Build a strong resume

Step-by-step guidance on how to build a consulting resume from scratch.

Includes templates, common mistakes and free resources and pro tips.

What recruiters want to see

Ten seconds is a pretty short time. And that´s the average time a recruiter spends scanning your resume. That´s assuming there is a human being reading; many tech companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter candidates automatically.

A resume doesn´t get you a job, but it´s the first entry point to the recruitment process. For the initial screening, it´s important to have a top-notch resume.

What they want to see

• Relevant past experience and transferable skills for the position

• Quantifiable impact of past experiences

• Big brand names from past employees and/or Universities

• Structured and attention to detail

• A resume that is easy to scan to quickly find all the elements listed above

The recommendations below are applicable regardless of the specific industry or position you are targeting, as they focus on format, structure, and clarity. That said, we always recommend that you spend some time doing your own research and networking to fully own the recruitment process and understand the specific requirements, especially if you are seeking a technical position.

Where to start

Writing a good resume takes time, and it´s an iterative process. These steps are critical whether you are starting from scratch or improving an existing document

#1: Define your target

Take time to reflect on your career goals and the specific industries, companies and jobs you want to target. Having a clear target makes your resume more focused and convincing.

For example: If you felt energized completing a challenging technical endeavor (like data automation) but found leading data analysts boring, you may want to consider individual contributor roles to keep growing your programming skills.

Also, find and review job descriptions for the type of roles you are seeking. This will help you get familiarized with the scope, responsibilities, skills and keywords that the industry and employees commonly use. This research will help you:

1. Confirm that the targeted roles align with your interests

2. Allow you to see trends in employees' expectations and offerings

3. Offer key guidance on what parts of your experience to highlight and how to phrase your resume

#2: Write an exhaustive list

Begin by writing an unedited, exhaustive list detailing your complete history (work, education, extracurricular activities, etc.). This process will give you clarity on your unique value — your skills, experiences, knowledge areas, accomplishments, values, passions, and interests.

#3: Create a master resume and customize

1. Write a master resume: Create a comprehensive master resume for your ideal job to use as a base (one or two full pages)

2. Seek feedback: Ask for feedback from friends or peers, and professionals working in the industry so you polish your resume

3. Customize for each application: For each job application, make the necessary customization (more details in the "Structure" section below). To do this efficiently, think critically about which past experience, skills, and expertise are most relevant to the job you want to apply to.

#4: Track your versions

Don´t forget to keep track of your resume versions. A simple spreadsheet can do. It´s important that you know which resume you submitted to which job, so you have it at hand before the interviews.

#5: Balance breadth and depth

There is a trade-off between breadth and depth - that is, how many applications you submit and the quality of these. Our recommendation is to find a balance: avoid mass-sending resumes but also don't invest many hours in customization, as you risk burnout. In the section "Resume customization" below, we give you tips to do it in less than one hour per resume.

Structure

The general structure of a resume is simple, but the order of sections should be strategically chosen based on your background and career goals.

Standard resume sections

Contact info/ personal details

• Full name, email, phone (w/ country code/prefix), and a LinkedIn link

Summary (optional)

• A concise introductory paragraph (3–5 lines). Read more in the next Section

Work Experience

• List all relevant companies/positions in reverse chronological order (latest to first)

• Use 2–4 concise, impactful, and quantifiable bullet points for each position

Education

• Include your degree(s) (Bachelor's, Master's, etc.), specializations, honors (e.g., magna cum laude), and relevant academic achievements (e.g., top 5% of your class, relevant grades/GPA)

• Also list relevant trainings, courses, and certifications

Other Skills

• List technical skills, proficiencies, languages, and any other relevant information

Extracurricular (optional)

• Include relevant volunteering experience, interests, or leadership roles

The order of these sections above is the general recommendation but isn´t set in stone. Think about what suits you best.

• If you have relevant work experience and/or well-known company brands, you want to include Work Experience section before Education

• If you are planning a complete career change and recently completed an MBA to do so, Education should likely go first

Advice for recent graduates

If you are a recent graduate with very limited work experience, you can consider prioritizing Education by placing it first. Also, make a strong effort to include:

• All relevant extracurricular activities

• Personal projects you’ve worked on

• Volunteering and leadership roles

• Trainings and courses (even if there is no certification or diploma)

Don't have much of that yet? Proactively work towards gaining skills and experiences that will be useful for your future job.

