How to Write a Good Resume

Course Content

How to Write a Good Resume

15 sections · 30 lessons

Length, file format and the contact block

The mechanics of a resume are the part nobody gets hired for and plenty of people get quietly rejected for. None of it needs talent. All of it needs doing once, carefully.

This lesson covers the outside of the document: how long it is, what kind of file it arrives as, and the few lines at the top that tell a reader who you are and where you are. The next lesson covers what the page looks like inside and how the words on it are written.

One page or two

This is the most argued-about question in resume advice, and it has a boring answer that almost everyone can apply.

The test that settles the argumentOne page• Under roughly ten years of work• Every line earns its space• Forces the cuts you avoid makingTwo pages• Ten-plus years, or manager scope• Page two holds older roles only• Never more detail on recent ones
If page two is not as strong as page one, the document is a one-page resume that has not been cut yet.

The rule

Roughly ten years of experience is the dividing line.

  • Under ten years: one page.
  • Over ten years: two pages are fine, and often better.
  • Ever: never three, unless you are writing an academic CV, which is a different document (see Resume, CV, and profile).

Why the rule exists

It is not about a reader's attention span. It is about what a second page implies.

A second page says I have more than one page of relevant, senior-level content. If that is true, it reads as substance. If it is not, it reads as an inability to distinguish important from unimportant — which is itself a signal about how you would work.

A student with a two-page resume has not shown more experience. They have shown that they padded.

The test that settles it

Forget the page count and ask this instead:

Is the weakest line on my resume stronger than blank space?

If your last bullet is Attended weekly team meetings, that line is worse than nothing. It takes space from something better and it lowers the average quality of everything around it.

Cut until every remaining line earns its place. Then see how many pages you have.

If you are just over one page

The most common situation: you have about one and a quarter pages. Options, in order of preference:

  1. Cut the weakest two or three bullets. Usually enough.
  2. Tighten wording. Bullets often shrink 20% with no loss of meaning.
  3. Trim old roles to a single line: title, company, dates, one bullet.
  4. Reduce margins slightly — but not below about 1.5 cm, and only after the first three.

A page and a quarter is the worst outcome, because that near-empty second page is what signals padding most clearly.

File format, naming, and delivery

Once the length is right, the document has to arrive intact. These are small mechanical details, easy to get right, and occasionally expensive to get wrong.

From your editor to their inboxExport to PDFName itFirstname-ResumeChecklinks are liveReopen andreread itPDF unless the posting explicitly asks for .docx.
A filename like resume-final-v3.pdf sits in a recruiter's folder next to two hundred others named the same thing.

Format

Send a PDF, unless you are explicitly told otherwise.

A PDF looks the same everywhere. A Word document reflows depending on the reader's fonts and version, so the carefully balanced page you built can arrive with a heading stranded alone at the bottom of page one.

Two exceptions:

  • Some recruiting agencies genuinely want an editable file, because they strip your contact details before sending you to a client. If they ask, send it.
  • A few older application forms accept only .doc or .docx. Follow the form.

File naming

Name the file so it is findable on a recruiter's desktop among two hundred others:

Text
priya-nair-resume.pdfpriya-nair-resume-backend.pdf     (if you keep variants)

Avoid resume.pdf, resume_final_v3_USE_THIS.pdf, and Resume2024 (1).pdf. The first is unfindable; the others look careless in a way that costs you nothing to avoid.

Links

Include one or two links, and check them.

  • Make them clickable. A PDF supports real hyperlinks; use them.
  • Also make the visible text readable, so the link survives being printed.
  • Test every link from a private browsing window. A link to a repository you later made private is a small, avoidable embarrassment.

Prefer github.com/priyanair over a long tracking URL. If your personal site is a placeholder page, do not link it — no link is better than a link that disappoints.

The contact block

The first thing a reader sees when the file opens is the top few lines of your resume. It should take a reader under a second and then get out of the way.

The top three lines of the pageBelongs there• Name, email, phone number• City and country, or remote• LinkedIn and GitHub, as linksLeave it out• Full street address• Date of birth or marital status• Every social account you own
The contact block should take under a second to read and then get out of the reader's way.

What belongs

  • Your name, the largest text on the page.
  • One email address, professional. priya.nair@gmail.com, not xX_pree_Xx@….
  • One phone number, with country code if you are applying internationally.
  • City and region. Not your street address.
  • One or two links: LinkedIn, GitHub, or a personal site.

That is the whole list. One tidy line under your name is enough:

Text
PRIYA NAIRBengaluru, India · priya.nair@gmail.com · +91 98xxx xxxxxlinkedin.com/in/priyanair · github.com/priyanair

What to leave out, and why

Leave outWhy
Full street addressNo one posts you anything; it is a privacy risk and it takes two lines
PhotoIn the US, UK, Canada, and Australia this is a legal and bias concern, and some companies discard resumes with photos
Date of birth, marital status, gender, nationalitySame reason; not requested and not helpful
Multiple phone numbers or emailsAmbiguity. Which one do they use?
Every social accountOnly include what strengthens the application

The city question

Include your city. Recruiters filter on location, and a resume with no location reads as evasive.

If you are relocating, say so explicitly:

Text
Bengaluru, India · relocating to Berlin, Q1 2027

If you want remote work, say that too. Do not make the reader guess, because their guess will be the one that is least convenient for them.