How to Write a 1-page Resume for FANNG & Fortune 500 Companies
We’ve written, critiqued and evaluated hundred of thousands of resumes for companies like Google, Uber, Bird, Microsoft, Capital One and other Fortune500 and FAANG businesses. Everything we’ve learned from this experience is summarized below, so that you can present yourself best when applying to these types of companies. We’ll talk format, bullet structure, and how to maximize the space on one page so that recruiters and hiring managers are entice to speak with you after reading.
Download our Resume Template HERE
Resume Storytelling is an art
In a one page resume, you have to tell someone the story of your career in less than 20 bullets of text. Whether you like it or not, a reader is going to “sum you up” in a quick glance, before ever deep diving into the bullets. This is why it’s critical to tell your story with a layout that shows career progression, job impact, and experience that is tell’s the reader that you’re perfect for the next job.
“The resume is the movie poster. The interview is the movie trailer. The job is the movie. Get people excited to see you in action”
Make it stand out
Resumes tell the story of your entire career in one page
How did you get to where you are now, and what prepares you for the next role?
What’s my job scope/level?: The scope of responsibilities differs greatly between a recruiter at a 100-person company and a recruiter at a 10,000-person company. Make sure you give context to your title.
Want to see what that looks like? Download our job leveling framework to see how companies title & pay for your contribution
Relevance of previous experience?: Demonstrate how your previous roles have prepared you for the job you are applying for.
Ability to replicate: Show that you can replicate, execute, and scale the successes you’ve achieved in previous roles.
The best indicator of success in the future is success in the past: Highlight key successes that can be discussed in detail during an interview. Use our interview prep template to prepare for why these successes can be replicated in future roles
A Resume’s Purpose: Make the reader need to interview to learn more
Theres a story to be told outside of the individual bullet points
The Story of your experience: If you don’t tell your story, the reader will tell it for you. Why did you take the jobs you took? Why did you switch jobs? Does progression make sense?
Scope & Level: Clearly define the scope of your responsibilities, such as the difference between a recruiter for a 100-person company versus a 10,000-person company. (Check out our leveling framework here to see an example of how companies measure scope)
Impact of every action: State what you did and why it mattered, with results for every action.
Career Story: Tell a clear story of your career progression that translates well to an interview.
Why Interview You: Your resume should act as a highlight reel, enticing the reader to want to learn more about your impactful contributions.
Resume Format and Structure
Every Ivy League school has something called the “MBA Resume Book”. This is a collection of one page resumes of every MBA graduating, send to FAANG and Fortune500 companies. The one page resume format is associated with high potential, top performers from good schools by this audience. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s our recommendation toThis format is used by top business schools in their "resume books" sent to leading companies, associating your resume with a high success rate.
You have one page of resume real estate: Keep it concise.
Summary: Skip the summary to make room for more critical details, especially when they use common buzzwords like self starter or high-performing. Don’t say it in a summary, show it in the bullets
Expanded margins: Utilize the page efficiently.
Bulleted format: Use bullet points for clarity and brevity.
No Company Explanations: Focus on your role and achievements rather than explaining the company.
A one-page resume should include 15-20 bullet points. Interviewers have about the same amount of competencies they need to evaluate, and you should use every bullet to articulate a unique competency. These are the highlighted sections in our template. Not only does it make it easy for the reader, you’ll be able to prepare for each competency based interview questions in your interview prep template with this format
Bullet 1: Explain how you got to this job, the scope (job level), and your broad impact.
Bullets 2-4: Provide support for your first bullet. Highlight team-building, improvements, or key processes and workflows, and their results.
Bullet 5: Mention unrelated accomplishments that highlight your success, if applicable.
Each bullet should represent a unique competency, detailing what you did, how you did it, the result, and it’s impact to the business. All of your bullets put together should tell the story of your career. The scope and impact of your bullet points should grow with your career progression. Even if you’ve taken a step back in job title, your bullet points can still tell a story of progression, especially if you’ve moved to a larger company with greater responsibilities.
Our Free Resume Template gets interviews with Unicorns
Crafting a resume that tells a compelling story, highlights your competencies, and demonstrates your impact will set you up for success in securing interviews and ultimately, job offers. Use these tips to create a resume that stands out and clearly communicates your value to potential employers. Make them want to watch the preview!