PJPRecruitment & HR

Writing / Applications

Resume Structure: What to Keep and What to Cut

A recruiter's first pass over a resume takes seconds. In that time they are answering three questions: what does this person do, are they roughly the right level, and is there an obvious reason to stop reading.

For a related Monitask resource on cognitive offloading, see the reference.

Structure the document to answer those three quickly, and the rest of it gets read.

The order that works

  1. Name and contact details — in the body of the document, not the header
  2. A two-line summary of what you do and at what level
  3. Experience, most recent first
  4. Education
  5. Skills
  6. Anything else that genuinely earns its space

Experience above education, unless you graduated within the last year or two.

The summary

Two lines. What you do, at what level, in what context.

Weak: "Results-driven professional with a passion for excellence seeking a challenging opportunity to leverage my skills."

That describes nobody. It also uses the top of the page — the most valuable space on the document — to say nothing.

Better: "Operations manager, eight years in third-party logistics. Currently running a 40-person distribution site with responsibility for a $6M cost budget."

Adjust the emphasis per application. This is the one section worth rewriting each time.

Experience

For each role: title, employer, location, dates. Month and year.

Then three to six bullets. The most recent role gets the most; roles from ten years ago get one or two lines, or a grouped summary.

Lead with what you did, not what you were responsible for. "Responsible for managing the reporting process" is a job description. "Rebuilt monthly reporting, cutting close from nine days to four" is an achievement.

Use numbers where you have them. Volume, budget, headcount, percentage change, time saved, revenue.

If you have no numbers, use scope and outcome. Not every job produces metrics. "Took over a backlog of 300 open tickets and cleared it within a quarter, then wrote the process that kept it clear" has no percentage in it and is still concrete. See how to describe achievements when you have no numbers.

Never use "we." A resume is about what you did. If it was a team effort, say what your part was.

Skills

A short, honest list. Tools, systems, languages, certifications.

Do not rate yourself on a scale, and do not use progress bars. Nobody agrees what four out of five stars in Excel means, and the graphic does not survive parsing.

Do not list things everyone has. "Microsoft Office" and "email" occupy space and signal nothing.

Length

One page for under roughly ten years of experience. Two pages beyond that, or for technical roles with genuine detail to convey. Three or more only in academia, medicine, or where a specific convention requires it.

Length is not a rule so much as a symptom. A three-page resume for a five-year career usually means every task is listed rather than the achievements that matter.

What to cut

Objective statements. Replaced by the summary.

"References available upon request." Assumed. Wastes a line.

Full postal address. City and state is enough, and increasingly people use just that.

Photo, age, marital status, nationality — in the US these are not conventional, and they can create awkwardness for employers trying to run a compliant process.

Jobs from more than fifteen years ago, unless directly relevant. Summarise them in one line if you want the continuity.

Every duty of every role. Choose the three to six that matter.

Skills bars, personality graphics, decorative icons.

Hobbies, unless genuinely relevant to the role or unusual enough to be memorable for the right reason.

Employment gaps

Do not hide them, and do not over-explain.

Use years rather than months if that presents the timeline more cleanly and remains accurate. If a gap needs a note, one line is enough: "2024 — career break for family caregiving."

Recruiters see gaps constantly. What creates suspicion is an obvious attempt to obscure one — inconsistent date formats, or a functional resume with no dates at all.

Formatting

Single column. Standard fonts. Conventional section headings. Contact details in the body. No tables or text boxes. Text-based PDF unless the application specifies otherwise.

These are parsing requirements as much as design ones. See how ATS systems actually work.

Tailoring

Not a rewrite. Ten minutes per application:

  • Adjust the summary to lead with the most relevant thing
  • Reorder bullets within your recent roles so the relevant ones are first
  • Match terminology where it honestly describes your work
  • Cut a bullet that has nothing to do with this role

That is enough. Applying carefully to ten roles beats blanket-applying to fifty, and the difference is mostly in these ten minutes.

The test

Give your resume to someone who does not know your work. Give them ten seconds. Then ask what you do and at what level.

If they cannot say, the top third of the document is not working — and the top third is the only part most readers reach.

Looking for a role? Browse open positions → For broader reference, consult CareerOneStop.