How to Build a Resume: A Step-by-Step Guide That Gets Read

To build a resume, gather your work history, education and skills, put them into a simple one-column document with standard section headings, and write each experience as short bullet points that start with an action verb and show a result. Then tailor it to each job posting’s keywords, save it as a PDF or DOCX, and proofread it before you send it.

That is the short version. Below is the longer version, based on guidance from university career centers and the U.S. Social Security Administration’s employment program. Hiring practices and software change, so treat this as current as of November 2026.

Before you write: decide what the resume is for

A resume is not a complete record of your life. It is a targeted argument that you fit a specific kind of role. MIT’s Career Advising & Professional Development office frames its resume toolkit around what employers look for and how to tailor a resume to specific applications, and that is the right starting point.

Pick the type of role you are aiming for first. That decision tells you which experience to expand, which to compress and which to leave out.

Step-by-step: building your resume

1. Collect your raw material

Before you open a template, make a “master list” in any document:

1. Every job, internship, volunteer role and major project, with title, organization, location and dates.
2. Your education: school, degree or program, graduation date (or expected date), and relevant honors.
3. Skills: technical tools, languages, certifications and licenses.
4. Concrete results: numbers, outcomes, awards, things you built or improved.

This master list is what you will cut down and tailor for each application.

2. Choose the sections

Most career center guides use a similar set of sections:

Guides differ on section order, so it is a judgment call. The usual rule is to put whatever is most relevant to the job closest to the top.

3. List experience in reverse-chronological order

Start with your current or most recent role and work backward. For each entry, give your title, the organization, location and dates. The MIT Sloan MFin resume requirements and many other university guides use this most-recent-first order.

4. Write bullet points that show results

This is where most resumes win or lose. Career center guides agree on a few rules:

• Start each bullet with an action verb, such as “led,” “built,” “reduced” or “analyzed.” Avoid openers like “Responsibilities include,” which Pepperdine’s career services guide specifically cautions against.
• Focus on accomplishments, not duties. Indiana State’s resume guide tells readers to highlight what they achieved.
• Quantify when you honestly can. Pepperdine’s guide gives the example of citing a percentage cost reduction. Numbers you cannot back up will hurt you in an interview.
• Use the right tense. Several guides say to use present tense for your current role and past tense for earlier ones.

A simple pattern that follows these rules: action verb + what you did + result or scale. For example, “Reorganized the team’s shared drive, cutting the time new hires needed to find onboarding documents” is far more useful than “Responsible for file management.”

5. Tailor it to each posting

Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to collect and filter applications. According to UMSL Career Services, an ATS scores candidates on the quantity and quality of keyword matches. The best source for those keywords is the job posting itself.

To tailor a resume:

1. Read the posting and note the skills, tools and responsibilities it repeats.
2. Where you genuinely have that experience, use the same wording in your skills section and bullets.
3. Reorder bullets so the most relevant ones come first.
4. Cut entries that do not support this application.

Do not add skills you lack. Career services guides explicitly warn against gaming the system this way.

Formatting for people and software

Your resume is read by software first and by a busy person second. Simple formatting serves both.

Keep the layout plain

MIT CAPD’s 2026 resume resources advise keeping layouts simple for ATS and avoiding text boxes, tables, colors and stylized fonts that can make content hard to parse. Other career center checklists also suggest skipping headers and footers, columns, graphics and images. Put your contact details in the main body of the page.

Use standard section labels such as “Work Experience,” “Education,” “Skills” and “Certifications,” which tracking systems are built to recognize.

Length

For students and recent graduates, career centers generally recommend one page. A second page is reasonable only when you have a lot of relevant experience. Even then, cut anything that does not help your case.

File format: PDF or DOCX?

Here the sources disagree a little. The SSA’s Ticket to Work blog recommends saving your resume as a PDF or DOCX. The University of Toronto Mississauga career centre warns that not all ATS can search keywords inside PDFs. The UT Dallas ATS checklist notes that each ATS has different capabilities and you often will not know which one an employer uses.

The practical answer:

• If the employer specifies a format, use it.
• If not, a cleanly formatted DOCX or text-based PDF (exported from a word processor, not a scanned image) is the usual choice.
• Keep both versions ready, as MIT’s UPOP guidelines recommend.

Final checks before you hit send

Run through this list every time:

1. Proofread spelling, grammar and dates. MIT’s UPOP guidelines recommend checking all three.
2. Print it or view it as a PDF to confirm the formatting looks the way you expect.
3. Check consistency in date formats, tense, punctuation and spacing.
4. Confirm the keywords from the posting appear where they truthfully apply.
5. Get a second reader. A career center advisor, mentor or colleague in your field will catch things you have stopped seeing.
6. Name the file clearly, for example with your name and “Resume,” so it is easy to find in a recruiter’s downloads.

Templates and resume builders

You can build a resume in any word processor. Templates are a fine starting point, but many decorative templates use columns, tables, icons or text boxes, which the ATS guidance above says to avoid. If you use a template or an online builder, choose a single-column design and check that the exported file contains selectable text rather than an image.

Students and alumni should also check their school’s career office. Most offer free resume reviews and their own guides, and their advice is usually written with local employers in mind.