within those job descriptions that catch your eye. It also creates a really easy way for recruiters to see the stuff that you're good at. And, obviously, you want to showcase skills that are specifically relevant to the jobs that you're pursuing. Don't overload this section. You can absolutely swap words in and out, depending on the job that you're applying for. Okay, moving into the professional experience section. This is how I recommend you set it up. For each job, spell out what you were hired or promoted to do and the overarching nature of that job. And then, create a subsection and showcase a few key accomplishments. And if you can, choose ones that align with the key themes that you've just laid out in your summary section. This way, they'll serve as supporting evidence to those themes. And last, list education, certifications, volunteer work, and any other relevant info. I would list these at the end unless your educational background gives you a decided advantage for the roles that you're pursuing or if the education explains something like a career gap or lack of experience. The key point as you create or update your resume is this, hard angle it right to the types of job you're trying to land. The easier you make it for people to understand how you line up, the better the odds are that they'll want to talk.

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