How to Start a Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Do not start by typing the resume. Start by collecting raw material: every job, internship, class project, volunteer role, club position, certification and piece of software you have used, with month and year dates. A rough list in a notes app is enough.

Next, open two or three real job postings for the role you want and highlight the skills, tools and credentials they repeat. That list decides what goes near the top of your resume. Only then pick a layout: one column with standard headings such as Experience, Education and Skills is the easiest for both people and applicant tracking systems to read.

The header. Put your name on the first line in a larger, bold font, then one line of contact details. Harvard's career office lists missing email and phone information among the top resume mistakes, and MIT's career office says the header needs at least an email address and a phone number.

For U.S. jobs, leave out a photo, your age or gender and your full street address; Harvard's guide lists photos, age and gender among the things to leave off. City and state are enough to show you are local. Under your name you can add a headline, a job title that matches the posting, such as "Certified Nursing Assistant" or "Junior Accountant".

• Full name, the one you want to be called, in 16 to 20 point type
• Phone number with a plain voicemail greeting
• A simple email such as firstname.lastname@gmail.com
• City and state, without a street address
• LinkedIn URL, customized so it has no random numbers
• Portfolio, GitHub or demo reel link for creative and technical roles

Use one or the other, not both. Ohio State's Engineering Career Services describes an objective as a statement of no more than two lines and a summary as four to five sentences about past accomplishments, and says summaries work best when you have quite a bit of previous experience.

In practice: students, beginners and career changers write a one- or two-line objective naming the job and what they bring. With a few years of relevant work, write a short summary with your title, years of experience, two or three strengths and one result. If you cannot write anything specific yet, skip both; a line like "Seeking a challenging role with growth opportunities" wastes the most-read space on the page.

The one that best proves you can do the job. Harvard's guide says to list headings in order of importance and to put entries within each heading in reverse chronological order, most recent first. For most working adults that puts Experience first. For high school students, college students and recent graduates, Education usually leads because it is their strongest material.

Licensed and certified fields bend the usual order. A new nursing assistant, pharmacy technician or EMT can put a short "Licenses and certifications" line directly under the objective so the screener sees the credential before anything else. The table below shows common starting points by situation.

Start with your most recent or most relevant role and aim for three to five bullets. Each bullet begins with an action verb, says what you did, and adds a number where you have one: customers per shift, tickets per week, patients, students, dollars or items.

Drop "I" and "my"; Harvard's guide lists personal pronouns under things not to do. Avoid copying duties from a job description. "Responsible for opening the store" tells the reader what the job was, while "Opened the store alone on Saturdays and balanced two registers" tells them what you did in it.

A beginner resume follows the same order but fills the page with education, projects, volunteer work, clubs and informal jobs instead of a long work history. MIT's career office tells first-year students that "experience is a broad term" and suggests headings such as Projects or Leadership Experience.

For beginner skills, list concrete ones a manager can check: cash handling, a point-of-sale system, Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, a typing speed you have tested, a second language with your level, a CPR card. Show soft skills such as teamwork inside a bullet rather than in the skills list, which MIT recommends as well.

Acting. An acting resume has its own format. A Brigham Young University career handout says it should be one page that fits on the back of an 8x10 headshot, starting with a header (name, contact information, physical description and union affiliations) followed by Experience, Training and Skills. Beginners list school plays, community theater and student films with the role, the production and the theater or director.

CNA. The BLS says nursing assistants often need a state-approved education program and a state competency exam, and that they must be on the state registry to work in a nursing home. Put your certification and registry status right under your name or objective, then your clinical training: the facility, the unit type and the hours.

Dental assistant. Requirements depend on the state. The BLS notes that some states require graduation from an accredited program and an exam, while in others assistants learn on the job. Lead with any credential your state requires, then your externship and the chairside procedures you assisted with, then front-office skills such as scheduling and insurance verification.

1. 1

   Pick one target job

   Save two or three postings for one job title and tailor the resume to them.

2. 2

   List your raw material

   Jobs, projects, volunteer roles, clubs, certifications and tools, with dates.

3. 3

   Choose a simple template

   One column, standard headings, 10 to 12 point body text, margins of 0.5 to 1 inch.

4. 4

   Write the header

   Name, phone, email, city and state, one link, and a headline matching the posting.

5. 5

   Draft your strongest section

   Experience or Education first, with three to five action-verb bullets per recent entry.

6. 6

   Write the summary or objective last

   Pull your two or three best points from the bullets into a short opening statement.

7. 7

   Add skills and proofread

   List hard skills from the posting that you really have, read the page out loud, and save it as a PDF named with your name.

Opening statements for fictional applicants at different starting points. Numbers are illustrations.

The same fictional new CNA, written two ways.

• Resume Header: What to Include, Address, Photo and Headline Examples
• Resume Summary Examples and How to Write a Professional Summary
• Resume Objective Examples and How to Write a Career Objective
• How to write a resume
• Entry level resume
• Actor resume

We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.

1. Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success: Create a Strong Resume (headings in order of importance, reverse chronological order, top mistakes, what to leave off)
2. The Ohio State University Engineering Career Services: What's the difference? Objectives, summaries and profiles explained (objective of two lines at most, summary of four to five sentences, choose only one)
3. MIT Career Advising & Professional Development: Enhance your resume: A guide for first-year undergraduates (header contents, experience as a broad term, keep interpersonal skills out of the skills list)
4. Brigham Young University career counseling: Guidelines for an Actor's Resume (one page on the back of an 8x10 headshot, header contents and section order)
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Nursing Assistants and Orderlies: How to Become One (state-approved program, competency exam and state registry for nursing assistants)
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Dental Assistants: How to Become One (state requirements for dental assistants vary)