How to Write a Resume in 2026?

Article written by Kuldeep Pant, under the guidance of Fangxu Xing, an Assistant Professor at Harvard and Instructor at Interview Kickstart. Reviewed by Abhinav Rawat, a Senior Product Manager.

Last updated on May 27, 2026 at 12:40 PM

| Reading Time: 3 minutes

Recruiters spend 6 to 7 seconds on a resume before deciding whether to read further. In that time, they are not reading: they are scanning for clarity, impact, and fit. Most resumes fail not because the candidate is underqualified but because the resume does not show impact clearly enough to make the recruiter stop.

This guide is built around that reality. Every section includes a before-and-after example so you can see the exact transformation, not just the instruction. If you want a quick assessment of your current resume before you start, try Interview Kickstart’s Resume Analyser.

Key Takeaways

Use reverse-chronological format unless you are changing careers or have a significant employment gap.
Every bullet point should follow the action verb + task + measurable result formula: activity without impact is not evidence.
Tailor the summary and skills section to every job description before submitting: ATS keyword matching matters.
The skills section should list specific tools and hard skills only: soft skills belong in bullet points as demonstrated outcomes.
Format for ATS first: single column, standard font, no tables or text boxes, saved as PDF.

Step 1: Choose the Right Resume Format

Which resume format should you use?

Start with reverse-chronological unless you have a specific reason not to. It is what most recruiters expect and what most ATS systems parse most reliably. Only switch formats if your specific situation makes another format clearly better.

Format	Use When	Best For	Avoid When
Reverse-chronological	You have consistent work history in your target field	Most job seekers with 2 or more years of relevant experience	You have large unexplained employment gaps or are making a major career switch
Functional	You are changing careers significantly or re-entering the workforce after a long gap	Career changers, people returning after a gap, military-to-civilian transitions	You have a clean work history in the same field; it looks like you are hiding something
Combination	You have strong skills from a different field and relevant recent experience	Mid-career changers who have transferable skills and recent roles to show	Entry-level candidates with little experience; the format requires enough material to fill both sections

Step 2: Add Your Contact Information

What contact information should you include on a resume?

Include:

Full name (at the top, larger than the body text)
Phone number
Professional email address: firstname.lastname@gmail.com, not nicknames or numbers
City and state only: full street address is not needed and takes up space
LinkedIn profile URL: customise it to remove the random character string
Portfolio or GitHub URL: include if it is relevant and up to date

Leave out:

Photo: employers in the US cannot legally consider it, and it marks your resume as non-standard
Date of birth, marital status, nationality
Full street address
Personal email addresses with nicknames or year-of-birth numbers

Step 3: Write a Professional Summary

How do you write a professional summary for a resume?

A professional summary is optional for entry-level candidates but essential for experienced professionals. Without it, recruiters have to piece together your value proposition themselves. With it, you control the first impression in two or three sentences.

Formula: [Job title] with [X years] of experience in [key area]. [Achievement 1] and [achievement 2]. Seeking a role where [what you bring or what you want to do next].

Before (weak):

Motivated professional with experience in marketing seeking a challenging role at a growing company where I can use my skills to contribute to the team.

After (strong):

Digital marketing manager with 6 years of experience specialising in paid acquisition and content strategy. Grew organic search traffic by 180% and reduced customer acquisition cost by 35% through funnel optimisation. Looking to bring that growth-focused approach to an in-house brand role.

What makes the difference: The weak version uses ‘motivated’, ‘challenging role’, ‘growing company’, and ‘contribute to the team’. Every recruiter reads these phrases hundreds of times a day. The strong version has specific numbers, specific skills, and a specific value proposition. The principle applies to every summary: replace filler language with a real claim.

Step 4: List Your Work Experience

How do you write work experience bullet points?

The work experience section is where most resumes fail. The most common problem: bullet points describe activity rather than impact. A recruiter does not need to know what your job was. They need to know what happened because of you.

