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If you’re looking to get into a management role in business, the most important resume sections are the employment history and skills. Focus on verifiable results like revenue growth, cost savings and market expansion in your past roles.
Also, bump your education section above the work experience and include things like internships, summer jobs and volunteer positions.
1. List Your Qualifications
As a business professional, your qualifications are incredibly important. A hiring manager should be able to see your experience and skill set immediately through your summary of qualifications.
Rather than listing your school, degree, and attendance years in reverse chronological order, try listing your most recent relevant courses at the top of your education section. This will help you stand out from your competition. Search for resume examples that serve as valuable templates, offering job seekers inspiration and guidance on compellingly showcasing their skills and experiences.
Include any other relevant educational information in the same way. It is also helpful to have a separate section for your skills, listing both soft and hard skills, like creativity, communication, or time management. However, make sure to only list skills that are related to the position you are applying for.
2. Include Your Education
When writing about your education, it’s important to highlight all of your degrees and courses that relate to the position you’re applying for. But be careful not to go into too much detail since this section can make the resume seem overlong and unnecessary.
It’s also a good idea to include any internships you held during your studies in this section. Even if they weren’t in your field of study, these experiences can help you gain valuable skills.
3. List Your Skills
This section often gets overlooked, but it’s a critical part of your resume. It provides a quick list that hiring managers can scan to see whether your skills align with their expectations. It also helps your resume pass the applicant tracking system (ATS) that most larger companies use to weed out unqualified candidates.
4. Include Your Experience
Your experience section should include your work history and highlight only the experiences that are relevant to the position for which you’re applying. Using keywords from the job description is a great way to illustrate your skills within this section.
Be sure to use numbers to describe your accomplishments, such as reducing costs or increasing sales quotas. This will give the hiring manager a sense of your level of expertise.
In the education section, be sure to list your degree, the name of the school you attended, and your GPA. You can also include any academic honors or awards in this section. If applicable, include details about your internships.
5. Include Your Certifications
While it is a good idea to include your education on your resume, you should make sure that what you list is relevant to the job you are applying for. Avoid listing your school, degree, graduation date and GPA (unless this information is required).
Employers are looking for specific skills and certifications that match their requirements. For example, a front-end web developer would list their expertise with HTML and CSS, while a bookkeeper may mention their knowledge of accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero. In addition to hard skills, employers are also looking for soft skills such as communication and creativity. These can be demonstrated through your work experience and in your resume.
