how to make my college resume stand out

College Resume - Examples & Writing Guides for 2024

You’ve just sat down to write a college student resume.

An A+ resume that converts.

Whether you need a part-time job to cover your bills or a college internship for more experience, we are here to help.

This guide will take you through a simple step-by-step process of creating a college student resume. 

• An example of a finished college resume that works
• How to write a college resume that’ll fill up your interview diary
• How to make your college resume stand out [with top tips & tricks]

For some added inspiration, here’s a college student resume example, created with our very own resume builder :

The above example gets serious results, and yours will too. Simply follow the steps below.

Check out some of these related resume examples that you might be interested in:

• No Experience Resume
• Internship Resume
• Research Assistant Resume
• Students and Graduates Resume
• High School Resume
• Teacher Resume

How to Format a College Student Resume

The first step when creating any resume is to pick the best resume format.

Formatting has a number of benefits, but mostly it allows the hiring manager to read your resume with ease.

The most common resume format for a college student is “functional” or “skill-based”, which allows the hiring manager to immediately see the benefits in hiring you. We recommend college students starting with this format.

Students will usually have stronger skills than their work history, which makes the functional resume a good choice. It’s also ideal for those who have gaps in their employment history.

Now that you have the best format, you need to organize your resume layout .

Use a College Student Resume Template

Before you go ahead with crafting your college student resume, you may want to use a college student resume template.

A resume that is neat and orderly will be a breeze for recruiters to read.

Oh, and it’s the best way to prevent formatting issues.

What to Include in a College Student Resume

The main sections in a college student resume are:

• Contact Information
• Volunteer Experience
• Extracurricular Activities

Want to go a step further? You can also add these optional sections:

• Awards & Certification
• Personal Projects

Interests & Hobbies

But what should you write for each of these sections? Read on to find out.

Want to know more about resume sections? View our guide on What to Put on a Resume .

How to Correctly Display your Contact Information

Now, this section doesn’t require flair, but it must be factually correct. Messing up the contact section can mean the recruiter can’t contact you – oops! 

The contact information section must include:

• Title - In this case, “College Student” or “High-school Graduate”
• Phone Number – Proofread this multiple times
• Email Address – Use a professional email address ([email protected]), not one from your childhood ([email protected]).
• (Optional) Location - Applying for a job abroad? Mention your location.
• Abigail Pearce - College Student. 101-358-6095. [email protected]
• Abigail Pearce - Student. 101-358-6095. [email protected]

How to Write a College Student Resume Summary or Objective

So, this is a job you really want.

This may even be a job you NEED.

However, your competition is fierce. 

And with so much competition, you need to convince the hiring manager within the first few sentences.

To do this, use a resume summary or objective .

These are short paragraphs that go on top of your resume, just under your contact information. They give an overview of your entire resume.

But what is the difference between the two sections?

A resume summary is a 2-4 sentence summary of your professional experiences and achievements.

Dependable marketing sophomore with 1 year part-time experience in a marketing internship to oversee marketing campaigns that maximise profit. Experience includes PPC campaigns, SMM, web design, brand development, and more.

A resume objective is a 2-4 sentence snapshot of what you want to achieve professionally.

Current undergraduate sophomore in marketing with hundreds of classroom hours in marketing and sales related courses. Passionate about maximizing revenue with effective marketing campaigns. Experience includes creating campaigns for my own personal projects in my first term at College X. Skilled in WordPress, Facebook Ads Manager, Photoshop, ClickFunnels, and more.

So, which one is best, summary or objective?

Those with some work experience should go with a resume summary. On the other hand, those who seriously lack work experience should go with a resume objective.

How to Make Your College Student Work Experience Stand Out

Recruiters like to feel confident that you can do the job. There is no easier way to do this than to list your work experience .

Here’s the best way to structure your work experience section:

• Position name
• Company Name
• Responsibilities & Achievements

The Pizza Cabin

03/2019 - 01/2020

• Served food to 40+ people a night and multiple tables at a time.
• Educated customers on menu items and daily specials.
• Received 98% positive customer feedback.
• Engaged customers in a personal, yet professional manner, which helped me to win “Employee of the Month” 4 times.

To separate your resume from the competition, you should focus on your achievements instead of daily tasks. This will allow the recruiter to see the obvious benefits in hiring you.

Instead of saying:

“Served customers”

“Served food to 80+ people a night and multiple tables at a time”

Simply, the first statement is way too vague. There zero chance the recruiter will be impressed by this.

The second statement shows that you were able to serve 80+ people and multiple tables at a time. This tells the recruiter that you are able to work under pressured conditions and to time constraints – impressive!

What if You Don’t Have Work Experience?

Now, not every applicant will have worked in a similar job before.

If this is you, there is a simple way to get around this.

Simply call-upon crossover skills from any previous jobs.

For example, if you held a customer service role at a local pizza restaurant, you can talk about any crossover skills and experiences. Just like a sales associate, you would be able to show you used strong communication and sales skills.

As a student, make sure to check out our student resume guide!

How to Correctly List your Education

Next, it’s time to talk about your education.

Whether it’s a college junior resume or college sophomore resume, your education section is crucial.

There’s nothing too complicated with this section, just simply enter the information for your in-progress degree in the following format:

• Degree Type & Major
• University Name
• Expected Graduation
• GPA, Honours, Courses, and anything else you might want to add

Majoring in Marketing

University of Chicago

2019 - Present

• Relevant Courses: Principles of Marketing, Managerial Communications, Quantitative Methods, and Macroeconomics.

Now, you may have some questions on this section. If so, here are the answers to some of the most frequent questions that we get:

• What if I haven’t completed education yet?

As we mention above, you should still mention your current place of education, despite not finishing yet

• Should I include my high school education?

If you have not yet finished your college degree, you should also include your high school education

• What do I put first, my education or experience?

Experiences are the priority, so those go first

Want more information? Check out our guide on how to list education on a resume .

Top 10 Skills for a College Student Resume

You’ve got all the skills.

But here’s the thing –

Your competition is well-skilled too!

Show the hiring manager that you’re the top candidate by listing your best skills.

But what are the best skills for a college resume?

Create a list of hard skills and soft skills that you have developed so far in life, such as the following:

Hard Skills for a College Resume:

• Microsoft Office
• Typing Speed
• Copywriting

Soft Skills:

• Creative Thinking
• Communication
• Time-Management
• Team Player
• Decision-Making

Tailor your skills to the job description. You can have the best skills in the world, but the recruiter won’t appreciate them if they’re not relevant to the job.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of 100+ must-have skills this year.

What Else Can You Include?

We’ve now covered every essential resume section .

But the school bell hasn’t rung just yet.

You need your resume to stand out!

Acing the above sections should be enough to get you shortlisted, but adding the following sections could give you a further advantage over the other applicants.  

Awards & Certifications

Have you ever won an award?

Have you completed any third-party courses?

Do you hold any specialized certifications?

Regardless of what it is, if there is anything that you’re proud of, be sure to include it here.

Here’s an example:

Awards & Certificates

• Food Handlers Card & Food Safety Manager Certification 
• “Critical Thinking Masterclass” – Coursera Course

Need to speak multiple languages at your new job?

Yes or no, being able to speak a second language is impressive.

And with so much competition, this could be the difference.

Add a language section if you have space. 

Rank the languages by proficiency:

• Intermediate

Now, you may be wondering, “why would a recruiter want to know that I’m a part of the football team?”

Well, it allows the recruiter to get to know who you are on a personal level.

But it doesn’t stop there…

Certain hobbies demonstrate that you have soft skills, like teamwork and communication. 

Here’s which hobbies & interests you may want to mention.

Include a Cover Letter with Your Resume

Your resume should now be ready to send.

No application is complete without a convincing cover letter.

In opposition to a generic resume, a personalized cover letter shows that you care about working for this specific company .

Here’s how to structure a winning cover letter:

You should complete the following sections:

Personal Contact Information

Your full name, profession, email, phone number, and location

Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

Full name, position, location, email

Opening Paragraph

It’s no secret that recruiters skim through their pile of resumes. As such, use concise language to mention:

• The position you’re applying for
• Your experience summary and best achievement to date

With the recruiter intrigued, you can get deeper into the following specifics:

• Why you chose this specific company
• What you know about the company
• How are your top skills relevant for the job
• Which similar industries or positions have you worked in before

Closing Paragraph

Don’t just end the conversation abruptly, you should:

• Conclude the points made in the body paragraph
• Thank the recruiter for the opportunity
• Finish with a call to action. This is a good way to keep the conversation going. A simple “At your earliest opportunity, I’d love to discuss more about how I can help you achieve X” will work

Formal Salutations

End the letter in a professional manner. Something like, “Kind regards” or “Sincerely.”

For more inspiration, read our step-by-step guide on how to write a cover letter .

Key Takeaways

Building a college resume doesn't have to be hard.

Follow the tips in this guide for a college resume that is head & shoulders above the competition. 

Here are our best tips on how to create a college resume:

• Make your resume easy to read by formatting it correctly. Prioritize the reverse-chronological format, and then follow the best practices on content layout
• Use a resume summary or objective to hook the recruiter
• In your work experience section, highlight your most notable achievements to date
• Include a convincing cover letter to separate you from the competition

Suggested Reading:

• How to Make a Resume with No-Experience [21+ Examples]
• 21+ Essential LinkedIn Profile Tips For Job-Seekers
• Use Resume Keywords to Land the Job [880+ Keywords]

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• Campus Life

Did you know that recruiters spend just seven seconds looking at a resume , on average? This means yours really needs to stand out! 😮

From picking the right keywords to avoiding unnecessary details, creating a resume that will wow recruiters within such a short time is no easy feat.

If you’re wondering how to craft a resume that sets you apart from hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of other applicants — you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together nine effective ways you can make your resume shine! ✨

• Customization Is Key When It Comes to Resumes
• Incorporate the Right Keywords
• Quantify Your Achievements
• Write an Engaging Objective
• Keep Your Resume Concise and Clutter-Free
• Make Your Resume Easy to Scan
• Use a Resume Builder
• Proofread (And Proofread Again!)
• Stick to a One-Page Format

1. Customization Is Key When It Comes to Resumes

Customizing your resume for each specific role you apply for is an excellent way to convince a hiring manager that you have everything they need!

Read through the job description and see how you can tailor your resume to showcase the exact skills and qualifications employers want in the right candidate. Failure to do so can make recruiters skip right by your resume in favor of other applicants.

You can even go a step further by heading to the company’s website to get a feel about the organization. 

Take note of what kind of projects they work on, whether they support any charities, and look for other ways in which you may be a good fit for them and incorporate those points into your resume.

💡 Tip: Keep multiple copies of your resume that you can modify depending on the role you’re applying for. For example, if you are interested in working in marketing and communications, you can have one resume specific to PR roles, one specific to PPC campaigns, and one resume that is just for content marketing.

2. Incorporate the Right Keywords

Did you know that 55 percent of recruiters use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to scan resumes? 

The ATS filters through your information and reads the keywords to determine whether you’re the right fit for the company. 

This means that even if you have all the relevant skills and experience, you might not land the job unless your resume has the correct terminology .

Want to move your resume to the top of the stack for hiring managers? Here’s what you can do!

• Review the job description for the role you’re aiming for as well as other similar positions.
• Notice common words or phrases .
• Add these keywords to your resume through different sub-headers (for example education, skills, work experience) and content to increase your chances of your resume getting the tick of approval from a software tracking system.

💡 Tip: There is a fine line between using keywords strategically and stuffing your resume with them. Don’t overdo it!

3. Quantify Your Achievements

It’s one thing to say that you’re fit for a job and another to demonstrate your capabilities through quantifiable examples on your resume . 

By illustrating concrete results, impacts, or outcomes, you can make the claims on the resume more credible. Providing numbers also presents the bottom-line performance and shows you are results-oriented. Therefore, wherever possible, let numbers tell the story. 

Learned a new language? Specify your skill level (beginner, intermediary, proficient). Volunteered for a local food bank? Mention how many meals you prepared or delivered to provide a sense of what you achieved during the stint. 

Instead of writing that you “significantly improved sales skills” at your summer job, tell recruiters that you “oversaw a 20 percent growth in client acquisition” to highlight precisely how effective your contribution was.

💡 Tip: When mentioning numbers, don’t forget to include how you got the results. For instance, an “intermediate” level in German could sound vague unless you highlight that you took an end-of-course assessment to reach your current level.

READ MORE: These Are the Skills You Need to Get a Job After College

4. Write an Engaging Objective

A resume objective is a short (usually two-or-three line) statement of your career goals at the top of your file. 

Looking for your first job after graduation? An eye-catching objective tells potential employers about your skills and abilities even when you lack the necessary experience in that field.

In fact, an ideal resume objective isn’t just about highlighting your aspirations. It’s also a smart way to tell employers what you bring to the table and how your experiences can add value to the company.

5. Keep Your Resume Concise and Clutter-Free

When it comes to your resume, employers don’t need your entire life story — they only want the most relevant information to decide whether you’re the right person for the job on offer. 

This means it’s vital to have a clear and concise resume that highlights your accomplishments perfectly. 

Here are our tips for cutting the clutter:

• Show your key selling points at the very beginning. If a data science degree is important in your field, it shouldn’t be buried at the end of a three-page resume.
• Focus on your accomplishments instead of job descriptions. If the bullet point can be extrapolated to someone else’s resume, it’s a job description, not a specific accomplishment.
• Avoid irrelevant or outdated information. Want to include your pizza delivery experience in your job application as a research analyst? Use an editor’s eye to decide whether you’re holding on to your past for emotional reasons.

6. Make Your Resume Easy to Scan  

Your resume should be easy to read and formatted to look both modern and professional. 

Even if you’re the next Picasso, a resume isn’t the best place to showcase your design skills (save this for your portfolio instead). 🤪

Too many fonts or colors can add extra noise and be displeasing to hiring managers. 

Instead, a simple resume helps your achievements stand out and make it easy for recruiters to find critical information at a glance. 

You can also break up information in the form of short, bite-sized subheadings. Use subheaders for training, skills, or special projects you were involved in , using bullet points to stress results or achievements.

7. Use a Resume Builder

A resume builder is an online tool that generates a resume with your provided information in a template of your choice.

Using a resume builder helps to save time that you’d otherwise spend formatting a Word document or other file to create a professional-looking resume. 

Casting a wider net? With a resume template, you can customize each job application much faster and improve your odds of landing a job within your anticipated timeline.

In a vastly competitive world, making an excellent first impression is one of the most important things. 

Building a resume yourself can be overwhelming, especially when you think about all the information you need to include, but a resume template helps you organize your information in a unique and appropriate way .

Our top three (free!) resume builders 🏆

1. Resume Genius has an extensive collection of professional resume templates varying from “Taj Mahal” to “Classic.” Users can access the easy fill-in-the-blank sections to build a comprehensive resume in no time. 

2. Resume.io is our favorite resume builder for customizing resumes for specific jobs. The platform also has a built-in grammar checker to ensure you’re delivering a top-notch, error-free resume.

3. Jobscan is great if you want to ensure your resume passes the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) test. The resume builder is up-to-date with ATS trends and provides you with ATS-specific tips to get your resume noticed. 

8. Proofread (And Proofread Again!)

In the rush to be an early applicant, you might be tempted to submit your resume without a final check.

Though it may seem like a time-consuming exercise, proofreading can mean the difference between getting an interview and getting rejected . 

A correct preposition, an Oxford comma, and perfect spelling can all show you in a positive light. Go through your resume slowly from beginning to end to check for spelling or grammatical errors . 😏

You can also run it through any of the readily available spellcheck apps or ask a friend to check it for mistakes to be doubly sure. 

READ MORE: 17 Study Apps Every College Student Needs to Have

9. Stick to a One-Page Format

A survey by Saddleback College revealed that 48 percent of hiring managers prefer a one-page resume for entry-level positions — another reason why you should consider sticking to the basics and keeping your resume short! 

Since companies often receive hundreds of applications for open positions, they prefer candidates who show them concrete results without utilizing much of their time.

This means if you have just one page to write, you should jot down the most important and resourceful information about yourself. 

A clean, well-formatted, single-page resume also shows you are organized and can summarize all your skills and achievements within a one-page limit. 

This way, your accomplishments are easily visible, and you won’t overstuff your resume with irrelevant information.

Now that you have an impressive resume, check off these final few steps to land that coveted job interview: ✔️

• Check your social media accounts. Many recruiters take the trouble of looking beyond your resume, so you should delete any awkward or incriminating posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. 
• Add a cover letter along with your resume to express that you’re enthusiastic and keen to be part of the company. This is another opportunity to spell out why you’re perfect for the role! 
• Personalize your resume file name before you send it out. Trivial as this may seem, companies receive hundreds of applications for each job post, and hiring managers may lose your file if you label it as “Resume.docx.” Consider adding your first and last name to distinguish yourself from others. For instance, “RyanSmith_Resume.docx.”

Finding a job can be tedious and frustrating because most employers have hundreds of applications flooding their inboxes.

Fear not! An impressive resume can help you stand out and improve your chances of landing your dream job. 😌

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How to Write a Resume for College – A CollegeAdvisor Guide

How to write a resume for college – introduction.

Standing out as a stellar applicant in the college admissions process is tough. One way to separate yourself from the crowd is by crafting a strong resume for college. Your college resume can highlight information about your background, activities, and achievements. Some of these might not be indicated elsewhere in your college application or recommendation letters . 

