After I had spent a whole $3.99 on a cute Etsy resume template, my friends told me that my resume pretty much sucked. I had spent weeks on that resume. WEEKS! And for what? For someone to tell me that it was terrible and wouldn’t land me any interviews?

My friends listened to my hour-long rant about how resume writing sucks the joy and creativity out of us... but now I understand what makes the basic, bland resume so good.

This experience was a reminder for myself to stay open-minded, because in this case, my friends were right. As soon as I swapped out my resume, I did get a few calls (not a ton, to be fair, but definitely a higher amount than I would’ve).

What’s the big deal with the black-and-white, boring resume?

For one, it makes things easier to read and skim through. Most people that are hiring will “F-pattern read” your resume, so having the boring resume makes it easier for them to glean the most important information quickly. F-pattern reading means that your eyes track along a page in an F-shape, which is a natural way for your eyes to move (teal).

You better not be F-pattern reading this blog, though 🙂

The structure is also important because the first scan of the resume takes seconds. If your resume is messy, it may lead to an immediate no, depending on who is reading it. The basic resume ensures that you’ll get past the first few seconds.

Lastly, this structure is ATS-friendly (i.e. good for Applicant Tracking Systems). If your resume has clear headers and easy-to-digest content, the ATS used by potential employers will be more likely to move your resume along to a human. Some jobs may only have people parsing them, but others may be using an ATS where resumes can be trashed before a person ever looks at them.

Onto the Resume Content!

We’ve discussed why the structure makes a difference. Now, we’ll spend a moment on the actual content.

Summary / Profile

I’ve heard it both ways to include a summary at the top or not. Personally, I don’t, but I’d recommend doing your research. If you do choose to put a summary at the top, make sure that it is WELL-WRITTEN. If the first thing someone sees is poorly written or irrelevant to the position you’re applying for, that’s grounds for your resume getting discarded.

Education

If you’re in school or fresh out, keeping your education at the top is a solid choice. Otherwise, put it at the bottom. Having an education section is important for ATS-friendliness, and it can also display your knowledge and interests. Refer to this resume template for the structure.

Experience

Action Verb + Task/Accomplishment + Measurable Result/Outcome

This is the general format to use for your resume. Don’t list your job responsibilities flat out. Tie them into some sort of accomplishment or quantifiable outcome.

At the very least, quantify the task/accomplishment or the outcome (or both). In the above example, mine lean towards quantifying the task, as I had a difficult time measuring outcome for these jobs. In other jobs (below), I knew what the outcome was.

If you can quantify some sort of outcome, do so. Otherwise, quantify your task/accomplishment.

ALSO, keep in mind that you want these bullet points to be relevant to the position you’re applying for! Take keywords from the job description and sprinkle them throughout the experiences whenever you can.

How do you get to a bullet point like this?

Let’s go through an example.

1. Write down a task that you do.

   1. “I organized the backroom of the building.”

2. Ask yourself the following questions:

   1. How often did I organize the backroom? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

   2. Why did I organize the backroom? To improve efficiency? Ensure safety?

   3. How many people access the backroom on a daily basis? Were their experiences improved because of my organization?

   4. Did I lead the organization or did I assist someone else?

3. After answering:

   1. It may look something like, “Supervised a team of 3+ in monthly backroom organization, consistently upholding safety standards and operational efficiency.”

   2. Or, it may look like, “Increased team efficiency by reducing item retrieval time by 15+ minutes through effective monthly backroom organization.”

4. Make sure it speaks to the position you are applying to. If you’re applying to a leadership position, option a may be better. If the position is results-focused, go with option b. Edit your bullet point as needed. Also, feel free to use gen AI for this piece. I recommend taking a stab at your resume by hand to start off with, but plugging it into Chat to optimize for each position is what I’d do.

5. Repeat for 2-3 bullet points for each experience.

Making this a general process:

1. If you have some tasks/accomplishments you know you want to list, just start by writing it out however you would explain it out loud.

2. Ask yourself these questions:

   1. How often?

   2. Why did I do this?

   3. What was the outcome of this task? What was the point?

   4. Did I lead or collaborate?

3. Fill in the Action Verb + Task/Accomplishment + Measurable Result/Outcome format with your answers from part 2.

4. Edit as needed to be more relevant to the job you are applying to. Note that completing your entire resume first, then tailoring per position, is probably the best way to go about it.

5. Repeat 😊 

And that’s pretty much it! Once you’ve got the experience section done, the hardest part is over.

Skills

Mixed reviews on putting soft skills in your resume. I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t. Rather, showcase your soft skills (like communication, teamwork, leadership, etc.) in your experiences. Show, don’t tell.

If you have technical skills that are relevant to the position you’re applying to, put those in the skills section. I put “Proficient” and “Familiar” skills in this area. Why? So I can seem like I know more than I probably do… Just kidding! Maybe… Seriously, though, only put things that you can actually do here. If you’ve used some tech one time years ago, it probably shouldn’t go on your resume.

Certifications

If you have ‘em, put ‘em in ‘ere.

Final Notes

• Your resume is for hyping yourself up! You’re doing things, and people should know!

• Your resume is not for flat-out lying… I’m all for reasonable stretching, but not for making things up.

• Your resume can get you in the door, and your interview gets you the job. Having an organized, easy-to-understand (a.k.a. boring) resume can help get you to the next step in the process.

• Your resume isn’t everything. Leverage your connections for a referral, if it makes sense.

• Your resume should be approached with an open-mind (unlike me when I had to redo it).

• Your resume DOES NOT DEFINE YOU. You aren’t just your jobs and work experiences. Don’t compare your experiences to others either!

And as for my usual tie back to “slowing life down,” I’ll make this note: While building your resume may not slow life down directly, having a job that you enjoy certainly can.

At the end of the day, a job is a job. But looking forward to going to work (more often than not) can improve your well-being. And improving your well-being can lead to appreciating more in life (which is one of my definitions of slowing life down).

Also, it’s worth noting here that money is money. It’s not everything, but it can certainly improve your quality of life, which, again, can slow life down.

Long story short: Boring resume = Slow life

If you didn’t catch it in the other twenty million spots I put it: COPY MY BORING RESUME TEMPLATE HERE

Good luck on your resume creation and job hunting (unfortunately, you’ll need the luck when it comes to this job market)! Feel free to reach out and say [email protected] if you have any thoughts or questions.

Next week, I’ll be covering some of my favorite things to do in Autumn (my favorite season… and not just because my birthday is in September 😊).

Here’s my disclaimer: I’m not a resume-writing professional. My tips are based on articles I’ve read, videos I’ve watched, the opinions of others, and my own experiences. I would recommend doing some of your own research, as preferred resumes may vary by industry and location. But my template is a great place to start (if I do say so myself — and I do 😗).