Resume template: a simple layout that gets read

The layout, top to bottom

• Header: your name, city and state, phone, email and the link to your LinkedIn profile. No photo, no full street address and no date of birth.
• Summary: two to four lines on who you are, the kind of role you want and your strongest proof. Skip it only if you are early in your career.
• Experience: your jobs from newest to oldest, each with employer, title, city and dates (month and year), then three to six bullets.
• Skills: a short list of the tools, methods and certifications that match the roles you want.
• Education and certifications: degree, school and year, then any current licenses or credentials.

What a bullet should look like

Start with a verb, say what you did, and end with the result in numbers where you can. “Led a team of eight to cut month-end close from ten days to six, freeing about 400 hours a year” tells a reader more than “Responsible for month-end close.”

If you do not have a number, use a scale (a budget, a team size, a number of clients) or a before and after. Our bullet rewriter helps with the wording.

• Résumé bullet rewriter

Keep it readable by software and by people

• One column, left-aligned, with standard headings such as Experience, Education and Skills.
• A common font such as Arial, Calibri or Georgia at 10 to 12 points, with margins of about half an inch to an inch.
• No tables, text boxes, images or text inside the header or footer, because many systems skip or scramble them.
• Save as a Word file or a PDF with selectable text, unless the posting names the format.
• Name the file with your name and the role, such as Jordan-Lee-Controller.pdf, not Resume-final-v3.

• Résumé for ATS and AI screening

Sections you can add, and when

• Selected accomplishments, three to four lines at the top, when your best results are older or spread over several jobs.
• Board seats, publications, patents or speaking, for senior roles where they matter.
• Languages or clearances, when the role asks for them.
• Volunteer work, when it fills a gap or shows a skill your jobs did not.

Check it against the job

Change the summary and the first few bullets for each role so they use the words the posting uses for the same work. Then run the résumé check to see how it scores and what it is missing.

• Free résumé check
• Résumé vs job description match

Frequently asked questions

Free tools for this

• Free résumé check: score your résumé in a minute
• Résumé bullet rewriter: turn duties into results