How to write a resume — the 20-minute version
No 3,000-word treatise. Seven steps, the wording patterns that work in 2026, and what robot readers actually care about. The builder at the bottom applies all of it live.
Start with the target, not your history
Read the job posting and note its 5-7 real requirements. Your resume is an argument that you meet them — not an autobiography. Every choice below filters through that posting.
Contact block: name, title, and how to reach you
Your name large, a title line matching the role you want, then email, phone, city and one link (LinkedIn or portfolio). No street address — it dates the file and nobody mails you anything.
Summary: three sentences, one number
Who you are, your strongest measurable result, and what you want next. “Cut order processing 38% at a 40-person e-commerce company” does more work than any adjective. If under 3 years of experience, keep it to two sentences.
Experience: bullets that start with verbs and end with numbers
For each role: title, company, dates, then 3-5 bullets. Lead with a past-tense verb (Led, Built, Cut, Shipped) and land at least one number per role — percentages, dollars, counts, time saved. Numbers are what survive skimming.
Education and skills: honest and current
Degree, school, years — expected grad year is fine. Skills list hard, verifiable tools (SQL, Rust, Tableau), not soft adjectives (“team player” persuades nobody). Many ATS rank primarily against this list.
One page, then stop
Under 10 years of experience: one page, always. Recruiters spend seconds on the first pass; every extra page is unfocused argument. Cut the oldest role before you shrink margins.
Run it through a parser check before sending
Paste the posting into the ATS check on our builder — it lists which distinctive terms are missing from your resume, locally in your browser. Then export as PDF with a standard filename: Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.
The two rules behind every rule
Specific beats impressive
“Responsible for reporting” is unverifiable. “Built the weekly revenue report that replaced 3 spreadsheets” is checkable, memorable, and sounds like someone who finishes things. Every line should survive the question: how would I verify this?
Robots first, humans second — both skim
ATS software reads one-column, standard-heading, plain-text documents best; humans then skim for 6-8 seconds looking for numbers and job-title match. The same format serves both: our ATS templates exist for exactly this reason.
Write it now, free
The builder starts from a full example you can overwrite line by line, checks your work against 8 ATS rules, and exports a clean PDF — no account, no watermark, at no point a credit card.