How to Write a Resume That Gets You Hired: Complete 2024 Guide

Writing a resume can feel overwhelming, especially when you're staring at a blank page wondering where to start. But here's the truth: a great resume doesn't need to be fancy or overly creative—it just needs to clearly show employers why you're the right person for the job.

This guide walks you through every step of creating a professional resume, from choosing the right format to writing compelling bullet points that showcase your accomplishments. Whether you're applying for your first job or making a career change, you'll learn exactly what to include, what to leave out, and how to make your experience stand out.

Choose the Right Resume Format

The format you choose sets the foundation for your entire resume. There are three main formats, and the right one depends on your career situation and work history.

The reverse-chronological format lists your work experience from most recent to oldest. This is the standard format that 90% of job seekers should use because it's familiar to hiring managers and clearly shows your career progression. Use this format if you have consistent work history in your field and aren't making a major career change.

The functional format emphasizes skills over work history. While this might sound appealing if you have employment gaps, most recruiters are skeptical of this format because it can appear like you're hiding something. The only exception is if you're making a complete career pivot and your past job titles would confuse employers.

The combination format blends both approaches by featuring a robust skills section followed by work experience. This works well for career changers who want to highlight transferable skills while still providing a clear employment timeline. For most people, though, the reverse-chronological format remains the safest and most effective choice.

Include the Essential Resume Sections

Every professional resume needs certain core sections that employers expect to see. Missing any of these creates red flags and can get your resume rejected before anyone reads your qualifications.

Start with your contact information at the top: full name, phone number, email address, and city/state. You don't need your full street address anymore, and skip outdated details like a headshot or your date of birth. Make sure your email address sounds professional—firstname.lastname@email.com works perfectly.

Next comes your resume summary or objective. A summary works best if you have relevant experience—use 2-3 sentences to highlight your years of experience, key skills, and biggest accomplishments. An objective is better for career changers or recent graduates, focusing on what you want to achieve and what you bring to the role. Skip the generic "detail-oriented professional seeking opportunities" nonsense and be specific about your value.

The work experience section is the heart of your resume. List each position with the job title, company name, location, and dates (month and year). Under each role, include 3-6 bullet points focusing on accomplishments, not just responsibilities. The education section should include your degree, school name, and graduation year—you can drop your graduation date if it's been more than 10-15 years. Finally, add a skills section listing relevant technical and soft skills that match the job description.

Write Accomplishment-Focused Bullet Points

The difference between a resume that gets interviews and one that gets ignored often comes down to how you describe your experience. Instead of listing what you were responsible for, show what you actually achieved.

Bad bullet points read like job descriptions: "Responsible for managing social media accounts" or "Handled customer service inquiries." These tell employers nothing about your performance or impact. Good bullet points follow a simple formula: start with a strong action verb, describe what you did, and include a measurable result when possible.

Here are examples of weak versus strong bullet points:

• Weak: "Managed a team of sales associates"
  Strong: "Led a team of 8 sales associates, implementing a new training program that increased quarterly sales by 23%"
• Weak: "Responsible for customer service"
  Strong: "Resolved an average of 50+ customer inquiries daily, maintaining a 96% satisfaction rating across all channels"
• Weak: "Updated company website"
  Strong: "Redesigned company website using WordPress, improving page load speed by 40% and increasing user engagement by 2.3 minutes per session"

Numbers make your accomplishments concrete and credible. If you increased something, saved time, managed a budget, or improved a metric, include those specifics. Even estimates based on reasonable assumptions are better than vague claims. When you can't quantify results, focus on scope (how many, how often) or impact (what changed because of your work).

Tailor Your Resume for Each Application

Sending the same generic resume to every job opening is the fastest way to get ignored. Hiring managers can immediately tell when you've mass-applied, and most companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that filter out resumes lacking relevant keywords.

Start by carefully reading the job description and highlighting the skills, qualifications, and requirements mentioned multiple times. These are your keywords. If the posting emphasizes "project management," "cross-functional collaboration," and "data analysis," those exact phrases should appear in your resume—assuming you actually have those skills.

