Choosing what to put on a resume can be a big struggle no matter your experience in writing a resume. If you are new or already written one before what to put on a resume will always be a concern.
Resume is one of the most important and valuable documents in a job search. The goal of a resume is to help hiring managers easily understand who you are, your experiences, the skills you possess, and if you are the suitable for the job you are applying for.
Knowing full well how important resume are for your job search, what to put on a resume should also be considered essential for your job search.
Make sure your resume contains everything the employer needs in order to be convinced that you are the perfect choice for the position.
Even if you know what to put on a resume, writing the things in the wrong way isn’t going to get you any interview.
Not to worry we got you covered in this guide. We are going to be covering the most important things you should include on your resume.
What to Put on a Resume
There are so many things you can imagine that can be put on a resume. But not to get too excited and put the wrong things, we’ve come up with 7 essential things you should include on your resume.
- Name and contact information
- Resume summary or objective
- Professional experiences or work history
- Skills
- Education
- Awards
- Others – hobbies, involvements, etc.
Name and Contact Information
When it comes to what to put on a resume, the first thing you should put is your full name and contact information.
It is very important you keep it clear and simple. Avoid making use of unnecessary fonts or colors.
You should avoid putting your address if you are applying for a job in another state. It is unnecessary because the address does not matter. For example; If you are in Lagos applying for a job in PH, you are not supposed to include your house address as a contact info as what to put on a resume.
You can also add links to your social profile (social profile accounts that are professional and suit the job you are applying for). E.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Github, Instagram, Pinterest, etc
You can also add links to your personal website/blog or portfolio.
Overall, this is what to put on a resume as your name and contact info
- Your Name
- Professional title
- Phone Number
- Professional Email
- Social Media Handles
- URL to Your Personal Website, Blog, or Portfolio
Resume Summary or Objective
When it comes to what to put on a resume, the next thing that you should put after including your name and contact info is either a resume summary or resume objective.
According to research, Hiring manager spend an average of 10 seconds to glance through a resume. It is left for you to make good use of resume summary or resume objective to capture them and make them spend more time going through your resume.
Resume summary should describe your work experience in a summary while resume objective should describe your short-term goal and your e enthusiasm for wanting the position in order to establish your career.
If you have experiences it is best you make use of resume summary. But only make use of resume objective if you are in this category;
- students
- scholarships
- internships
- entry-level candidates
- candidates without work experience
- career changers
- job seekers with career gaps
Also Read: 11 Resume Summary Examples That work
Professional Experiences or Work History
The next thing on what to put on a resume should be your professional experiences or work history. If you have held any previous jobs (including internships!), this is where to put it. This is the very main section that hiring managers are always interested in.
It is recommended that you make use of bullets to highlights what you have done or was able to do in your previous work.
For example;
Business Development Manager
XTZ Company
05/04/2011 – 05/016/2019
- Developed and implemented sales, marketing plans and strategy for next 7 years.
- Reviewed constantly customer feedback and then suggested ways to improve overall processes for customers and service levels.
- Successfully managed #2 million budget projects and achieved project scheduled goals.
Skills
So many people would suggest putting skills before work history on what to put on a resume. But the point is that employers are much more concerned about your professional experiences.
There is no magic numbers to put as skills. You can use as many as you can but be sure to only make use of the skills that aligns with the job description.
You can make use of both your technical and soft skills.
Don’t know which skills to use? You can get skills keyword from the job description and that will guide you on what to use as your skills.
Education
Next on the list of what to put on a resume should be your education history. This is also very demanding so it is very necessary we include it on our list of what to put on a resume.
This is what you should include on your resume education section;
- Name of your school
- Location of your school
- The degree you obtained
- Your field of study
- Graduation year (if it is not too long)
- Your GPA (second class upper and above)
- Any relevant honors or academic recognition
It is important to only include your GPA if it is 3.5 and above. But if it is not, try not to include it. You might be asked about it but that will only be during your first few years. After you’ve worked for several years, your experience will help a lot and your GPA would not be necessarily needed.
Awards
You can create a separate section for your awards if you wish although it is optional. You can link awards to other section if that’s where you got therm. For instance; if you got awards in your previous work you can put it in your work history section.
And if you also got awards in school you can also add it in your education section.
Others
You can also include hobbies, community services, involvements, or other things that can also be beneficial for the job you are applying for. Make it as clear and concise as possible.
Note: The most crucial thing you should always keep in mind when creating a list of what to put on a resume should only be related to what the job requires. You should tailor your resume to fit the job you are applying. Don’t make use of things that are not necessary, you might get it all wrong and reduce your chances of getting any interview.
What Do You Think?
Now I’d like to turn things over to you:
Which tip from this list was your favorite?
Or maybe you have a tip that I didn’t cover here.
Either way, let me know and leave a comment below.
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