9 Crucial Elements for Your Resume

When you’re in the job market and applying for jobs, your resume is often the first impression an employer has of you – it’s a key document they use to determine if you’re a potential fit for their organization. As such, you want to ensure it turns heads and lands you in the “yes” pile to move forward in the application and interview process. 

Since your resume is such an important tool in your job search process, it’s understandable that many get nervous and worry whether their resume is up to par and meets the proper standards necessary.

• Does it include the right sections? 

• The right type of information? 

• What are the necessary elements and things to put on a resume?

In this post, we cover 9 crucial elements for your resume. You’ll learn where and how to incorporate the following:

You’ll also find out about additional things to consider about writing your resume, including resume formatting, font type and size, margins, and line spacing. 

So, what are some of the necessary things to put on a resume? Read on to find out. 

Top 9 things to put on a resume

Let’s take a look at nine vital things to put on a resume. 

1. Contact information

Yes, it goes without saying that you need to let the recruiting team know who you are and how to contact you if they’re interested in your resume. However, you want to ensure you align with standard practices.

The header section of your resume should include the following contact details following your first and last name:

• Phone number: Include your cell phone number so you don’t miss out on a prospective employer reaching out to you. Check and make sure your voicemail is professional when you’re in the market for a new job. 
  

• Email address: Your email address should follow your phone number. Use a professional email address vs. one that comes across as unprofessional. In other words, alwayshasfun@email.com doesn’t have a place on your resume! Instead, go with a combination of your first and last name for your email address. For example:

• Location address: The address information to include on your resume is your city, state, and zip code. Don’t share your full address with the street number and name, as It’s considered too much information to do so. 
  

• Professional or LinkedIn URL: If you have a LinkedIn profile that is current and up-to-date, include your LinkedIn URL on your resume. In place of your LinkedIn URL, you might choose to include the URL to your professional website or portfolio.

Here are a few things not to include with your contact information:

• Age or birthday

• Marital status

• Gender

• A photograph unless you’re specifically asked for it

Including personal details, like age or birthday, is a turn-off and puts employers in countries with tight anti-discrimination laws at risk for discrimination claims. Photos do the same thing. Therefore, when employers receive resumes with this type of info or with photos, they often immediately go in the trash. 

2. Resume title 

Just below your contact information, you need to include a resume title or a headline. A title indicates the type of position are seeking and mirrors the job description. It’s a good idea to include a skill that you have that also matches a keyword in the job description. When you do this, you elevate the resume title to a resume headline. 

Here are a few resume title examples:

3. Professional summary

Your professional summary, also referred to as a resume summary, is a vital part of your resume. It summarizes your key accomplishments and skills that are most relevant to the position you’re applying for in three to five concise statements. The goal of a summary is to engage the resume reader so that they want to learn more about you. 

For detailed information on how to write a stand-out resume summary with examples, refer to “30 Resume Summary Examples that Work in 2024.”

4. Core competencies and skills

A core competencies list placed directly below your summary allows hiring managers to quickly see the key skills you have to succeed on the job. In all instances, your core competencies list will include a balance of hard skills and soft skills. 

Hard skills are technical abilities that can be measured and are acquired through education and training. Soft skills are people skills that are difficult to measure and tend to be acquired over time through experience – they're not easily taught. 

You can also include a skills list near the end of your resume. However, to avoid redundancy, you only want to make that choice if you have additional skills to include outside of your core competencies list – like a list of software you’re competent with working on.

For your competencies list, Include 9 to 12 skills – 15 should be the maximum – that relate to the job at hand. 

Here’s an example of a Core Competencies list you might find on an HR professional’s resume:

5. Work experience

If you have any experience under your belt, the Work Experience section of your resume will make up the bulk of it. Here are the key components to include for each position you list:

• Company and location: The name of the company you work at (or worked at) should be listed first, followed by where you were located. 

• Employment dates: Aligned to the right margin on the line with your company name should be the dates you were employed at the company. The only time to include dates on the same line as your job title is if you’re stacking multiple positions within the same company. 

• Job title: After that, and usually on the next line, you should write out your job title. A lot of people will put their job title in bold so it stands out. 

• Key accomplishments: The most important aspect to include for each position are your major achievements and results. Here is where you want to show hiring managers your ability to succeed vs. merely telling them you can. The best way to show vs. tell is to quantify your results with data. For example, if you had the highest level of sales in your department, by how much? If you supported an executive team, how many did you support, and what are the specifics of what did you do to help them achieve results? If you initiated a new employee training program, how many employees did you reach?