Drafting the content

Personal Info

• Use a larger font for your name to make it stand out

• Don't insert your headshot, age or date of birth, marital status or gender unless specifically requested by the firm

• Use a neutral, professional email address

• Do not include your full home address– this may cause data privacy issues. Your general region/ country is enough (e.g., "New York, NY" or "Santiago, Chile")

• No need to label each item (e.g “email:”, “tel:”, etc.) since these are obvious

Summary (optional) 

Most people don´t need a summary if their qualifying experience is clearly presented and easily understood. It should be a ‘no-brainer’ within seconds of reviewing a resume that the person is qualified for the role.

It´s usually a good idea to include a summary if:

1. You are a career changer and need to highlight transferable skills that are relevant to the new position

2. The role highlights a specific area of your expertise that sets you apart from other applicants

3. You have many years of experience aligned with leadership levels (+15 years)

4. You have very limited experience (<1-2 years) and want to explain what motivates you and what your career objective is

A well-written summary is a fast way to give the recruiter a sense of who you are, and it helps communicate your goals in a straightforward way.

Summary Types and Best Practices

Generally, there are two types of summaries.

• Content synthesis: Focused on synthetizing the content of the resume - best for experienced professionals

• Career objective: Focused on your career objectives - best for career changes or people with limited experience

If you think your resume would benefit from a summary, keep these points in mind:

• Think about what you're looking for in your next role before writing your summary section on your resume. This helps you focus on key skills and expertise for the job you want.

  
  

  For instance: If an editor wants to become a senior editor, they should focus their summary on explaining their leadership potential and ability to guide junior writers

  
  

• Research your industry and key trends to understand what employers value. Read job descriptions for related positions to see what skills and experiences are sought after in your industry

  
  

• Write your summary in a concise way (3-5 sentences) and avoid generic terms

  
  

• Show, don´t tell - don't include adjectives such as “Critical thinker” or “Good communicator”. They can sound cliché and give no context or details

Summary Type	Example (Bad/Generic)	Example (Better/Specific)
Synthesis	Computer programmer with solid technical knowledge and experience.	Computer programmer with over 10 years of experience. Proficient in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with a focus on single-page applications.
Objective	Professional with a strong background in operations. Proactive, problem-solver, and good at leading teams. Looking for new opportunities.	Sr. Operations Manager with +15 years of experience leading cross-functional teams, overseeing +150 app features implementations in X and Y markets. Seeking to grow responsibilities by [Specific Goal, e.g., leading a global expansion].

Work experience

The Work Experience section is often the most important part of your resume. Generally, you should list all the jobs and companies that are relevant to the positions and companies you are applying to. There is no need to tell that you were a summer camp teacher 10 years ago.

List positions in reverse chronological order, placing the most recent employment at the top.

Formatting and Organization

• When allocating resume space to each job or role, proportion them roughly based on the length of your tenure. Also, you may want to expand on the details of your latest job if it is more relevant to the position you are applying for

• If you have worked for a long time at one employer, but held several positions, it may be helpful to separate the roles or projects into separate entries. This way, it´s more structured and demonstrates varied experiences (even within the same org)

• Include the name of the position you held and the employer, as well as the location (city or country) and dates in the headline (ideally in bold/larger size, so it is easier for the reader to scan)

• Unless your company is very recognizable by name, you may want to include a little blurb about what they do (for ex. "Premier professional development association for engineers") (optional)

Writing strong job descriptions

Writing a resume isn´t about listing tasks. Strive to show impact rather than mere responsibilities. Readers want to see evidence of how your work has made an impact, so keep bullets tight and focused on data-driven results as much as possible.

Key considerations for bullet points:

• First think what expertise and skills you want to highlight and how you want to portray yourself, zooming in on a few that you think are most important - then write the bullet points. This helps you avoid writing random tasks

• Try to use three to four bullet points per job, with each bullet point approx. three lines long. This isn´t a strict rule

• Show you have the skills and knowledge, don't just include adjectives such as “Critical thinker” or “Good communicator”. They can sound cliché and give no context or details

• Balance the skills and expertise you demonstrate to cover all the aspects that are relevant to the position. avoid writing three bullet points that all focus on the same single expertise (e.g., operational efficiency) within the same job

• Be specific about your contribution, not what your team accomplished. It’s great that your team created a full-stack application with Vue.js, but if you didn’t touch any of that code, it’s going to come out in your interview

• Focus on the results of what you did and quantify them as much as possible to highlight your tangible contributions you have made (ideally all bullet points should include quantified impact).