In this article, we will teach you how to write a college resume. We’ll highlight 5 simple steps to building your college application resume. We will also discuss what a college resume is and why you may need a resume for college. Additionally, we will provide examples on how to write a resume for college by reviewing college resume examples. Finally, we’ll walk you through some college resume templates in our example college resumes.

So, let’s look at how to write a college resume and explain what makes a good college resume, why you should include a resume for college in your applications, and more!

What is a college resume? 

A high school resume is typically a one-page document that complements your college application . Your high school resume (or college resume) can help you showcase your achievements and extracurriculars for college. It does this by sharing information that is not elsewhere within your college applications. The goal of a college resume is to show the college admissions officers who you are and how you spend your time outside of the classroom . 

Before we jump into how to write a college resume, let’s examine some things that make up a good college resume.

A good college resume should include: 

• Clear structure
• Concise language (bullet points over essay-style)
• Relevant details
• Strong formatting

As we discuss how to write a resume for college, you might wonder what purpose a college resume serves. In short, a college resume is a summary of experiences that you can use to add depth to your college applications. You can also think of a college resume as your high school resume, or a resume for college. Your college resume will include a brief description of each of your experiences and extracurriculars for college. 

While we examine how to write a resume for college, you should first note that your college resume should include key details like your educational details, GPA , extracurricular activities/jobs, and honors/awards. As we’ll discuss, your college resume will have other key features. We’ll go through each of these as we learn how to write a resume for college. 

Many colleges list a college resume within their college application requirements. But, even if a college resume is not listed in the college application requirements, we recommend creating one anyway. 

We will look at a sample college resume later in this article, along with a 5-step guide to creating a resume for college that you can use as you begin writing your college resume. 

Do I need a resume for my college applications? 

No, you do not necessarily need to include a college resume with your college applications. However, a high school resume or resume for college can be a helpful tool in the college admissions process. 

So, how could including a resume for college application be beneficial? First, including a college resume in your college applications can help highlight your skills, experiences, and qualifications to the admissions office of your dream school.  

Having a college resume can help you showcase your extracurricular activities in your college applications. You can highlight leadership positions, accomplishments, interests, and activities on your college resume that might not appear elsewhere in your college applications. 

Creating a resume for college application can also demonstrate your accomplishments and experiences to college admissions officers. Even if a high school resume is optional in the list of college application requirements, including one in your college applications can help you stand out. Standing out is incredibly important in the admissions process, especially if your ideal college is high on the list of college rankings . 

It is a good idea to start putting together your college resume as you near the end of high school.

You may forget the names of clubs, supervisors, mentors, teachers, etc. as you get ready to apply to college. So, the earlier you can gather all the information for your high school resume, the better! That way, all of your experiences are fresh in your mind, and you can create the strongest resume for college possible. 

When should I prepare my college resume? 

As you begin the process of applying to college, you might be wondering when to prepare your college resume. The ideal timeline for creating your high school resume can start as early as 9 th grade. 

In general, you won’t want to include anything on your high school resume before 9 th grade. Like other college application requirements, college admissions officers are only interested in the activities you have participated in during high school. 

Keep a list starting in 9th grade

As early as 9 th grade, you can start keeping a list of your accomplishments and activities. Even though you won’t need to format this list into a college resume yet, it will be the basis for your future college application resume.

As you begin the college admissions process, you can use the list you created and turn it into a college resume. As you apply to college and prepare your college resume, research which college resume format works best for you. Reviewing a sample college resume or college resume template can help you find the perfect college resume format. 

As you look through college resume examples, think about which aspects of the college resume template you like the best. Then, adapt things from those college resume examples to fit your college resume. Once you have decided on a college resume format, list your accomplishments, jobs, and activities within that college resume format. 

Summer before senior year

The best time to create your high school resume is during the summer before your senior year. This gives you plenty of time to perfect your college application resume. 

We’ll examine the necessary components of a successful college resume in the next section of this article. So, read on!

What should a high school student put on a resume? 

As you begin the college admissions process, you may be asking yourself what to include on your high school resume. You can start the college application resume writing process by brainstorming how you spend your time outside of your courses. 

Think about everything you have done or achieved since you started high school and write it down. Your high school resume should highlight your activities, interests, and skills. Pay particular attention to these factors as you consider what to include on your high school resume.

Your high school resume will be organized categorically. Some of the most common categories for a resume for college application include personal information, work experience, extracurricular activities, volunteer experience/community service, education, and skills.  In addition to the categories listed above, below is a list of some other things that high school students should list on their resume for college.

Top ten things to list on your college resume:

• School name and address
• Contact Info
• GPA or Class rank, if applicable
• Internships & volunteer roles
• Awards and honors
• Extracurricular activities
• Leadership positions
• Language competencies

As we mentioned earlier, you may not have information or experiences for every category listed above. That’s perfectly fine! Focus on what applies to you and what you can include on your high school resume as you learn how to write a college resume. 

What does not belong on my high school resume? 

Now that we have examined what to include on your high school resume, let’s discuss what does not belong on your college application resume. 

Keep it current

In general, you should avoid including any activity or achievement from before 9 th grade on your resume for college. However, it’s okay to include something that is particularly impressive and/or attached to a current activity. 

For example, if you have 12 years of experience in playing the violin, you will want to include that on your high school resume. However, if you joined your middle school band for a semester, you should likely leave that out of your college resume. Your resume for college should reflect activities that matter to you now.

Avoid listing daily duties

There is no need to include informal everyday activities on your college resume, such as cooking for your family or cleaning around the house. When you are crafting your resume for college, it’s best to stick to things that are relevant to admissions committees or future employers. 

Note that this is one area where your college resume differs from your activities list. For instance, if you spend considerable time caretaking your three siblings, you may choose to include that on your activities list within the Common App. However, the same responsibilities likely shouldn’t appear on your resume for college.

Keep it clear

As you examine college resume templates and college resume examples, take note of the language and structure in a sample college resume. It’s important to use concise language and clear structure throughout your resume for college. 

Additionally, do not include excessive text or overly detailed explanations on your college application resume. You want your resume for college to be simple and clear. In general, you should limit your high school resume to one page, or two at the absolute maximum. Most people who review your college resume will spend about 30 seconds with it. So, your resume for college should be easily scanned, above all. 

When you use concise language throughout your college resume, it will make it easier for your reader to understand your accomplishments. Because most people will skim your high school resume, having a clear structure throughout will make it easy to read. Keep it simple and keep it consistent. 

Steer clear of images and graphics

While you might come across this in your college resume format research, it’s best to avoid including images or graphics in your college application resume. Although this is a new trend and can be seen on multiple college resume examples and college resume templates, it can be distracting and take up valuable space on your high school resume.  

For instance, if you volunteered at twelve different soup kitchens, there is no need to list each one separately. That will become tedious and take up too much space on your essential resume for college application. 

Finally, you should never misrepresent your qualifications on your high school resume. Be honest about your involvements, however many you have. It’s not worth potentially getting caught in a lie or an exaggeration during a college interview.

Where do I submit my college application resume? 

While you apply to college, you might be wondering what to do with your resume for college applications. Many college application portals will include a section for your college resume, especially if a resume for college is listed as one of the college application requirements. 

Most college application portals list the high school resume section as optional. While you are applying to college, you might notice that most colleges require that you fill out an activities section as part of the application process. The activities section will ask you to list your extracurriculars for college. Often, your activities section will serve the same purpose as your college resume. 

If you choose to include a high school resume with your college application, it should reflect your accomplishments in more detail than your activities section. Additionally, if you choose to include a resume for college with your application, make sure it adds something new to your activities list. 

You will receive access to your college’s application portal once you have completed the process of applying to college but before you receive a college acceptance letter and officially enroll . When it’s time to upload your high school resume, be sure to upload it as a PDF rather than a Word document. That way, you can ensure that your formatting of your college resume stays consistent on every application. 

We’ll provide more details about the college resume format later in this article, when we examine college resume examples and college resume templates. 

How often should I update my college resume? 

It may be helpful to update your resume (or other records) every six months to a year in order to avoid missing any important details. You can use your college resume for more than just your college application requirements. In fact, there may be internships or other opportunities you seek out in high school that will ask you to submit a high school resume. Updating your college resume often will help you keep track of your experiences and accomplishments. 

In general, you should update your high school resume as often as it works for you. However, when you are almost done applying to college , you will want to make sure that your college resume is up-to-date and accurate before including it with your application. 

No matter how often you update your resume for college applications, we encourage you to keep copies of any old college resume examples you might have. Having old copies of your college resume can help you in the future as you begin to tailor your college resume for potential reviewers. 

How to write a resume for college

Now that we have a better understanding of what makes up a college resume, let’s focus on how to write a resume for college. You can begin writing your college resume by creating a list of your key details . Your key details will be the starting point for your college resume. 

First, you will include information about where you go to school, as well as your current GPA and any Honors statuses. You will also want to list your academic interests on your high school resume, including what you hope to study or pursue beyond high school. 

You will also include your extracurricular activities and the years you engaged in them on your resume for college. Additionally, you will want to add any jobs or internships you have had and the dates you held them. You can also list any leadership positions and the years you held them on your college resume. 

Finally, you will want to include any special skills you have on your resume for college. This can include certifications as well. 

Once you have a list of your key details, you will want to organize these details into sections on your high school resume. For some, these sections might include Objective, Education, Leadership Positions, Work and Internship History, and Special Skills.  

College Resume Walkthrough

Linked about is our college resume walkthrough. Let’s do another walkthrough of these sections here to see what kind of information to include in each one. 

Your objective is the reason why you are writing your college resume. This section will vary depending on where you send your resume. 

If you are creating a resume for college applications, you should include information about your intended major or future career in this section. However, if you are sending your high school resume to a potential employer, your objective section will include information about why you are uniquely skilled for the job. 

Education 

The education section of your college resume should include all high schools you have attended, along with your GPA and anticipated date of graduation. 

If your high school provides you with a class rank, you can also include that piece of information within this section of your resume for college. 

Additionally, you can include your SAT or ACT score within this section, especially if you are submitting your resume for college applications. 

Leadership Positions 

Be sure to highlight any leadership positions you have held in your college resume. This includes any appointed positions you have received and even informal leadership positions. 

For example, if you were voted Class President of your Student Council, you can include that information here. Or maybe you are a peer mentor on your soccer team—you can include those details within this section of your college resume. 

Work and Internship History 

This section of your high school resume will list your whole work history, including internships , summer jobs , or part-time jobs. 

You will want to include the job title, company, dates of employment, and a brief outline of your duties for each of the work or internship experiences in this section of your resume for college. 

Special Skills 

Finally, this section of your college resume will outline any technical or soft skills you might have. Soft skills include things like teamwork, communication skills, and conflict resolution. 

In this section of your resume for college, you can also include any languages you speak or certifications you have. 

After you have organized your high school resume into sections, you will want to include a bulleted list detailing your responsibilities within each of your engagements/leadership roles. Be sure to include only relevant details in your descriptions, as it’s important to be concise on your college resume.  

Remember to include the years for every role/activity on your college resume. You will want to list them with the most recent positions/activities at the top of your resume for college. 

College resume format

Your college resume format is one of the most important features to consider as you apply to college. As you construct your college resume format, make sure that it’s readable. 

Most people won’t look at your college resume for more than 30 seconds. So, any reader should be able to skim your high school resume and come away with a relatively clear idea of your qualifications and background. 

The ideal college resume format will have the name of the student clearly listed at the top of the college resume. Another aspect of a strong college resume format will have clear sections with strong headlines. Additionally, the best college resume format will include bulleted lists where appropriate. 

We will look at the college resume format in action as we review some college resume examples and college resume templates. 

College resume examples

As we review our sample college resume, we will explain how to use it to craft your own college resume when you apply to college. Use this sample college resume as a reference point for your resume for college. Then, adapt it to fit your own unique needs. 

We will discuss the sample college resume in the next two sections of this article. As we review the sample college resume, pay particular attention to what makes this college resume clear and effective. You can use this sample college resume as a college resume builder while you apply to college. 

At first glance, you can see that this college resume is organized. This resume for college has clear sections and a concise structure. What makes this college resume clear and effective is its formatting, language, and length. Be sure to incorporate these same elements into your own high school resume as you apply to college. 

Remember, this sample college resume is just one of many college resume examples available. Figure out what you like best about this sample college resume and use it to craft your own college resume. 

Sample college resume – What works? 

The key features of this sample college resume are its formatting, language, and length. Focusing on these in your own college resume will ensure that your resume for college stands out. 

Clear delineated sections

The formatting in this college resume works so well because it includes clearly delineated sections and organized by year. Keeping your information and experiences organized by year is an effective format for a resume for college applications. 

Simple and straightforward language

Another feature of this college resume that works well is the language. There is clear language and details throughout this resume for college that provide context for each role and accomplishment. For example, each of the work experiences in this high school resume feature a brief description of the student’s role and duties/responsibilities. 

Concise structure

Additionally, this resume for college application features a concise structure that helps the reader clearly understand the purpose of each section. The descriptions within this college resume are brief but comprehensive. Having a concise structure and clear language throughout your college resume is key. 

The final key feature that works well in this college resume is the length. This resume for college is just one page in length. Ideally, you want your college resume to fit on one page, but that is not a hard and fast rule. If you have a wealth of experiences and extracurriculars for college, your college resume can go over the typical one-page length. 

Even though this high school resume is a little over one page, it does not have any irrelevant details or extraneous information on it. As you begin writing your college resume, be sure to only include relevant details on it. 

As you learn how to write a college resume, keep track of what features work well and incorporate them into your own college resume. If you are unsure if the sample college resume will work for your college resume, don’t worry. There are plenty of college resume examples and college resume templates to choose from as you are applying to college. 

College resume template

There are multiple college resume examples that you can review as you start your college resume or college application letter . Looking at a college resume template can help you decide on the formatting, language, and length that works best for you. 

Hunter College has a web page with college resume examples and college resume templates. Use it as a resource as you build your high school resume. 

If possible, you should avoid using form templates as you construct your college resume. Instead, think of the college resume template as a guide. You should aim to format your resume for college in the way that works best for you. 

It’s best to be a bit unique as you create your high school resume. Looking at a college resume template can help you find your own distinct style. You can also incorporate different aspects from a college resume template into your own college resume. 

However, be sure to avoid any hard-to-read fonts or unnecessary details in your formatting as you learn how to write a college resume. While your resume shouldn’t look like it was made using a stock college resume template, it also should not be overly crowded.

College resume builder

There are also college resume builder resources, like this one from Wheaton College , that will help students build their college resumes. You can use a college resume builder to format your own resume for college. 

At CollegeAdvisor.com, we host webinars on topics that help you apply to college. We have a webinar on how to write a resume for college, with plenty of college resume examples. We also have a webinar with advice from former Admissions Officers on how to build your college resume. 

Once again, you should generally avoid a pre-formatted college resume builder or college resume template. Instead, use these college resume examples as a jumping off point as you begin the college admissions process. 

Formatting your high school resume yourself makes it easier to make any quick edits or fix any formatting quirks. If you were to use a college resume builder or college resume template, these adjustments may be a challenge. 

Build your College Resume in 5 Simple Steps

Having examined some college resume examples, let’s review 5 simple steps for how to write a resume for college. 

Five Steps to Build your College Resume

Make an accurate list of your experiences, awards, education, and qualifications. You will use this list as the outline for your resume for college. 

Choose the best college resume format for the job. Before you finalize your choice of college resume format , review a college resume template or college resume examples for guidance. Then, create a resume header for your college resume. 

Add your accurate information by section on your resume for college. Reference the college resume examples you reviewed previously to choose the sections you will use on your high school resume. Organize each list by year, placing the most recent item at the top of your resume for college. Be sure to separate your extracurricular experiences from your awards/honors, creating two lists (or more if necessary). 

Format your lists to be clear and readable , and add your name and contact information as the header of your college resume. 

Ask a friend, family member, or mentor to copy edit your resume for college! Having another set of eyes on your high school resume will help you create the strongest resume for college possible. 

How to write a college resume – Final Thoughts

In this article, we reviewed how to write a college resume. As we discussed the purpose of a college application resume, we examined college resume examples and described key features that work in a college resume. We hope the college resume examples we featured in our article on how to write a resume for college help you craft your high school resume as you apply to college.

Need help crafting the perfect college application resume? CollegeAdvisor.com can teach you how to write a resume for college. Register for a free CollegeAdvisor.com account and receive access to hundreds of articles and webinars. These resources will help you craft your college resume as you begin applying to college.

This article was written by  Claire Babbs . If you want to get help with your college applications from Claire or other  CollegeAdvisor.com  Admissions Experts , click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

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How to Make a Resume That Stands Out in 2024: A Guide That Stands Out

In This Guide:

What makes a resume stand out in 2023, key takeaways.

So you want to know how to make your resume stand out to recruiters?

You’re here because the generic “best practices from recruiters” advice you got until now was not very helpful. You already knew it all. You know what the baseline is .

But do you know how to write a visually appealing resume that makes you stand out from the crowd?

What makes a resume pop?

We, at Enhancv , asked ourselves the same questions. To find the standout factors, we did some research and testing.

We started by analyzing our clients’ resumes that helped them secure jobs at the likes of Amazon, Spotify, PwC, Verizon, and other top companies. We identified all the resume components that catch the eye of employers and recruiters. Then, we performed solid A/B testing, and finally, put together all our findings into one test resume . This test resume gathered over 1 million views, got covered by CNBC and Business Insider, and was praised by Mark Cuban .

BUILD MY RESUME LIKE THIS

To put it simply – it stood out and attracted attention.

The following advice helped thousands of candidates get interviews and land jobs at leading companies. We’ll share their resumes as case studies and explore different ways to make your resume stand out from the rest.

