Guide
What to Include in a Resume (Section by Section)
Recruiters read hundreds of resumes and expect a predictable structure; a resume that hides standard information in an unusual layout costs you before the content is even judged. A strong resume has five core sections in a familiar order, each earning its space. The point isn't to include everything you've ever done, but to include the right things in the places a reader (and an ATS parser) expects to find them, and to leave off the lines that only take up room.
Contact information
At the top: your name, a phone number, a professional email address, your city and state (full street address is no longer expected and can invite bias), and links that matter for your field, such as LinkedIn, a portfolio, or GitHub. Leave off a photo, date of birth, and marital status in the US and UK; they add nothing and can create legal and bias problems for the employer.
Professional summary
Two or three lines directly under your contact info that state who you are and your single strongest piece of evidence: “Data analyst with 3 years turning operational data into decisions; built the pricing dashboard a merchandising team now checks daily.” It replaces the outdated objective statement and is the one section worth rewriting for each application to point at the specific role.
Work experience
The core of the resume, in reverse-chronological order. For each role list the company, your title, and the dates, then three to six bullet points that each pair an action with an outcome (“Rebuilt the checkout service, cutting p95 latency from 800ms to 210ms”) rather than restating duties. This is where quantified results do the most work, so give your most relevant roles the most space.
Skills
A dedicated section listing the hard skills and tools relevant to the target role, named exactly as postings phrase them. Keep it to genuine, screenable skills (languages, software, methods) rather than generic traits like “hard-working.” Even when these tools also appear in your bullets, a separate skills section acts as a safety net for ATS keyword search, which scans it reliably.
Education and certifications
Your degree, institution, and graduation year (drop the year once it's more than roughly ten years back), plus any certifications relevant to the role. New graduates can place education above work experience and add relevant coursework; once you have a few years of work history, this section moves below experience and shrinks to the essentials.
What to leave off
Cut the objective statement, “References available on request” (assumed), the references themselves (provide when asked), personal data like age or marital status, and hobbies unless they're directly relevant to the job. Every line you remove that wasn't helping makes the lines that matter easier to find in a ten-second skim.
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