As you step into the professional world, one document that will precede you everywhere is your resume. It’s your professional story; it tells potential employers about your skills, experiences, and the unique value you bring.
Crafting a compelling and professional resume can sometimes feel like a daunting task. However, it’s an essential step in setting the stage for your career trajectory. To aid you in this process, I have compiled a list of some of the best online resume builder to try out.
Before we dive in the list, let’s first discuss some of the practical tips to help students build powerful resumes.
Resume building tips
Here are some expert tips to help you build powerful, attention-grabbing resumes. I created a poster capturing these resume building tips to use with your students in class. The poster is available for free download exclusively for Educators Technology subscribers.
1. Understand Your Goal
Before you start crafting your resume, define your career goal. What positions are you interested in? What industries do you want to target? Having a clear objective will help you tailor your resume to the jobs you’re applying for.
2. Start with a Strong Summary
Your summary is the first thing a hiring manager sees. Make sure it’s concise, compelling, and professionally highlights your skills and experiences relevant to the role you’re applying for.
3. Highlight Your Education
As a student, you may not have a lot of work experience. In such cases, your education section becomes crucial. Besides your degree and university name, consider adding relevant coursework, major projects, your GPA (if it’s strong), and any honors or awards you’ve received.
4. Leverage Internships, Part-Time Jobs, and Volunteer Work
Include any experience you’ve gained through internships, part-time jobs, or volunteering. Highlight the skills you acquired, projects you completed, and the impact you made.
5. Include Extracurricular Activities
Leadership roles in clubs, sports teams, or student organizations demonstrate teamwork, leadership, and organizational skills. Don’t shy away from including these experiences.
6. Showcase Your Skills
List hard skills (like proficiency in a foreign language or software) and soft skills (like communication or problem-solving abilities). But remember, only include those skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.
7. Use Action Verbs
Start your bullet points with action verbs like ‘developed,’ ‘managed,’ ‘led,’ or ‘innovated.’ These words make your resume more dynamic and demonstrate your ability to make an impact.
8. Be Quantifiable
Wherever possible, quantify your achievements. Numbers provide concrete proof of your skills and accomplishments.
9. Keep it Clean and Error-Free
Make sure your resume is free of typos and grammatical errors. Use a consistent, easy-to-read font, and maintain plenty of white space. Your resume should be a maximum of one to two pages long.
10. Customize
Every job is different, so your resumes should be too. Customize your resume for each job you apply to, making sure to highlight the most relevant skills and experiences for that particular role.
Remember, a powerful resume is one that shows potential employers how you can add value to their team. Take your time crafting it and make sure it represents you accurately and professionally.
Best Online Resume Builders
Here are some of the best online resume builders to help you generate professional resumes:
1. Canva
Canva is a user-friendly design tool that offers a wide range of resume templates. Its drag-and-drop feature allows you to customize the templates easily with your information. You can also personalize your resume by adding elements such as colors, fonts, and images to reflect your personal brand. Check out full Canva review to learn more about this awesome design platform.
2. Zety
Zety is another excellent tool for creating resumes. It provides you with professional, customizable templates and offers pre-written content tailored to a wide range of professions. Its intuitive interface makes the resume-building process a breeze.
3. VisualCV
VisualCV is perfect for those looking to create a visually striking resume. It offers over 22 templates, real-time insights, and the ability to track your resume’s performance, helping you know when your document is viewed or downloaded.
4. ResumeBuilder
This tool provides an extensive library of templates and a step-by-step guide to help you create a professional resume. ResumeBuilder also allows you to create a cover letter that matches your resume design, maintaining consistency across your job application documents.
5. Novorésumé
Novorésumé offers an intuitive and easy-to-use platform for creating resumes. It provides ATS-friendly templates, ensuring your document won’t get rejected by hard-to-please applicant tracking systems. It also features a content optimizer that provides suggestions for improvements.
6. My Perfect Resume
My Perfect Resume guides you step by-step in the creation of your resume. It offers pre-written bullet points and helpful suggestions for what an employer might want to see, based on your desired job title. The tool also provides downloadable formats in both PDF and Word.
7. Kickresume
Kickresume allows you to create stunning resumes, cover letters, and even a personal website in a matter of minutes. It provides various templates and formats to suit your style and job you are applying for. With its real-time preview, you can check the changes instantly.
8. Resume Genius
Resume Genius offers a very quick and simple approach to resume creation. Their step-by-step instructions, automatic spell checker, and numerous templates help you design a professional resume in a matter of minutes.
9. Resume.com
Resume.com is a free tool that lets you build a resume or CV. It offers a range of templates and allows you to easily organize and edit the information. Once you finish your resume, you can download it in PDF or .docx format.
10. Standard Resume
Standard Resume is a great tool for those looking to create a clean and modern resume. The tool is extremely easy to use and offers a final product that can easily be viewed on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Each of these tools offers unique features, so consider your specific needs and personal brand when choosing the right one for you. Good luck crafting your perfect resume!
