A visual guide to building a resume that gets noticed by both robots and humans.
By Career Architect Team | October 2025 | 5 min read
A modern resume is built on a few key sections and one critical rule: brevity. Prioritize clarity and relevance above all else. Use the charts below to determine your maximum page count.
For 0-10 years of experience, your resume should be:
Page. Max.
This forces you to be concise and focus only on what's most relevant to the job.
A second page is reserved for a small subset of professionals with extensive, relevant experience.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) scan your resume before a human does. Confuse the robot, and you'll never reach the human. Use simple, standard formatting.
**Key Takeaway:** Stick to **PDF format** (unless .docx is requested) and use standard **sans-serif fonts**. Avoid tables, columns, and text boxes.
Don't just list what you *did*. Show what you *achieved*. Quantify your impact with metrics to prove your value.
"Responsible for managing social media accounts."
"Grew social media engagement by 35% by developing a new content strategy."
A skills section is great for ATS keywords, but your experience section is where you *prove* those skills through achievement.
**Key Takeaway:** List your **hard skills** clearly. Weave your **soft skills** (Communication, Leadership) into your achievement-driven bullet points.
A generic resume gets generic results. Tailor your resume for *every* application by following this simple, step-by-step process.
Your private, multi-page document with *all* your experience and achievements.
Analyze the target job for keywords, required skills, and key responsibilities.
Your final 1-page resume, submitted to the employer, featuring only the most relevant info.
After all your hard work, don't let a simple mistake disqualify you. Typos and grammar errors are consistently cited as the top deal-breakers for recruiters.
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of best practices for creating a professional resume that is both human-readable and optimized for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
A modern resume should be concise and easy to scan. The structure should be logical and prioritized based on relevance to the target role.
Essential Components:
Contact Information: Full Name (large font), Phone Number, Professional Email Address, LinkedIn Profile URL (customized), and City/State (Zip code is optional, full street address is unnecessary).
Professional Summary: A 3-4 sentence "elevator pitch" at the top, tailored to the specific role.
Work Experience: Listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent first). Includes Company Name, Job Title, Dates of Employment (Month/Year), and 3-5 bullet points per role focused on achievements.
Education: Institution Name, Degree, Graduation Date (Month/Year). If you graduated over 10 years ago, you can omit the date.
Skills: A dedicated section, often categorized into "Technical Skills" and "Core Competencies."
Optional Components (Include if relevant and strengthen your candidacy):
Projects: Highly recommended for technical roles or recent graduates.
Certifications & Licenses: Include any relevant professional credentials.
Publications or Patents: Relevant for academic or research-oriented fields.
Length Standards:
0-10 Years of Experience: One page. This is a strong, widely accepted standard. Brevity and relevance are key.
10+ Years of Experience: Two pages is acceptable, especially for senior-level professionals, executives, or those in academic/medical fields with extensive publications or credentials. Never exceed two pages.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are software applications that scan resumes for keywords. A resume must be formatted to be easily parsed by this software and be visually appealing to a human recruiter.
Font Choices:
ATS-Friendly: Use standard, web-safe sans-serif fonts.
Recommended: Calibri, Arial, Roboto, Helvetica, Verdana.
Avoid: Serif fonts (like Times New Roman) can sometimes be harder for ATS to parse, and script or decorative fonts are unacceptable.
Size: Use 10-12 point font for body text and 14-18 point for your name.
Margins: Set margins between 0.5 inches and 1 inch on all sides. This ensures you have enough white space (making it readable) while maximizing page real estate.
ATS Compatibility:
Avoid: Do not use tables, columns, text boxes, headers, or footers to structure your resume. ATS bots struggle to read these elements. A simple, single-column linear layout is safest.
Headings: Use standard, simple headings (e.g., "Work Experience," "Education," "Skills").
Bullets: Use standard round or square bullet points.
File Type: PDF (.pdf) is the preferred file type. It locks in your formatting so it looks the same on every device. However, always read the job application instructions—some older systems may specifically request a .docx file.
Transform your resume from a passive list of duties into an active showcase of your achievements. Use the "What you did" + "How you did it" + "What was the result" formula.
Powerful Action Verbs (by Category):
Leadership/Management: Led, Managed, Coordinated, Directed, Oversaw, Supervised, Mentored, Trained
Growth/Achievement: Increased, Grew, Achieved, Expanded, Generated, Improved, Optimized, Reduced, Saved
Creation/Implementation: Developed, Created, Designed, Built, Implemented, Launched, Established, Pioneered
Communication/Collaboration: Collaborated, Presented, Negotiated, Persuaded, Authored, Partnered
Analysis/Problem-Solving: Analyzed, Assessed, Identified, Resolved, Researched, Solved
Transforming Duties into Achievements (with Metrics):
BEFORE (Duty): "Responsible for managing social media accounts."