Here’s what you’ll learn from this guide:

• How to make a resume that both stands out and gets you interviews in 2023
• Case studies, tips, and professional examples from candidates that successfully landed jobs at top companies
• What resume layouts are getting more interviews and which are getting less
• How to pass automatic HR filters when creating a stand out resume

At the end of the day, you want your resume to stand out and land you a job, not raise HR’s eyebrows or get shared on Reddit for the sake of it.

So we won’t be using fancy fonts or inserting funny pictures. Every example we provide and each template we use has been thoroughly tested with HR systems to pass automatic filters.

This guide will take your resume from good to great, and here’s how.

• First, for every section we’ll cover a baseline, a bare minimum you need to do in order to have a competitive resume. Unfortunately, the majority of career guides stop at that.
• From there, we take it one step further with specific advice on how to make every section of your resume even more engaging and remarkable with out-of-box techniques.
• Finally, we’ll talk about the power of formatting and layout in creating an outstanding resume.

Along the way, we’ll provide case studies and real-life examples that helped candidates land real jobs at the companies they wanted.

Create attention-grabbing header section

The Header is the top section of your resume. It includes your name, location, job title, and contact details.

• Baseline: provide clear, typo-free contact and location details so that recruiters could contact you with zero effort.
• Stand out: include a link to your developed LinkedIn profile, add a custom headline, consider adding a photo.

Looking for ways to make your header stand out? See how you can perfect your resume header and get noticed .

Link to LinkedIn and/or personal portfolio website

Here’s a thing: 70% of recruiters will be checking your social media profiles. But the real bummer is that 79% of employers can reject candidates based on their social media.

Let’s turn this into our advantage and put a link to your LinkedIn profile in your Header section.

This will earn you extra points with recruiters and guide their attention to where you want them to be.

If you have a personal portfolio website that you want recruiters to see, link to it as well.

Gal included a link to his personal website to guide the recruiter’s attention, but also to keep his resume one-page without having to describe all the projects he’s worked on over the decade.

Pro tip: when applying for code-heavy jobs, consider linking to your Github.

Custom headline

Recruiters will spend most of their time analyzing the top third of your resume, and a custom headline is one of the most influential and often overlooked ways to grab their attention.

Headline goes immediately after your name on the resume and can include anything from your job title to a personal slogan.

However, you can do much better than simply putting your job title there., e.g. “System Administrator”.

Below are two amazing standout resume examples of a customized headline in action:

In the past, Daniel had two different jobs: Customer Support Engineer and Systems Administrator.

So he combined both qualifications in his headline, emphasizing experience with both people and systems.

This way he framed his diverse experience as an advantage before the recruiter even got to see the rest of the resume.

Result? Intercom hired Daniel. Check out the resume template that got Daniel the job.

For other jobs, you might want to get even more creative with your headline. For example, how are you going to stand out from hundreds of other marketers?

Wrong example : PPC specialist with 5 years of experience.

Right example : Fighting shady, aggressive marketing.

In his headline, Louis took a strong stance against something that was at the time a massive problem for established brands: shady viral marketing tactics of competition. Later he was hired by Hotjar. Check out the template that Louis used to get his dream job.

Custom headline allows you to frame the rest of your resume however you need, providing a halo effect. Daniel framed his work experience as an advantage for his next job, while Louis stood out from hundreds of marketers with the same skillset.

And the best part? Headlines can be easily tailored to every job you’re applying for, so you can easily switch between experience-based headlines, slogans, or anything related to your next job. Learn more about how to craft your headline here .

Should you include a photo in your resume or not?"?

Short answer: it depends. The best practice is to check company and government policy (including photos is illegal in some countries). For the long answer, head over to our helpful post on the topic .

Sam wanted to switch careers, but her extensive investment banking background made her resume look a bit boring for a startup-tech world.

So she used one of our resume templates, including her photo and adding some personality to her resume , to successfully score a job at Spotify.

To sum it up – you’ll need an attractive header section to make your resume stand out from the crowd. What you’ll also need is a special Summary section…

Use summary that captivates recruiters

The summary section is a short paragraph or bulleted list that briefly describes your professional experience before the rest of your resume.

Sometimes Summary is called an “Objective”, especially if you are using it to explain why you’re applying for the job.

• Baseline : short, easy-to-read, and impactful description of your professional experience
• Stand out : make your Summary memorable, use a proper layout .

Think of your Summary section as a cold email you’re sending someone you don’t know. If it’s a long, boring, and self-centered cold email, no one wants to read that.

But if you research your recipient, create an engaging and short cold email, you have a much higher chance of someone responding to it.

The Summary section, when done right, is one of the most powerful ways of “aligning” you to the position.

Sometimes you’ll hear the opinion that the Summary section takes too much space on your resume.

First, there’s an easy fix to it.

Let’s look at Daniel’s resume once again.

He puts the Summary section to the right of his Experience section. Why?

When recruiters scan your resume, they are checking your experience section first, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn more about you after.

With his Summary, Daniel once again frames the recruiter’s perception, highlighting that he did the majority of his work experience remotely. It helps a lot given that the company he applied for, Intercom, is a fully remote organization.

At the same time, he also provides some insight into his personality, as he knows how important culture fit is in remote companies.

Learn as much as you can about the company you’re applying for to know what’s important to them, and use this information to make your Summary more memorable.

Another great way to use the Summary section is when you’re switching careers, have no work experience, or have gaps in your work history.

Seeing your experience section, recruiters will immediately ask themselves questions: why are they making the career switch? Do they have enough experience?

Be proactive and address the elephant in the room yourself.

Akshay S. Rao put a brief summary section before his experience section to explain why he wants the internship with Tesla in the first place.

Check out the job-winning resume layout that Akshay used to land a promising internship.

Okay, so you’ve mastered the Summary, and you are one step closer to making a creative resume that stands out from the rest. Now, it’s time to understand how to tie results with responsibilities and present your work achievements on your resume.

Always provide quantifiable achievements

One of the most common pieces of advice we hear from recruiters is “provide results, not responsibilities”.

Well, yeah, it’s great advice. But we can do even better than that.

• Baseline: when describing your experience, demonstrate the impact of your work and contribution to the bottom-line of a company
• Stand out: Add quantifiable achievements to other sections of your resume, creating a cohesive “rainmaker” narrative.

Compare these two Experience sections from our job-winning Tech resume guide.

The first example may seem clean and concise, but in reality, it’s generic and doesn’t bring impact.

When you provide quantifiable achievements in your resume, it’s not about bragging with numbers.

It gives recruiters the impression that the person knows the impact of their work and their value to the company. And knowing your impact makes you more effective and loyal, a recruiter’s dream.

Here’s a formula we are using to describe our experience in an engaging and impactful manner:

Accomplished [A] as measured in [B] by doing [C]

Just remember that quantifiable achievements don’t necessarily mean “numeric achievements”. Simply adding numbers to something doesn’t make it impactful.

As long as what you did makes an impact and benefits the company, it will resonate with recruiters.

The best part is that you can demonstrate impact throughout other sections of your resume, instantly making them more engaging and effective: Summary, Projects, even your headline.

Maximilian Malterer, who now works at Amazon, used our “Most Proud of” section and moved it right next to his experience section.

No matter how recruiters will be scanning this resume, they will notice the impact you made.

Access the job-winning resume of Maximilian layout at our library of top-performing templates .

Now, let’s discover what the Achievement section is and how to use it wisely.

Highlight awards and recognitions

• Baseline : candidates rarely have this section in their resumes
• Stand out : adding an Achievements section to your resume sets you apart from the majority of candidates in the hiring pool.

If we were to summarize what sets apart the majority of our customers whose successful resumes we’ve used throughout this guide, we’d say custom sections.

“Achievements”, “Awards”, and “Most Proud” sections are all great examples.

Adding them within our resume builder is a one-step drag-and-drop process, but the most important part is that you can quickly change the whole layout based on your particular needs.

As mentioned before, Maximilian put his most impactful Achievements right next to his Experience section, amplifying the overall impact, which is critical when you work with Amazon partners.

But Julian Prim, who now works with PwC, took a different approach. His high-stakes analyst job required extra attention to detail and next to perfect time-management skills.

After all, that’s what PwC had in mind for their operations specialist.

So Julian put his skills first to let recruiters know he checks all these boxes and added his “Most Proud” section below.

While Maximillians’s resume narrative is an ambitious and impactful account manager, Julian Prim is an efficient and timid analyst. The layouts of their resumes work great for both of them.

Pro tip : with simple drag and drop you can quickly change layouts and thus how your resume narrative.

Julian can easily become an ambitious superstar data wizard and apply for some hot BigData startup by simply dragging his “Most Proud” section to the top. Experiment with resume layouts by using the top-performing templates directly in our resume builder .

Surely, sharing awards and recognition is a way to make your resume stand out from other applicants and land you the job. But if you want to get things to the next level, you’d spend some time tailoring your resume and make it more specific to the position you are applying for.

Tailor your resume

Tailoring your resume to the job description is an extremely effective strategy for landing more job interviews.

Just don’t overdo it, otherwise, your efforts might seem too obvious.

• Baseline : include in your resume skills and keywords from your target job description
• Stand out : group skills and provide context for your core skills to maximize the impact and prove that you actually have these skills.

There are several ways to feature both technical and soft skills on your resume.

The majority of candidates will simply list them, but for recruiters, it’s as engaging as reading someone’s shopping list.

Instead, we have a few more easy-to-read and effective options you can use.

Daniel is a technical person. It was important for him to showcase his technical skills when applying for a job at Intercom, but he didn’t want to scare off recruiters with a poorly formatted list of 100+ technologies he learned during his career in IT.

He mentioned many skills and technologies he worked with when describing his Experience section, but for the skills section he followed the old wisdom of “less is more”.

So he identified four of the most important groups of skills he has and presented them as engaging infographics.

Adapt this layout and try out various visual styles using our freely accessible resume templates .

Julian went for the jugular with his PwC analyst resume. He was perfectly aware that the majority of analysts lack soft skills, and that was a great opportunity to stand out from his competition.

But instead of simply listing soft skills he presented them in a real-world context. Finally, he renamed the whole section “Strengths” to grab the recruiter’s attention.

Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to experiment with the names for your custom resume sections.

Recruiters are tired of seeing thousands of “My skills” sections to the point they automatically skim them.

But try naming them “Core strengths” or “Tech achievements” and you’ll hold their attention.

If you are interested in learning more about making your resume laser-targeted, read our post on the topic .

Did you know that nothing sets your resume apart from the rest more than sharing your personal story in it…

Show your career and personal story

So far, we’ve managed to make every section of your resume stand out and engage recruiters, showcasing your experience and achievement in the most convincing way.

Let’s apply some final effort with custom sections that will push your resume into a league of its own.

Here are the four custom sections our customers most often add to their job-winning resumes:

• Life philosophy

Marcellus Nixon, now Senior Director of Network Operations, had an excellent work history in the network communications sector.

You can access Marcellus’s full resume template here .

But so did every candidate who was aiming for an executive role at Verizon.

At this level, candidates rarely can outperform each other on a skill basis.

At the end of the day, organizations hire humans, and if recruiters feel that there’s a person behind all the achievements on your paper, they will remember you.

That’s why Marcellus decided to add “A Day In My Life” and “Life Philosophy” sections.

With these two custom sections, his resume narrative switched from “experienced network executive” to “experienced network executive with a strong work ethic and a solid plan.”

Exactly what Verizon, a global network mogul, needs.

Still with us? Good.

It’s all fun and games until we mention proper formatting. Are there any tricks to it? What colors and fonts are appropriate? Let’s see how you can make your resume stand out visually.

Apply formatting tricks to create stand out resume

Watch out for white space.

According to an eye-tracking study from Ladders Inc, resumes that lack white space turn recruiters off.

The easier your resume reads, the more chances there will be that the recruiter reads every section of it.

If you have a lot to put on your resume, use smart layout and custom sections.

The two resume examples feature the same amount of information, yet the second one is much more engaging and comfortable to digest.

Pro tip: after you filled all the sections of your resume, look at it with your eyes squinted. If your resume feels like a big cluttered black spot, start decluttering it.

Declutter your resume with minimalism approach

Make a point of using as few words to describe your experience as possible. The worst thing you can do is trying to sound smart.

Bad example: developed an elaborate testing environment throughout a wide array of 22 company and partner software assets

Good example: Launched a test-to-production environment for 22 software products

Use well-tested fonts and combinations

Don’t be afraid to use several fonts on your resume, especially if you want to bold certain parts of your resume like headers or titles.

Just remember to limit yourself to only three fonts per resume , and try using font pairs that were already tested together by designers and user experience experts.

Make colors work for you

Here’s a really elaborate, but effective trick you can use to earn some extra points: try using the company’s brand colors on your resume.

Surely don’t put a company logo or use the exact color palette, go for a subtle effect .

It’s a bit of reverse psychology: in-house recruiters that know brand colors too well may subconsciously gravitate towards resumes with familiar colors.

Proofread your resume at least 3 times

Even the most elaborate and engaging resume can quickly become a recruiter’s kryptonite when a single typo creeps into your sentences.Make sure to proofread your resumes at least three times before you send them out. If you’re using our resume builder, it will automatically check every resume you create or upload for typos.

Study specific cases of resumes that stood out from competition

Writing a resume that stands out with no work experience.

• Put Education and Projects section on the top left and top right
• Hide GPA if it’s below 3
• Add a link to personal industry-related projects or Github if you’re in development
• Include a short objective to frame the recruiter’s expectations
• Use custom sections (e.g. Projects and Certification) to stand out from hundreds of applicants
• DON’T mention passion in your objective.

Successful example: [internship at Tesla]

Tips for making your resume stand out for senior employees

• Use custom section to stand out from your competition and add personality to your top-management experience (e.g. “A Day In My Life” and “Life Philosophy”  sections)
• Frame your experience with a well-researched custom headline on top
• Add links to a business-related profile (LinkedIn)
• Frame Skills sections in a unique way (e.g. name them “Workflows”, “Strengths”)

Successful example: senior manager resume at Verizon

How to create a standout resume with bad work history

• Go for a functional layout resume where skills and workflows are prioritized over the experience section
• Create a proxy item in your experience section, e.g. “Freelancer”, or “Agency” and list your temporary experiences within it
• Write an engaging Summary section to address the recruiter’s questions about your inconsistent work history and turn it to your advantage (e.g. several areas of competence)
• DON’T mention passion in your objective. Just don’t.

Standout resume for different positions

Over years we’ve shared and updated a library of 530+ professional resume example guides with best practices and tips for specific job titles.

Simply type in the job title you’re applying for, and you’ll get a resume guide similar to this one with actionable tips specific to your dream job.

BROWSE RESUME EXAMPLES

• Small details matter: make every section stand out for the compound effect
• Extensively research the company you’re applying for and use your findings in different sections
• Add custom sections to stand out and boost engagement with recruiters
• Visuals and readability matter more than you think. Watch your white space, fonts, and formatting

Did you like the guide? Anything else that we’re forgetting and you might want to add? What are your tips for creating a stand-out resume? Jump in the discussion below.

• Resume Guides

Real resume examples that stand out and get people hired

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out, According to 24 Experts

Most hiring managers and HR personnel have ways of weeding out candidates as quickly as possible.

That is why we asked experts to provide practical advice on how to make your resume stand out from the crowd.

Table of Contents

Don’t include an objective

Be sure to add a career summary, add a skills section, don’t include dates with your education, include only relevant and more recent jobs, stop trying to make the resume look like a work of art, stop believing a resume should only be two pages, identify what you really need, avoid long paragraphs as your ‘objective’, keep the font simple, make sure your formatting is professional and appropriate for what you’re seeking, make sure your resume is error and mistake-free, realize that the most important piece of information on there is your name, make sure your resume is tailored for what you’re seeking, ensure your resume is ats fully-compliant, use the right mix of quantitative and qualitative information, consider page length, the key to a standout resume is the focus, focus on what you can do for the position you’re applying for, create a visually appealing format, provide a branding statement, include keywords from the job description, add a cover letter, the resume should be tailored very specifically for a select audience, keep resume content heavily results-focused and not task-focused, watch the length and avoid drowning the reader in long narratives, make sure that you give priority to relevant experience and skills, create a targeted resumé, show the employer your unique value, use a modern, professional format, but keep your formatting clean and consistent, tailor your resumé to the job, keep it to one page, highlight proficiencies, consider adding your hobbies, don’t go wild with your resume format, use a big headline, put things where they belong, if possible, pass your resume along internally, include measurable achievements, show achievements, include facts and figures to quantify your achievements, avoid jargons and have someone proofread it for you, use a reverse-chronological resume rather than a functional resume, focus on accomplishments, always list your education on the resume even if you feel it is not relevant, add some colors to the top corner(s) of your resume, vary the overall design of your resume depending on the job you’re applying for, submit a different resume for each different role you’re applying for, easy-to-skim, job-winning content is the key to standing out when applying for jobs online, get creative, provide clear, concise bullet points of roles/responsibilities, keep it organized, clean, and clear, highlight your experience for the position you’re applying for, use industry, and job-specific keywords and common industry phrases within your resume, check your format, ensure your resume is tailor-made for this particular role you are applying for, utilize headers, format professionally, add a professional headshot, frequently asked questions.

Dr. Heather Rothbauer-Wanish

Owner, Feather Communications | Author, Getting Back in the Game: How to Build Your Resume After Taking a Break

No one cares about your objective. The company cares about what you can do for them. How are you going to make their job easier? Stating that you are looking to “ …grow your leadership abilities while enhancing their organization… ” isn’t helping your cause.

