The most common thing we get asked for is resume help. We are happy to check (and recheck) your resume for free. However, please read through this first so it’s in the best shape it can be. If we see these errors, we are just going to redirect you here. If you don’t have these errors, send it to us in a Google doc, so we can redline it and add comments for you.
We will help you edit your resumes until they’re perfect, but we’re trying to teach you how to do this yourself, not just do it for you. We don’t think you should have someone else write your resume for you because a resume is just an extension of your personality and should highlight the experiences you value. A great place to start is Microsoft Word, which has some pretty good templates. We’ve also included some templates on this page to help you out.
For what skills to highlight in your resume, see here.
Basics
Do's
Don'ts
- Do have your name at the top with one email address, one phone number, and address (if you must) in the header.
- Do include your LinkedIn link. Tips on profiles here.
- Describe the current position you’re in with bullet points starting with present tense verbs like “Identify,” “Research,” “Write,” etc.
- Describe older positions with bullet points starting with past tense verbs like “Identified,” “Researched,” “Wrote,” etc.
- Capitalize the first word and nothing else that isn’t a proper noun. Here are capitalization tips if English is not your first language: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/
capitalization-rules/. - Do make sure you include certifications, internships, clubs you were a part of, awards you received in college, etc.
- Do put everything on there. The advice to not do this is BAD ADVICE. I once spent an entire law firm interview talking about my figure-skating experience. Employers like to see that you are unique, multifaceted, and knowledgeable.
- Do make it reverse chronological.
- Do show your soft skills in your bullet point descriptions of your duties at previous jobs.
- Do use keywords in your resume, based on what people in your job want to see.
- Do put your experience first and your education second, unless you just graduated.
- Save it as a .pdf named First Name Last Name Resume.pdf.
- Use Times New Roman or another font like this.
- Expand any abbreviations in school names people won’t know. (UC Berkeley and IIT Bombay are fine; other three/four-letter school acronyms are not.) When in doubt, expand.
- Do not have your birth-date, marital status, parents’ names, social security or passport or other identification numbers, sexuality, or anything else. It’s no one’s business.
- Do not have an “Objective” section at the top of your resume. It’s outdated and not helpful. If a job requires it, make sure your objectives are extremely specific and tailored to the job you’re applying for.
- Do not have a “Skills” section that includes a summary of everything + soft skills. You can have “Relevant Background” if you have a lot of relevant skills, or list languages/programming languages you speak at the bottom. Skills do NOT include “kindness,” “teamwork,” “willing to work long hours,” or anything else like that. That has to shine through your descriptions of your positions, your coverletter, and your interview.
- Do not include anything before college unless it’s professional experience (for example, I include my research experience, but not that I graduated valedictorian). It doesn’t matter how impressive it is. No one cares. Only include high school if you haven’t gone to college.
- Do not use words like “detail-oriented,” “team player,” “hard worker,” etc.
- Do not put political experience unless you have to (you are in political science/campaigns, etc.)
- Do not put your references, a statement testifying that the resume is accurate, or say “references available upon request.”
- Do not put your photo on your resume. Or, if you must, make sure it’s professionally shot and on a one-color background.
- Do not go below a 10 point font (and 10 point should just be for dates or locations or other very secondary information).
- Do not have more than four bullet points for each experience.
How long should your resume be?
If you’re just out of school or have been working for <10 years, one page.
If there are no requirements and you have a lot of experience or extraordinary circumstances, up to two pages. That’s it. My resume is only two pages and you’ll be surprised how much you can fit in this length.
If you are sure your industry accepts more pages (such as when you apply for an academic position at a university), then it can be longer.
This should be obvious, but fill the page. You can talk about relevant clubs you were a part of at university or you can add more bullet points to what you did at your jobs. But do not have half the page blank.
Should your resume be creative?
This depends on how much is in your resume and the industry. There is so much in my resume that I can’t make it that creative and keep it within two pages. Prioritize information not creativity. However, if you have the space to make it creative, a resume that has some color can really help you stand out.
Resume Examples
Do not copy any of these. Your resume is an extension of your personality and your accomplishments. You should use these for inspiration, perhaps choose a Word template, and then spend a day creating something you like that you’re proud of.
A sample resume we created based on the model used at the UC Berkeley Haas Business School
A sample excellent one-page resume, courtesy of Christian Correa (thanks for sharing, Christian!). If you haven’t done more than he has, you do not need more than one page.
More creative resume! But don’t have a Profile section. (This resume is from KickResume.com)
Another creative resume! For more check out the site: https://novoresume.com/career-blog/creative-resume-templates.
Clean and simple! (From cultivatedculture.com)
Resume Templates
Here are some awesome resume templates. (They’re Word documents you can edit!) We hope this helps. They get more creative to the right – you can add graphics/colors if you want!
Source: Janani
Source: UCLA
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Source: SmashResume
Definitely, what a fantastic site and illuminating posts, I definitely will bookmark your blog.All the Best!
thanks so much, punctuation and grammar are very imps! specialty for an international student like me applying in the USA. Thanks again for all the free resources. I am paying for online service about $25 each month but I got good resource here than there
Hi Madhav, glad you found it useful! $25 per month is a lot – if you’d like to send us your resume, we are happy to review and hopefully save you that money 🙂
This is very helpful to all class
Now I can be able to write down a resume ogechi my own in just a day
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome! Now I can fix my resume perfectly!
Truly glad that you find this helpful, Anshulika!
I need help in correcting my resume.
Please contact us through our contact page: https://dweebsglobal.org/contact/ We’re happy to help! 🙂
I want to correct my resume please help me I am not getting any job alert with my current resume.
How can I mail you?
Please provide the email
Hi Siddharth – We’re happy to help! We’ll shoot you an email to the one you’ve provided here 🙂
Very good tips.Very effective!
Thank you, Nurul!
Now i can carve my CV to a good extent
Thanks for the worthy info
Glad we could help, Noor!
I need some help regarding my CV . I emailed my CV to a professional CV writer for evaluation and rate card and he suggested that it is below average and with that i can’t get enough or even 20% attention of recruiters. Now i REQUEST you to evaluate my CV or make some changes if possible but i don’t know how to send my CV.
TIA
Please email us through the contact page :). We are happy to help! (You can also connect and DM any of us through LinkedIn.)
This really opened my eyes on how to fix my resume..
Thank you very much
Thank you, Lebone! We’re so glad we’re able to help :).
I really like all the sample resume
Thank you, Vivek!