What to put on a resume.

The U.S. Department of Labor's 2026 Resume Essentials guide identifies contact information, a summary of qualifications, work experience and accomplishments, and education and training as common targeted-resume sections, with a headline and awards or certifications used when applicable. CareerOneStop and Penn similarly emphasize contact details, experience, education, and relevant skills.

That sequence is a content checklist, not a fixed visual order. A current student may lead with education, while an experienced candidate may lead with recent work. The posting, field, and strength of the evidence should decide what appears and where.

A cover letter is a separate, role-specific document rather than another resume section. The cover letter versus resume guide explains what each document should contribute to the application.

Military service can supply relevant experience, training, awards, and skills. The military experience resume guide explains how to present that evidence accurately and protect restricted information.

Temporary and staffing-agency assignments can also provide relevant work evidence. Use the temporary work resume guide to name the relationship, dates, and assignments accurately.

Penn describes an effective resume as a concise presentation of education, experience, and skills as they relate to the specific opportunity. Start by separating the posting into qualifications, responsibilities, tools, credentials, and context. Then locate truthful evidence from your own record.

The resume keyword guide can help identify relevant language. Matching a term means using it where it accurately describes your work; it does not mean copying requirements into a skills list or claiming experience you lack.

CareerOneStop calls work experience one of the most critical resume sections. Include the title, organization, location when useful, dates, and concise statements about relevant responsibilities and accomplishments. Paid employment is not the only valid evidence, but every context must be labeled accurately.

Use the resume bullet point guide to connect actions with scope, tools, and supported outcomes. Do not invent a metric when no reliable measurement exists; precise context can still make the work concrete.

The internship resume guide covers section choice, titles, dates, multiple roles, paid or unpaid context, and protected details.

For real client services or independent business activity, use the freelance work guide to present the relationship, dates, scope, confidentiality, and results accurately.

If research, writing, or speaking output supports the target, use the publications and presentations guide to select the work, preserve authorship and status, and choose resume or CV treatment.

For association membership or service, use the professional affiliations guide to distinguish current membership, leadership, credentials, and private disclosure.

The hobbies and interests guide helps decide whether a personal detail adds relevant evidence or should be omitted.

For academic details, the relevant coursework guide explains how to select course titles and move substantial class work into a Projects section.

The GPA resume guide covers when GPA adds evidence and how to label program, scale, transfer, and transcript details.

CareerOneStop lists associations, publications, community involvement, volunteering, awards, and other job-related qualifications as possible optional sections. Penn also identifies summaries, projects, publications, presentations, honors, and awards for appropriate candidates and fields.

There is no benefit to preserving an empty template heading. Remove a section that adds no relevant evidence, and rename a heading when a more specific, truthful label helps the reader understand the work.

When a license or certification affects eligibility, use the resume certifications guide to make its exact name, issuer, current status, and required proof clear.

Use the resume awards guide to distinguish professional, academic, service, team, nominee, and finalist recognition.

Use the resume language skills guide to separate speaking, listening, reading, writing, signed-language, translation, and interpreting claims.

Use the volunteer work guide to choose a section, preserve unpaid status, show supported contributions, and protect service-recipient privacy.

A candidate without professional experience can use education, academic or personal projects, volunteering, activities, research, caregiving, community work, and part-time roles when they demonstrate relevant qualifications. Keep each setting visible; a class project is not paid employment.

The no-experience resume guide provides a complete evidence inventory and section-order method for a first resume.

• -Claims copied from the posting that your experience does not support.
• -Invented jobs, projects, credentials, employers, dates, tools, users, metrics, or outcomes.
• -A Social Security number, government ID number, photo, age, date of birth, or other unnecessary sensitive personal information.
• -Confidential employer or client data, classified information, credentials, access tokens, or work you do not have permission to share.
• -A generic objective, personal motto, references available upon request, or unrelated detail that uses space without proving a qualification.
• -Keyword blocks, hidden text, decorative rating bars, or unsupported proficiency labels designed to imitate evidence.

The resume references guide explains how to prepare a separate, permission-based reference sheet and share it when requested.

Resume conventions vary across countries and specialized fields. This guide addresses a general U.S. job-search resume. Follow legitimate, role-specific instructions when they require different content, and submit sensitive eligibility information only through the appropriate official channel. The resume photo guide explains why most U.S. resumes should remain text-first and how to handle separate image requests.

Once the content is final, the resume file naming guide covers PDF or Word selection, attachment names, hidden-data cleanup, and upload verification.

For academic, research, or international applications, first confirm which document is expected with the CV versus resume guide.

USAJOBS requires a current full name, email, and phone for most applications and identifies specific work-history fields, including employer, title, dates, hours per week, and descriptions that show the required level of work. It also directs applicants to the announcement for exact qualifications, documents, and contact information.

Current USAJOBS guidance limits most federal resumes to two pages and tells candidates to omit SSNs, photos, personal demographic details, and classified or government-sensitive information. Do not retrofit an older federal-resume checklist without checking the current announcement and help center.

• +Every section helps the target employer evaluate a real qualification, requirement, or relevant context.
• +Contact information is current, accurate, readable, and limited to appropriate details.
• +Work, education, projects, credentials, and dates are labeled honestly and consistently.
• +Important claims are supported by actions, context, outputs, or accurate outcomes rather than adjectives alone.
• +The strongest relevant sections appear early, while the work chronology remains clear.
• +Optional sections are included because of relevance, not because a template supplied an empty heading.
• +The document fits the required file type and length, and its extracted text remains complete and sensibly ordered.
• +The live job announcement and application fields have been checked for requirements that this general guide cannot predict.

Assemble the selected content in the free ATS resume template, choose a readable structure with the ATS-friendly resume format guide, and use the resume length guide to decide what earns the available space.