Provide the company with a high-overview of you as a job candidate. It only needs to be a three to five-line summary that gives several skill-sets and aligns with keywords in the job search. Please know that this is the first part of the resume.

If you don’t have a qualifications/skills/core competencies/areas of expertise section, you are missing out. And, more importantly, companies are missing out on you. This is the place to utilize those keywords used in the job posting.

Unless you graduated from college last Saturday, the year you graduated no longer matters. In fact, at some point, that information could start to hurt you and could potentially bring about age discrimination. And, if you are yet to graduate from college, put your estimated date of month and year of graduation on your resume.

While I loved my job as a bank teller in high school, that was more than 20+ years ago and is no longer relevant. You don’t need to include very single job that you have ever had on your resume. Think relevance over quantity of past job experiences.

Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.

CEO, D. Boyer Consulting | Author, Human Resource Professionals in Government Contracting Guidebook

No one sees the original resumes once they are uploaded in the Automatic Tracking Systems (ATS) – those original resumes get parsed over to Boolean searchable SQL databases and converted to text files – recruiters may never see the ‘pretty.’

It’s perfectly ok to go to a third page if your experience and history are rich and diverse. Use the third page for certifications, training, awards, and recognition. You can always print a double-side first and second page to take to job fairs.

Know the difference between a bio (one-page intro), a resume (2-4 page job history for 10-15 years), and a Curriculum Vitae (Latin for life-story) which can run 20-30 pages long (academic institution job search).

When you are writing the ‘ Objective ’ at the top of the resume, all you need is the job title for which you are applying. Avoid the long boring subjective paragraph that recruiters roll their eyes at and skip over.

Summarize your ‘general’ type of jobs in years of experience list at the top of the resume, e.g., 5 years, Supervisory Management, 10 years, Technical Analyst (military, federal government), etc.

It can either be Arial or Times New Roman between 10 and 12 points tall; do not make larger fonts for your name or locations or objective lines – this doesn’t help and makes the resume look amateurish.

Ron Auerbach, MBA

Career Coach | Consultant | Author, Think Like an Interviewer: Your Job Hunting Guide to Success

So the first impression they will get is the overall visual look. And if that doesn’t impress them, they won’t look at the content, no matter how great it is. FYI, this is why a lot, if not most resume templates you find on the Internet fail so miserably.

Free of typos, grammatical issues, and other mistakes. Why is this so important? The reason is very simple. You are being judged by your actions and inaction. So having mistakes or errors on your resume equate to your either being this way on the job, which isn’t good! Or it means you missed it, which isn’t good either!

Worst of all is you did notice the problem(s) and did nothing about it! On the job, do we want people to notice but leave problems alone? No way!

When there’s a stack of resumes on someone’s pile, making sure that yours stands out from others is important. So you want your name to be the biggest thing on there. That way, it screams out, “This is my resume!”

So while you can create an excellent generic resume, it may not work in every case. So you do need to tweak and/or make major revisions accordingly. The same with a resume you’ve used lots of other times for that kind of work of that specific job.

The requirements and/or specific role you’ll play can vary company-to-company. Thus, you must revise things as needed in order to successfully get through the screening.

The last thing you can afford when you’re job hunting is your resume automatically being rejected or not being accurately read. So making sure you have your resume in an ATS-compliant fashion is key to getting it noticed.

Something else you should do to stand out is incorporate keywords they’ll be looking for. And inserting those keywords into various sections of your resume so, no matter where they’re looking, you will have the kinds of things they’ll want and will be impressed by.

FYI, despite what some advocate, you do not always need to include numbers of some type to impress. Qualitative data, when presented in the right way, can work equally well. Sometimes, even better! For example:

• “Increased revenues by 35%” 

Notice how I used numbers here. Now, this may really impress. Then again, it’s a matter of how they’ll react to 35%. Is this really a big enough increase to be considered “impressive?” That is the unknown question! So you might actually stand out better with being qualitative rather than quantitative here. For example:

• “Dramatically increased revenues”
• “Significantly increased revenues”

Notice how I’m leaving numbers out here and using a qualifier in the description to showcase the increase. And with “dramatically” and “significant” being subjective whereby each reader has their own range of what numbers it could be, you’re playing into this as a way to impress.

So it’s an excellent way to get around numbers that you may think are impressive but they do not. Thus, do not underestimate the power of being qualitative!

A resume, no matter what level of responsibility and/or experiences you have, should be above two pages. First of all, going beyond two pages is too much for them to be reading when they have lots of applications to go through and other tasks on their platter. So help them out by reducing not increasing their workload!

Secondly, two pages are more than enough space to convince them you’re qualified and worth considering for employment. If you cannot do so with this many pages, you never will!

So you do not need to go overboard in your background and qualifications, which is where a lot of job seekers going for C-level positions make a mistake.

You only need to give them enough to show you’re worth bringing in for an interview. Then you can fill in the rest with your full background!

Krystal Yates

Certified HR Expert | Founder, EBR Consulting, LLC

Creating a resume that stands out is much easier than most people think. A good resume must include three components:

• It must get you past the applicant tracking software (ATS)
• It must tell the reader why you are a good fit for their job
• It must be visually appealing

Too often, we overcomplicate the resume but forget these three basics.

That means that first, you must decide what your next position looks like. Spend some time to figure out exactly what you want from your next job, then ensure your resume tells that story. While that advice feels counterintuitive to many, it works very well.

In the past, a resume was a job history, now it is your brochure. Instead of broadly telling the reader everything you’ve done in the past, focus on how you solve the problem of the reader (the hiring manager). This should be easy to do since you know exactly what types of positions you will be applying for.

Review two or three similar job postings and pull out the terminology you see used over and over. These are the keywords you want to include in the resume to get you past the ATS.

The good news is, there is no one right way to do this. Decide what appeals to you. After all, this reflects you. Make sure the document is easy to skim and that you’ve used a font that is easy to read. If using color, ensure it still looks good printed in black and white.

Ebony Joyce

Chief Resume Writer | Founder, Next Level Career Services, LLC

No one else has the same brand as you. Your branding statement isn’t simply a list of accomplishments, but a three-to-five-line statement that tells who you are and sums up your value proposition. What sets you apart from others? What added value will you bring to the organization?

So, dig deep to formulating the qualities that differentiate you from others. The best way to land your next opportunity is to do a great job writing this section and make your resume stand out.

Using the job description as a guide is one best way to make your resume stand out. Job descriptions are written with certain keywords and when recruiters and hiring manager see keywords those are the resumes that get attention.

While it may be time-consuming, take the time to make a minor tweak to customize your resume for each individual job is a way to stand out since many applicants won’t take this time to do so.

If a job application says to submit a resume most people will do just that, submit a resume. So just the mere fact that not everyone includes cover letters with their resume is reason enough for you to submit one.

The cover letter is your opportunity to express your personality and provide a supplement to your resume that briefly expands upon your skills. Recruiters are going to appreciate the extra time you took in crafting a cover letter and set yourself apart from the applicants.

Related: How Long Should a Cover Letter Be , How to End a Cover Letter  

Adrienne Tom

Interview Coach | Executive Resume Writer, Career Impressions

General, one-size-fits-all resumes rarely work. Make it easy for each employer to see how you would provide value to their open position by aligning all resume content with job requirements. If a detail or point is not related to the target job – remove it or replace it!

Employers are not interested in all of the basic job duties you performed in each past position. Instead, they want to know “ what’s in it for me if I hire you?” .

To create interest and support your candidacy for the open position you must provide proof of the skills and capabilities you claim to possess. The proof is best shared through results.

In addition, quantify achievements to boost the quality of your resume content and provide more depth and breadth to expertise. For example, instead of just saying “created cost-savings” , take content one step further and provide quantified details such as “saved $16K in annual operating costs by introducing new streamlined inventory management procedure.”

Employers are often short on time and what to know ‘what’s in it for me?” – fast – when they scan a resume. Keep content in check by aiming for an average of 2 pages, focusing on the quality of content and not quantity.

Mix up content delivery by sharing details in both short paragraphs and bulleted statements and aim to keep the information as succinct as possible for easier readability.

Finally, eliminate unnecessary filler words like “a, to, by, and the” to sharpen content focus.

Related: How Long Should Your Resume Be

Rob Morgenroth

Executive Vice President, Mason Frank International

Despite the limited space you have on a resume anyway, you’d be surprised how much detail on it goes unread. Most hiring managers or recruiters will be skim-reading a huge pile of applications, looking for skills, experience, and qualifications that match exactly what they’re looking for.

It’ll then be narrowed down to decide who to invite to interview, but it’s vital you make an impression to survive that first cut.

A potential employer isn’t interested in clichés about you being a team player or great communicator at this stage. Those are just basic things everyone in the world of work is expected to have, so if you’re listing those, you may as well list other non-factors such as ‘punctual’ or ‘hard-working.’

Your personality, ambition, and general cultural fit will be determined during the face-to-face or phone interview itself, so at this stage, it’s about making sure you’ve got the right role-specific buzzwords on your resume.

Keep anything else as brief as possible. Highlight the qualities that match what the employer is looking for and remember to cover soft skills sparingly. Using bullet points can be a good way to avoid the temptation of providing too much unnecessary information, but be wary of how you format this.

One of the most common mistakes I see is giving the same amount of prominence to a job with zero transferable skills.

Standing out can be difficult if the vacancy attracts a high caliber of the applicant, but starting your resume with your most relevant strengths will give you the best chance possible of making it to the next round.

Holly Leyva

ACRW-Certified Professional Resumé and Cover Letter Writer | Customer and Career Services Division Manager, Virtual Vocations

Many job seekers create a general resumé and send that out to every employer, but not only will this not score well on an ATS system, but it makes it difficult for the hiring manager to easily see why you’re a good fit for the job. I recently posted for a customer service position and received over 100 resumés.

Many had professional titles completely unrelated to the job I had posted, so I didn’t even give those a second look. They immediately went into the discard pile because it was not clear that they had applied to the job I had posted.

For best results, create a targeted professional headline on your resumé that reflects the position for which you are applying, and make sure your summary is targeted, as well.

Instead of talking about skills and tasks that everyone is going to have, show the employer what you have done and the impact you’ve made in your prior roles on your resumé.

This will prove what you can do and why you’re better than the other applicants. This should be done in both the summary section and in the professional experience section—and be sure to use metrics and data whenever possible!

For a professional, easy-to-scan resumé, use plenty of white space and limit your sections of text to two or three lines maximum. Long, dense sections of text are too hard to read, making it difficult for employers to easily see your value.

Look through the job description and pull out specific keywords and skills that employer has mentioned, and incorporate these keywords into your resumé. Be sure to use them in context, rather than just in a list of skills, however, so the employer can see what you’ve accomplished and how you’ve made an impact using the skills they require.

Sean Sessel

Director, The Oculus Institute

In today’s age, far too many people submit resumes that are 2, 3, or even 4 or more pages long. Not only does nobody want to wade through that, but it demonstrates an inability to be concise.

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Instead, show your ability to extract the core important information by keeping only things that are relevant and limiting your resume to one page.

Nowadays, many resumes are scanned for keywords and key phrases by computers before an actual human being ever sees them. That’s why I have my clients include a section called “ Proficiencies ” that includes languages, software, certifications, and any defined skill set that would come up as a keyword or key phrase.

Related: How to Include Language Skills (Proficiencies) on Your Resume

Resumes can be extremely dry, so it’s a good idea to humanize yourself by including a one-line section at the end called “Hobbies” where you share some of your interests.

When your resume actually does get to a human being, this section will allow them to relate to you and imagine themselves working with you, which is what really matters at the end of the day.

Debbie Winkelbauer

CEO, SurfSearch

You won’t stand a chance if your resume is never seen! We get hundreds of resumes sent to us every week and most are loaded directly into our applicant tracking system .

Resumes that have text boxes, photos, side columns, and fancy fonts don’t always load into the applicant tracking system correctly.

I imagine that is true with company websites as well. We do not have the time to contact these candidates about this so candidates might not realize their resume was never considered because it did not get into the system.

Eli Howayeck

Career Coach | Founder and CEO, Crafted Career Concepts

Avoid the fluffy paragraph or key word stuffing at the top of your resume. Use a headline instead that is short and concise. The rule of 3’s applies. What three themes do you want the reader to take away from your headline?

Resume readers read rapidly. Don’t annoy the reader (and the decider of your destiny) by making them search for the things they need to know. Chronological is best, name at the top, education towards the end (unless you’ve recently graduated).

Find someone well respected within the organization to pass your resume along internally. If your resume gets passed to the hiring manager (or HR) from multiple sources, it’s more likely to make an impact.

Jeri Walker

Career and Job Search Strategist | Founder, Your Best Designed Career  

Outside of using simplified formatting and keywords to get your resume past the ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems), one of the most important components in getting your resume noticed is including measurable achievements on the top fold of your resume.

Because when a hiring manager is looking for their ideal candidate, they want to know what problems you can solve and how you can make their lives easier.

What results can you deliver? How have you impacted the bottom line of your past employers? Hiring managers know that if you have driven results in the past, then you will do the same for them.

Achievements can be difficult for people to come up with because they feel like they are bragging about themselves and they’re not comfortable with it, but it’s really important for your reader to know how you can solve problems.

And achievements can be measured in many ways, it’s not just about increasing sales. It can be how you’ve decreased costs, increased efficiencies, improved processes, surpassed deadlines or saved a client account.

Get creative and put some thought into the various achievements you have made that are relevant to this position and list 3 or 4 of them in bullet form at the top of your resume.

Also, once you’ve come up with the most important achievements and have placed them at the top of your resume, you should sprinkle all the rest of them throughout your job experience section as well. Seeing achievements on a resume is much more compelling and meaningful than just bullet points of your job duties.

Always remember, it’s about that hiring manager and what they need so be sure to demonstrate how you will help them on your resume so that you will be their ideal candidate.

James Burroughes

Managing Consultant, Traverse Success Coaching

Cutting and pasting your job description or a list of responsibilities only tells the hiring manager that you can recite what you should be doing and could apply to anyone doing that job. Not how well you did it.

Your CV must be different. It needs to demonstrate specific instances and examples of accomplishments that show the difference you have made in your work and therefore the likely difference you will make in a new role.

With a little thought, you find most achievements can be boiled down to a number in some form. These could be reducing the time taken for a task, cutting costs, or driving sales. Make sure they show a black and white result that can’t be refuted. Managers love this.

Too many resumes have jargon, abbreviations, and company-specific language which means nothing to a reader outside your business. If someone you know can’t understand what your Golden Gift Award is, or your PDB increase by 12% is, it’s too “ jargony “. This will mean you stand out for the wrong reasons. Keep it simple and explain things accordingly.

Frank Grossman

Founder, Resumes That Shine

Resumes are scanned with automated systems called ATS systems that cannot digest functional resumes. If your resume does reach a hiring manager, you still will not be considered because managers feel you are hiding something when you use a functional resume.

Most resumes people send me list job titles and the job candidate’s job description. Hiring managers either know your job description or they can look it up online. They cannot look up your accomplishments in the job.

Employers may require a college degree to consider you, for example, even if you have experience. Your major may not matter.

One of my job candidates at an employment program was denied an interview because her resume did not list her college degree, even though the employer knew her!

Additional resume tips I give job candidates that want to stand out include:

• Do not show your street address and zip code on your resume. We are naturally curious and will look up the address to see where you live. Then, we may make incorrect assumptions about your salary needs, ethnicity, criminal past, etc.
• Use a personal brand statement instead of the words “profile” or “summary” under your contact information so employers know what folder to put your resume in right away.
• Add a summary under the branding statement  including a sentence about your job title and industry, a few hard skill highlights and two or three accomplishment highlights.
• Include a core competency matrix of 9, 12, or 15 hard skills in three columns to help ATS systems find your resume.

HR Manager, Tree AMS

When it comes to resumes, HR professionals often have endless piles to go through. Thus, knowing how to make your resume stand out from the rest is key.

Of course, it shouldn’t come off as tacky; instead, you can use professional colors such as blue or maroon. Seeing your resume stick out from the corner might capture the attention of the employer. This demonstrates your wit and that you have put some thought into your resume.

For example, if you’re going for a graphic designer role, you should definitely showcase your design skills by personalizing your resume design. Alternatively, you can also pick a professional theme that suits your industry.

Refer to the job description and state relevant skills and experiences in your resume accordingly. This indicates to the employer that you’ve meticulously reviewed what’s expected of you.

Steph Cartwright

Certified Professional Resume Writer, Off The Clock Resumes, LLC

How you look and apply for jobs matters. A graphic resume with flashy colors, charts, icons, and other graphic elements will certainly stand out when networking and physically handing your resume to a hiring manager; however, these resumes won’t get through employer software if you’re applying for jobs online.

If you’re targeting your resume to demonstrate the skills listed on the job posting in action throughout your work history and using bullet lists to draw attention to major contributions toward organizational goals, your resume will get through the Applicant Tracking software and stand out the right way when seen by a decision-maker.

Joe Flanagan

Senior Career Advisor, MintResume

If you’re in a creative career, such as graphic design or video production, your resume can be much more creative and unique than someone applying for a job in accounting.

Research the prospective employer’s website to see just how out of the box they’re comfortable with. Using that as a guideline, get creative with color, image, layout or verbiage that’s in keeping with the potential employer’s style and approach.

Resumes for jobs in the arts or creative work can differentiate you by using approaches that are much more out of the box.