Tailoring doesn't mean lying or rewriting your entire work history for every application. Instead, adjust your resume summary to mirror the role, reorder your skills to prioritize the most relevant ones, and emphasize accomplishments that align with what the employer values. If you're applying to a customer-focused role, lead with your customer service achievements. If it's a data-driven position, highlight your analytical projects.

This process takes an extra 10-15 minutes per application, but it dramatically improves your callback rate. A targeted resume that directly addresses what the employer needs will always outperform a generic one, no matter how impressive your credentials are.

Format Your Resume for Maximum Readability

Even the most impressive qualifications won't help you if hiring managers can't quickly scan your resume. Recruiters spend an average of 6-7 seconds on an initial resume review, so visual clarity matters as much as content.

Use a clean, professional font like Arial, Calibri, or Garamond in 10-12 point size. Avoid decorative fonts, multiple colors, or graphics that distract from your qualifications. Stick to standard one-inch margins on all sides, and use consistent spacing between sections. Your resume should have plenty of white space—dense blocks of text are exhausting to read and often get skipped entirely.

Keep your resume to one page if you have less than 10 years of experience, or two pages if you're a senior professional with extensive relevant accomplishments. Every line should earn its place—if something doesn't directly support your candidacy for this specific role, cut it. That college job from 15 years ago or irrelevant hobby probably isn't helping you.

Make important information easy to find by using bold text for job titles and company names, and consistent formatting throughout. If you bold one job title, bold them all. If you use bullet points in one section, use them in all experience descriptions. This consistency signals professionalism and attention to detail. Save your resume as a PDF unless the job posting specifically requests a different format—PDFs preserve your formatting across different devices and operating systems.

Optimize Your Resume for Applicant Tracking Systems

More than 90% of large companies use Applicant Tracking Systems to filter resumes before a human ever sees them. If your resume isn't ATS-friendly, it might get rejected automatically, even if you're perfectly qualified.

ATS software scans resumes for keywords that match the job description. This is why tailoring matters—the system is literally checking whether specific terms appear in your resume. But keyword-stuffing doesn't work either. Simply listing skills without context or repeating phrases unnaturally will make your resume awkward when humans do read it.

To pass ATS screening, use standard section headings like "Work Experience," "Education," and "Skills" rather than creative alternatives like "My Journey" or "Where I've Been." The software looks for these conventional labels. Avoid headers, footers, tables, text boxes, and columns—these design elements often confuse ATS parsers, causing them to miss information or scramble your formatting.

Include both acronyms and spelled-out versions of important terms, especially for certifications and technical skills. Write "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" instead of just "SEO," because you don't know which version the system is programmed to search for. Stick to standard fonts and avoid images, logos, or graphics containing text—ATS can't read information embedded in images.

Proofread and Polish Your Final Draft

Typos and grammatical errors are among the most common reasons resumes get rejected. They signal carelessness and poor attention to detail—qualities no employer wants in a candidate. Even a single mistake can derail an otherwise strong application.

Don't rely solely on spell-check. It won't catch when you use "their" instead of "there" or "manger" instead of "manager." Read your resume out loud slowly, which forces you to see each word rather than skimming. Better yet, ask a trusted friend or colleague to review it with fresh eyes—they'll catch errors you've become blind to after multiple revisions.

Check for consistency throughout your document. Do you use periods at the end of all bullet points or none of them? Are your dates formatted the same way everywhere (Jan 2023 vs. January 2023)? Do you use past tense for previous roles and present tense for your current position? These small details matter because inconsistency suggests sloppiness.

Finally, verify that all your contact information is correct. You'd be surprised how often qualified candidates miss opportunities because they listed an old phone number or made a typo in their email address. Test your email link if you're submitting a digital version, and make sure the file name is professional—"John_Smith_Resume.pdf" not "resume_final_FINAL_v3.pdf."

Related guides

• Resume With No Experience
• Resume Skills List
• Resume Summary Examples
• Resume Formats
• Resume Action Verbs

Frequently asked questions