What should actually go on a resume?
Accomplishments, not duties. Responsible for managing social media describes the chair you sat in; grew organic reach 40 percent in six months describes why anyone should hire you. Every bullet should answer what changed because you were there, with a number wherever one exists: revenue, time saved, error rates, team size, budget.
Structure: contact info, a skills line, then reverse-chronological experience, then education. Length follows experience, one page for early career, two pages earned after a decade. Tailor the top third to each posting by mirroring its actual keywords, since both software filters and skimming recruiters search for them, and recruiters famously spend well under a minute on the first pass.
Leave off: photos, full addresses, objective statements, references available upon request, and graduation years that only serve to date you. And send a PDF unless the posting demands otherwise, because formatting that survives is formatting that gets read.
Accomplishments with numbers, not duties: what changed because you were there. One page per decade of experience, keywords matched to the posting, and no photo, objective, or references line.
- SHRM hiring research
- Ladders recruiter eye-tracking study
Published . Last reviewed . We correct errors and note the change.
Cite this page
https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/what-to-put-on-a-resume/Everybody Asks. (2026, July 28). What should actually go on a resume? https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/what-to-put-on-a-resume/“What should actually go on a resume?” Everybody Asks, 28 July 2026, https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/what-to-put-on-a-resume/.“What should actually go on a resume?” Everybody Asks. Last modified July 28, 2026. https://frequentlyaskedquestions.us/q/what-to-put-on-a-resume/.This page summarizes the primary sources listed above. For academic or encyclopedic work, cite those primary sources directly wherever possible.