Talent Acquisition Manager, PrimePay

You want to make sure you’re not providing too much or not enough information – a good balance is key! I also really enjoy when candidates list out their specific achievements/accomplishments in each role, to really showcase what they’re most proud of themselves for!

I recruit mostly sales representatives, and really enjoy reading when candidates exceed quota, win awards/trips, or place at the top of their teams!

Erin Murphree

You can make your resume stand out in different ways- positively or negatively. When it comes to standing out in a positive manner, take these tips into account!

• Provide complete basic information such as your contact information, education, and work experience. If you just graduated from school, list the projects you did while in school. Were you a part of any clubs on campus? What type of leadership roles have you held?
• Tailor your resume towards the job you are applying to.
• Begin each bullet point with power verbs like initiated, improved, demonstrated, etc.
• Add quantitative results especially when it comes to a metrics-driven position.
• Highlight awards, accomplishments and recognition.
• Utilize keywords that are relevant to the job opportunity and company.
• Make sure all information is accurate and matches your LinkedIn information.
• Be concise and use bullet points.

Jason Patel

Founder, Transizion

Think of aesthetics and readability first. Why? Hiring managers, small business owners, and department heads don’t have time to waste, which is why they’ll initially review resumes for seven to nine seconds.

If your resume doesn’t pass this quick test, it’ll be discarded. The best way to pass this test, or, at least, not fail quickly,

Specifically, keep your bullet points aligned, keep your grammar and formatting even, and make sure your spacing is neat.

To do this, break up your resume into discernible sections so that you can review it for mistakes and the hiring manager likes its aesthetic. A neat and clean resume signifies the applicant is someone who takes the time to clean up her work and pays attention to detail .

CEO & Founder, UpKeep | Awardee, Forbes 30 Under 30 for Manufacturing

Almost every hiring manager knows hiring is tough. With hundreds of applicants and resumes, it’s no longer simply about having the skills and background listed in a job description, but being able to stand out from the crowd.

Hiring managers read hundreds of resumes a day. At the end of the day, the longer a resume is, the better, right? Wrong! You can read a job description and know exactly what our hiring managers are looking for by looking at the required skills.

If you have experience with any of the skills or requirements listed in the job description, don’t be afraid to add the company’s language to your resume directly.

This highlights your resume to show companies that you’ve got the skills and experience for what they might be looking for and that you’ve read the job description thoroughly!

If you don’t have the skills, requirements, and experience yet, don’t hide it. Share with your potential employer as to why now is the time to learn? How have your past experiences prepared you to take on this new challenge?

Related: How to Get an Entry Level Job with No Qualifications or Experience

Business Development Consultant, My Trading Skills

Don’t overdo it, and make sure that these terms are well-distributed throughout the resume and fit naturally into sentences.

Use the most modern, appropriate, appealing and most preferred resume format for your industry.

This entails demonstrating the specific set of skills and knowledge that will help you succeed in the role if hired.

Have a header below your name and contact information that succinctly captures who you are bearing in mind the position you are applying for.

Bottom Line: To ensure that your resume stands out, have a succinct and definitive header, use the most appropriate resume format, make the resume specific to the role you are applying for, and use industry keywords naturally throughout the resume.

Nate Masterson

CMO, Maple Holistics

You want your resume to physically stand out from the rest of the applications that hiring managers are sifting through. That being said, you want to ensure that it displays your professionalism.

Your layout is as much as part of your ‘brand’ as the actual information on your resume.

Employ different sized fonts to help titles and relevant roles catch the eye and use paragraphs to your advantage to make things clear.

One of the biggest mistakes that potential applicants make when applying for multiple jobs, is sending the same resume to each application.

Make sure that you tailor your resume for the specific position that you’re applying to.

There will be nuanced differences in roles and an easy way to recognize this is by using keywords from the original job posting in your resume. While all the jobs you’re applying for might be the same, companies look for different things to ensure that you’ve acknowledged this in your resume to help you stand out.

Garrett Mynatt, M.A.

Professional Photographer

Including a quality headshot will do a couple of things that not only help you stand out but also reinforce you are the right person for the job.

You want to have a headshot that you are proud of and one that represents you authentically within your field, so an outdoor guide on white background may not be authentic to them, much like an accountant’s headshot probably doesn’t need to be on top of a mountain.

By including a headshot it shows you are in fact a real person but more important than that it represents you as the confident expert you are, which creates a connection with the person on the other side. You have now gone from being another number in the pile to a familiar face.

As an added bonus, create consistency by using the same headshot across all public platforms, the more consistent you are the more trust is formed, and don’t we all want to work with someone like that?

Should I Hire a Professional Resume Writer?

A professional resume writer can be a good option if you’re struggling to create a resume that effectively showcases your skills and qualifications. Here are a few things to consider if you decide to hire a professional resume writer:

• A professional resume writer can help you create a resume tailored to your specific industry and career goals. • A professional resume writer can provide valuable feedback and advice on your resume’s content, format, and design. • A professional resume writer can save you time and help you avoid common mistakes that could hurt your chances of getting an interview.

However, using a professional writer can be expensive, and you must do your research to find a reputable and qualified professional.

Should I Include a List of References on My Resume?

It’s not necessary to include a list of references on your resume, but it’s a good idea to have a list ready in case you’re asked for it during the interview. Here are some tips for creating a strong list of references:

• Choose people who know your work well and can speak about your skills and qualifications. • Ensure you have their current contact information, phone number, and email address. • Let your references know that you’re applying for jobs, and give them a copy of your resume and a description of the jobs you’re applying for. • Thank your references for their time, and keep them updated on your job search.

Should I Include My GPA on My Resume?

Including your grade point average on your resume is usually only necessary if you are a recent college graduate or your GPA is particularly high (over 3.5). However, if your GPA is below 3.0, it may be better to leave it off your resume.

Here are some tips on how to decide if you should include your GPA on your resume:

• If you’re a recent graduate, including your grade point average can show your academic achievements and potential. • If you already have work experience in your field, your work experience may be more important than your GPA, and you may not need to include it. • Suppose you don’t have a strong GPA. In that case, it may be best to omit it and focus on other areas of your experience and qualifications.

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The Job-Seeker’s Guide to Making Your Resume Stand Out From the Crowd

You’ve spent hours writing and rewriting your resume. You diligently update it . Maybe you even have a few different versions depending on the types of jobs you’re going after. But with the average job listing attracting 250 applications, how do you make sure your resume stands out from the competition and catches the eye of a recruiter or hiring manager?

That’s assuming that it makes it that far. Today, many companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to organize all of their job applications. This software can be used to scan resumes for keywords and phrases, sending only the most qualified ones through for human review—which means you have to optimize your resume for an ATS as well as for the hiring manager.

The good news is that you don’t need a fancy design to make your resume stand out. Try these nine strategies to ensure that your resume puts you in the best light—and lands you the job.

1. Keep It Short

Unless you’re vying for an executive role, one page is usually enough to show that you have the background, skills, and experience for the job. If you’re having trouble streamlining your resume, try trimming bullets and combining sections, and delete any jobs more than 10 years in the past.

2. Tailor It to the Role

Your resume should demonstrate that you have the specific skills, experience, and accomplishments that this company is looking for. Don’t try to detail every career accomplishment—use your resume to demonstrate why you’re the best candidate for this particular position.

3. Design With Readability in Mind

Avoid using graphics, tables, pie charts, and illustrations, which resume-scanning software can’t read. Make sure you use a simple font like Helvetica, Arial, or Times New Roman—less common fonts may be rejected by an ATS, and are harder to read for humans, too. Then, use clear section headings and make them stand out with bold type, capital letters, or a different color.

4. Include the Magic Words

Make sure to incorporate keywords from the job description into your bullet points. It’ll be easier for recruiters and hiring managers to see that you’re a good fit—and if a company uses resume-scanning software, this will help you get through the filters, too.

To figure out what those keywords might be, scan the job description for specific skills that come up more than once and are mentioned near the top of the requirements and job duties. Online tools like Jobscan , Resume Worded’s Targeted Resume , or SkillSyncer can also pinpoint some crucial keywords to include.

5. Use a Summary Statement Instead of an Objective

A old-school resume objective (“Seeking a senior software engineer role in the fintech space”) tells the recruiter what you’re looking for, but a summary statement explains what value the company will get if you join the team.

6. Punch Up Your Text

Most resume bullet points use the same words, over and over again. Instead of listing things you were “responsible for,” swap in action verbs that convey what you achieved:

7. Quantify Everything

Go through your bullet points and add as many numbers and percentages as you can to illustrate your impact . This helps recruiters really picture what you’ve done in your position. Bonus: Include what the benefit was to your boss or your company.

Before: Created monthly status reports for clients. After: Created monthly status reports for 25-30 different clients to ensure timely and complete communication about key initiatives.

8. Avoid Clichés or Jargon

Put everything in terms a layperson can understand. And reconsider stock phrases like “big picture thinker,” “out-of-the-box,” “thought leader,” or “innovative,” which are so overused that they don’t mean anything anymore. Just like in the rest of your resume, you’re better off quantifying your results and backing up your skills with numbers.

9. Consider Mentioning Non-Traditional Work

If they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for, include any volunteer, part-time, or freelance experience. Then make sure to pair it with a strong cover letter telling the narrative of why you’re ideal for the job.

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The 7 Things That Really Look Good on a College Application

College Admissions , College Info

What looks good on a college application? It's the question nearly every high school student will ask at some point while applying to college. But is there a clear answer?

Fortunately, the answer is yes! Read on to learn what colleges look for in applicants, what looks really good on a college application, and what kinds of myths there are about good things to put on a college application.

What Are Colleges Looking for in Applicants?

Everyone applying to college has wondered, "What exactly are colleges looking for in applicants?" In other words, what looks good on a college application?

While all colleges are different, of course, with some valuing certain qualities or skills more or less than other schools, all colleges generally look for smart, studious, ambitious, and passionate students.

Therefore, your college application should emphasize your best, most impressive qualities. For example, if you play the violin and want to study music in college, you'll want to touch on this interest you have in different areas of your application.

A good college application will also showcase your sincere interest in the school. You wouldn't be applying to a college unless you had a reason to want to go there, right? Make sure to explain (especially if you need to write a "Why This College" essay ) exactly how you became interested in the school and why you think it's a good fit for you and your goals.

You don't need to be the next Marie Curie or Stephen Hawking, but you should be open to new opportunities and willing to challenge yourself.

Overall, the basic point of a college application is to make you stand out from other applicants in a positive, memorable, and unique way.

This fact is especially important in light of how many first-year applications colleges receive each year. According to the 2019 report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) , the number of first-year applications received by US colleges increased by 6% from fall 2017 to fall 2018.

The report found that "the average number of applications for each admission office staff member (excluding administrative staff) for the Fall 2017 admission cycle was 1,035 for public institutions and 461 for private institutions."

These trends indicate that your application will definitely need to leave a lasting impression on the admissions committee if you hope to get into that school.

The degree by which you must stand out from other applicants will depend on how selective a particular school is. In general, the more selective a college is, the more impressive and unique your application will have to be.

Finally, what looks good on an application will vary depending on the college and what the college values. For instance, at colleges that don't place a big emphasis on standardized tests, a high SAT score likely won't be much of a factor in admissions.

This is just a general overview of what colleges look for in applicants. So what looks really good on a college application? Up next, we look at the specific qualities you should strive to include on your application so you can raise your chances of getting accepted.

What Looks Good on a College Application? 7 Key Elements

In addition to key personality traits, such as ambition, passion, genuine interest, and academic curiosity, what looks really good on a college application?

In general, a great application will have most or all of the following elements:

• A high GPA (relative to what admitted students have) and a rigorous curriculum
• Strong test scores (relative to what admitted students have)
• A specific, honest, and well-written personal statement and/or essays
• A unique extracurricular interest or passion (a "spike," as we like to call it)
• Volunteering experience with measurable impact
• Compelling letters of recommendation written on your behalf
• Work experience, particularly jobs related to your academic or professional interests

It's OK if you don't have every single quality listed above, but if you do, your chances of getting accepted to the college of your dreams will go way up!

Now then, let's take a look at each of these qualities in more detail.

#1: Excellent Grades in Challenging Courses

The first important part of the college application is the transcript, which consists of your GPA and the names and types of classes you've taken in high school.

Most people believe a high GPA (the definition of which can vary at different colleges) will make an application stronger. And this is true!

According to NACAC, 75% of colleges ranked grades in high school classes considerably important. In fact, this factor was ranked the most important of any in the report.

What's truly important, though, isn't that you simply have a high GPA overall but rather that you have a GPA that's higher than the average GPA of admitted students at the college you're applying to.

To find a college's average GPA, search "[School Name] PrepScholar admission requirements" on Google and then click our database link to that school. This page will show you what the school's average GPA is, in addition to other admission requirements.

For example, if you want to apply to Notre Dame, you would search for "Notre Dame PrepScholar admission requirements" and click the link to our Notre Dame admission reqs page , which looks like this:

As you can see, Notre Dame's average (weighted) GPA for admitted applicants is 4.06. As a result, if you're applying here, you'll want to have a GPA of at least 4.06, preferably higher so you will be an above-average applicant.

It's not just about getting a high GPA, though; you must also take a range of challenging courses throughout high school if you really wish to impress an admissions committee. According to the NACAC report, 73 percent of colleges rated grades in college prep courses as considerably important. This means you'll want to take not just basic-level classes but also some AP, honors, and/or IB courses, particularly in subjects you are good at and might want to continue to study in college or major in.

The 2019 NACAC report found that a whopping 84% of colleges ranked an applicant's rigor of curriculum moderately or considerably important.

Think about it: though a perfect 4.0 might look great at an initial glance, if you got this high GPA by only taking the easiest classes available and didn't challenge yourself with higher-level coursework, your transcripts aren't likely to impress college admissions officers that much.

Even if you started high school with lower grades, an upward grade trend is a great point to emphasize on your application. This suggests that you're capable of bouncing back from any difficulties you might face and are willing to put in the work necessary for excelling in college.

#2: High Test Scores

Test scores, mainly SAT/ACT scores, are another key part of college applications (unless, of course, you're applying to colleges that don't require test scores ).

On the NACAC report, 83% of colleges believe admission test scores are at least moderately important. This is why it's vital that you try to get as high an SAT/ACT score as you can, ideally one in at least the 75th percentile for your colleges.

The 75th percentile means that 75% of admitted students at a particular school achieved this score or lower. Reaching (or surpassing) this threshold means that you're scoring higher than most other admitted applicants are—and well above that college's average score.

To find the middle 50% (that is, the 25th and 75th percentile SAT/ACT scores) for a school, search on Google for "[School Name] PrepScholar admission requirements." Click the link to our page for the school to see its requirements, including its average SAT/ACT scores.

For example, say you're planning to apply to NYU. Here's what the SAT scores section on NYU's PrepScholar admission reqs page looks like:

Here, we can see the average SAT score for NYU is 1440—that's pretty high, in the 95th percentile nationally !

To really stand out as an applicant, though, you'll want to aim for at least the 75th percentile. For NYU, that's 1510, which corresponds to the 98th percentile, or the top 1% of test takers.

Since you're likely applying to more than just one school, you'll need to set an SAT / ACT goal score , that is, a score high enough to get you into all the colleges you're applying to.

To set a goal score, start by making a chart of all the schools you're applying to. You can make your own chart or download a blank template .

Below is a sample SAT goal score chart:

Next, look up the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores for each of the schools you're applying to using our PrepScholar admission requirements pages. (Follow the steps above for NYU to learn how to do this.)

Once you've got these scores, write them in your chart as so:

Now, look at all the 75th percentile scores in your chart. The highest score will be your goal score, as this is the one most likely to get you into all the schools you're applying to.

With our example chart, the highest score is 1480, or the 75th percentile score for the University of Illinois and UW Wisconsin. By getting a 1480 or higher, you'll be getting an impressive score not just for these two schools, school but also for Marquette and MSU, thereby raising your chances of getting into all colleges you're applying to.

#3: Sincere, Specific, and Well-Written Essays

The personal statement is an important part of your college application as it's one of the only areas where you can really showcase your personality.

According to the 2019 NACAC survey, 56% of schools consider application essays moderately or considerably important. While some colleges don't require essays , those that do usually place at least moderate importance on them.

So how can you ensure your essay will impress the admissions committee? Generally, colleges are looking for three main qualities in a personal essay:

• Honesty: What you write about should have actually happened to you and should be how you actually feel. Exaggerating details and outright lying are big no-nos here!
• Specificity: Using concrete details to effectively convey your thoughts, views, and experiences will make your essay a lot more memorable, personable, and—most importantly—unique.
• Eloquence: Don't expect to get accepted anywhere if your essay is poorly written and full of grammar and spelling errors. A great personal statement has a sensible organization, tells a compelling story, and is completely free of technical errors.

Below are some steps you can take to guarantee that your essay will have all three qualities.

Step 1: Brainstorm Significant Moments From Your Life

What you write about for your college essay will vary depending on the prompt(s) you're given from your school or the prompt you choose (for example, the Common App and Coalition App allow you to choose from among several prompts for your essay).

In general, you'll want to pick a topic that meets the following criteria:

• It really happened and was significant to you: If you're writing about a specific incident, it should be something that actually happened and that had a large impact on how you define yourself, your goals, and/or your interests.
• It's specific and interesting: Don't write about a broad, universal topic that can apply to tons of other applicants as well. Instead, focus on an event, issue, person, or struggle that's unique to you and your life.
• It reveals something important about you: The essay is meant to highlight something you think the admissions committee should know about you, such as a personality trait you have, how you overcame some sort of challenge, or how you became interested in a field of study.
• It has a positive lean: While you don't need to pick a topic that's overly light or cheery, it should still have an ultimately positive lean that reveals something good about you rather than something bad, controversial, or immoral.

