How to Make Great Resumes

Resumes are your first opportunity to make an impression on employers. Every detail—from layout and structure to wording and formatting—plays a crucial role in showcasing your strengths. Crafting a compelling resume is about presenting your qualifications concisely while highlighting what makes you the best candidate. Here are three key tips to create a standout resume that captures attention at first glance:

1. Keep the Layout Clean and Organized

Try to present your experiences clearly and concisely on your resume. You won’t need an artistic design for your resume. Instead, try to

  • Use an easy-to-read font, like Times New Roman or Calibri in point size 11 or 12
  • Keep the length between one and two pages
  • State your contact, including your name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn on the top of the first page
  • Maintain a consistent format for the list of experiences, including the company’s name, location, position title, and dates of involvement
2. Structure Your Resume into Sections

You can break down your educational and professional experiences into different sections. This will make it easier to spot the variety and significance of different experiences. Consider sections like:

  • Education: List your degree, university, graduation date, and relevant coursework,  honors, or awards.
  • Related Experience: Highlight internships, jobs, or research roles relevant to the position you are applying for.
  • Additional Experience/Leadership & Community Engagement: Showcase leadership roles, volunteer work, and extracurricular involvement that speak to your other qualities or skills not reflected in the Related Experience.
  • Additional Skills & Interests: Mention technical skills, languages, certifications, and interests.
3. Use Bullet Points for Clarity

To summarize each experience you list on your resume, you can use three to five bullet points to state your job duties into what, how, and why with concise and professional terms. For each bullet point, try to:

  • Begin each point with a strong action verb, like “research”, “conduct”, “lead”, “mentor”, etc.
  • Quantify your impact where possible: eg. “Create marketing materials and publicize events through social media. Increased attendance at several club programs by 75%”
  • Highlight transferable skills, like teamwork, leadership, analytical skills, problem-solving, etc.