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11.1 Writing A Resume

Learning objective

By the end of this checkpoint, you should be able to create a resume that's tailored to your desired job.

Overview​

In most cases, your resume is an employer’s first introduction to you. Employers use it to—in just a few seconds—determine if they want to interview you for a specific job opening at their company… or not.

The good news is that there’s a lot that you can do to ensure that your resume highlights the qualifications that employers are looking for and showcases you in the best way possible.

This checkpoint covers how employers review resumes, what you should include in your resume, how to tailor your resume to every job listing, and how to make your resume attractive and easy to read.

Applicant tracking systems​

Before you start to write your resume, it’s helpful to understand what applicant tracking systems (ATS) are and how they work.

ATS are software applications that electronically scan your resume for certain keywords and phrases to see if they’re a match for a specific job listing. Employers often use ATS at the first stage of the hiring process to filter out resumes (and, therefore, candidates) who don’t seem like they’re qualified for the job that they’re applying to.

The keywords and phrases that the ATS are scanning for are usually based on the qualifications listed in the job description. This means that it’s ineffective to use the same resume for every job that you apply to; rather, it’s essential to tailor your resume to each job, based on its listing. Otherwise, you may be rejected, even if you’re qualified.

The next section of this checkpoint details how to best tailor each section of your resume to a specific job listing—ensuring that everything that you include in your resume is intentional, relevant, and transferable. Meaning: there is no fluff or filler and the skills and experience that you include are either directly related to the job that you’re applying to or are useful in the job that you’re applying to.

Resume components​

While every resume is different, all resumes should include most or all of the sections described below.

Contact information​

Always list your contact information at the top of your resume. Include:

  • Your first and last name.
  • Your city and state of residence (don’t include your full address).
  • Your phone number.
  • Your email address.
  • The URL to your LinkedIn, personal website or portfolio, or GitHub profile (always use the shortened version of the URL; for example “myurl.com” instead of “http://myurl.com.”).

Summary​

Immediately following your contact information, include a 1-3 line summary that tells employers who you are and what skills you offer. For example, “Front-end developer who’s proficient in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I also have 5 years of experience in physics, which helps me logically and methodically solve problems, and an interest in design, which ensures that my websites are both beautiful and user-friendly.”

Your summary should:

  • Introduce yourself using the title of the job that you’re applying to.
  • List your relevant qualifications and skills.
  • Highlight something interesting or transferable about your background.

This focuses your resume and immediately communicates to employers that it’s worthwhile for them to continue considering you.

Skills​

Next, include 9-15 of your top relevant skills. Organize them as categorized lists, like this:




Or as a bulleted list, like this:




If you’re applying to a specific job listing, include skills that you have that the job listing cites in its required skills section or equivalent.

If there isn’t a specific job listing to refer to, look at a dozen job listings for the same kind of job and identify the common skills that these listings cite. Include those as the skills in your skills section (as long as you actually have those skills).

To see a curated list of possible skills that you can include, click here then select the appropriate program.

Projects​

Include 2-4 personal or PMcademy capstones that showcase your best work. Your projects often showcase your most relevant experience so it's important to highlight them prominently on your resume. Projects help employers see your relevant skills in action and increase your chances of getting past Applicant Tracking Systems. (Note: it’s okay if you’re still in the process of developing your projects. For now, include what you do have, then update your resume and you refine and complete more projects.)

For each project, include:

  • The project’s name.
  • A URL to the project, if it can be viewed online.
  • A 1-line description of the project.
  • The skills that you used to build the project.

For example:

Friend Finder | github.com/username/friend-finder

  • Developed a mobile app that helps users meet people in their area with similar interests.

  • Built using JavaScript, React, HTML, and CSS.

Start each bullet with an action verb, like “developed,” “created,” “led,” or “managed.” (You can see other examples of action verbs here.)

Experience​

The purpose of your experience section is two-fold. You want to show employers that:

  • You have relevant and transferable experience.
  • You don't just do your job—you get results.

This means that you should be strategic about what you include. You don't need to include every past task or responsibility. Rather, you should focus on your relevant and transferable accomplishments within your previous jobs.

For each past job, include:

  • Your job title.
  • The company’s name.
  • The city and state that you worked in.
  • The dates that you worked that job.
  • A bulleted list of your accomplishments.

The bulleted list of your accomplishments should focus on what you achieved, not on what you were assigned. For example, “Drove the high-quality and on-time completion of 14 software development projects, using both predictive and adaptive development strategies” is a lot more impressive than “Responsible for project management.”

