Resume examples by job, annotated line by line
A good resume names the job in its headline and pairs each task with a result. Five fictional examples, from first job to career change, annotated line by line.
At a glance
A good resume follows 1 pattern for any job: a headline that names the job, and bullets that pair a task with its result. Use the posting's own words where they are true for you. The 5 fictional examples below cover a first job, a warehouse, a clinic, software, and a career change. A career changer adds a short summary, and a new graduate puts education first; copy the structure, not the lines.
- Open with a headline that names the job you want; CareerOneStop lists the summary as optional.
- Write each bullet as a task and its result, with a number where you have one.
- Borrow wording from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) task list for your job and from the posting, only where it describes your work.
How to read the resume examples on this page
Every person, employer, school, phone number, and figure in these examples is fictional. Each resume is shortened to the lines worth studying. Each line carries a number in parentheses, and the numbered notes under the resume explain why that line works.
The notes rely mainly on 2 public sources. CareerOneStop, sponsored by the US Department of Labor, publishes a resume guide. O*NET OnLine, from the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, lists the tasks each occupation involves. The bullets are built on those tasks.[5][6]
The forklift operator, software developer, and training specialist examples follow CareerOneStop's styles. CareerOneStop calls a chronological format, which emphasizes your work history, a good choice for a solid work history in the same field. It says a combination format, with a summary and a detailed work history, can refocus your experience for a career change. A new graduate or someone with recent relevant training can put education first.[5][3]
| Example | Situation | Resume style |
|---|---|---|
| Cashier | First job, no paid experience | Chronological, education first |
| Forklift operator | 4 years in 1 field | Chronological |
| Medical assistant | New certificate, 1 unrelated job | Chronological, education first |
| Software developer | 7 years, 2 employers in 1 field | Chronological |
| Training specialist | Teacher changing careers | Combination |
CareerOneStop ties no style to a first resume, though it calls the combination format a good fit for most people. The cashier and medical assistant examples are this page's choice: chronological order with education first, since neither has much relevant work history.[5]
A cashier resume for a first job
Jordan (fictional) is a high school senior applying for a part-time cashier job at a grocery store. Jordan has no paid work yet, but has a school year of volunteer work at a snack stand.
- (1) Jordan Rivera | Dayton, Ohio | jordan.rivera@example.com | (937) 555-0142
- (2) Cashier | Cash handling and customer service
- (3) Education: high school diploma, expected June 2027, Quillbrook High School, Dayton, Ohio
- (4) Volunteer cashier, Quillbrook Youth Soccer League snack stand, Dayton, Ohio, August 2025 to June 2026
- (5) Took cash and card payments from about 150 customers each game day. Counted the cash box at close and matched it to the day's sales, with no shortages in 30 games.
- (6) Answered parents' questions about prices and the stand's refund policy.
- (7) Skills: cash handling | card readers | making change | English and Spanish
Why each numbered line works:
- City and state, a personal email address, and a phone number. CareerOneStop says there is no need for a full street address.
- The headline is the job title plus 2 skills. CareerOneStop defines the headline as the line under your contact details that identifies your focus, and says a job title alone is enough. There is no summary: it advises skipping one with 3 years of experience or less.
- Education comes first because, with no paid work, it is the strongest item. CareerOneStop says to list a high school diploma when it is your highest level of education and you have limited work experience. A student can list the expected completion date.
- Volunteer work counts. CareerOneStop lists volunteering among the sections a resume can include, and with limited experience says it is fine to include all your past jobs.
- The bullet matches 2 O*NET cashier tasks: receiving payment by cash or card, and reconciling total payments with total sales. The numbers show the result, as CareerOneStop advises.
- This matches 1 O*NET cashier task: answering customers' questions and giving information on procedures or policies.
- Bars separate the skills on 1 line, a style CareerOneStop allows. It also says to include only skills that are relevant to the job.
A forklift operator resume for a warehouse job
Sam (fictional) has 4 years at 1 distribution center and is applying for a forklift operator job at a larger one.
- (1) Sam Delgado | Joliet, Illinois | sam.delgado@example.com | (815) 555-0187
- (2) Forklift operator | 4 years in a distribution center | Sit-down and stand-up trucks
- (3) Warehouse associate and forklift operator, Brinmoor Freight, Joliet, Illinois, March 2022 to present
- (4) Loaded and unloaded about 10 trailers a shift with sit-down counterbalance and stand-up reach trucks, and stacked pallets in racking up to 30 feet.
