

Is your resume good enough to land you a job? Say goodbye to uncertainty: learn how to write a resume the right way and apply for your dream jobs with confidence.
Showing your skills, highlighting your personality, proving you’re a good fit for the job, impressing the recruiter, and landing you an interview at your dream company—
That’s a lot to expect from one A4 piece of paper…
But that’s exactly what your resume needs to do. Seems impossible, doesn’t it?
Don’t worry—
It’s far easier than it seems, and you’re about to learn all the tricks of the trade and find out how to write a resume the right way.
This guide will show you:
Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume examples here.
Ready to get started?
First up, let’s take a look at a job-winning sample resume:
Kashvi Patel
Graphic Designer
Personal Info
Gender: Female
Date of birth: 8/1/1992
Phone: +12 34 56789012
E-mail: kashvi.patel@email.com
linkedin.com/in/kashvi.a.patel
behance.net/kashvipateldesigns
Summary
Creative graphic designer with 5+ years of agency experience and excellent communication and collaboration skills. Shortlisted for the 2018 Indigo Design Award, awarded the 2020 TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence. At Eledea Design, maintained 100% customer satisfaction. Seeking to apply my talent and skills towards producing innovative, high-quality graphic design solutions for Desginea’s clients.
Experience
Graphic Designer
Eledea Design, New Delhi
November 2017–September 2021
Key achievements:
Junior Graphic Designer
ArtOne Studio, New Delhi
July 2016–November 2017
Education
BSc in Computer Science, University of Delhi
2013–2016
Certifications
Awards
Languages
Skills
Declaration: The information stated above is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Well—
Kashvi will have more than one job offer to choose from with a resume like this!
Time to work on your job application to make sure it’s just as good.
Here’s how to write a resume:
Would you believe that the looks of your resume are just as important as its contents?
It’s true—
It all starts with the right presentation. Your resume could be filled with mind-blowing achievements, but no one will see them if the layout is off-putting or difficult to read.
So, step one of how to write a good resume is using the proper formatting to immediately highlight your value.
Here’s how to format your resume:
As you’re setting up your document, plan to include the following resume sections, in this order:
When you’re done, remember to save your resume as a PDF. Why? Well—
PDF works best for preserving the layout of your document: you can be sure your resume will look perfect on any device. So, unless the job ad asks specifically for a Word Doc, PDF is the best format to submit.
Pro Tip: Resume taking three pages? You need to cut back on the details or change up your formatting. For most positions, a one-page resume will suffice.
Recruiters spend just a few seconds scanning a resume and deciding whether to actually read it properly. A strong, compelling resume introduction can be your golden ticket to the “read” pile.
If you have some relevant work experience, combine your biggest professional achievements into a resume summary. It’ll show off your biggest selling points straight away!
Here’s how to write a resume summary guaranteed to get the recruiter’s attention:
Let’s see it in action:
RIGHT |
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Creative graphic designer with 5+ years of agency experience and excellent communication and collaboration skills. Shortlisted for the 2018 Indigo Design Award, awarded the 2020 TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence. At Eledea Design, maintained 100% customer satisfaction. Seeking to apply my talent and skills towards producing innovative, high-quality graphic design solutions for Desginea’s clients. |
See how great that formula is? You can make it work with literally every profession!
Importantly, this example uses the company name (Designea) in the final sentence. This personal touch can go a long way towards making you seem more motivated and enthusiastic.
Conversely, there’s nothing convincing about this example:
WRONG |
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I’m an experienced graphic designer looking for a new, challenging role in an agency environment. Hard worker and fast learner, eager to develop my skills. Personable, communicative, enjoy reading and horse riding in my free time. |
Yeah—
Not the kind of value you’re looking for. There’s nothing wrong with being open to challenges and enjoying reading, but your resume profile is not the place to mention either. Plus, the candidate in the second example fails to provide any proof of their experience.
Now, freshers, don’t worry—
Even with no experience, you can still write a great resume profile. On fresher resumes, it’s called an objective, and it follows a very similar structure to a resume summary.
The only difference is that instead of listing relevant professional achievements, you need to draw on your education, internships, other jobs, and volunteering experience to prove you have useful transferable skills.
