The Complete Resume Checklist

Posted on: January 26, 2023

Last Updated on: June 11th, 2024

Post Category: Professional Development

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When you apply for a new role at a company, you will submit a resume.

This post is a quick all-in-one-place checklist for the things you should have in your resume – in terms of structure, content and format. I have tried to make the checklist as exhaustive as possible, but please have a read of other resources out there to get a better view.

Note that there are no “rules” when it comes to resume writing, there are only guidelines – or best practices – and these are the guidelines I have come across and use. Apply what you agree with in this post.

From personal experience, I found it useful to look at others’ resumes to help with writing my own. I have included screenshots of some example resumes later in this post.

I have also attached links to the bottom of this post to other resources/posts/influencers that you can learn from.

Ultimately, there are no clear-cut rules that you must follow when writing a resume, BUT there are standard guidelines when writing your resume, regardless of industry. A resume must:

• Be easy to read and navigate,
• Be concise, and
• Present a comprehensive view of your skills and competencies that align with the job description.

So, here’s the checklist!

Things you should NOT do with your resume

• Do not use an infographic resume. Infographic resumes tend to use a lot of (unnecessary) colours, have an emphasis on aesthetics, and do not follow a standard structure. Because of this, they are harder to read and navigate. Some infographic resumes also use metrics/charts to measure how proficient a candidate is with a skill, and they are confusing to interpret.
• Do not include a picture of yourself. A picture of yourself does not help highlight your skills and experience, and you do not want to introduce bias that might work against you. If a recruiter really wanted to see a picture of you, they will look at your LinkedIn profile.
• Do not write a resume longer than 2 pages; try to keep it to 1 page. Recruiters do not spend a lot of time reading your resume. Based on industry research, a recruiter will only spend 6 to 8 seconds reviewing your resume. Hence, keep your resume short and concise. Note that, in the current job market, one page is the standard.
• Do not include links or share email addresses that are potentially offensive.
• Do not share an email address that might expire, like your student or work email address.

Structure – sections and headings

• Your resume must have the following sections: name and contact details, experience and education. You need a skills, experience and projects section that recruiters can skim through to easily determine whether you’re a good fit, given the requirements of the role. These are the sections that should contain the bulk of the job description’s key words, as this will help you pass the resume screening stage (if a machine is used to filter out applicants). Note some sections that are optional, or used on a case-by-case basis (by personal preference), include: career profile, projects, extracurriculars, certifications, and skills.
• Ensure all the sections of your resume have a heading, except for your name and contact details.
• Put your most relevant section at the top of your resume – after your details and career profile. The rule of thumb is to start off your resume with content most relevant to the job requirements. For current (under)graduate students, or young professionals applying for an entry-level or graduate role, this would typically be your Education. For professionals who have been in the industry for a while or have some work experience, this would typically be your Experience.

Content

• Write achievement statements to highlight both your skills and accomplishments. For your Career Profile, Experiences and Projects section, opt for achievement statements for your bullet points. Achievement statements can be written using a simple formula: [ACTIVE VERB] + [TASK] + [A PURPOSE OR SPECIFIC/QUANTIFIABLE OUTCOME]. For example, ‘Organised 15 technical workshops and industry-insight events that have reached more than 300 attendees’. You can find a list of active verbs you could use in your statements here. If you are struggling to quantify your experiences, this blog post may be useful.
• Be concise. For example: say ‘Automated [PROCESS]’ instead of ‘Enabled process automation for [PROCESS]’, and say ‘Documented [PROCESS]’ instead of ‘Wrote documentation for [PROCESS]’. Oftentimes you are saying things longer than they should – where you’re adding words that don’t contribute to the overall meaning. So try cut your sentences down – or get an extra pair of eyes to check this.

Note: It is very nice to have quantifiable outcomes in achievement statements, but most students will struggle quantifying their experiences – even those who are later in their University journey and have already picked up a couple of roles/internships. If you are someone who struggles with this, just keep in mind that quantifiable results/outcomes are a nice-to-have, not a must-have.

• For your Name and Contact Details section:
  • Write your name in large font
  • Include your contact details (i.e., your email and phone number) and links to any online webpages that show your work or professional profile (e.g. your personal website, LinkedIn profile and links to your portfolio – if relevant)
• For your Career Profile section:
  • Write 3 bullet-point achievement statements tailored to the position, highlighting your areas of expertise and experience
  • Use key words from the job description
• For your Education section
  • List the name of your degree, followed by the name of your institution
  • Write the commencement date (month and year) of your degree and the month and year of your graduation. If you have not graduated yet, write the expected month and year of your graduation.
  • If relevant to your position, include your WAM, any relevant coursework, academic achievements/awards, scholarships or exchanges.
• For your Experience section:
  • For each role, write the name of the role, followed by the employer and the dates you have worked. For dates, specify the month and the year.
  • List your roles in reverse chronological order according to end date (i.e., write the most recent role you had, or the most recent role you left, at the top).
  • To be concise, write (at least 1 and) at most 5 dot point achievement statements for each role you list.
  • Include any employer awards received to reinforce your dot point achievement statements.

Note: Especially if you are in the earlier stages of your career, you may find that you don’t have many relevant work experiences to share. If this is the case, you may include extracurricular commitments in your Experience section.

