Sample Resumes That Work
Simply Hired Staff
We’ve all heard the sage writing advice that you should be able to pitch your story to a potential publisher within a 14-second elevator ride. Well, it turns out that selling your personal story is much the same. Instead of a verbal description, however, candidates pitch their expertise and skills through the use of a professional, well-drafted resume.
Your first and best chance at landing the in-person interview, a well-formated, brief and appropriately tailored resume can make or break your career chances. Describing the qualities of a winning resume is one thing, but showing you is another. Here we break down sample resumes that work to get you working!
Resumes for New Graduates
One of the biggest resume hurdles for new graduates is the lack of real-world experience. Just because you don’t have a ten-year career in your chosen field, though, doesn’t mean your resume can’t be chock full of useful info.
For entry level or recent grad resumes, consider leading off with a brief 2-3 sentence description of your personality, skills, and career goals. This will help fill up a little space that may otherwise be lacking. Be sure to include education and school accolades that may be relevant such as speaking or writing awards. Finally, those high school or college internships may not have paid but they can pay off for relevant experience. Check out this example of a perfectly crafted new graduate resume for inspiration in crafting your own cv.
Resumes for Early Careers
Your early career resume may closely resemble that of a recent grad with the addition of a bit of relevant job experience. With this in mind, your initial summary should be shortened to a sentence or two in order to accommodate relevant job positions.
Since you’re further out of your school days, move this section towards the middle or the end of the resume, after the current and past work history. If you’ve gained any advanced certifications in your prior roles, be sure to list those to beef up your relevant credentials. Need some more inspiration? Check out this sample resume, perfect for those just starting out.
Resumes for the Mid-Career
Mid-career is definitely the sweet-spot when it comes to a candidate’s hire-ability. At this stage, you most likely have several years, and possibly even positions, worth of job experience and relevant skills. Highlight this information front and center, pulling out the most critical details that match up with the given job description.
Mid-career resumes should consider ditching that GPA or any education level awards. Absent graduation honors such as cum laude or magna cum laude, a list of your relevant schools and degrees obtained will be sufficient for this field. If you have plenty of experience, feel free to branch out into the two-page territory as well, like this candidate did. Often a no-no for newly minted grads, mid-career level positions may need an additional listing of relevant positions to prevent your bonafides.
Resumes for the Late-Career
If you’ve managed to work your entire career towards that senior management level position, congrats. You’re in the golden land of opportunities. With this much relevant job experience under your belt, late-career applicants should expect their resumes to be two-three pages in length with detailed descriptions of prior managerial experience.
Consider including a cover letter with your resume submission, even if the position doesn’t require one. Much like an entry-level resume, this bookend version later in your career should have plenty of descriptions of you as a candidate in order to perfectly spell out just what you bring to the job-experience table. Look no further for a late-career example than right here.
Whatever your career stage, remember to have several friends or professional colleagues give your CV the once over, prior to sending the show on the road. Use our examples, or others you may find, to tailor your resume to not only the position but also your career level. Taking these steps will score you big points and put you that much closer to landing the job.
Article Updated from the Original on December 11th, 2017
