A resume should contain a contact block, a one-line headline or short summary, a reverse-chronological work history written as outcomes, a skills list matched to the role, and your education. Optional sections such as projects, certifications, or volunteering earn a place only when they add evidence a hiring manager needs. Everything else, including a photo, your full address, an objective, and references, can be left off without weakening the document.
The short answer
A resume is a proof document, not a life story
Every section on a resume exists to answer one question a hiring manager is asking as fast as they can: can this person do the job we are hiring for. The moment a line stops helping answer that question, it is taking up space that a better line could use. That single test, does this help prove I can do the job, decides what goes on and what comes off far more reliably than any template.
That is why the strongest resumes are short and dense rather than long and complete. You are not documenting your entire history. You are assembling the smallest set of evidence that makes the case, ordered so the best evidence is read first. A reader who is scanning dozens of applications gives the top third of the page most of their attention, so the top third has to carry the strongest proof you have.
The rest of this guide walks the sections in the order they usually appear, says plainly what each one is for, and is candid about the parts you can drop. Treat the core five as the frame and the optional blocks as things you add only when they pull real weight.
The core
The five sections nearly every resume needs
These carry the document. Get them right and the resume works even with nothing else on it. Get them wrong and no amount of extra sections will save it.
Contact
A contact block that is easy to act on
Your name, the city and region you work from, a phone number, a professional email, and one relevant link such as a portfolio or a profile. That is the whole block. It needs to let someone reach you in two seconds, nothing more.
Headline
A headline or short summary
One line, or two or three sentences at most, that frames who you are and the value you bring. It replaces the old objective. Written well it tells the reader how to read everything below it, which is worth the space it costs.
Experience
Work history written as outcomes
The heart of the resume. Each role gets a title, employer, dates, and a few bullet points that describe what changed because you were there. Lead with the result, not the responsibility, and put a number on it whenever the number is real.
Skills
A skills list matched to the posting
A tight, scannable list of the tools, languages, and methods you can actually use, chosen to overlap with the job description. It doubles as keyword coverage for automated screening, so accuracy here pays twice.
Education
Education, sized to your stage
Your degree, institution, and graduation year. Early in a career it can sit near the top and carry coursework or honors. Ten years in it shrinks to a single line near the bottom, because the work now speaks louder than the degree.
Optional
Earned extras, when they add proof
Projects, certifications, publications, volunteering, or languages belong only when they supply evidence the core sections do not. A relevant certification can outweigh a job. An unrelated hobby cannot. Add on merit, not habit.
Tailoring
How to prioritize the content for one role
The same set of facts can make a weak resume or a strong one depending on order and emphasis. This is how to shape the document to a specific posting without inventing anything.
Read the posting and mark the real requirements.
Separate what the role must have from what it would like to have. The must-haves are the evidence your resume has to surface first. The nice-to-haves are where you differentiate once the must-haves are covered.
Lead with the evidence that matches.
If the role is about data pipelines, the pipeline you built belongs in the first bullet of your most recent job, not buried in the third. Reorder bullets so the strongest match to this posting is read first, every time.
Mirror the language honestly.
Use the terms the posting uses when they are genuinely true of your work. If they say stakeholder management and that is what you did, call it that. This helps both a human reader and an automated screen recognize the fit.
Cut anything that does not serve this role.
A resume tailored to a role is partly an act of subtraction. Trim the bullets and sections that prove skills this job does not need, so the ones that matter have room to breathe.
Check that the top third earns the read.
Cover the bottom of the page with your hand. If what remains does not make a hiring manager want the rest, move your strongest proof up until it does.
Keep or cut
What belongs and what to leave off
Some resume conventions survive out of habit long after they stopped helping. Here is the modern call on each, and the outdated version it replaces.
| Capability | Folio | The outdated habit |
|---|---|---|
| Objective statement | Cut it. A one-line headline frames you faster and does not read as a wish list. | A paragraph about what you are seeking, which tells the reader nothing they need. |
| Home address | City and region only. That is all a recruiter needs to judge location. | A full street address, a privacy risk that buys you nothing. |
| Photo, age, marital status | Leave all of it off in most markets. It invites bias and wastes space. | A headshot and personal details, still common in some regions, best avoided where you can. |
| References | Omit them. Provide references when asked, not before. | A references available on request line that everyone already assumes. |
| Skills | A short, honest list matched to the role and provable in an interview. | A long inventory of every tool you have ever opened, padded with self-ratings. |
| Hobbies | Include only when relevant or a genuine differentiator for the role. | A generic interests line about reading and travelling that adds nothing. |
Norms differ by country. In parts of Europe and Asia a photo or date of birth is still expected, so read the local convention before you follow the general rule above.
The shape of it
The proportions a working resume tends to hold
These are not laws, but they are the ranges most strong resumes settle into. Treat a large deviation as a prompt to check your reasoning.
After the draft
Where the finished resume should live
Once the sections are right, the last decision is format and home. Export a clean PDF for any application that accepts one, because it preserves your layout exactly on the reader end, and keep a plain, well-structured version for systems that ask you to paste the text. A resume that looks perfect on your screen but scrambles in an applicant tracking system has failed at the only moment that counts.
It also helps to give the same evidence a second home online. A resume is a snapshot frozen at the moment you exported it; a personal site can hold the fuller case studies, the links, and the work samples that a one-page document has no room for, and it gives the people who find your name something to read that you control.
Folio is a hosted platform for exactly that pairing of a resume and a site. Being straight about the free plan: it puts you on portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname rather than your own domain, and it shows a small Made with Folio badge, with the full theme gallery reserved for the paid tier. What is not gated is the resume export, which downloads as PDF and DOCX at no cost and with no watermark, so you can build the document here whether or not you ever host a site with us. Whatever tool you use, keep the test simple: every line should help a hiring manager answer whether you can do the job.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important sections to put on a resume?
Five sections carry almost every resume: a contact block, a headline or short summary, your work experience written as outcomes, a skills list matched to the role, and your education. The experience section does the heaviest lifting, so give it the most space and your strongest, most specific bullets. Optional sections such as projects or certifications are added only when they supply evidence the core five cannot.
What should you not put on a resume?
In most markets, leave off a photo, your age or date of birth, marital status, your full street address, and a references available on request line. Also drop the old objective statement in favour of a one-line headline. Each of these either invites bias, creates a privacy risk, or takes space that a stronger line could use, and none of them help a reader judge whether you can do the job.
Should I put an objective or a summary on my resume?
Prefer a short summary or a single-line headline over an objective. An objective describes what you want, which the reader does not need at this stage, while a summary or headline frames what you offer and tells the reader how to read the rest of the page. Keep it to one line or a few tight sentences, and make it specific to the role rather than generic.
How do I decide what to include for a specific job?
Read the posting and separate the requirements the role must have from the ones it would prefer. Then reorder your bullets and sections so the evidence that matches the must-haves is read first, and cut anything that proves skills this particular job does not need. Tailoring is as much about subtraction as addition, because a focused resume reads as a better fit than a complete one.
Do I need to list references on my resume?
No. Omit references and the references available on request line entirely. Employers assume you can provide references and will ask for them later in the process, usually after an interview. The space is better spent on another line of real evidence about your work, so hold your references list as a separate document you send only when it is requested.