When it comes to career management and job searching, a great resume is a candidate’s most important tool. A resume tells a unique professional story, showcasing experience, skills, and qualifications in a way that aligns with a candidate’s career goals. Whether the focus is on work experience, technical expertise, or adaptability, a resume serves as a powerful first impression, presenting a candidate's value and potential to employers.

So, how do you know if you’re creating an effective resume? Three of our executive search experts offer their advice below in four simple steps:

Step 1: Choose Your Resume Format

There are many different types of resumes, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s an overview of 5 of the most common, and how to know which one is right for you:

• Chronological: A chronological resume is the most commonly used, and it’s a great fit for a lot of different types of candidates. On a chronological resume, you should list out your most recent 10-15 years of employment history in reverse chronological order, with the most recent experience at the top of the resume. “Give the employer the story behind your work history from point A to Z — or should I say, from point to Z to A,” says Jeremy Carver, Executive Vice President of Kimmel & Associates’ General Construction Division. This type of resume is very simple and easy to follow. However, someone without a lot of work experience, or who has employment gaps or is making a career change, might not be able to showcase their best qualities in a simple chronological resume.
• Functional: A functional resume, in contrast with a chronological resume, focuses on your skills instead of your work history. This can be a great fit for a recent graduate with a limited work history or someone who is making a career change so their prior work experience isn’t necessarily related to the job they’re pursuing. You still need to include your work history in this type of resume (and all resumes), but you should put relevant skills at the top of the resume and spend time explaining how those skills can help an employer, and then include a simple outline of your work history further down the resume.
• Combination: A combination resume combines the best of chronological and functional resumes, highlighting both your work history and your special skills. “I’d say combination is the best,” says Mark Sevier, Vice President of the Mechanical/Electrical Division. “A solid work history is what stands out the most, but a resume needs more than just a chronological list.” This type of resume is the most flexible platform for you to highlight what makes you exceptional as an employee, from education to technical acumen to relevant skills, in whatever order best showcases you as an employee.
• Targeted: With a targeted resume, says Todd Chandler, Division 13 Recruiting Manager, “you want to tailor it to what you know about the company. Show them how you can make them money, save them money, and solve problems.” Review the company’s website, mission statement, and job description to identify specific language and details that fit with your values and experience, and include those on your resume. For example, some companies are passionate about growth and innovation, while others need employees with a strong self-starter mentality. If the qualification or experience is important to them and you have evidence of it in your background, it should be reflected on your resume.
• Infographic: As technology becomes an important part of jobs across every industry, infographic resumes have increased in popularity. An infographic resume features colors, images, charts, graphs, and other visual components, which makes it stand out from traditional text-only resumes. This type of resume can help you showcase your technical, design, and artistic skills for job opportunities that might require those qualifications — for example, roles in the fields of graphic design, architecture, or technology. But you don’t want to choose form over function: You still need to include all the normal information about your experience and qualifications. And keep in mind, creative page design can help you highlight information in interesting ways, but the document still needs to be easy to read and follow, so don’t overload the page with so much design work that a hiring manager will struggle to find the information they need.

Step 2: Decide How Long It Should Be

How long should a resume be? The short answer is: it depends. Traditional wisdom tells us that the shorter, the better when it comes to resumes. This is because research has shown that on average, hiring managers only give resumes about 6 seconds of attention during the initial review stage, so if a document is longer than one or two pages, they may not read it all.

“The problem with that approach,” Chandler says, “is that hiring managers are busy — they have a company to run, and they don’t have time to guess or wonder if the candidate has the right project types or experiences.” So, while some candidates might have no problem fitting their relevant work history and skill sets onto one or two pages, others will need three or four to include everything they need — and that’s okay, too.

If you have an extensive work history and/or project experience and you’re worried about the length of your resume, one solution is to streamline your resume and create additional documents to include alongside it, such as a list of projects or references. Having these documents on hand ensures that when a hiring manager is interested in learning more about your background, you can get them the information they need promptly.

Step 3: Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Once you’ve decided what format and length are best for your resume, it’s time for the most important step: proofreading. Carver says that first and foremost, a resume should be tidy: “The information should be easy to see and there shouldn’t be typos on it.” Double check that your fonts are the same throughout and that your margins are consistent. And don’t just rely on virtual spelling and grammar checkers; have someone you trust read through it and look for errors.

When you’re editing, also make sure that the information you’re including is clear and effective. For example, says Chandler, “Sometimes titles can make a big difference. Saying you’re an ‘owner’ isn’t helpful because owners do a lot of different things.” The same is true of vague titles like “consultant” or “supervisor.” “It’s better to say ‘construction executive’ or something reflective of what your main responsibilities were,” Chandler suggests. You want to represent the best parts of your professional identity in your resume, from the design to the language and everything in between.

Step 4: Update Regularly

By the time you’ve completed steps 1-3, you have a great resume. Now, the best thing you can do is keep it up to date. Every few months, come back to the document, review it, and update it to include new projects, skills, education, or achievements. It only takes a few minutes, and it can save you hours of hard work and memory-searching down the line. Even if you’re not looking for a new job, keeping your resume and other documents current can help you be ready when you decide to make a career change, negotiate for a pay raise, or advocate for a promotion.

Your resume is the first chance you have to impress a potential employer, so it’s important for you to get the format, length, and content exactly right. Then, when your resume lands you an interview, you can focus on showing the hiring manager why you’re the perfect fit for the job — and making sure the job is a fit for you, too.

***We are grateful to Jeremy Carver, Todd Chandler, and Mark Sevier for contributing their unique perspectives to this article.