The average employer spends only a few seconds reviewing your resume.
Make. Them. Count.
Whether you’re crafting your first resume for an internship or updating yours to pivot into a new career, mastering modern resume best practices is crucial. As the job market evolves in 2025, so do the expectations of employers. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you stand out with a resume that makes a lasting impression.
Key Topics:
- What Should a Resume Look Like in 2025?
- How Do I Write a Good Resume?
- What Are the Key Parts of a Resume?
- 10 Tips for Crafting the Perfect Resume
Let’s dive into how you can create a standout resume and increase your chances of landing your next job.
What Should a Resume Look Like in 2025?
Resume standards have evolved with the rise of digital tools and technology. While industry-specific guidelines may vary (for example, a creative resume may not be suitable for a medical field), some best practices apply universally in 2025:
- Digital Format: Your resume should be a PDF, which is both easily accessible and portable.
- ATS-Friendly: Ensure your resume is optimized for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) by using standard fonts, keywords, and a clear layout.
- Concise and Focused: Keep your resume to one page, particularly for entry-level roles, unless you have extensive experience.
- Easy to Read: Choose clean fonts, proper spacing, and a structured layout for maximum readability.
Don’t forget to update your LinkedIn profile to reflect the same information on your resume. Employers often cross-check your resume with your online presence.
How Do I Write a Good Resume?
A great resume is an impactful document that highlights your top skills and experiences. It should be structured to present your qualifications clearly, making it easy for employers to quickly find key details. Here’s how to write a great resume:
- Tailor your resume to each job you apply for, emphasizing the most relevant skills and experiences.
- Use action verbs to describe your experience and show the impact you’ve made.
- Include quantifiable results wherever possible to demonstrate your success.
- Keep it simple and clear with concise language and a clean layout.
Now let’s break down the five key parts of a resume.
What Are the Key Parts of a Resume?
Most resumes will contain five main sections. While certain roles or industries may require additional categories, these five sections are essential for all resumes in 2025:
- Personal Information – Include your name, contact info (email and phone number), LinkedIn profile, and any relevant online portfolios.
- Education – List your degree, institution, and any certifications or relevant coursework, especially if you’re early in your career.
- Experience – Outline your previous job roles, internships, or freelance work, highlighting relevant duties and achievements.
- Skills – Showcase both hard and soft skills that are relevant to the job.
- Certification/Awards/Projects – Include any certifications, awards, or side projects that demonstrate your expertise.
While the fifth section varies depending on your field, the first four are essential for all resumes.
10 Tips for Crafting the Perfect Resume
1. Make a master resume and then edit from there
Ideally, for every job, or at least every type of job, you apply to, you want to use a slightly modified resume that is tailored to that job description. However, creating a resume from scratch can be both time-consuming and overwhelming.
To avoid this, try creating a master resume that has all of your experience, all your skills, and different versions of your additional sections like certifications or awards. This won’t be a resume you actually send to any hiring manager, but it allows you to easily pick and choose relevant experiences.
When it comes time to apply for a job, take a look at the job description and your master resume. Then, select the skills, experiences, and extras that best match the job description.
2. Put the most important stuff on the top half
Now that so many things are digital, most employers are looking at your resume in a PDF viewer rather than on a sheet of paper. Because of this, they may only be seeing the top half of your resume before deciding if they want to scroll farther. Make the top half so engaging that they will look at the rest, no matter how they are viewing it.
Whether their PDF viewer only shows them half of your resume at a time or they don’t read the whole thing, putting the most important elements in the top half increases the chance they’ll see what you want them to see.
3. Put the company as the heading and the position below it
This tip doesn’t hold true for every industry or for every person’s experience. However, this can be helpful if your titles are somewhat vague or less important than who you worked for or your duties in that position.
Highlight the fact that you were hired by a big-name company by putting them in bigger font above your title, rather than the other way around.
4. Use bullet points for readability
Put all of your job descriptions into easy-to-read bullet points to minimize the effort the reader has to put in. It may seem counterintuitive, but the easier it is for them to keep reading, the more likely it is that they will.
If they can scan your resume and catch keywords that are included in bullet points, instead of parsing full sentences, it’s easier for them to get the gist of your experience.
5. Use action verbs to describe what you did
Especially when you’re applying for a role where direct experience or leadership is an important part of the role, using action verbs can help hiring managers view your duties as more proactive.
For example, instead of “responsible for managing a team” use “managed/directed/led/ oversaw/trained/worked with a team of 15.”
Unless you are currently in that role, all of your verbs should be in the past tense.
6. Describe your success in the position
This rule might cause you to deviate from the basic rule of using action verbs. However, if you have had particular success in a position that would be important for an employer to know, make that a bullet point on your resume. An employer does not need to know every mundane task that is part of your duties – they need the highlights.
This can be something like rolling out a new program, overhauling the documentation process, or receiving recognition for something.
7. Quantify Your Success
When applicable, use numbers to quantify how you succeeded in a position. Similar to the last tip, this can be used to highlight your notable successes or to show your efficacy in that role.
Use the number of clients you helped or the number of followers you gained for a company’s social media account. You can even use something like the hours you spent doing something, or the amount of something you did (like writing articles, filing reports, etc.) to show how much work you can handle.
8. Align all elements and text
Just like you wouldn’t want to allow for any typos because it can look sloppy, you also don’t want your layout to be sloppy.
Hold a ruler up to any lines/margins on your resume. Something as small as uneven spacing or indents can look sloppy to an employer. Show them your ability to pay attention to detail through your resume.
9. Match your word use and experience choice to the job listing
When writing the descriptions and skills on your resume, the job listing is there to help you. Look at the duties and the qualifications listed on the job listing and use it to pick which experiences and skills you highlight and what specific words you use.
If words like “self-starter,” “good time management,” “fast worker,” or “innovative” are in the job description, pick the experiences that exemplify that the most. Then, tailor the description of that experience to highlight how you were innovative or managed your time well.
10. Optimize for ATS
Many employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter resumes before they reach a hiring manager. Make your resume ATS-friendly by avoiding complex formatting, graphics, or unusual fonts. Use standard headings and keywords from the job description to improve your chances of getting through the ATS.
Wrapping Up
In 2025, your resume is still one of the most important tools for securing a job. With the increasing use of digital tools and ATS in hiring, it’s essential that your resume is both visually appealing and optimized for digital screening. By following these resume best practices, you’ll create a document that showcases your qualifications and stands out from the competition.