  
  

  Example of Specificity:

  • Bad: Responsible for organizing events and panels.

  • Good: Planned and coordinated six panels on public health for audiences of 25–50 undergraduates on a bi-monthly basis.

  
  

• Start each bullet point with an action verb that matches the type of skills a company look for (e.g. "Led", "Designed" or "Presented"). Use past tense for previous positions and present tense for your current position

• Order bullet points by priority since recruiters don´t always read all the content

• Avoid the use of first-person pronouns, i.e. I, me, mine, myself

• Ensure your resume bullets are simple, non-technical and exclude acronyms that are only known by people in your company. It´s better to write "Engagement manager" than "EM", and "North America" than "NAM".

How to write strong bullet points

Use the START Method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to give structure and content to your bullet points (this methodology is also used in behavioral questions; for more detail read here).

Here is an example:

STAR Component	Example
Skill/Expertise	Initiative + Problem-Solving / Operational Efficiency
Situation	Trainees were taking too long to learn the company's data tracking system, delaying readiness by two weeks.
Action	Proactively developed and edited the company’s first comprehensive training manual; successfully presented the proposal to management and revised the curriculum.
Result	Cut the training period in half (two weeks saved); manual was adopted company-wide and is still in use.
FINAL RESUME STATEMENT	Proactively developed the first training manual for the company’s data tracking system, cutting the training period by 50%; manual was subsequently adopted across the organization.

Education

The Education section should be relatively short, especially if you have extensive work experience. That said, it´s important to not just include the Degree and University names; doing so gives a bad impression that you only have that to say about 4-5 years of your life.

These are recommendations to improve this section:

• If you have multiple degrees (e.g.: a BA and an MBA), you should write a subsection for each degree, starting with your highest level of education first (e.g.: your MBA)

• For each degree, include the name of the degree, university, and dates in the headline (full names). You should also describe relevant course content briefly, ideally relevant for the job you want (no more than one line). For example, if you studied Engineering, you may want to mention "Specialization: Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity"

• If you have written a thesis/dissertation, briefly summarize the topic (1-2 lines) in a way that's very easy to understand

• List your grades if they are strong (e.g. GPA or honors) as well as results on other standardized tests you have taken (e.g. SAT, GMAT, etc.)

• Detail all the awards and scholarships you have received, and most importantly how competitive they were (e.g. 2 awards for a class of 1,000 students)

• List all the relevant courses and trainings with year and a short description, even if they were given by your employer and you don´t have a formal diploma or certificate. If your list is too long, select the ones that are most important for the job or company you are targeting

• Self-education is particularly helpful if you’re switching sectors and want to share what and how you’re learning, whether it’s a summary of your reading list or an in-depth mentorship relationship you’ve had with someone in the field

  
  

Other Skills

This section is focused on technical skills that are not covered in the Education section. Make sure you group skills by category such as:

Skill Category	Examples
Languages	Be specific about your knowledge level (e.g., Native, Fluent, Conversational). Do not exaggerate.
Project Management	PMI, Scrum, Agile Methodologies
Product Management	Product roadmap, UX design, Product lifecycle management
Programming/Coding	C/C++, Python, R, SQL
Software Development	Algorithms, Data structures, Data science frameworks
Design Software	HTML/CSS, Photoshop, InDesign, Figma
Marketing	Social media management, Copywriting, Google Analytics, SEO/SEM
Information Technology	Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), System & server administration
Big Data	Data mining/analysis, ETL processes, NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra)

Read a more detailed list of skills here.

For each language, you should specify your level of proficiency. For the technical skills, you can also specify your level (experienced or expert).

Avoid including productivity software such as Salesforce, Google Suits or Teams since most people know them (not a differentiator).