Step 2: Write Your Essay

The next step is to actually begin writing your essay. Don't worry too much about grammar and flow at this point; just get down your ideas and start deciding which details and examples might work well in your essay.

As you write, remember to channel your inner voice. This essay should sound like the real you, not an imitation of what you think colleges want to hear. So if you're the sarcastic type, you might want to include a joke or two, for instance. Don't forget that the essay is a way for the admissions committee to learn more about you, so don't shy away from your true self!

On that same note, it's OK to get creative here. The essay isn't an academic essay you'd write for English class—it's a story. Feel free to inject your writing with various literary techniques , such as a non-chronological organization, realistic dialogue, and memorable imagery.

Lastly, make sure you're sufficiently answering the prompt and are abiding by all technical requirements (such as length). You can check a college's essay requirements by referring to its application requirements page or by reading the instructions on the Common App, Coalition App, or Universal College App websites (if submitting your application through one of these platforms).

An essay that's too long might get cut off when you submit it electronically, so be sure it adheres to all the requirements.

Step 3: Edit and Proofread Several Times

Once you have a rough draft of your college essay, it's time to polish it up for submission.

The best way to edit is to put your essay away for a few days. This will give you some distance away from your writing, allowing you to look back at your essay later with a fresher perspective.

As you reread your essay, mark any areas in it that are unclear, awkward, or irrelevant to the main point you're trying to make with it. You should also correct any obvious typos or errors, such as mistakes in grammar, spelling, or punctuation.

Once you've done this process a few times, give your essay to someone to read. Ideally, this will be a person you trust, such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or tutor. Have the person you choose offer clear feedback on your essay and check that you've met all requirements. Edit your essay as needed in accordance with the comments you get.

After you've finished all of this, you should now have a perfect college essay to submit with your application!

#4: A Spike in Your Extracurriculars

Almost every college will want to know what kinds of extracurricular activities you do or have done in your spare time.

Indeed, 49% of colleges surveyed regard students' extracurricular activities moderately or considerably important. Ask yourself: what are your interests outside of school and how do you engage in them?

The trick here is to provide not a list of all the random activities you've done but rather a detailed overview of one to two of your most passionate interests and any big achievements you've made in them.

In other words, you need to figure out what your "spike" is, a concept which PrepScholar co-founder and Harvard alum Allen Cheng describes in his expert guide on how to get into the Ivy League .

To put it simply, a spike is deep accomplishment in and knowledge of a particular field.

As an example, say you plan to major in biology. You'll stand out as an applicant if you have tons of biology- or science-related experiences under your belt. Maybe you're part of your school's biology club, or maybe you volunteered at a local research lab, which taught you the basics of handling lab equipment.

In addition to having a variety of experiences and sufficient background knowledge in the field, you want to highlight any relevant major accomplishments you have. For instance, maybe you won a science fair your sophomore year of high school; most recently, you submitted an award-winning invention idea to a national science contest. All of these accomplishments illustrate your deep accomplishment and knowledge in the field of science!

As you can see, this concept of the spike is the opposite of being well rounded, which most students assume they need to be (read the next section to learn more about this myth).

If you're not sure what your spike is just yet, take some time to try out new activities and explore any interests you have, both in and outside of school. Over time you should start to get a feel for what you're passionate about and what you can see yourself committing to in the future.

#5: Compelling Letters of Recommendation

Most colleges require at least one letter of recommendation from either your high school counselor or a high school teacher (or both).

The 2019 NACAC survey indicates that 54% of colleges consider teacher recommendations at least moderately important, while a higher 55% consider counselor recommendations the same. Therefore, we can say it's pretty important to secure great recommendation letters for your application.

If you're asking for a letter from a teacher , make sure to choose someone whose class you got a high grade in (ideally an A) and who is familiar with your abilities, ambitions, and interests. Typically, you'll need to submit at least one letter from a teacher who taught a core class (so math, English, science, or social studies/history).

It's a good idea to also get a letter from a teacher who works in the field you plan to major in. So if you got an A in AP English and plan to major in English, asking that teacher for a recommendation letter would give a great boost to your application.

While you don't have to be best buddies with the teacher you ask, they should definitely know you well , beyond the classroom, so they can effectively explain to admissions committees what makes you special, that is, what makes you worth admitting.

For example, if you did research with a particular teacher, are part of a club this teacher coaches or leads, or helped out this teacher with a project, this would be a good person to ask to write a letter for you.

Once you've secured a recommendation letter writer, be sure to provide them with any materials or information they might need to help them craft a compelling letter .

#6: Volunteering Experience With Measurable Impact

Colleges love it when an applicant has not simply volunteered but has also made a measurable impact with their volunteering efforts. What does this mean exactly? If you have volunteered somewhere or for an organization, your assistance should have resulted in a noticeable, positive change to the group, community, or area you were aiming to help.

For instance, say you volunteered at a local library. Maybe the library was struggling to get funds to continue operating, and you came up with the idea to hold a 24-hour reading marathon in order to raise money. The fundraiser ended up making more than $5,000, a figure that would be a concrete indicator of the positive impact your service had on the library. With your college application, then, you could specifically mention how your initiative allowed the library to remain open.

Note that you don't need to have assumed a leadership role in order to have made a positive impact through your service. That said, college admissions committees are often very big fans of students who show evidence of their budding leadership skills.

#7: (Relevant) Work Experience

Although you're certainly not required to work a part-time job in high school, having some work experience on your college applications, especially any jobs that are related to what you want to study or do professionally, will help you stand out in a positive way.

Even if your job isn't connected to a long-term academic or career goal you have, any (part-time) work experience you have will be great to put down on your application because it emphasizes your sense of responsibility, maturity, and willingness to work for your goals, key qualities that are usually considered important for success in college.

Also, if you have any room on the application to elaborate on your job, I suggest explaining why you initially took the job and what values or skills it's taught you, such as the importance of responsibility or how to work with certain equipment that you'll likely use again in the future.

4 Myths About What Looks Good on a College Application

What looks really good on a college application? Many students think they know, but the truth is that there are a lot of myths out there about what you should include on your application.

Below, we introduce to you the top four myths about what looks good on college applications.

Myth 1: Being Well Rounded Is Critical for Success

One of the most pervasive myths out there about what looks good on a college application is the idea of being well rounded.

Many students assume they'll need to have tons of extracurricular activities on their applications; this, they believe, will emphasize their array of interests as well as their knowledge of a variety of fields. But all this really tells admissions committees is that you're stretching yourself too thin and (most likely) lack focus on a specific endeavor in your life.

What colleges actually want to see is a spike, that is, a single passion. This allows colleges to get a clearer feel for who you are, what you're interested in, and what your goals are. Having a spike lets you stand out in a truly meaningful way, whereas being well rounded will make you forgettable and seem too similar to other applicants.

Spikes are especially important at highly selective colleges and universities , such as Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League-level schools . You can read more about how to develop a spike in our guide to getting into the Ivy League . Alternatively, if you're interested in pursuing education at a liberal arts school , check out our article on how to figure out what to go to college for .

Myth 2: Essays Aren't That Important

After Time published a 2014 article on why college application essays don't actually matter all that much , students began to fear that all their hard work on their statements wouldn't mean much in the end, if at all.

But while some colleges don't require personal essays , most colleges do require at least one or two essays—and will place a decent amount of emphasis on it, especially if it is being used as a deciding factor between two otherwise equally qualified applicants.

Even though you should approach the essay seriously, it's still generally rare for an exceptionally well-written essay to make up for tons of low grades and poor test scores. On the flip side, if you have a great application but a badly written essay, that essay alone could get you rejected!

Therefore, make sure that you are following all the steps listed above so you can craft the perfect statement for your application.

Myth 3: An A in an Easy Class Is Better Than a B in a Hard Class

Many students believe it's better to stick to the classes you know you'll get As in, but this piece of advice is misguided when it comes to college applications.

In general, colleges prefer students who challenge themselves by taking an array of difficult classes, such as AP and honors classes. And you don't have to get perfect grades in them. If you get a B in a tough AP class, for example, this will emphasize to the admissions committee that you are willing to take on new challenges and test your limits, traits that are necessary for succeeding in and after college.

On the other hand, getting As in all easy classes, though not totally unimpressive, is not nearly as interesting to colleges, as it suggests you're unwilling to push yourself and further hone your higher-level critical thinking skills.

All of this being said, try to avoid getting very low grades in any classes you take (regular or honors/AP). C and D grades obviously won't look great to an admissions committee, even if you got these grades while challenging yourself in AP classes.

If you can't get at least a B or B+ in a difficult class, it'll probably be better for you to drop it and switch to either the regular version of that class or an entirely different class altogether.

Myth 4: Only Perfect Applicants Get Admitted

Many students assume that if they have one little flaw in their application, such as a below-average test score or slightly low grade in a class, their chances of getting admitted to college will be slim to none.

This just isn't true.

Yes, a very low test score or a very poor transcript may cause you to get rejected from a college, but many colleges use a holistic admission process, meaning they look at and consider each individual applicant as a whole. So even if your application has a not-so-stellar component on it, this doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a reject.

In fact, at particularly selective colleges, such as the Ivy League , you'll often hear of cases in which ostensibly "perfect" applicants got rejected. This is most likely because they didn't have a spike in their applications (i.e., something that made them stand out).

Overall, just try your best to produce the best application you can, and then hope for a good result!

Takeaways: What Looks Good on a College Application

Applying to college is tough, and knowing what to put on your applications to make yourself stand out is even tougher. What looks really good on a college application?

Generally speaking, colleges want to see your passion, intellectual curiosity, willingness to challenge yourself, and academic accomplishments.

More specifically, though, colleges typically prefer applicants who have most or all of the following characteristics:

• Good grades and a challenging course load
• Strong test scores
• Honest, specific, and eloquent essays
• A spike in your extracurricular activities
• Compelling letters of recommendation
• Volunteer experience with clear impact on the groups or places you've helped
• Any relevant or impactful work experience

Finally, as you apply to college and try to think of good things to put on a college application, make sure you're aware of the following truths about the application process:

• It's better to have a spike than to be well rounded
• Essays are important!
• A B in a hard course is more impressive than an A in an easy course
• You can still get into your dream school even if your application isn't perfect

What's Next?

A great college application will get you admitted. Use our college acceptance calculator to get an estimated percentage of your chance of getting into your dream school, based on your SAT or ACT score and GPA.

One thing a great college application can have is a high SAT or ACT score. Get expert tips in our guides on how to get a perfect 36 on the ACT and how to get a perfect 1600 on the SAT .

Need help figuring out which colleges to apply to? Our guide teaches you how to narrow down your college choices so that you're applying to the best schools for you.

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Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

• 08 Aug 2019

At 3.7 percent, the US unemployment rate is lower than it’s been in 50 years, giving those looking for work an advantage. But competition is always fierce for the most coveted roles at the hottest organizations. Before you submit your application, here are eight tips to help ensure your resume will get noticed.

1. Your Online Profile May Matter Most

If you play your cards right, recruiters will come to you. To make that happen, almost more important than a resume is a solid LinkedIn or online profile. Be sure your profile (and resume) tell a story about what you’ve done in your career, why you’ve done it, and the results you achieved. Use clear and simple language, and carefully sprinkle in keywords that are important for the role you desire and field you’re pursuing.

2. Use Keywords and Optimize Your Profile for Search

We live in a Google-centric world, and machines do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to screening applicants. According to CNBC , 75 percent of resumes are never reviewed by a human. To guarantee that yours is part of the other 25 percent, you should ensure that:

• Recruiters who are sourcing candidates on job boards find you
• Your resume makes it through the machine filtering software the majority of companies use to track applicants

Optimize your LinkedIn and online profiles for job sites like Indeed and Glassdoor, and bolster your resume using keywords commonly used in your field. Buzzwords, specific applications you use, and certifications you’ve earned can all help you rise to the top.

3. Show Your Creativity

You absolutely need to have a text-only version of your resume for uploading to company sites, but since most jobs come through networking , your actual resume and profile should show off your personality. Be sure that the PDF version you send to a personal contact within a company or bring to an interview is visually appealing.

Make yours stand out by using a modern (but not too funky) font, layout, color palette, and punchy copy. A unique twist or fresh look and feel on your resume could be what catches the hiring manager’s eye.

4. Action Speaks Louder than Words

Strong job candidates show, rather than just tell. Delivering a clear story about what you did in your previous roles is a start, but it’s more important to share the results of your actions and prove the impact you had on a project or at a company. Whenever possible, demonstrate your success with numbers that show efficiency, money saved or secured for a business, or goals exceeded.

For some jobs—like software developer, content developer, or social media expert—showing your proficiency may be critical to capturing a recruiter’s attention. You can tease your results on your resume, but actually directing readers to your personal website, social media channels, or developer proficiency site, like GitHub, can really bring your capabilities to life.

5. Tailor for the Job

It’s great to have a summary at the top of your resume that captures what you’re seeking in your next role, along with your core competencies and achievements. Equally important is tailoring your profile for each job. If you’re in the communications field, for example, you might play up your PR experience when it’s specifically called out in the position’s requirements. But if the title is Social Media Manager, Content Creator, or Internal Communications Specialist, the emphasis needs to be on the skills for those particular roles.

Related: How to Land Your Dream Job in 9 Steps

6. Less is More

In today’s tight talent market, HR professionals are short on time. A survey by Ladders says that most recruiters spend less than six seconds reviewing a resume. For that reason, keep your resume short. Limit it to one page if you have less than 10 years of professional work experience, and use succinct bullet points to make it easy to skim.

7. No Typos Allowed

Typos or grammatical errors on your resume can land it in the trash. A sloppy resume can potentially signal that you’re not serious about the role, or simply not buttoned-up and professional. When you’ve stared at your document a million times, however, it can be hard to spot errors. That’s why you should always have someone else proofread your work. Fresh eyes can zero in on mistakes more easily, so ask your most detail-oriented friend to be your editor.

8. Focus on Qualities and Skills

For many jobs, distinguishing qualities like teamwork, attention to detail, and ability to juggle multiple priorities are often considered more important than where you went to school or your GPA. Highlighting those competencies and how you learned and demonstrated them through summer jobs, community service, extracurricular activities , or even group projects at school matters. It doesn’t necessarily require years of professional experience to develop the skills required for certain roles.

Related: Tips for Transitioning from College to Your Career

Achieving Job Search Success

When you’re looking for work, keep in mind that there are many qualified candidates vying for the same job. Like a competitive sport, you need to bring you’re “A game” to your resume and make sure you’re primed for success.

Are you interested in advancing your career? Explore our catalog of online courses , and learn how you can gain the confidence and skills to succeed in business. And be sure to check out our other career development content , such as “ 6 Tips to Prepare for Your Next Salary Negotiation ” and “ How to Properly Follow Up After a Job Interview .”

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out, According to HR Executives

A pplying for your dream job can be stressful. And while candidates have the advantage in today’s competitive job market , it’s still hard to land coveted positions. So how do you make your resume stand out among hundreds of applicants?

Hiring managers don’t have a ton of time to thoroughly look over each resume, which means you have to be judicious about what to include. From choosing the right font to deciding whether or not to include that internship, creating a resume in 2019 isn’t easy.

Beyond the basics , a resume should be the space to communicate your story, says Julie Kim, a Senior Recruiter at Jun Group, an advertising agency based in New York City. Your resume should reflect more than just what you did. A good resume includes specifics on what you’ve actually accomplished throughout your career, says Traci Schweikert, Vice President of Human Resources at POLITICO.

If you’re looking to make your resume stand out , consider these six tips from HR executives.

Customize your resume for your industry

People are often encouraged to include personality in their resume, but unless they are applying for a job in a creative industry, they may want to rethink that strategy. “A lot of pictures and fonts and colors and a whole lot of personality just doesn’t align with the jobs we have here,” says Schweikert, whose team recruits for positions in sales, product and marketing. “If I was in an organization that, for example, was in web design, then I would want to see those design elements in a resume.”

Kim agrees that resume layout is wholly dependent on the position you are applying for. “If you are applying for a designer role, I want to see something creative there. If you’re applying for a finance role, I want to see numbers,” she says.

Include keywords from the original job posting

One of the best ways to make your resume stand out is to use the job posting as a guide. Schweikert says that she often tells people that is the first place they should look when revamping their resume.

“We’ve written the job description with certain words,” Schweikert says. “And when we see a resume with those words on it, those are the resumes that instantly get our attention.”

Some companies actually conduct keyword searches when sorting through resumes, Schweikert adds, which means those terms are even more important to include if you want to secure an interview. It may sound tedious, but taking the time to customize your resume for each individual job you apply to is a surefire tactic to stand out among the pack of applicants, she says.

Be clean and concise

It can be difficult to view your resume from a hiring manager ‘s perspective — but one thing many employers agree on is that simplicity goes a long way.

For starters, you never know exactly how a hiring manager will be reading your resume; they may pull it up on their phone, or go through an applicant tracking system. Schweikert suggests sticking to clean and simple resumes, since they are legible across all platforms. Hyperlinking to your portfolio or LinkedIn profile instead of including that information elsewhere on your resume is also an easy way to preserve space, she says.

Format and font are important, too. Kim says that she likes to see all titles in bold, because they catch her eye. And again, unless you are applying for a creative position, stick to a monochromatic color palette.

When applicable, consider using numbers to back up your success. “I love seeing numbers,” Kim adds. “I am personally a big number person and it can stack up your experience better than two paragraphs explaining what you do.”

