This is the sixth in a series on how to become a writer.
If you are going to apply to writing jobs, you need a good writing resume. As someone who has been a professional resume writer for 8 years and has a background in the hiring business, I am here to give you advice! Some resume advice you don’t have to pay $200 for.
Formatting Your Resume
Your resume not only needs to pass a digital scan to be seen by an employer (an ATS), but it also needs to look good to be read by a human. It needs to be reader-friendly. Your information needs to be easy to see. Here’s a good guideline to follow:
- Keep your front at 10-11
- No heavy graphics, photos, or charts
- Color is your friend!
- Keep it at 1-2 pages for ease of reading
- Evenly space out each section to make it easy to find information
Here is a sample resume I built for this.
Your “About” Section
This is the top section of your resume. You will have a header with your resume title. This typically is the job you have right now, but you can also make it vague to target the job you want. For example, if our sample resume didn’t want to be a Content Writer anymore, they could just put “Professional Writer”.
Your opening paragraph follows. This is an overview of your skillset and career history. Here are top tips to keep in mind:
- Never use personal pronouns
- Keep it at 3-6 lines
- Summarize your skillset without going into great detail
Your “Areas of Expertise” Section
This section includes keywords about your job. This is an extremely useful section because it will help your resume pass a digital scan. You can format it anyway you want, but I like the clean look of these bullet points.
If you’re at a loss of what skills to put down, it helps to look at job postings. What skills are they asking for? Do you have those? Here are some tips for this section:
- More is not better. Keep it straight to the point.
- 1-3 words is best for each bullet so long as it doesn’t feel wordy and crowded
- Make sure what you put down can be backed up by your career history section
How to Write a Good Career History
Writing a good job history is an art form. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the details of what you did that you write a job history that is too much for anyone to read. I like to split up each job history into a paragraph and a bullet point list. The paragraph is for daily duties. The bullet points are to highlight your achievements. If you go with only a paragraph, don’t make it too long. And if you go with only bullet points, don’t go over 7. Remember a person is supposed to be able to scan this quickly!
- Keep your paragraph between 3-6 lines.
- No more than 7 bullet points, and 3-5 is ideal.
- Describe what you did at your job and how it impacted the business
- Lost on what to include? Think about projects you were a part of, committees or task forces you helped with, new ideas you helped bring to life, and big business moments you were a part of.
Misc Content
You have the option to add a few more sections on your resume depending on your background and what you want to talk about. Here are best practices for that.
- Education: List your degrees, certifications, or trainings. But don’t list your high school.
- Activities & Interests: This humanizes you and adds some personality. But don’t include anything that could offend your potential boss. Religious activities, political activism, or activities like hunting, recreational marijuana, or running a prank video YouTube channel might not go over well. Some things you don’t mix your business life with.
- Technologies: It never hurts to list the software you use, especially if knowledge of certain software is essential to your industry.
- Volunteering: This is also a nice section to have, but keep it simple. It shouldn’t overshadow your work experience. Just listing the organization and what you did is enough. (Example: Fundraiser for a local food bank).
- Affiliations: If you are a member of any professional organizations, list them in their own section.