Formula: [Strong action verb] + [what you did] + [measurable result]

Before: Responsible for managing social media accounts
- After: Grew Instagram following from 4,200 to 28,000 in 8 months by shifting to a short-form video strategy, increasing referral traffic to the website by 62%
Before: Helped improve customer satisfaction
- After: Raised Net Promoter Score from 41 to 67 over 12 months by redesigning the onboarding flow and launching a proactive check-in programme for new customers
Before: Worked on the engineering team to build new features
- After: Built the real-time inventory sync feature that reduced manual reconciliation errors by 91% and cut warehouse processing time by 4 hours per day
Before: Managed a team
- After: Led a team of 7 customer support specialists, reducing average resolution time from 48 hours to 11 hours and achieving a 94% first-contact resolution rate

What every strong bullet has: An action verb that shows ownership (‘Led’, ‘Built’, ‘Designed’, not ‘Helped’ or ‘Assisted’), a specific description of what was done, and a number showing the result. If you cannot find a number, use time saved, cost reduced, team size, or scope. There is always a number if you look for it.

What action verbs should you use on a resume?

Category	Strong Verbs	Avoid
Leadership	Led, Managed, Directed, Oversaw, Spearheaded, Championed	Helped, Assisted, Supported, Participated in
Building and Creating	Built, Developed, Designed, Launched, Engineered, Implemented	Worked on, Was involved in, Contributed to
Improving	Reduced, Increased, Optimised, Streamlined, Accelerated, Transformed	Tried to improve, Worked to improve, Helped improve
Analysing	Analysed, Evaluated, Assessed, Identified, Investigated, Synthesised	Looked at, Reviewed, Checked
Collaborating	Partnered, Coordinated, Facilitated, Aligned, Collaborated	Worked with, Teamed up with

Step 5: Add Your Education

What should you include in the education section of a resume?

Recent graduate (within 3 years of finishing your degree): Place education above work experience. Include: degree and field, institution name, graduation year, GPA if 3.5 or above, relevant coursework if it is directly relevant to the role, honours or awards, and key projects.

Experienced professional (3 or more years since graduation): Place education below work experience. Include only: degree and field, institution name, and graduation year.

Remove the GPA: no one asks about it after a few years and including it takes up space. Remove coursework and project details.

Step 6: List Your Skills

What should you include in the skills section of a resume?

The skills section is one of the most misused on any resume. The rule: list hard skills and specific tools only. Soft skills like communication and teamwork belong in your bullet points as demonstrated outcomes, not in a list.

Before (weak):

Skills: Communication, Teamwork, Microsoft Office, Detail-oriented, Fast learner, Problem-solving, Leadership, Time management

After (strong):

Technical: Salesforce CRM, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Tableau, SQL

Marketing: Email campaign management, A/B testing, paid search (Google Ads, Meta Ads), SEO

Languages: Spanish (professional working proficiency)

Why this matters: The weak version lists claims every applicant makes. The strong version lists specific tools and platforms that recruiters can scan in three seconds and match against the job description. Tailor this section to mirror the specific tools mentioned in the job description you are applying for.

Step 7: Include Optional Sections

What optional sections should you add to a resume?

Section	Include When	Leave Out When
Certifications	Directly relevant to the role (PMP, AWS, CPA, Google Analytics, CFA)	Expired, irrelevant, or obvious (basic Microsoft Office)
Projects	You are early-career and projects demonstrate skills your work experience does not cover	You have 5 or more years of work experience that already covers the relevant skills
Volunteer work	Directly relevant to the role or demonstrates leadership and commitment	General volunteer activity with no connection to the skills or values of the role
Publications and presentations	You are applying to roles where thought leadership or academic output matters (research, academia, senior consulting)	You are applying for a standard industry role where publications are irrelevant
Languages	You are professionally proficient (not just ‘conversational’) in a language relevant to the role or market	You only speak the primary language of the country or your proficiency is genuinely basic
Hobbies and interests	They are directly relevant or genuinely impressive (published author, elite athlete, relevant side project)	They are generic (reading, travel, cooking) and add no information about your fit for the role

Step 8: Tailor Your Resume for Every Job

How do you tailor a resume to a specific job?

Tailoring is the step most candidates skip and the one that makes the biggest difference. An ATS system scores your resume against the job description before a human ever sees it. A tailored resume consistently outperforms a polished generic one.

Read the job description and highlight every skill, tool, and qualification mentioned more than once. These are the keywords the ATS is scoring against.
Check your skills section and experience bullets against the highlighted list. If you have the skill but used different wording, change your wording to match the job description exactly.
Update your professional summary to reflect the specific role title and the one or two strengths most directly relevant to this particular position.
Remove or deprioritise experience that is unrelated to this role. A focused one-page resume outperforms a comprehensive two-page resume every time for most positions.