Get the latest career, relationship and wellness advice to enrich your life: sign up for TIME’s Living newsletter.

Write a pithy objective

Whether you’re switching careers or feel slightly underqualified for the job you are applying for, Kim suggests including an objective at the top of your resume. This will help hiring managers understand the thought process behind your decision to change industries or why you are applying for the job. She says you can fill the gaps in between your experience by detailing the inspiration and motivation behind your move.

This objective statement should be limited to two or three sentences explaining what you are trying to accomplish and what you can contribute, Kim says.

And don’t be discouraged by the job description: Schweikert notes that it is written for the perfect candidate — and hiring managers know that — so they likely expect that you won’t fit each bullet point on a posting. There’s also a relatively simple way to determine if you’re right for the role. “Most job descriptions are written [from] most important criteria to least important criteria,” Schweikert says. “So if you’ve got a lot of the first couple of bullets of the job posting, you are probably in a pretty good place.”

Research the company’s culture

Take the time to go beyond the job description and do your research on the company. Schweikert suggests simply going on the company’s career website to see what their values are. In addition to including your professional experience on your resume, think about including information relevant to that company’s culture.

For example, if you see that a company participates in a significant amount of charitable work and you have volunteer experience, consider adding that to your resume, Schweikert says. And even if the company doesn’t mention anything about volunteering, you may want to include it anyway — about 80% of “hiring influencers” (employees who have the ability to influence the hiring process), indicated that they believe there is a relationship between volunteering and leadership ability, according to a 2016 Deloitte survey .

Reach out to your network

Arranging informational interviews with people you are connected to can also help your resume stand out, according to Schweikert. Most applications are submitted online, and the volume of resumes that hiring managers must sift through can be overwhelming at times — so establishing a personal connection can help you get noticed, she says. Plus, if you are invited in for an official interview , you can bring up what you discussed at the informational one. “You can say, ‘hey I did a lot of research on the organization and met with Susie Q and they shared this with me,'” Schweikert says.

After your informational interview, you can reach out to that contact and ask that they glance over your resume, making sure to pose as many specific questions as possible about how you should tailor your resume to the company or specific role, Schweikert adds. For example, if you are struggling to decide whether to include your college activities on your resume, reaching out to your connection for advice can provide invaluable insight on whether that might be important to that company.

Kim also encourages informational interviews, as they are a great opportunity to learn more about an industry, company or specific role. There is also significant value in having someone else look over your resume. “A second pair of eyes can bring a lot of fresh perspective,” she says.

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How To Make Your Resume Stand Out (With Examples)

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Resumes are more than just words; they are also about style. The keywords you utilize to highlight your accomplishments and qualifications are what will help get your resume securely through the resume reader . How you present those keywords stylistically and structurally is what will grab the reader’s attention.

Keep reading for ten tips on how to make your resume rise above the competition.

Key Takeaways:

Tailor your resume to the specific job you are applying to.

When writing you resume, use industry-specific keywords and buzzwords.

Make sure you resume is well organized and easy to read.

Have someone proofread your resume to catch any mistakes that you may have missed.

10 Tips To Make Your Resume Stand Out

Why it’s important for your resume to stand out, final thoughts, expert opinions.

• Sign Up For More Advice and Jobs

Let’s start with a gentle reminder that you don’t have to add all of these tips to get your resume picked out from the rest. Pick the tips that resonate most with you and add a touch of your style.

Ensuring your resume reflects the true you versus a computer is often accomplished by not forgetting your personal touch. With that in mind, here are ten tips on how to make your resume stand out from the rest, both stylistically and structurally:

Use resume buzzwords. The first hurdle you have to overcome when writing a resume is making sure your resume makes it through the resume readers and answers the main question: do you have the qualifications necessary for the job ?

Organize your resume well. Once you’ve completed your resume buzzword brainstorm, you’ll need to use them in the correct format. You’ll want to make your resume well organized and specific to your situation.

Are you a recent graduate or an experienced worker back in the job search ? What about a Veteran? Are you applying for a federal job ? These types of situations require specific resume organizations.

Show evidence. Now that you’ve picked out which buzzwords to use and how you’ll organize your resume, you’ll need to fill in each section. When you do, make sure you show evidence for the skills and accomplishments you claim on your resume.

To best show evidence for your accomplishments and deliverables, put numbers to them. If you managed a team, how many people were on your team? If you improved site traffic, by what percent did you improve it over time?

Keep it short. Most resumes should only be about a page long. If you need to make it two pages, you can but try to make it short. Only include information that can help you stand out from the other candidates.

Make your resume a compelling story. While a daunting sheet of paper, a resume is just a formal story of your work experience . Read over it with that lens and make sure the story makes sense.

Are there any major gaps in it? Does each chapter of your work history make sense and flow into the next?

Add a cover letter. If a resume summary doesn’t explain the transitions or your qualifications enough for the job, definitely don’t forget to write a cover letter .

However, no matter what your current job situation is, adding a cover letter will help you appear more dedicated to the job application. It also gives your resume a more personal voice.

Tailor it to make it job specific. Another way you can make your resume stand out is to make your resume specific to the job application . One of the last things hiring managers want to see is a resume that is so generic, you likely used the same one for every single job application.

Make your resume easy on the eyes. An easy way for your resume to find its way to the bottom of the pile, even if it did make it through the resume scanner , is by having your resume so cramped and difficult to read. You should avoid:

Small fonts

Multiple colors

Too many differing fonts

Removing all your margins .

Remember that your resume readers may not have 20/20 vision and may just chuck your resume away because they don’t want to squint to read it. Consider a few graphics and different ways of organizing and consolidating your information to make it fit better.

Be careful about the graphics you use. With graphics in mind, take special care with how many graphics you use . Unless you are applying for a design position, using too many graphics can sometimes hurt your resume because resume scanners cannot read those resumes as easily.

Proofread. Finally, when you have finished writing your resume, and you think it’s perfect, take a look at it again. You can also have someone else look at it. View it as a practice run for the hiring manager . You should also run the resume through programs like Grammarly to clear it of basic mistakes.

Writing resumes is a tricky business — you want your resume to have the right keywords and phrases so that it can make it through electronic resume readers , but you also want it different enough to catch the hiring manager’s eye.

Your resume is a document that showcases your qualifications for a job. You will want to include your education, experience, skills and other achievements that you have made.

Having a resume that stands out will make a hiring manager stop and take a second look and will see what sets you apart from other candidates. Having a resume that is not visually appealing, has mistakes, or is too long can be the difference from you being considered for a job or not.

Making your resume stand out can be difficult if you’re new to the job application game or if your industry is saturated with candidates. Our guide can help you stand out from the rest.

At the end of this article, just remember that you know yourself best. Use that knowledge and the tips above to deliver a stellar resume.

How do you get your resume noticed?

Murray Schulman Independent Business Owner

Recruiters receive stacks of online resumes. My advice is to keep your resume short and concise. Be bold and powerful from the start. Catch the recruiter’s attention in the first few lines of your resume. Don’t get passed over.

How do you make a resume stand out?

Kolby Goodman Career Coach The Job Huntr

When writing your resume, always remember your audience: your next manager. Too often I see resumes written to remind the candidate of what they can do in a job. Tell your next company not just what you can do, but how you can impact them.

You are presenting yourself as an asset to your new company. Businesses tend to measure the impact of a potential asset in one of 4 ways: making money, saving money, saving time, and reducing risk. If you can align experience and expertise to showcase how they move the needle in one of these areas, you will be leapfrogging your competition.

If you have a hard time taking credit for your work, get proactive in soliciting feedback. Go to the people you’ve worked with ( boss , co-workers, clients/customers) and ask them this simple question “How have I been able to help you?” The responses to this question will help you get some perspective about how your contributions and impact are being felt by others.

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Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

Don Pippin is an executive and HR leader for Fortune 50 and 500 companies and startups. In 2008, Don launched area|Talent with a focus on helping clients identify their brand. As a Certified Professional Resume Writer, Certified Digital Career Strategist, and Certified Personal Branding Strategist, Don guides clients through career transitions.

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This One Trick Will Make Your College Resume Stand Out

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I’ve seen over a half-million resumes during my career and have a great trick for college students and recent graduates to ensure their resumes stand out. Below are This One Trick Will Make Your College Resume Stand Out video and podcast highlights!

PRELUDE : If you didn’t see How To Build The Ultimate Professional Resume , check it out for many more details, which overlap with collegiate resumes.

This trick helps overcome the most common resume mistake: placing a worthless objective statement at the top of the resume.

Remember, your resume has one goal: To entice a prospective employer to speak with you. This requires you to show what you offer, not ask for what you want.

Even starting with your education doesn’t buy you much because employers care about so much more than your schooling.

The Trick : At the top of your resume, include a Profile of you. This is a quick snapshot of you as a person and soon-to-be full-time professional. Your goal is to provide a one-paragraph, high-level overview of you as a student and part-time worker. This helps employers develop of picture in their minds regarding who you are and what’s forthcoming in your resume. You want to entice them. Keep in mind; this is your “sales copy” of you to get them interested!

Example : State University graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Psychology minor. Held various summer jobs and internships focusing on sales support activities. Served on several university and fraternal committees. Built additional sales-related capabilities via school fundraising activities and other volunteering efforts.

You want to include reference to these four items:

• Major/Degree
• Work Experience Generalize
• Extracurriculars

The benefits:

• Appears more professional than collegiate to the employer.
• Demonstrates maturity, which is currently one of the biggest complaints by employers regarding college graduates’ lack of readiness for the workforce.
• Builds excitement for the employer as they start to review your resume.
• Provides an element of uniqueness because very few do this.

See the video, podcast, or transcript for more details.

Check the  Tips for Work and Life Blog ® for additional articles on resume writing.

Download  Your Ultimate Collegiate Resume Template with instructions based on today’s episode!

You can also get the Interview Intervention Experience , which has much more and includes an eBook, audio, chapter note, guides, and many aids related to job interviewing!

Listen the rest of the podcast  for complete instruction so you can build a killer resume!

See a complete transcript below.

Like this episode?  Please share it via social media and review it on  iTunes ! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to  my podcast  and  YouTube channel  too!

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Andrew LaCivita, a globally-renowned career and leadership coach, is the founder of the milewalk Academy®. During the course of his distinguished career, he has impacted over 350 companies, more than 100,000 individuals, and spanned nearly 200 countries, helping them unlock their full potential. He is an award-winning author who gained international recognition with his groundbreaking books,  Interview Intervention: Communication That Gets You Hired, The Hiring Prophecies: Psychology behind Recruiting Successful Employees, and The Zebra Code: A Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering Career Skills That Make You a Standout Professional . These seminal works, along with his celebrated vlog, Tips for Work and Life®, consistently earn top spots on reputable, worldwide lists which rank the best career advice books and blogs. Andrew remains actively engaged across various social media platforms and shares his expertise through his weekly Live Office Hours on  YouTube  every Thursday.

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out to Recruiters

Customers Interviewed by:

Hiring managers take as little as 6 seconds to read your resume —less time than it takes to tie your shoelaces. In the competitive job market, it’s critical to make your resume stand out from other applicants and impress the recruiter.

How do you make your resume stand out? Format, style, and content all play a role in helping you impress the hiring manager and secure an interview. 

Keep reading to learn tips to make your resume stand out from the competition.

What is a resume?

Your resume is a make-or-break document. It not only lists all your accreditations, skills, and experience but highlights your professional accomplishments, too. It can help you illustrate how you can be an asset to the organization.

You know your resume is important to your job search, so it’s normal to stress about its design , structure, and every action verb . The last thing you want is a forgettable resume that falls through the cracks of the hiring managers’ awareness.

With every new job description, you should change your resume to optimize for skills and keywords listed by the hiring manager. You should take the time to highlight the most prominent keywords in each job description, then adjust your resume to match.

To speed up the process, use Jobscan’s resume scanner for a detailed match report. It shows you which keywords are missing, the level of keyword importance, and an overall score to optimize your resume for ATS.

What does a resume include?

Resumes fall into 3 formats :

• Chronological : Chronological resumes list your work experience in reverse chronological order, with your most recent work history at the top.
• Hybrid : Hybrid resumes feature your skills and accomplishments at the top, followed by your reverse chronological work history.
• Functional : Functional resumes focuses on skills and accomplishments and glosses over work experience. Hiring managers hate functional resumes , so we recommend choosing a chronological or hybrid format.

Whichever resume format you choose, it will include key resume sections to answer all the hiring manager’s questions, from your resume headline to skills and work experience.

Resume headline and summary

Your resume headline and summary are a quick introduction telling the hiring manager who you are and why you’re an ideal candidate. Your headline should include your professional title or the title of the job you’re applying for.

Your resume summary should include 2 or 3 brief sentences stating your key experiences, measurable achievements , and top skills or expertise.

Including the job title you’re applying for in your resume can increase your chance of getting in front of the hiring manager. Using the ATS, they search for the exact title to find resumes that match.

If you’ve never held the role you’re applying to, showcase your relevant skills in your resume that support the job title. Making the connections between other roles, transferable skills, certifications, and education can help the hiring manager picture how your achievements will apply to the role.

• Work experience

Your work experience section is the core of your resume. To make your resume stand out, be specific and intentional about how you tell the story of your career so far.

Here’s an example of a clear work experience that shows the previous role, the company, and employment dates to create a roadmap of a marketer’s career.

Your education can qualify you for a position over other candidates. Whether you have an associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degree, it shows the hiring manager that you have specialized knowledge. Listing the right education for the job description can make your resume stand out.

This is an education section that lists the master’s degree first. The specific areas of study—middle level math and science—make the candidate stand out.

• Certifications

Certifications from online courses or supplemental training also have a place on your resume. Certifications complement the experience, education, and skills sections. They can show the hiring manager increased specialization and skill development.

This example of a certification section illustrates specialized skills that can make the applicant more attractive to a hiring manager for a project management or related role.

Hiring managers want to know if you have the in-demand skills to do the job. Skills and proficiencies shine a spotlight on what you will bring to the new role that directly ties into the responsibilities laid out in the job description.

Hard skills are technical skills specific to the job or industry. Examples of hard skills include:

• Project management
• Graphic design
• Computer software knowledge
• Search engine optimization (SEO)

Soft skills are no less critical. They’re people skills, character traits, or behaviors that indicate how well you work with others and handle stressful situations.

They’re sometimes called transferable skills , meaning they can transfer from any job and any industry. Some common soft skills that are in demand include:

• Collaboration
• Attention to detail
• Time management
• Growth mindset
• Adaptability

Read through and identify the hard and soft skills for each job description to ensure you’re adding them to your resume.

A time-saving tool is Jobscan’s resume scanner . Upload your resume and the job description, and the scanner will create a match report to tell you whether you have the right skills to get an interview.

For example, this report illustrates that Google Suite and MS Office skills are missing from the resume. But if you want a chance to secure the interview, you need to add those skills that the hiring manager is searching for.

Tips to make your resume stand out

You need to make your resume stand out from the rest by following a few simple guidelines.

Include only relevant information

Clutter of unrelated skills, education, or experience can take up valuable space on your resume. Instead, focus on information relevant to the job description.

A good way to tell if something is relevant is to study the job description to understand the scope of the role.

Use the same language in your resume as in the job description and you’ll be a strong candidate for the job.

Highlight accomplishments, not just responsibilities

Your day-to-day responsibilities don’t tell the hiring manager much about who you are as an industry professional. Instead, emphasize accomplishments . Measurable performance can help the hiring manager imagine how your achievements can help their organization.

Vague language won’t help you land the job. Use numbers, percentages, or data to back up what you’re saying on your resume, like in the example below.

Your responsibilities show what you did, but measurable achievements show how well you did it. This shows the impact you had in your last role.

Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for

A one-size-fits-all resume doesn’t exist. You need to tailor your resume to the job description, the industry, and the company.

Why does tailoring your resume matter? Most companies are using ATS to help streamline the hiring process. ATS, or applicant tracking systems , is a software that adds your resume to a database. The hiring manager will search the database for suitable candidates by entering keywords from the job description.

Hiring managers input specific keywords, and the ATS will parse your resume to detect them. If you’re missing relevant keywords or skills that the hiring manager searches the ATS to find, they won’t see your resume at all.

To optimize your resume faster and more effectively, use Jobscan’s resume scanner to generate a detailed match report. It pulls critical information from the job description, like keywords and skills the hiring manager is looking for.

Then, it compares the job description to your resume to illustrate what details you’re missing. With this information, you can design tailored resumes that stand out for each job application.

With Power Edit , a Jobscan Premium feature, your match report will offer phrasing suggestions to best integrate important keywords into your resume.

How to make your resume stand out visually

Your resume should be visually appealing , but don’t overdo it. Fancy graphics can confuse the ATS and cause your resume to get lost in the database.

Before you design a stylistic resume, know that a clean resume makes a significant impact on the ATS and hiring manager.

Use standard resume headings

Section headings break up the information to make it easy to skim. But if you don’t use them correctly, the ATS won’t read them. Poor heading choices include:

• Autobiography
• My Career Journey
• What I Know

Stick to standard resume headings like:

• Summary or objective

This example uses bolding to help make the document more scannable for the hiring manager. The headings aren’t a place to show off your creativity. Basic headings are mandatory for the ATS.

Use standard resume margins

Avoid trying to pack in more content by widening the margins. It won’t be an ATS-friendly resume, and the hiring manager will never see it.

Instead, stick to the standard guidelines for resume margins. One-inch margins make the ATS happy and are readable for the hiring manager.