- (5) Checked each outbound load against its order list before staging it, with no mis-shipped pallets in 2025.
- (6) Did the pre-shift inspection on each truck, charged batteries, and reported 3 hydraulic leaks before they caused downtime.
- (7) Forklift training and evaluation: sit-down counterbalance and stand-up reach trucks, last evaluated February 2026, Brinmoor Freight
Why each numbered line works:
- The same contact pattern as every example: city and state, email, and phone.
- A short tagline names the job, the years, and the equipment. CareerOneStop allows a tagline of 10 to 12 words in place of a bare job title. There is no summary: CareerOneStop lists it as optional, and the tagline and bullets already carry what it would say.
- Each job lists the title, the employer, the city and state, and the dates, the 4 items CareerOneStop asks for.
- The bullet uses O*NET's first task for industrial truck and tractor operators: operating forklifts to load, unload, transport, or stack material. It adds the truck types a posting is likely to name.
- Inspecting each load for accuracy is an O*NET task for this job. The bullet adds the result, which is what CareerOneStop says gets noticed.
- Routine maintenance, including recharging batteries, is another O*NET task. The 3 leaks turn a routine duty into an outcome.
- Forklift certification is the employer's record, not a license the worker holds. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule for general industry, the employer certifies each operator's training and evaluation, with the dates. So list the truck types and the last evaluation date, and do not call the line a license.
A medical assistant resume for a clinic job
Avery (fictional) has just finished a medical assistant certificate, including a clinical placement, and spent more than 2 years in retail before that. The target is a medical assistant job in a family medicine clinic.
- (1) Avery Chen | Tucson, Arizona | avery.chen@example.com | (520) 555-0163
- (2) Medical assistant | Vital signs, specimen collection, and patient scheduling
- (3) Education: medical assistant certificate, completed May 2026, Velacruz Community College, Tucson, Arizona
- (4) Clinical placement: medical assistant, Brellwood Family Clinic, Tucson, Arizona, February 2026 to April 2026
- (5) Took vital signs, height, and weight for about 20 patients a day. Entered them in the electronic health record (EHR).
- (6) Collected and labeled blood and urine specimens, and logged each one before it went to the lab.
- (7) Sales associate, Larkhaven Outfitters, Tucson, Arizona, June 2023 to January 2026: booked customer appointments and answered phone questions.
- (8) Certifications: Basic Life Support (BLS) course, American Heart Association, completed May 2026
Why each numbered line works:
- Contact details as in the other examples.
- The headline names the job and 3 skills from the posting. It reads as the target role, as CareerOneStop's headline advice intends.
- With recent training that fits the job, education goes first, as CareerOneStop allows for new graduates and recent relevant training.
- The clinical placement is the most relevant experience, so it gets the full treatment: title, place, and dates.
- Measuring vital signs, weight, and height is part of O*NET's first listed task for medical assistants. CareerOneStop says resume readers may not have a background in the field, and to spell out unfamiliar terms.
- Collecting, logging, and preparing specimens is another O*NET task, written in the same plain words.
- The retail job is unrelated, so it gets 1 line. CareerOneStop advises a brief description for unrelated jobs that fill in your work history. The line names the 2 duties that carry over: O*NET lists scheduling appointments and answering telephones among a medical assistant's tasks.
- CareerOneStop says to give certifications that matter to the job their own section. List only the credentials you hold, with the issuer and the date.
A software developer resume with 7 years of experience
Morgan (fictional) has 7 years as a backend software developer at 2 companies and is applying for a senior role on a payments team.
- (1) Morgan Ellis | Raleigh, North Carolina | morgan.ellis@example.com | (919) 555-0119 | example.com/morgan-ellis
- (2) Backend software developer | 7 years | Payments and data pipelines
- (3) Senior software developer, Plinthwave Payments, Raleigh, North Carolina, April 2022 to present
- (4) Rewrote the refund service in Go, cutting the average refund time from 3 days to 4 hours for about 40,000 refunds a month.
- (5) Added automated tests to the payment code, raising the share of code they check from 40% to 80%. Cut production bugs reported each quarter by half.
- (6) Met each week with product and support teams to analyze user needs and turn them into ranked requirements.
- (7) Software developer, Corvexa Analytics, Durham, North Carolina, June 2019 to March 2022 (5 bullets on data pipelines, not shown)
- (8) Skills: Python | Go | PostgreSQL | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Docker | continuous integration (CI)
Why each numbered line works:
- A portfolio link sits with the contact details, where CareerOneStop suggests putting a work-related website or portfolio.