Step 9: Format for Readability and ATS

How do you format a resume correctly?

Formatting do list:

Use a standard font: Arial, Calibri, or Georgia at 10 to 12pt.
Use consistent spacing throughout: same gap between every section heading and the content below it.
Use 1-inch margins on all sides.
Use a single-column layout: multi-column layouts break ATS parsing.
Save as PDF: preserves your formatting across all devices and operating systems.

Formatting do not list:

Do not use tables, text boxes, or graphics in the main content area: ATS systems often cannot parse them.
Do not use icons, star ratings for skills, or decorative symbols: ATS cannot read them.
Do not put contact information in the header or footer of the document: ATS often skips these areas.
Do not use templates with elaborate designs: clean and scannable consistently outperforms stylish.
Do not exceed 2 pages unless you have 10 or more years of directly relevant experience.

Common Resume Mistakes and How to Fix Them

What are the most common resume mistakes?

Mistake	Why It Hurts	The Fix
No quantification in bullet points	‘Improved sales’ tells the recruiter nothing about scale or impact.	Add a number: ‘Increased quarterly sales by 23% over 6 months.’
Objective statement instead of a summary	‘I am seeking a challenging role’ focuses on what you want, not what you offer.	Replace with a 2-line summary focused on your value to the employer.
Using the same resume for every application	ATS systems score against specific keywords. A generic resume consistently scores lower than a tailored one.	Spend 15 minutes tailoring the summary and skills section to each job description before applying.
Listing job duties instead of achievements	‘Responsible for customer calls’ describes the job, not what you did with it.	Rewrite every bullet using the action verb + task + result formula. Remove any bullet that starts with ‘Responsible for’.
Including irrelevant experience	Recruiters scan fast. Every irrelevant item dilutes the signal.	Remove anything unrelated to the target role. Less is consistently more for experienced candidates.
Inconsistent formatting	Inconsistent fonts, spacing, or bullet styles signal lack of attention to detail before the recruiter reads a word.	Use a single template. Run a final format check before submitting: every bullet should align, every section should use the same spacing.

Conclusion

A strong resume shows impact, not just activity. Every section should answer the recruiter’s unspoken question: what happened because this person was in this role? Once your resume gets you the interview, preparation is what gets you the offer. See Interview Kickstart’s FAANG interview preparation program for a structured path from resume to offer, especially if you are targeting a FAANG interview preparation program that focuses on real interview scenarios.

FAQs: How to Write A Resume

Q1. How long should a resume be?

One page for under 10 years of experience; two pages maximum for senior professionals.

Q2. Should I include a photo on my resume?

No, US employers cannot legally consider it and it flags your resume as non-standard.

Q3. How do I get my resume past ATS?

Use a single-column layout, standard fonts, and mirror the exact keywords from the job description.

Q4. Should I list soft skills like communication and teamwork?

No, prove them through quantified bullet points instead of claiming them in a list.

Q5. Do I need a different resume for every job I apply to?

Yes, tailoring your summary and skills section to each job description is the single biggest factor in getting shortlisted.

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How to Write a Resume in 2026?

Key Takeaways

Step 1: Choose the Right Resume Format

Which resume format should you use?

Step 2: Add Your Contact Information

What contact information should you include on a resume?

Step 3: Write a Professional Summary

How do you write a professional summary for a resume?

Step 4: List Your Work Experience

How do you write work experience bullet points?

What action verbs should you use on a resume?

Step 5: Add Your Education

What should you include in the education section of a resume?

Step 6: List Your Skills

What should you include in the skills section of a resume?

Step 7: Include Optional Sections

What optional sections should you add to a resume?

Step 8: Tailor Your Resume for Every Job

How do you tailor a resume to a specific job?

Step 9: Format for Readability and ATS

How do you format a resume correctly?

Common Resume Mistakes and How to Fix Them

What are the most common resume mistakes?

Conclusion

FAQs: How to Write A Resume

Q1. How long should a resume be?

Q2. Should I include a photo on my resume?

Q3. How do I get my resume past ATS?

Q4. Should I list soft skills like communication and teamwork?

Q5. Do I need a different resume for every job I apply to?

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