• In Microsoft Word, one-inch margins are the default, and you can ensure you’re choosing the right measurement by selecting Layout/Margins/Normal.
• In Google Docs, you can confirm your margin measurements by selecting File/Page Setup.

Best fonts to help your resume stand out

What are the best fonts for your resume? The ATS and hiring managers prefer clean, crisp, and legible fonts.

The most common and preferred fonts for your resume include:

Using color to help your resume stand out

Is it okay to use color on a resume? Yes, using color sparingly can add visual appeal to your resume.

Color can help your resume:

• Draw attention to the headings
• Show off your creativity
• Fit with the company’s culture

If you’re applying for a creative role or your research suggests the company would appreciate engaging visuals, adding a hint of color can benefit you.

Some industries are more conservative, so dark shades like navy blue, forest green, or maroon are more appropriate for jobs in:

• Engineering

Here’s an example of using color to make your resume stand out without overwhelming the hiring manager.

Read more : Should You Use Color on Your Resume?

Use templates to make your resume stand out

Resume templates can still be personalized and attention-grabbing. You can make your resume stand out by customizing a template to include all the relevant information in a structured, ATS-friendly resume format. Templates save you time and helps ensure your resume is clean and readable.

Use Jobscan’s free ATS-friendly resume templates and start building your resume that gets noticed by recruiters!

Common resume formatting mistakes

The format of your resume is critical for the ATS. Your resume needs consistency and simplicity for the ATS to decipher the content. Some common mistakes people make on their resumes for ATS include:

• Not using the right date formatting: acceptable formats are MM/YYYY, like (04/2023) or fully spelled month and year, like April 2023.
• Using acronyms or abbreviations: don’t use them alone—the hiring manager will often search the entire term, as in “client relationship management” over “CRM.”
• Adding graphics: the ATS can’t extract information from design elements and, once uploaded to the ATS, they can scramble your resume formatting.

How to make a resume stand out to hiring managers

When your resume reaches a person, you have to pique their interest in under 6 seconds. So, how can you make your resume stand out to the hiring manager? 

Know what the hiring manager is looking for

Every hiring manager has different goals. Even if you’re applying to several identical roles, each organization will emphasize a need for unique qualifications.

Reading the job description isn’t enough to understand the hiring manager’s needs. Go to the company website and read the mission statement, the company’s core values, and the team members’ biographies to help your resume fit the culture.

Most job descriptions are comprehensive—providing information about:

• The company mission
• The must-have qualifications
• The nice-to-have proficiencies

Going the extra mile can take more time, but catching the most minor details is worth it.

Keep it concise

An overcrowded resume is challenging to read. White space makes your resume easy to skim and lets the hiring manager find information quickly.

Read the job description carefully, and if there are details in your resume that don’t support what the hiring manager is looking for, remove them.

A time-saving way to compare is Jobscan’s resume scanner . After scanning your resume and the job description, it will generate a match report to illustrate where you’ve integrated keywords and where they’re missing.

This example keeps every point short, but impactful. You want every point to have a purpose, so be ruthless with your editing.

Review and proofread

You’ve hit all the keywords, your resume is formatted, and everything is relevant and clean—don’t let a spelling or grammatical error make your resume stand out in a negative way.

Whether you run it through a grammar checker, read it out loud to yourself, or let your friend check it for an objective read-through, review it until you’re confident there are no mistakes.

Ask yourself a few questions in your review:

• Are you using strong action verbs?
• Are your accomplishments measurable?
• Is everything relevant?
• Is it designed with the ATS in mind?
• Will it be appealing to the hiring manager?
• Is it concise and clean?

When you answer “yes” to these questions, you’re ready to submit your resume.

How do I make an impressive resume with no experience?

It’s common to ask how to make your resume stand out with no experience. You can make your resume impress the hiring manager, even without experience, by highlighting a few key points:

• Relevant education
• Relevant experience
• List your relevant skills
• Include a strong resume summary

Use a resume template to help guide your formatting and create an stand-out resume.

What is a good objective for a resume with no experience?

If you’re a new grad or starting in the workforce looking for an entry-level job , you can still create a solid resume objective that stands out to hiring managers:

• Read the job description to identify important keywords to use in your objective.
• Use impactful action verbs and measurable accomplishments related to your relevant part-time job, volunteer experience, or course projects.
• Promote yourself, show off your character, and highlight your skillset, even if you have no practical industry experience.

How do I make a resume?

Building a resume from scratch is time-consuming, and you can’t be sure your resume is ATS-friendly.

You can use an ATS resume template that suits your industry and personal preferences and easily add your personal information, work experience, education, certifications, and skills.

You can also use Jobscan’s free resume builder . There are no hidden costs and it allows you to build an ATS-compatible AI resume in no time!

Find our resume examples to help you make your stand-out resume with ease.

More expert insights on this topic:

How to Write a Summary for a Resume with No Experience

86+ Resume Summary Examples To Inspire You

54 Examples of Effective Resume Objectives

Kelsey is a Content Writer with a background in content creation, bouncing between industries to educate readers everywhere.

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11 Extracurricular Activities That Make a Resume Stand Out

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Wondering how to make your resume stand out so you stop getting rejection letters from jobs? One hiring expert shares 11 smart extracurricular activities that will make your resume stand out from the rest when trying to land that dream job.

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Choosing the right extracurricular activities prior to entering the workforce really can make your resume stand out (with no experience).

With 1.8 million people graduating from college with bachelor’s degrees each year, it’s pretty important to distinguish yourself from those that have little-to-no real-world work experience.

From corporate positions and full-time work from home gigs, to second jobs and side hustles, a unique resume is your foot in the door to landing the job you want.

Show prospective employers you’re not just a degree — that you’ve got the skills they’re looking for.

How To Make Your Resume Stand Out With No Experience

Impress your future employer with a fantastic extracurricular activities resume. Including extracurricular activities on a resume is exactly how you can make your resume stand out among the crowd of prospects.

Here’s a list of 11 extracurricular activities that’ll help highlight your strengths, and make your resume stand out.

1. Career-related internships

One of the best things you can do to make your resume stand out is to include an internship — especially if you can land one that is in your chosen field.

Beyond providing the obvious benefit of relevant work experience, they also show hiring managers that you’re looking to take your career seriously. An internship also indicates that you’ll know the basics of what it means to work for a company – being punctual, following company policies, and getting along with coworkers, to name a few.

Another solid benefit? You may actually get paid. While some internships pay very little — or nothing at all — others can pay quite generously. Plus, you may even get class credit for your internship.

Better yet, these opportunities are usually pretty easy to come by. Your local university’s career services center will have a list of positions available where companies are actively seeking to fill needed positions.

If you can’t find anything there, consider speaking with local professors to see if they have any leads. A lot of companies will go directly to a professor that they know and trust, and ask for promising pupils.

You may also be able to find internship positions listed on Craigslist.

Related: 10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid (and What to Do Instead)

2. Leadership roles

If you’re involved in any clubs, fraternities, or sororities, consider running for a leadership position. If you previously held one such position, and you’ve recently graduated, include those on your resume too.

Not only does this prove to hiring managers that you possess the leadership qualities necessary to lead and manage people, but you’re also showing that you take initiative, can handle responsibility, and appreciated by your peers.

It’s even better if you can secure a leadership position that is relevant to your field. For example, being a treasurer is beneficial for careers in accounting or finance; president and vice president positions are advantageous for students who want to demonstrate management and leadership skills; secretary roles are ideal for project management.

3. Volunteer work

Those weekends you spent building houses for Habitat for Humanity or volunteering at a food bank give your resume an immediate upgrade .

Volunteering shows hiring managers that you value making a difference and that you’re committed to living your best life. And, you value it enough to give up your free time.

Huge bonus points are given if you organized an activity like a food drive, walkathon, or other charitable events.

Related: How to Stand Out at Work (in the Best Way Possible)

4. Clubs and organizations

If running for office doesn’t appeal to you, simply being in a club that’s related to your major can be just as good. It shows that you’re passionate about the field you’re entering and you’re interested in it, even after hours.

Even clubs that aren’t related to a degree can be great conversation starters to show another side of your personality.

5. Resident assistant

The benefits of being an RA (Resident Assistant) during your college years are twofold: you get free or reduced housing and you get a fantastic resume-builder.

Most hiring managers know exactly how much work and responsibility go into being an RA. Being an RA teaches you skills such as counseling, conflict management, and leadership. A day in the life of an RA can be quite unpredictable, and being able to adapt and handle difficult situations is a skill that hiring managers look for.

Related: What to Do When You Hate Your Job and Want to Quit

6. School newspaper

Even if you’re not seeking a career in journalism and have no prior experience, writing for your school’s newspaper helps in a variety of ways. You’ll sharpen your writing skills, show you can meet deadlines, get experience in conducting research and interviews, and learn a lot of information you would never have known otherwise.

But here is the number one benefit to writing for the school newspaper: the articles you write become part of a portfolio you can use when you apply for jobs.

You’ll get to show how well you write, and if you’re able to cover topics related to your major, you can demonstrate your knowledge on a subject and how well you can communicate that expertise.

If you look at most job descriptions, they all require “excellent written and verbal communication skills.” You’ll be able to prove you’re a top-notch communicator by including a couple of links on your resume or in your cover letter, pointing hire managers to your best articles.

Related: How to Write a Cover Letter That Sets You Apart

7. Tutoring

By tutoring other students , you demonstrate that you’re a subject matter expert. This helps make your resume stand out because while other candidates will claim knowledge and experience on a topic, you’ll actually be able to prove it.

Teaching also shows off other valuable skill sets and qualities like communication, patience, and intelligence. It will help your resume if you can include your students’ measured results, like “increased test scores by 30%,” for example.

8. Team sports

Being a team player is especially valuable in the modern workplace.

If you play sports, you’ve proven that you can work with others to achieve a common goal. It also shows that you thrive on healthy competition, which is also a desirable trait.

9. Special Skills

Including special skills that employers look for can help your resume stand out.

Perhaps you enjoy writing, coding, or painting. Try putting those skills to use on freelance projects. You’ll make some extra cash and maybe even get some glowing references.

Related: How to Prepare for a Job Interview

10. Foreign languages

Taking a foreign language class can be a huge differentiator on your resume. Not all colleges require students to take one, so by enrolling in a class to learn a new language, you get to show that you’re motivated, and you learn something valuable.

A lot of companies are multi-national, and being able to speak a foreign language helps your resume stand out, while also opening you up to international travel opportunities.

11. Semesters abroad

Perhaps you’d rather learn another language outside of the classroom. If so, then a semester traveling abroad helps you do that while also allowing you to add another impressive bullet point to your resume.

Traveling abroad shows that you’re mature and can handle new experiences. Both are important qualities that hiring managers look for in recent college grads.

Related: Should You Take a Pay Cut for a New Job?

Creating Your Amazing Extracurricular Activities Resume

Adding the right extracurricular activities can make your resume stand out with no experience and help you land your dream job.

So many people go after a four-year degree these days that it’s no longer enough to have that piece of paper. Employers want to see what unique skills you have to offer.

Stay ahead of the crowd of people with no experience by seizing opportunities to develop your skills. When those job applications roll around, the choice will be obvious. The best way to show employers your potential is to make your extracurricular activities resume stand out.

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out in 2024 You can increase your chances of landing an interview in 2024 by making your resume stand out.

By John Rampton Edited by Mark Klekas Sep 1, 2024

Key Takeaways

• You have one chance to make a great first impression with your resume
• Follow these tips to create a resume that stands out from the crowd

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A resume that stands out from the crowd is increasingly important in today's competitive job market. A distinctive resume effectively highlights your unique skills and experiences and quickly captures the attention of hiring managers amidst a sea of applications.

The good news is that you can increase your chances of making a memorable impression and landing an interview by taking a few easy steps. Here are some tips for making your resume stand out:

Related: Exploring the 6 Different Types of Resumes

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What are ats resumes and how do i write one.

If you’re applying for jobs, optimising your resumes for ATS is going to set you apart from other candidates (especially in today’s competitive job market, where companies receive more resumes than they can read)! However, education about what ATS resumes are and how to create one is still pretty scarce.    

To help you navigate this new terrain, we’re running you through all things ATS -related, including what ATS stands for, how to create an ATS resume , and what benefits you’ll reap from sinking some extra time into creating the perfect resume .  

What is a Resume ?  

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s start right at the beginning by covering what resumes actually are. After all, it’s pretty tricky to write the perfect resume without knowing why they’re important! In short, resumes are documents that outline your skills and experience to hiring managers, and they can truly make (or break) a job application.   

Think of your resume as your elevator pitch; you want to convey all the information that makes you a great candidate in a concise and easy-to-read manner. Trust us, the clearer your resume is, the more hiring managers will love you!  

Resume vs. CV: What’s the Difference?  

To keep our answer short and sweet, there is no real difference between resumes and CVs in Australia. The two terms are used interchangeably, but ‘ resume ’ is a lot more common here.   

However, if you’re travelling abroad, things get a little more complicated. For example, in the U.S., resumes and CVs are two distinct documents . U.S. resumes are more or less the same as ours, but CVs are much more detailed (and a lot longer, so be thankful they’re not popular here)!  

What is an ATS Resume?  

In short, an ATS resume includes keywords that are highly relevant to the job title and is formatted in a way that allows it to be read by applicant tracking systems (otherwise known as ATS )!   

ATS resumes are quickly increasing in popularity as more and more businesses use applicant tracking systems as part of the hiring process. In fact, many of these ATS programs filter out resumes they don’t see as fitting the job description (and the ones that aren’t optimised!) before they even reach the hiring manager’s hands. Thus, if you want an actual human to see all the work you put into creating your resume, it needs to make it past artificial intelligence first.   

This might sound like yet another hurdle in your job-hunting journey, but we encourage you to look at it as an opportunity instead! Because many applicants don’t yet know about ATS resumes (or simply can’t be bothered optimising their resumes ), doing so can set you apart from other applicants and potentially even land you the job!  

How to Make a Resume ATS -Friendly  

Identify the main keywords in the job listing  .

This step is potentially the most simple: all you need to do is figure out what keywords stick out in the job listing and ensure they’re peppered into your resume. For example, if you’re applying for a fashion retail job, you’ll want to focus on words such as customer service and retail.   

However, if you don’t have retail or customer experience to list, don’t worry too much. You can still find a way to integrate these keywords into your resume ! One idea is to make your tagline ‘Aspiring Customer Service Professional’ or ‘Future Retail Assistant’ to express your enthusiasm and optimise your resume for the applicant tracking system. You could also pop the keywords into your personal statement by writing something along the lines of:  

I have a very outgoing disposition and love helping others. Thus, I would thrive in a retail assistant role where I can provide exceptional customer service and spend my workday helping meet our customers’ needs.   

Outline Relevant Skills and Responsibilities  

Most job listings contain a list of skills and requirements for applicants, which you’ll definitely want to include in your resume (if they’re actually true; it’s never a good idea to lie about your capabilities). These usually include both hard and soft skills, so even if you have no experience, there will likely be a couple that you can claim!  

For example, a job listing for a role in hospitality might state that the applicant needs to be skilled at:  

• Communication  
• Problem-Solving  
• Time Management  
• Customer Service  
• Multitasking  
• Adaptability  

Then, you’ll want to take all the skills that apply and make sure they’re listed in your resume! That way, the applicant tracking system will be able to identify you as a suitable candidate. Simple as that!  

Use an ATS -Friendly Resume Format  

There are a bunch of free ATS resume templates on the internet, but not all are created equal. You’ll want to keep it simple; if a template is listed as ATS -friendly, it isn’t automatically a winner. You still need to avoid bright colours and ‘funky’ formatting.   

As a rule, ATS software prefers reverse chronological resumes that organise your experience by how recent it is. That is, it starts with the most recent position and works its way back. Reverse chronological resumes usually include the following structure:  

#1 Contact Information  

This should cover your name, phone number, email and LinkedIn profile (if applicable). A lot of templates offer space to write your address, too, but we don’t recommend doing so.   

#2 Professional/ Personal Summary  

The summary section of your resume is one of the trickiest parts to write, but because it’s so close to the top of the first page, you’ll want to nail it. Write 2-4 sentences outlining your experience, skills and, potentially, your ambitions.   

#3 Skills  

Your skills section is the place to get bragging about all of your impressive work skills (regardless of whether they’re hard or soft, but it’s best to categorise), and don’t forget to include those sweet skills from the job listing!  

#4 Work Experience  

This is the section where workers with any experience list their professional history. However, if you’re applying for your first job, you can swap it out for volunteer experience (trust us, you’re probably more skilled than you realise ). If you don’t have much work experience to list yet, don’t feel discouraged. We all start somewhere, and hiring managers totally understand that!  

#5 Education  

The education section is your opportunity to brag about all your academic pursuits. As a base, you’ll want your school’s name, the year you started, and the year you’re set to graduate. From there, you can add details about extracurriculars, clubs, and awards, too! Include anything that could help your case and prove you’re right for the job!  

Before you head off to write, don’t forget about these non-negotiable formatting rules that help your resume become as optimised as possible!  

• Avoid graphics  
• Ensure you have 1-inch margins on all sides  
• Use single spacing between text  
• Use a clear font  
• Use clear headings for each section  

Go Forth and Land Your Dream Job!  

Now that you’re equipped to craft the perfect resume (and make sure it’s ATS optimised), we think you’re ready to start sending out those applications! Be sure to check out our guide to help you ace your job hunt too!   

All you need now is an equally perfect future employer, and you can find a tonne of them by checking out our employer pages today!  

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