How to Tailor Your Resume for a Job Search

Resume header
Start with your resume header. This is a basic component of resume templates. Here, you’ll include your contact information: phone number, email address and any professional social media links, such as your LinkedIn profile.

Resume summary or objective
At the top of your resume, you want a two- to three-sentence paragraph that presents the most important information to a hiring manager. If you have several years of experience, you’ll use a resume summary, which goes over your most important experience and achievements. If you have less experience, you’ll instead use a resume objective, which goes over your skills, education and goals.

Skills
The skills section will include eight to ten important skills for your job, all using snappy bullet points. All resumes should consist of both hard skills, which are skills you learned for this specific job, and soft skills, which are generally transferable.

Work experience
Your work experience section should include all relevant experience from the last 10 years. If a job title doesn’t seem like it relates to the job you’re applying for, include an explanation that connects your job duties to the current application. If you have more than 10 years of experience, include it in your LinkedIn profile to free up space.

Education
If you have a college education, include it in your education section even if it doesn’t seem relevant to your position. Otherwise, include your high school diploma. Tend toward using college honors, such as Dean’s List and cum laude honors, rather than your GPA.

Additional sections
Finally, some resumes might benefit from additional sections, such as certifications, internships and volunteer work. These sections will vary depending on how you write your resume and how other resume samples look.