Below is an example of a position that might appear in a marketing professional’s Work Experience section. 

6. Education

If you’re an experienced hire, your Education section will follow your Work Experience section. However, suppose you’re a college graduate or entry-level hire with little to no relevant experience to highlight. In that case, your Education section will go before your Work Experience because it’s what’s most relevant to employers in lieu of experience. 

Regardless of where you place it, here are the elements to incorporate in your Education section:

• Type of degree

• Major or minor

• University

• Optional details, like GPA, scholarships, graduation date, and awards

You’ll list your degrees in order from most recent to least recent. The exception to this rule is if you’re changing careers and have a prior degree that’s more relevant than a recent degree. In that case, you’ll list the most relevant degree first. Also, unless your GPA is at least 3.5, don’t include it.

It’s also no longer standard practice to include your conferred date unless you graduated within the last three years, and even then, it’s optional. However, if your graduation is pending, you’ll want to include your expected completion date to avoid appearing as if you’ve already graduated and are falsifying your resume as a result.

For a deep dive into how to properly incorporate your education on your resume, consider reading “How to List Education on Your Resume (+Examples).”

7. Additional sections

Depending on your unique circumstances, you might opt to include additional sections on your resume. Some options include:

It’s common to include any of the above sections if they help to fill in any skills or experience gaps you might have. For example, a college graduate or entry-level candidate might include some of these sections – particularly Volunteer Experience, Hobbies & Interests, and Extracurricular Activities – in lieu of work experience. 

8. Proper section headings

As you incorporate the above items on your resume, it’s vital that you title each section appropriately. Use standard section headings, like Work Experience and Education, to make it easy for the hiring manager to locate the information they’re seeking. If you try to be creative with your headings, it could confuse people reading your resume as well as applicant tracking systems. 

When an applicant tracking system, or ATS, can’t understand your resume or interpret the information correctly, it could mean your resume gets rejected before it even gets the chance to land in the hands of a human reader. 

9. Keywords

When considering things to put on a resume, don’t forget about keywords. Keywords not only allow you to grab the attention of recruiters and hiring managers but also help you bypass an ATS. An ATS scans your resume for relevancy and having keywords on your resume indicate its relevance. 

To identify what keywords to use, refer to the job description. Highlight any skills, education, knowledge, and experience you have that are listed, and be sure to incorporate those into and throughout your resume.

Additional elements to consider for your resume

Aside from the above essential things to put on a resume, you also want to be sure the aesthetics are there in order to grab the attention of hiring teams. This means being thoughtful in terms of things like:

• Format

• Font

• Margins

• Line spacing

Resume format

There are three key resume formats to choose from:

• Reverse chronological

• Functional

• Hybrid (which is basically a functional and reverse chronological format in one document)

In most instances, a reverse-chronological resume format is preferred. It’s the format that’s most easily read by applicant tracking systems. Also, since it’s the most common format used, it’s the easiest for hiring managers to review and locate the information they need. In a reverse-chronological resume, you’ll list your most recent work experience first and work backward. 

Font type and size

Certain fonts work better for resumes than others. Some good options include Cambria, Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, and Calibri. 

Whatever font you choose, be sure it’s consistent throughout your resume. Regarding font size, 10.5 to 12 points tend to work best for text and 12 to 14 points for titles and headers.

Margins

The margins for your resume should be anywhere from a half inch to an inch all around. An inch all around is sometimes preferable, though a half-inch on the top and bottom and three-quarters of an inch on the sides is acceptable when you’re attempting to maximize resume real estate space. 

Line spacing

A good choice when it comes to line spacing is double spacing after section headings and between each job position you list in the Work Experience section. For text, use between 1.15 and 1.5 point line spacing.

Things to put on a resume: a few final words

Now you know the top 9 crucial elements for your resume and the order in which to include them. Plus, you have some examples of what to include for each section. You also have insights into how to best format and design your resume. By putting the above guidance to use, you’ll be able to craft an interview-winning resume in no time! 

Are you wondering if your resume includes all the right sections and information so you stand out to employers? Why not submit it for a free resume review to find out?

Recommended reading:

• ATS Resume Test: Free ATS Check & Formatting Examples

• Should You Use Color on Your Resume? (+Examples)

• How to List Your MBA on Your Resume in 2024 (+Examples)