Key Elements of a Resume
What to include in a resume to land your dream job
Landing a job is not as easy as most of us would want, but in the middle of the world’s uncertainty, there are some things you can do to increase the chances of being hired for a position you’re applying to.
In this post, we share key details of what to include in a resume and how to structure it to impress hiring managers and recruiters.
Why Is A Resume Important?
A resume allows recruiters and hiring managers to know more about your work experience, skills, abilities, and similar. When applying for a job, it is essential that you have a quality resume ready to be sent.
There are a few things you can do to have a good resume, especially if you’re a student or someone with little to no work experience. These include highlighting your skills and abilities and what you’re willing to bring to the company/position.
You can find plenty of resume templates online and easily edit your information. Still, before clicking on the first template that appears, you must understand the key elements of a resume and its structure.
Resumes have a particular structure you’re required to follow when assembling them, including the type and amount of sections recommended to include, their length, content, and tone.
In the following sections, we dive deep into what to include in a resume so you can have an incredible experience when applying for jobs.
What To Include In A Resume
In general, there are seven key elements of a resume you should have in mind when assembling or editing yours. These are your heading, objective or personal statement, skills and experience, education, awards and certifications, hobbies, and references.
Depending on how much relevant information you have, each section can be a bit longer or shorter.
When it comes to deciding what to include in a resume, you should only add relevant information that can serve the recruiter or hiring manager's reading. Unlike a CV, a resume is a much more focused and direct form of communicating your work experience, skills, and goals. Write short but cohesive sentences and use a professional tone whenever possible.
Keep on reading to learn more about the best resume template you can easily follow and edit.
Key Elements Of A Resume
Here’s a simple breakdown of the key elements of a resume mentioned so you can have a better understanding of why they’re important and how to easily create a quality resume.
Heading
If you want to start off great, do not include the word resume or CV in your heading thus it is way too obvious. What you should include is your full name, preferably in capital letters and bold or in a strong legible font so that it can be easily remembered and found.
Include your location in the form of city, country, as well as your professional email address. If you have an old email address you created when you were young, and it is hard to remember or to take seriously, please create a new email address. You can add your date of birth and nationality but is not necessary unless required. This also applies to adding a professional cover photo.
2. Personal Statement
Perhaps one of the most important elements of a quality template is your personal statement. In a few words, this section will reflect your goals and mission for the job you’re applying to or your job search in general, related to the position interested in.
It should be around 2-4 sentences and you can include some of your skills and abilities that you want to apply in your future position.
3. Education
The education section of your resume is important, but don’t worry if you didn’t go to college or have higher-level studies. Make sure to include your education from the most recent to the farthest, and feel free to omit your primary education and kindergarten.
Write the name of the facility, and below its location (city and state), followed by the graduation year and certificates obtained.
4. Work Experience
This section frightens most people, especially students, and individuals with little to no experience at all. You can include even the smallest work experience related to the position you’re applying to, but if you don’t have any, list down your skills.
Some skills examples include being responsible and working with others, as well as other types of skills related to things you’re able to do, such as using Google Drive, creating PowerPoint presentations, and similar.
For those who want to include their work experience, follow the same pattern as with your education. Add your most recent experience, titled with your position, followed by the name and location of the company/business, the date you began and finished, and the tasks and responsibilities you had to do.
5. Awards & Certifications
You can include the awards and certifications you received at school, college, or on a previous job if you’d like. Including the title of the award, why you received it, as well as the year you received it.
6. Hobbies
It is always great to include some of your hobbies to show hiring managers and recruiters what you’re like outside of the office. They do not need to be related to your position, and you can easily include them as a list or a short paragraph.
7. References
If possible, include 3-5 reference contacts superiors can use to corroborate your work experience. Add the full name of the person, the relationship you have with them (former teacher or superior, etc), and contact information such as phone number or email address.
Best Resume Template
In this post, we talked about the key elements of a resume and how to create the best resume template you can use over and over again.
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much work experience or skills you have, but rather how you display the information and present yourself to recruiters. We included options for people with limited work experience and education so you can have plenty of options to create a quality resume.