Because you want to tailor your resume to a job listing, it can be helpful to think of the skills that you want to highlight for each of your past jobs, then write your accomplishments with those skills in mind.

Similar to your projects, each accomplishment should start with an action verb. Aim to use an active voice instead of a passive voice; for example “led the quarterly review process…” sounds better than “participated in the quarterly review process…”

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that you should use present tense for current jobs and past tense for past jobs.

Education​

For your education section, include the details of your PMcademy program, your university studies, and any relevant secondary education. For each entry, include:

  • The type of degree that you earned (if any) or the major topic of your study.
  • The school’s name.
  • The years that you studied at that school or just the year that you graduated.
  • Your GPA (but only if 3.5 or above).
  • Any relevant awards, honors, fellowships, or classes.

Because your PMcademy program is probably more relevant to your next employer than your other education, it’s okay to add some additional details in your PMcademy entry. For example:

Certificate, Product Management| PMcademy | 2022

  • Data analytics extraction and presentation of actionable insights that deliver business value from common data sources like Excel, CSV files, and SQL databases.

  • Practical mastery of Excel, PowerPoint, PostgreSQL, Tableau, and Python for data analysis.

Miscellaneous resume sections​

Chances are, the above information is more than enough to fill up your resume. But, if you have room, there’s value in including another section on your resume that sells your strengths. Below are a couple of options.

Certifications​

If you’ve received certification in any skills or technologies that are relevant to your desired job, include a section for them. (Alternatively, as appropriate, you can merge these with your education section.)

Volunteer work​

Volunteer sections are a good way to show that you go above and beyond, particularly when it’s for a relevant cause. For example, “Women in Tech” or “Marketing for Good.”

All the more reason to volunteer at a meetup in your area!

Publications​

Have you had any relevant articles, essays, or research papers published on reputable publications? That’s great! Include them on your resume.

Resume style guidelines​

After you finalize all of the necessary content for your resume, the next thing that you should do is style it in a professional, easy-to-read format. While there is lots of room for creativity and personal preference, below are some guidelines that you should always follow.

Length​

Most employers spend less than a minute looking at your resume, so you should keep it short. One page is ideal, but you can go up to two pages if you truly need the space—meaning, everything on the two pages is relevant. (And no stretching the margins!)

Because employers scan resumes, rather than reading them in full, you want whatever their eyes land on to be something that makes them interested in you, so keeping your resume one or two pages forces you to cut the fluff. To help you keep to one or two pages, note that you don’t need to include any work experience that’s older than 10 years.

Order​

The majority of people read from top to bottom, so it’s important to showcase your most attractive information first. Generally, you should list your resume components in this order:

  1. Contact information.
  2. Summary.
  3. Skills.
  4. Projects (if any).
  5. Experience or Education (whichever is going to be most attractive to employers).
  6. Experience or Education (whichever you didn’t list first).
  7. Optional: Miscellaneous.

Font​

There are a couple of things to consider when it comes to font, from the typeface that you choose to its size and emphasis.

Typeface​

It’s best practice to use just one typeface throughout your resume. Two complimentary typefaces are okay if you want to use a different one for headings.

Pick typefaces that are professional and readable. For example, Arial, Helvetica, and Raleway and good sans serif typefaces, and Baskerville and Cormorant Garamond are good serif typefaces.

Size​

The main text of your resume should be between size 10 and size 12. Size 11 font is ideal.

Though not necessary, you can select a font size that’s two points larger than your main text for headings (to make your resume easy for employers to navigate), and select an even bigger font size for your name so that it stands out on your resume.

Emphasis​

Instead of changing the size of section headings, you can emphasize them using CAPS or bolding.

CAPS, bolding, italics, and underline styling can be helpful for project, experience, and education entry headings too. For example, you can bold all project names, job titles, and education degrees, and italicize the rest of the entry heading.

Spelling and grammar​

Before submitting your resume to employers, double, triple, and quadruple check it for spelling and grammar errors. It helps to read it aloud, have friends and family proofread it, and use free tools like Grammarly to guarantee that your resume is error free.

Consistency​

Finally, whatever you choose to do, be consistent. One of the most common resume pitfalls is a lack of consistency and, unfortunately, a messy resume is an easy way to lose a job before ever being considered. Ensure that all of the styling that you choose to do is consistent throughout your resume—typefaces, font sizes, heading styling and formatting, margin alignments, dates, bullets, and so on.

Remember, the goal of your resume is to get the employer interested enough to start a conversation with you. Once the conversation starts, your resume becomes less important and it’s then your job to speak intelligently about your experience.

Supplementary resources​