- The tagline gives the job, the years, and the 2 areas the posting cares about. There is no summary: the 2 jobs show a clear, consistent progression, the case in which CareerOneStop says to skip it.
- Title, employer, place, and dates, as in every example.
- Modifying existing software to improve its performance is an O*NET task for software developers. The before and after times show the result.
- Developing testing procedures is another O*NET task. The 2 percentages make the result concrete, as CareerOneStop advises.
- Analyzing user needs and software requirements is an O*NET task too. Not every bullet needs a number, but each says what the work was for.
- The older job is related, so it keeps a full set of bullets, shortened here. CareerOneStop suggests about 5 to 8 bullets for each job, and says not to include every task.
- The skills line holds the tools a posting would name, with its 2 abbreviations spelled out, as CareerOneStop advises for readers outside the field.
With 5 to 8 bullets for each job, a resume like this can reach 2 pages. For when a second page is worth it, see how long a resume should be.[2][5]
A career-change resume: teacher to training specialist
Taylor (fictional) has taught middle school science for 9 years. The target is a training and development specialist job, designing training for a company's employees.
- (1) Taylor Brooks | Denver, Colorado | taylor.brooks@example.com | (303) 555-0175
- (2) Training and development specialist | 9 years designing and delivering instruction
- (3) Summary: Science teacher moving into workplace training. Plans instruction around what learners need and checks that it worked. Brings course design, skills checks, and plain explanations to adult learners.
- (4) Science teacher, Ellismere Middle School, Denver, Colorado, August 2017 to present
- (5) Training design: Built a 6-week onboarding course for 10 new teachers, with handouts and short videos. All 10 passed its final skills check on the first try.
- (6) Needs assessment: Surveyed students and parents each fall, and rewrote 2 units the same year based on the results.
- (7) Professional development: instructional design certificate, 6 online courses, completed 2026
- (8) Education: bachelor's degree in biology, Thornquist University, 2017
Why each numbered line works:
- Contact details as in the other examples.
- The headline names the new job, not the old one, so the reader sees the target role first.
- For people changing careers, CareerOneStop says the summary can show how your experience translates into the new field. It also says to avoid repeating your work experience there, so the summary states the skills and leaves the results to the bullets.
- The job line comes first, with dates, and the bullets under it open with skill labels, as CareerOneStop's combination sample uses skill headings.
- The skill heading groups teaching work under a duty of the new job. The bullet matches O*NET tasks for training and development specialists: designing training programs and developing course materials.
- Assessing training needs through surveys is another O*NET task. Classroom words such as "units" stay where they are true, but the heading uses the new field's term.
- Recent courses that relate to the goal sit above education, as in CareerOneStop's own sample.
- The degree keeps its year because it is fewer than 15 years old, the cutoff CareerOneStop gives for listing the year.
For the wider move, see how to change careers.
How to adapt an example to your own resume
CareerOneStop lists the summary as optional: skip it with 3 years of experience or less, or when your work history shows a clear, consistent progression.[1]
Have 2 things open before you start: the posting you are applying to, and the O*NET page for that occupation. Then work through these steps.
- Pick the example whose situation matches yours, whatever its job.
- Copy its section order, not its wording.
- Mark each skill and duty the posting names.
- Find the O*NET tasks that match the work you did.
- Write 1 bullet for each match: the task, then its result.
- Add a number to each bullet where you have a true one.
- Cut or shorten bullets that match nothing in the posting.
Before you send it, check the formatting in how to format a resume for applicant tracking systems. If the posting asks for a curriculum vitae (CV), read the difference between a CV and a resume first. More guides are in resumes and cover letters.
Sources & approach
Drafted with AI assistance from the public sources cited below. Stan Sedberry checked every figure and citation against its source and edited this page on October 22, 2026.
- Top section (Resume Guide)CareerOneStop, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- Work experience (Resume Guide)CareerOneStop, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- Education (Resume Guide)CareerOneStop, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- Optional sections (Resume Guide)CareerOneStop, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- Formatting (Resume Guide)CareerOneStop, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 41-2011.00: Cashiers (summary report)O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 53-7051.00: Industrial truck and tractor operators (summary report)O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 31-9092.00: Medical assistants (summary report)O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 15-1252.00: Software developers (summary report)O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 13-1151.00: Training and development specialists (summary report)O*NET OnLine, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
- 1910.178: Powered industrial trucksOccupational Safety and Health Administration, US Department of Labor · Accessed October 22, 2026
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