• For your Projects section:
  • For each project, write the name of the project, followed by its date of completion. For dates, specify the month and the year.
  • List your projects in reverse chronological order.
  • To be concise, write (at least 1 and) at most 3 dot point achievement statements for each project you list. You may also use your third dot point to share a link to your work – more on this soon.
• For your projects, share some links for the recruiters to see or interact with your work. If you got to write code using a required programming language, share a GitHub link to your work. If you built a working web application or designed a high-fidelity prototype, share a link for the recruiters to interact with it. However, if any information included in your project is confidential, you will have to replace it with dummy/fake data or exclude the link from your resume entirely.
• For your Extracurriculars section
  • Write it like your Experience section (i.e., share the name of the role, followed by the employer and the dates you have worked, and list your roles in reverse chronological order, etc.)
• For your Certifications section
  • Write the name of the certification, followed by the date you acquired it.
  • Following the name of the certification, you may specify who issued it.
  • You may also outline what the certification allows you to be recognised for.
  • You may also include a link for the recruiter to see your certificate.
• For your Skills section
  • Create an unordered bullet-point list of both your technical and non-technical skills.
• For your References section (which you generally won’t need, but just in case…)
  • Generally, you can just write ‘Available upon request’. What ‘Available upon request’ means is that you are willing to share your referees’ details if they ask for it.
  • If you are required to put down a filled References section, include two referees by sharing their name, company and role, phone number, and email – or provide whatever is required by the recruiter.

Formatting

• Ensure there is consistent formatting when you list your experiences, projects, extracurriculars, and references. For example, when listing out your experiences, you may have the name of the role, bolded and left-aligned, followed by the name of your employer, and the dates you have worked, right-aligned. Referring to the examples will make this clearer. You may use the formatting in those examples as inspiration.
• Create visual hierarchy by using:
  • All caps,
  • Horizontal rules,
  • Bold font,
  • Colour,
  • Darker shades, or
  • Underlines. Refer to examples provided.
• Ensure that font size does not vary much throughout your resume. Opt for at most three different font sizes. For example, one large font size for your name, one medium for the section headings, and one small for the rest of your resume.
• Ensure that font style does not vary much throughout your resume. Opt for at most two different font styles. For example, one font style for your name and another for the rest of your resume.
• Ensure that the range of colours you use is minimal, and use extra colours intentionally. For simplicity, use black or dark grey, and opt for AT MOST one other colour. If you do use two colours, use the second one intentionally and consistently (e.g., for your name and contact details, all section headings or all horizontal rules).
• Ensure that your content is consistently and neatly aligned. Ensure that all of the content after your Name and Contact Details is left aligned, and all bullet points are indented the same depth. For your Name and Contact Details, you can align the content however you like, so long as it looks neat. Lots of resumes have the Name and Contact Details section centre-aligned.
• Check that spacing is consistent throughout your resume – between sections, bullet points, etc.
• Check that all bullet points have a full stop at the end. Alternatively, check that all bullet points do not have a full stop at the end. The goal is to have a consistent format.
• Check that there are no typos and spelling or grammatical mistakes. Using a spell-checking or grammar-checking software (like Grammarly) will be helpful here, but regardless, make sure that you proof-read your resume. Getting your resume peer-reviewed will also be helpful here, but keep in mind that this will take longer.
• Check tense. Past tense for previous achievements, present tense for current duties.
• Condense the content of your resume to fit onto a single page. Cut down the content of your resume by removing your least relevant sections/experiences and by removing dot points that sound repetitive. You may also reduce the size of the border and the size of the font so long as your resume is easy to read and navigate (i.e., the font is large enough, and there is clear structure and visual hierarchy).

Miscellaneous nice touches

• Make it obvious that your resume is tailored, by specifying your experience. For example, if you are applying for a data analyst position, instead of having an ‘Experience’ and ‘Projects’ section, have a ‘Data Analytics Experience’ and ‘Data Analytics Projects’ section. If you are applying for a UX/UI position, you may have a ‘UX/UI Design Experience’ and ‘Prototyping Projects’ section. If the role you are applying for involves writing code, you may have a ‘Coding Projects’ section.
• As mentioned, use key words from the job description to ensure high likelihood of passing the resume screen.

Example resumes

Below are two examples of resumes – both from influencers in the career-growth space.

Useful resources/ways to learn more about resume writing

• Refer to resources shared by your University. If you are currently a student at University, there might be a resource hub or support available to you for resume writing. You may also be given free access to an online resume-checker tool, which you can use to get tailored feedback to improve your resume.
• Follow professionals/coaches in the career growth space on LinkedIn. Jonathan Javier and Jerry Lee, co-founders of Wonsulting, are good professionals to start with; you can see some of the free resources they offer in the featured sections of their profile on LinkedIn.
• Get your resume reviewed by an industry mentor or more experienced professional. Ask a current connection you have who has some experience in the field you are applying for, or register for events/consultations organised at your Uni where you can get your resume reviewed.

And that was the complete resume checklist!

You can see more of my posts at jason-khu.com, follow me on LinkedIn, or see the rest of my ‘Uni for students’ guide here.