Additional Information (optional)

This section is more flexible and optional. Keep it short, include things that are directly or indirectly relevant to the position, and emphasize depth over breadth (for example, it´s better to include one leadership role in an NGO than being a passive member of three groups).

Here are a few examples of what you can include:

Category	Examples
Side Ventures	Do not just mention the business type; include measurable achievements (e.g., MVP launched, X amount in sales, Y customers served).
Volunteering/Leadership	Student mentor on Y topic; Treasurer of the Student Investment Fund.
Personal Projects	Own website or blog about industry trends; GitHub repositories, open-source contributions, or freelance work (especially for tech profiles).
Awards/Achievements	Writing awards, sports achievements (e.g., marathon runner).

Including interests (optional)

There are mixed feelings about including personal interests.

The positive side: Interests can help the recruiter remember you and give the interviewer something to connect with you on, making you more than just a faceless resume. Cool samples include, for example, having a niche side business (e.g., a Christmas socks company), 10 years of experience in rock climbing, running 15 marathons in 5 cities, or experience traveling across all five continents.

The risk: Human beings are often prejudiced, and it is difficult to anticipate what they will read between lines. For example, including "Reggaeton band member" might excite one recruiter, but associate you with a lack of professionalism for another. Be careful to not include controversial interest (use your common sense). Also, avoid including generic interests such as sports, book reading and nature because they don´t add much value.

Polishing the design

How nice should a resume look?

There is no straightforward answer. Generally, a nice-looking resume that uses a modern template (check here for some samples) can help you stand out and reinforce the idea that you have attention to detail and are willing to give the extra mile. However, what "nice-looking" looks is subjective, and sometimes, candidates sacrifice content quality to fit into these templates. Also, many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that automatically scan and extract content, and a complex or unconventional design can end up interfering with this process.

Consider the option of a nicer template when you have the opportunity to send the PDF directly to a human recruiter. Use a standard, clean format when applying through the system or web portal. Ensure you don´t sacrifice content for format.

Even if you use a standard format, you can still find small ways of personalizing it if this is important to represent you. For example:

• You may want to include a small logo image of the company next to the name

• You could highlight each bold section with a color (same color, not loud or difficult to read)

• You might include small icons next to each section (a book next to the education section)

  
  

Some coaching platforms do not recommend this sort of things, but it is important that the resume feels authentic to you (always following common sense).

General Formatting and Style Guidelines:

• Make the content concise to fit into one page. If you have more than 10-15 years of experience, you may want to use two pages

• Use action driven bullet points rather than paragraphs in the resume

• Remove industry jargon that are likely to not be known; avoid using full sentences and narrative style

• Avoid contractions, abbreviations, and slang

• Use action verbs rather than passive language

• Avoid making it visually cluttered: be aware of white space, and make the document concise and quickly readable

• Choose a professional-looking font: Size 10-12, black and white. Arial, Calibri, and other plain sans serif or serif fonts are fine

• Use clear headings and subheadings and bold the main headings. Include relevant section dividers or lines to make the layout more visual

• Use margins of 0.5 to 1 inch

• Use bold, italics, bullets in moderation; if everything is bold, nothing stands out

• Try scanning your resume in 10 seconds. What are the parts that stand out most? You may want to ask someone else to do the same exercise. If the answer isn't the right one, you need to keep working on your resume

• Read aloud and review for clarity and conciseness; this will help you realize when sentences are too long or use unnecessary words

• Include your name and date in your resume file name (e.g. "20251128_John_Doe_Resume.pdf").

• Submit your resume as a PDF file; Word files can be displayed differently depending on the user´s processor and settings

  
  

Customizing your resume versions

The job market is becoming increasingly competitive and fast-paced. Applying to one job on LinkedIn, for example, often takes a few seconds. That means that employes are receiving more applications today than they did in the past.

Successful job seekers are those who take the time to understand the company and the role and are able to customize their resume to the specific position. Although it may sound like a lot of work, it´s actually not that time consuming. The most time-consuming part is developing the master resume for the very first time.

Master version

When creating your master resume, keep the following strategies in mind:

• Think about your ideal job when developing the master version so it has a clear career target

• Write unlimited bullet points (in order of priority) covering all relevant accomplishments under a job. This will help you with customization later, as you can select the bullet points that are most relevant to the job you are applying for

  
  

  Example of Prioritization: If you prioritize jobs that focus more on project management and performance tracking, you would include (or rank first) Bullet 1. If you want to focus more on product management, you would focus on Bullet 2.

