How to Create Your Resume

Most resume guides tell you what a resume should contain. This one walks you through actually building one, start to finish, using a real example. We will follow Sara, a fictional junior accountant with two years of experience, as she turns a blank profile into a one-page PDF she can send today. You can follow the same steps for your own resume, whether you use CTRLin or another tool.

Before You Start: Collect Your Raw Material

The slowest part of writing a resume is not the writing. It is hunting for dates, course names, and project details while you type. Spend fifteen minutes gathering these first:

• Start and end months for every job, internship, and degree
• Your marks or CGPA and the total (for example 3.4 out of 4.0)
• Certificate names, issuing institutions, and links if they exist online
• Two or three numbers from each job: volumes handled, time saved, money involved, people supported
• Links to anything you have built or published

Sara's list included her ACCA modules, the date she started at a mid-size trading company, and one number she was proud of: she cut month-end closing from eight working days to five.

Step 1: Pick a Format (Usually Reverse Chronological)

There are three common formats:

• Reverse chronological: most recent job first. This is what recruiters expect and what applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse most reliably. Use it unless you have a strong reason not to.
• Functional: groups skills instead of jobs. It hides gaps, but recruiters know that, so it often raises more questions than it answers.
• Combination: a short skills summary on top, then a chronological work history. A good choice for career changers.

Sara has a steady two-year history, so reverse chronological was the obvious choice.

Step 2: Get Your Information In Quickly

If you have a LinkedIn profile, you do not need to retype everything. On LinkedIn, open your profile, choose More → Save to PDF, then upload that file in CTRLin's profile page using the LinkedIn import. It pre-fills your name, headline, about section, work history, education, certifications, and skills. You will still need to review every field, because imports are never perfect, but it saves most of the typing.

Sara did not have a complete LinkedIn profile, so she filled in the sections by hand. It took her about forty minutes.

Step 3: Write a Headline and a Short Summary

Your headline sits right under your name. CTRLin limits it to 60 characters, which is a useful constraint: it forces you to say what you are, not what you hope to be.

• Weak: Hardworking professional seeking growth opportunities
• Better: Accountant | Month-End Close, Reconciliations, Excel

The summary (the "About Me" section) is two to four sentences. A simple structure that works:

1. Who you are and how long you have done it
2. What you are best at, with one piece of proof
3. What you are looking for next

Sara's version:

Accountant with two years of experience in a trading business, handling accounts payable, bank reconciliations, and month-end close. Rebuilt our closing checklist and cut the close from eight working days to five. Looking for a role in a larger finance team where I can grow toward management reporting.

The About Me editor has a "Generate with AI" button that inserts a sample summary. Treat it as a starting point for structure only. A summary that could describe anyone will not help you, so rewrite it with your own facts.

Step 4: Write Work History as Results, Not Duties

For each job you will enter a title, company, location, dates, and job type (onsite, remote, or hybrid). The description is where most resumes go wrong. Recruiters already know what an accountant does. They want to know what you changed.

Use this pattern for each bullet: action verb + what you did + measurable result.

Duty (weak)	Result (strong)
Responsible for bank reconciliations	Reconciled 6 bank accounts monthly and cleared a 14-month backlog of unmatched items within my first quarter
Handled month-end closing	Rebuilt the month-end checklist in Excel, cutting the close from 8 to 5 working days
Processed invoices	Processed around 400 supplier invoices a month with no late-payment penalties in 2025

If you do not have exact numbers, honest estimates ("around", "roughly") are fine. Invented numbers are not; interviewers ask about them.

Step 5: Add Education, Certifications, and Languages

Enter your degree, field of study, institution, and years. CTRLin also asks for obtained and total marks or CGPA. If your marks are strong, they help early in your career. After five or so years of experience, few employers will look at them.

Certifications deserve their own entries, with a link when the certificate can be verified online. Sara listed her ACCA papers passed so far and a Microsoft Excel certification.

Languages matter more than people think, especially for customer-facing or regional roles. List each one with an honest level.

Step 6: Choose Skills Carefully

A long list of skills reads like a keyword dump. Pick eight to twelve that match the jobs you want, and mark your strongest ones as primary so they appear first. In CTRLin you also rate each skill from one to five stars. Be honest here: if a template shows the rating, an interviewer may test the skill you rated five.

Sara's primary skills: Month-End Close, Bank Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, Advanced Excel. Secondary: QuickBooks, VAT Returns, Financial Reporting.

Step 7: Add Projects If Your Experience Is Thin

Projects are not just for developers. Sara added her closing-checklist rebuild as a project: the tools she used (Excel, Power Query), what problem it solved, and the result. For students and fresh graduates, projects are often the strongest section on the page. Our guide on how to list projects on a resume goes into more detail.

Step 8: Check Your Profile Score and Pick a Template

CTRLin's profile score checks eight things: About Me, headline, at least one skill, work history, education, a language, a certification, and a project. Once you reach 50 percent, the template gallery switches from sample images to a live preview built from your own information.

Click through a few templates and look at three things:

• Does it fit on one page? With under five years of experience, aim for one.
• Can you find the most important thing in five seconds? For Sara, that is the 8-to-5-day result.
• Is it plain enough for the jobs you want? Banks and large companies tend to favour classic layouts; startups and creative roles are more flexible.

Clicking a template sets it as your default, so the same design is used when you download or when someone downloads your resume from your portfolio page.

Step 9: Download and Proofread the PDF

Download the PDF and read it as a recruiter would, on paper or full screen, not inside the editor. Check:

• Dates are consistent (all "Jan 2024" or all "01/2024", not mixed)
• No headings are stranded at the bottom of a page
• Your phone number and email are correct; send a test email to yourself if unsure
• Every number is one you can explain in an interview

Each CTRLin PDF includes a small QR code in the footer that links to your online portfolio. If you have not set up your portfolio yet, do that before you send the resume, so the link leads somewhere useful.

Step 10: Keep One Master Version and Tailor From It

Your profile is now your master resume. For each application, adjust the headline, summary, and primary skills to match the job ad, download, and then switch back. We cover this in detail in how to tailor your resume for every job application.

Common Mistakes We See

• An unprofessional email address. firstname.lastname@ is always safe.
• Listing duties copied from the job description instead of results.
• Two pages for one year of experience. Cut, do not shrink the font.
• Skills you cannot demonstrate. Every item on the page is fair game in an interview.
• Never opening the PDF before sending it. What looks fine in an editor can break on the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to create a resume?

With your information gathered in advance, expect 45 to 90 minutes for a first version. Importing from LinkedIn can cut that in half.

Should I include a photo?

It depends on the country. In the UK, US, and Canada, leave it off. In much of the Middle East, South Asia, and parts of Europe, a professional photo is common. When in doubt, follow what the job ad or local recruiters expect.

PDF or Word?

PDF, unless the employer asks for Word. A PDF looks the same on every device.

Do I need a different resume for every job?

You need one master version and small adjustments per application: headline, summary, skill order, and which bullets come first.

Your Next Step

Block out an hour this week. Gather your dates and numbers, fill in your profile, and download a first version. A finished resume you can improve beats a perfect one you never start. Open the resume builder when you are ready.