"The Five Key Resume Elements That Employers Look For"

The sections of a chronological resume usually vary with your experience level, career tenure, or the position you are applying for. The following sections are the most common and essential in most resumes.

1. Header Section

Place your contact information at the top of your resume, including your city, state, LinkedIn profile link, and a professional email address. Make it stand out by using a larger and bolder font in the resume header.

First and last name

City, State

Phone / email / Link (to your LI profile)

2. Resume introduction

The resume introduction, also known as Summary or Highlights, follows the contact information. It should consist of two to three sentences expressing your immediate employment goals and key qualifications. when possible, customize this statement with keywords from the job description.

Professional Summary

Outline relevant experiences, skills, and achievements in one or two sentences.

3. Experience

Best practice for the experience section in your resume is to list your experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position. Highlight the company, location, and tenure on the first line. Include the position title and a brief summary of responsibilities. Use bullet points to list relevant responsibilities and accomplishments with specific details, such as managing people and budgets.

Experience

ABC Company, Chicago, IL                                                 6/20 to Present

Sales Manager, Middle Market

Responsible for new logo sales to medical supplier in the metro Chicago area.

*Managed a team of seven sales executives with a total revenue goal of 10 million.

*Exceeded monthly new SMB sales by 110% in Q1 and Q2 2023.

*Presidents Circle award recipient 2022.

5. Education

In the education section, include the name of the school, the degree obtained, and the year of graduation. Additionally, you might want to list your GPA if it's over 3.5, as well as any pertinent extracurricular activities.

Education

Jack Smith University, BA Economics                                                        9/16 to 6/20

GPA 3.7

Captain of debate team 2019

 4. Skills

Highlight specific skills relevant to the job position you're applying for, such as technical, soft, and computer skills. Use the job listing as a guide to determine the most appropriate skills.

Skills

Proficient Salesforce CRM user.

Skilled in Microsoft Office.

HubSpot administrator.

Optional sections of a resume

Awards/achievements: In this part of your resume, add relevant accomplishments and awards that couldn't fit into the experience section.

Languages: If you are proficient and fluent in over one language, create this section to boost your chances of getting an interview call.

Training, certifications, and licenses: Training, certifications, and licenses help showcase additional skills you may have that may be useful to the position you are applying for.

Hobbies: Many companies want to understand their employees on a personal level. List two to three things you love to do in your leisure time

Since 1999 Group W Partners has been a leading Executive Search firm, connecting today’s talent with tomorrow’s career opportunities.