AFTER (Achievement): "Grew social media engagement by 35% across four platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) by developing and implementing a targeted content-driven strategy."
BEFORE (Duty): "Helped train new employees."
AFTER (Achievement): "Mentored and trained 10+ new hires, improving their time-to-productivity by 20% through the creation of a new standardized onboarding checklist."
BEFORE (Duty): "Wrote code for the new website."
AFTER (Achievement): "Optimized website backend by refactoring legacy code, which decreased page load time by 2.5 seconds and improved user retention."
The "Skills" section is critical for passing ATS keyword scans.
Inclusion: A dedicated skills section is mandatory.
Placement: It is typically placed after the Professional Summary (for technical roles where skills are paramount) or after the Work Experience section.
Categorization: Grouping skills makes them easier to read.
Technical Skills (Hard Skills): List specific software, programming languages, and tools. (e.g., Programming Languages: Python, Java, SQL; Software: Adobe Creative Suite, Salesforce, Microsoft Excel (Advanced)).
Soft Skills (Interpersonal): List 5-7 key interpersonal skills that are relevant to the job description. (e.g., Communication, Team Leadership, Problem-Solving, Time Management, Adaptability).
Current Trend: Don't just list soft skills. Prove them in your Work Experience bullet points. For example, instead of just listing "Communication," have a bullet point that says, "Presented complex data findings to C-level executives, influencing a key strategic pivot."
The Objective Statement ("Seeking a challenging role...") is obsolete because it focuses on what you want. The Professional Summary is its modern replacement, focusing on the value you bring to the employer.
Purpose: A 3-4 sentence paragraph at the top of your resume that summarizes your experience, key skills, and biggest achievements. It must be tailored for every job application.
Formula:
[Adjective] and [X-year] [Your Job Title]... (e.g., "Detail-oriented and metrics-driven Marketing Manager with 8 years of experience...")
...with expertise in [Key Skill 1], [Key Skill 2], and [Key Skill 3]. (e.g., "...with expertise in digital campaign strategy, SEO/SEM, and B2B lead generation.")
Proven track record of [Key Quantifiable Achievement]. (e.g., "Proven track record of launching email campaigns that increased qualified leads by 40% year-over-year.")
(Optional) Seeking to leverage [Your Skills] to [Achieve a Specific Goal for the Company]. (e.g., "Seeking to leverage expertise in market analysis to drive brand growth and user acquisition at [Company Name].")
A "one-size-fits-all" resume is ineffective. You must tailor your resume for each specific job description.
Create a "Master Resume": This is a private document (it can be 3, 4, or 5+ pages) that lists all your jobs, skills, projects, and achievements.
Analyze the Job Description: Read the job posting and highlight the key skills, qualifications, and responsibilities. These are your keywords.
Duplicate and Edit: Make a copy of your master resume.
Update Your Summary: Rewrite your Professional Summary to mirror the language in the job description and highlight your most relevant qualifications.
Filter Bullet Points: Go through your Work Experience and keep only the bullet points that are most relevant to the target role. Delete or shorten the rest.
Prioritize Bullets: For each job, move the most relevant achievement bullet point to the top of that job's list.
Inject Keywords: Naturally integrate the keywords you identified from the job description into your summary and experience bullet points (without "keyword stuffing").
Trim to Length: Ensure the final, tailored resume is one page (or two, if you meet the experience criteria).
Typos and Grammatical Errors: This is the #1 most common and most damaging mistake. Proofread multiple times.
Passive Language: Using phrases like "Responsible for..." or "Duties included...". Use action verbs instead.
Inconsistent Formatting: Using different font sizes, bullet styles, or date formats.
"References Available Upon Request": This is assumed and wastes valuable space.
Personal Information: Do not include a photo, age, marital status, religion, or full home address.
Outdated Experience: In most cases, remove jobs from more than 15 years ago unless they are highly relevant.
Generic File Name: Don't save your file as resume.pdf. Use a professional name like YourName_Resume.pdf or YourName_Software_Engineer_Resume.pdf.
Cliché Buzzwords: Avoid empty phrases like "team player," "go-getter," or "thinks outside the box." Show these traits with your achievements, don't just state them.