How to design a resume in MS Word

Ms word is a popularly know program, often used by many. But only a few uses its templates to design their resume and that’s why we’d be teaching you today how to design a resume using MS Word.

How to design a resume in MS Word

Use the following steps for creating a resume in Microsoft Word.

Choose a Resume Template

Don’t forget that we’re designing a resume using Microsoft Word, so it is important to narrow our search to specifically those templates that support Word. Let’s keep it pretty wide by searching on the internet for “Word resume.” With lots of resume template options that would pop up, there’d be no shortage of options. All you’ve to do is pick up a template that meets the design principles we covered earlier in this tutorial.

When you’re ready to download, simply click on Download on the right side of the Elements screen. Elements will ask you for license usage. This is just a description of how and where you intend to use the file. And even if you stop subscribing to Elements, you’ll still be licensed to use anything you downloaded. 

SEE ALSO: How to write a perfect Resume

Once you enter a license usage, go ahead and click Add & Download. The pre-built Word resume template file will download, typically as a .zip archive. Go ahead and extract the files, and double-click on the .docx file to create your new resume in a Word document. Word will launch, and your template will appear, as you can see here.

Add Your Name and Contact Details

For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be building a Word resume for Nathan Williams, a creative digital marketer. To kick things off, click in the text placeholder at the top and enter the name and relevant contact details. Having this placed prominently—and kept up to date—is essential to ensure recruiters and managers can easily contact you. It also suggests your favored ways to communicate.

Add an Optional Headshot

The placeholder in the upper left corner is meant for inserting a professional headshot. This is an easy and unique way to make your resume stand out in a stack of others. Many people don’t think of including their photograph, so it’s an excellent option for literally putting a face to your name. 

To add a photo, click on the placeholder to select it, and then press delete on your keyboard. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click on Pictures. First, you’ll want to browse to where your photo is stored on your computer. Click to select it, and then choose Insert to add it to the Word resume.

Once the image is added, you can change its size and placement. Simply click and drag to move it around the page, or click on one of the corners and drag to resize the image. It’s easy, it’s unique, and it can really help you be noticed by encouraging that key first look.

Write a Winning Profile

Profile sections can be one of the harder things to add to a resume. They’re essentially short biographies that draw attention to your key traits. This is the primary area of focus if you’re building a job-specific resume. There are a few rules to help make your profile a winning one:

• Avoid “I” and “you.” Even though you’re talking about yourself, avoid using first-person references. Focus instead on attributes and results.
• Highlight your strengths. Suppose you’re noted for being detail-oriented, creativity-driven, and have demonstrated history working in time-critical environments. Craft a short statement that incorporates these attributes clearly and concisely.
• Bold key points. The goal of a Word resume profile statement is to call attention to a small handful of items. Make it easier on the reader by putting them in a bold font. Readers’ eyes are naturally attracted to contrasting and offset text. Take advantage of this reality to gain attention.

With these attributes in mind, go ahead and type out a short profile statement. For our purposes, let’s use:

“Detail-oriented digital marketing professional experienced in delivering creativity-driven solutions in time-critical environments. Practiced success in leading cross-functional teams in a global setting. Noted for unique insights and handcrafted solutions.”

As you can see, these three sentences call out key skills and traits that are tailored around a digital marketing position. They convey facts accurately, without being pompous.

Work and Educational Experience

Okay, so we’ve added our name, contact info, photograph, and an elegant profile section. It’s now time to get into the meat of the resume—the work experience and education sections. The world’s best profile and photo will mean nothing without a healthy educational background and strong working foundation. But those items aren’t valuable without presenting them in a stylish and creative fashion.

Fortunately, when you use an Elements template to create a resume in Word, all this valuable content is already beautifully presented.

All you need to do is input your own experience and educational credentials. Let’s go ahead and do just that. Simply click on the appropriate lines of text, and replace the placeholder with your own text. If there are placeholders you don’t need to use, click them and press Delete to free up space. It takes just a few minutes, and in no time the bulk of your Word resume will be filled out.

Resume Icons and Skills

This resume template already includes resume icons to add a refined look to your Word file. One thing that really sets it apart is the skills section in the lower right corner. This is a visual way to quickly draw attention to the unique abilities you have. With this, you’re actually able to rank skills both by relative depth and order of importance.

To make changes here, simply click on the text placeholders and type in your own skills that you want to feature. And then, click and drag on the black bars to increase or decrease their relative proportions. Just like that, you can show off your digital marketing prowess with an unforgettable visual! 

Also, be sure to take the time to include your own references over on the right side of the page. This will enable hiring managers to quickly contact those ready and willing to vouch for you.

Review the Finished Product

As you can see, in a few minutes we’ve built a stunning and practical professional resume in Microsoft Word. All you need to do now is save your finished file, share it, print it, and find your dream job with it!