• Position X, Company Y

  • Bullet 1 (Project Management): Proactively designed and implemented a new automatic data tracking system using Y tool, which led to a 20% reduction in sales review pre-work for the Sales team (12 people).

  • Bullet 2 (Product Management): Led and supervised the team (6) in charge of developing the product roadmap for all the Latin American region; achieved 80% [Specific Goal].

  
  

Customization

The recruiter won´t connect the dots between your skills and experiences and the role´s needs if you don´t customize your resume. You have to do the work for them.

• Do research on the company, the role, and the team as well as the job description keywords. Many people focus too narrowly on the job title of the job description. Recruiters know when a resume is generic (i.e. compilation of jobs and tasks) vs when it´s truly targeting the role they posted. Don´t make the mistake of summarizing all the tasks done in all your past jobs

• Tweak the summary to be more focused or more specific, depending on the opportunity (if you have one)

• Give priority to accomplishments that align with the role´s requirements

• For all the sections, and especially for the Work Experience, review your master version to see if there is any other relevant accomplishment that should be in the tailored version

Resume samples

IGotAnoffer offers good sample resumes for non-tech profiles, engineering managers and other tech profiles targeting tech companies. Below we also show a sample resume of a tech profile.

Artificial Intelligence

AI and tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini can be helpful. But they are just that — tools. You need to be the writer and owner of your resume. AI-generated files often look and sound the same, making it unlikely that they will stand out from the rest. Some companies are even tossing applications that noticeably rely on AI.

Some ways in which you can leverage them include:

Master version

• Proofreading

• Optimizing wording and keywords

• Suggesting format improvements

Customized version

• Suggesting how to tailor your resume to a job description (note: you need to do the critical thinking and ideally the writing)

• Finding skills gaps for a role

  Ask it to act as a recruiter generating a strong resume for the following job (past description) and compare your resume against the one AI gave you. Note any missing information from your resume for the particular job and, if applicable, address it before submitting.

LinkedIn

You may wonder...

"What am I supposed to do if I have different resume versions for different jobs, but only one LinkedIn profile?

The answer is simple. Resumes and LinkedIn profiles are complementary and have different purposes.

Resumes speak directly to a specific position; you want to be as specific as possible about your accomplishments

LinkedIn is more general, has a more flexible structure and helps you build your personal brand (if used correctly). It should be general enough to avoid any inconsistency with the different resume versions you submit to different companies. For example, for work experience, we don´t recommend using the STAR method because it creates very specific, detailed statements. Instead, keep your profile more general to appeal to a broad audience.

It is important that you maintain consistency between your LinkedIn and your resumes by:

• Avoiding a LinkedIn profile summary unless you can find a good balance between not being very specific (it won´t match all your applications), and not being too generic (it ends up sounding dull)

• Including the same job titles and dates

• Having consistent job descriptions to ensure the same high-level message (you don´t want to position yourself as having a lot of expertise in operations in your resume and product design on your LinkedIn)

• Ensuring consistent skills - on LinkedIn, add a broader (more generic) range of skills that reflect your overall professional experience, and make sure these skills also match the ones on your resume

• Reviewing both regularly and ensuring they are consistent and up to date

Networking

Now that you have put together the first version of your resume, your next step is to seek feedback to improve it.

Seeking targeted feedback

If you know someone working in the sort of jobs or at the types of companies you are targeting, don’t hesitate to reach out to them to get their thoughts. If not, you can also reach out to people on LinkedIn. Read here for more detail.

Asking for feedback from peers is also valuable. They'll be able to cast a fresh eye on your resume and flag any typos, inconsistencies, or sentences that they find difficult to understand. 

Broader networking

Networking isn´t only helpful for getting the resume reviewed. Think about networking more broadly. By engaging with online tech communities, attending conferences, and connecting with other professionals, you will understand more about the dynamics of the tech world, the latest trends and what it takes to get in.

• Which companies are the pickiest?

• What does the culture look like inside Google?

• What skills does Amazon look for in a product manager?

  
  

The more you know about a company, the better your application will be.

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