Like so:
RIGHT |
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Recent computer science graduate with proven graphic design skills and excellent command of Photoshop and InDesign. Created 5 wireframes with 100% customer satisfaction during an internship at DesignLy. Seeking to combine my talent for design with an eagerness to learn in order to create tailored graphics for DesignHouse’s clients. |
Pretty convincing, right?
Despite being a fresher, this candidate shows they’re passionate about their chosen field and determined to be successful.
Take away the enthusiasm and effort, and you’ll end up with a poorly written objective like this one:
WRONG |
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Recent graduate with good computer skills and knowledge of Photoshop. Completed a graphic design internship and did well in graphics modules at university. Interested in 3D animation. Looking for an opportunity to test my skills in the real world and gain more hands-on experience designing graphics for clients. |
Same candidate, same experience—
But presented in the wrong way, it’s nowhere near as impressive.
Pro Tip: Having trouble coming up with something to say in your resume profile? Skip it for now and come back to it at the end. It’ll be easier to write once you’re done with the rest of your resume!
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Here it is—
The most important part of your resume.
If the recruiter decides to give your job application a chance based on your formatting and profile, this is the section they’ll focus on the most.
So, here’s how to make your experience section work to your advantage:
As you create this section, remember to tailor your resume to the job ad. Include bullet points that are most relevant to the role and show the skills mentioned by the employer.
Here’s what it all looks like in practice:
RIGHT |
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Graphic Designer Eledea Design, New Delhi November 2017–September 2021
Key achievements:
|
This candidate applied all of the tips listed above—
And to great effect, wouldn’t you agree?
Let’s see what happens when a person with the same work experience fails to describe it in an engaging way:
WRONG |
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Eledea - Graphic designer, 2017–2021 Duties included:
|
The results are far less impressive—
And much more likely to send the job application straight to the rubbish bin.
Pro Tp: If you’re writing a fresher resume, consider swapping the order of your work history and education sections. This will draw attention to your academic achievements rather than your underperforming work experience.
The importance of your education section depends on your level of experience—
If you’ve worked in relevant positions for several years, you can stick to the basics. Provide your highest level of schooling, including the name of the institution and the years of attendance. Add your CGPA if it was >90%.
Something like this will be perfectly fine:
RIGHT |
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Master of Commerce, University of Mumbai 2013–2016
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However, things are very different if you’re a fresher. With little to no work experience, your education is your greatest asset, and you need to treat it as such—
Use it to your advantage by including plenty of additional information, such as:
Like so:
RIGHT |
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BSc in Computer Science, University of Delhi 2013–2016
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And just like that, your education shows you could be a suitable candidate for a job, with plenty of transferable skills!
Pro Tip: If you’re a fresher who volunteered or interned at uni, don’t mention it in your education section. Save it for your work history instead!
There are hundreds of soft and hard skills you could list on your resume—
But you only have space enough for around 10. How can you choose?
Here’s how to pick the most relevant skills for your resume:
A tailored skills list has a dual purpose:
It shows you have the right skills set for the job, and it boosts your resume’s chances of getting a virtual nod of approval from the company’s ATS software.
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software is used by most mid- to large companies for scanning and parsing resumes. Based on parameters set by hiring professionals, the software chooses the most relevant resumes. By including the right keywords, you significantly boost your chances of success!
Pro Tip: Don’t list your skills in the header or footer of your document. Many ATS solutions ignore these sections of the page.
You have a good resume on your hands—
Time to make it great.
Take your job application from merely correct to outstanding by including some of these extra sections:
Depending on your experience and profession, you can also include other categories, such as publications, projects, or awards.
Let’s take a look at what these sections could look like on a resume:
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Certifications
Awards
Languages
Hobbies
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...and that’s almost everything:
If you’re applying for a job in India, remember to end your resume with a declaration:
Declaration: The information stated above is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Congrats!
Looks like your resume is all done and ready to win you a job.
But a resume alone is not enough:
Send it out with a cover letter to boost its effectiveness and maximize your chances of landing the job.
A well-written cover letter is a necessary part of your job application, so here’s how to write one that will work in your favour:
A great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Thanks for reading! Still not sure how to write a perfect resume? Need more advice on writing a basic resume for a job? Let us know in the comments below, we’re always happy to help!
Ready to apply for a job, but all lost and confused about the application documents? Our brief guide describes what a resume is and shows resume writing basics.
Cover letters—all of us need them, none of us like writing them, and few know how to do it properly. Learn how to write a cover letter the right way and beat your competition!