How to Write a General Resume That Actually Works

The idea of a general resume sounds straightforward—until you sit down to write one.

What do you include in a general resume? Can it work for multiple job applications? And in a world of personalized applications and applicant tracking systems (ATS), is it even still a thing?

The short answer is that everyone should have a general resume, but many people either skip it or use it incorrectly.

In this guide, you’ll discover when and how to use a general resume, what it should include, and best practices to follow when building this type of resume.

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What’s a general resume, and when should you use it?

A general resume is a ready-to-customize base version of your resume. It’s not tailored to a specific job, but it’s also not one-size-fits-all.

It focuses on the skills, professional experience, and value you bring to a type of role or industry. Unlike a fully tailored resume, which speaks to one job description, a general resume gives you a strong foundation to customize when you apply for a particular position. 

You can use it when:

• Someone in your network asks you to “send over your resume”
• You’re submitting interest through a company’s career page
• You’re applying through a job board without a specific job in mind
• You’re building a strong base to quickly customize later

About that last point: A general resume isn’t a shortcut to avoid tailoring, and you shouldn’t use it to apply to any and every job. While this strategy might feel productive, it often backfires.

“More applications don’t equal more opportunities. Yet, so many job seekers fall into the trap of rapid-firing resumes without tailoring them,” explains David Fano, founder and CEO of Teal. “A high-quality, well-targeted application will always outperform 100 rushed ones.”

Bottom line: When you’re applying to a specific role with a job description, always customize your general resume before hitting send.

General resume vs. master resume: What’s the difference?

Many job seekers mix up these two resume types, but they serve different purposes:

Let’s see how this works in practice.

Say you’re a senior-level product manager looking for your next opportunity. 

Your master resume includes all your roles, responsibilities, and results from the last 20 years (or however many years you have been working)—including early gigs in hospitality and retail, side projects unrelated to product management, and every skill, tool, and framework you’ve picked up. You can take what you need from it to create a tailored resume for any type of role or industry.

Your general resume is a polished, streamlined version that focuses on your product management experience in tech and Saas. It highlights your most recent and relevant roles, top achievements like leading feature launches and boosting customer retention, and key skills like agile methodologies and cross-departmental collaboration. You can then customize your general resume to a particular product development role—in tech, Saas, or another industry.

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Why a general resume is worth having

A well-written general resume can help you:

✔️ Clarify your direction. Creating a general resume helps you see how your experiences connect to where you want to go.

✔️ Find patterns. You might notice themes—e.g., skills you use often or projects you excel at—that can help focus your job search. 

✔ ️ Save time later. Instead of starting from scratch every time, all you need to do is tweak a few sections of your general resume to match the job description, and you’ll be ready to go.

💡 Pro tip: Teal’s Resume Builder can help you create your general version with the right structure and relevant details, so when it’s time to tailor, you’re not starting from a blank page.

What to include in a general resume

Even though it’s not job-specific, your general resume should still be strategically written, focused on what supports your target role type or industry. 

Here’s what to include:

• Contact information
• Professional summary
• Relevant work experience and skills
• Educational background
• Relevant certifications 
• Optional extras (e.g., volunteer work, projects, and language skills) if they add value

You’ll learn the best way to structure this information in just a bit!

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What not to include in a general resume

When creating your general resume, leave out:

❌ A headshot (which can introduce bias)

❌ An objective statement (use a professional summary instead)

❌ Skills involving outdated tools, software, or systems

❌ Irrelevant experience and skills

❌ Long lists of responsibilities with no outcomes

❌ Buzzwords (like “go-getter” and “team player”) without evidence

❌ Salary expectations

❌ Company-specific jargon

❌ References (unless requested)

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How long should a general resume be?

It’s best to stick to a one-page resume or a two-page resume format when creating your general version. 

One page is great if you’re early in your career, creating a resume for your first job, or transitioning to a new career or industry.

Meanwhile, two pages are better if you have 10+ years of experience, have held several relevant jobs, or need room to include certifications, projects, or leadership work that support your career goals. Longer resumes are also often the norm in certain industries, such as academia and law, which require more detail about candidates.

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The best structure for a general resume in 2025: Section by section

Now, let’s break down how to build your general resume so it’s solid now and easy to tweak later. You can follow these steps manually, or use Teal to guide you through each section with built-in prompts, examples, and formatting that’s easy to update when you’re ready to tailor for a specific role.

1. Contact Information

This section goes at the top of your resume and should include: 

• Full name
• Phone number
• Professional email (use a Gmail or custom domain, not an old account from when you were younger or in school)
• Location (city and state is plenty; add “willing to relocate” if you’re open to moving for the right role) 
• LinkedIn profile URL (ideally a custom one that includes your name, such as “linkedin.com/in/hannah-yu”)
• Portfolio or personal website URL (if relevant)
• Pronouns (if you’re comfortable listing them)

🚫 Don’t include your full street address, age, birthdate, or marital status.

2. Target Title

Right under your contact information, add a clear target title to show what kind of role you’re aiming for. This helps recruiters—and applicant tracking systems—quickly understand if your resume is aligned with the job. You can change this title depending on the job you’re applying for, so it’s especially useful if you’re starting with a general resume.

Keep it short and specific. Use the exact job title from the job description when possible, or a common version of it that represents your goal.

Example:

• Project Manager
• UX Designer
• Account Executive – SaaS
• Executive Assistant
• Director of Operations

🚫 Don’t list multiple titles here (save those for your Teal master resume). Stick with one target per resume version.

3. Professional Summary 

This is your chance to share a snapshot of what you do well and where you’re headed professionally. 

Keep it to 3–4 sentences, and include:

• Your current or most recent job title
• Your area(s) of expertise
• Relevant industries or environments you’ve worked in
• 1–2 achievements with measurable results (percentages, time saved, revenue generated, etc.)
• Where you’re going next

🚫 Avoid generic statements like “Hard-working team player looking for a challenging position.” Instead, be specific and ground your summary in your real experiences and accomplishments.

Example:

Marketing manager with 6+ years of experience growing early-stage brands in eCommerce and SaaS. Known for data-led creative strategy, team collaboration, and a strong eye for brand growth. Led a rebrand that increased conversion by 22%. Exploring growth roles at product-led companies.

4. Work Experience 

This is where you show what you’ve done and the results of your work. 

🚫 Avoid listing every job you’ve had. Focus on your most recent, relevant work experience. For example, if you’re planning to apply for operations roles, you can leave off that old part-time job in retail.

Include these details for each role:

• Job title(s) held
• Company name
• Location (or “Remote”)
• One-line company description (optional, but helpful if it’s not well-known)
• Dates of employment
• 3–5 bullet points with measurable outcomes

🚫 Don’t write vague bullet points like “Handled customer service.” Instead, begin each one with a strong action verb (e.g., “built,” “overhauled,” “initiated”) and always quantify results where possible (e.g., percentage increases, time saved, revenue generated, cost reduced).

💡 Pro tip: Review job postings in your target field or for the type of role you’re interested in. Use similar terms and phrasing (especially for skills, tools, and responsibilities) to align with what employers are looking for. This can also give you a head start when it comes time to tailor your general resume!

Example:
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Client Services Manager
Everbright Systems | Remote | October 2019–February 2024
Cloud-based platform for healthcare scheduling
• Reduced customer onboarding time by 35% by streamlining documentation and training
• Managed a remote support team of 6; improved NPS from 52 to 70 in one year
• Created internal process playbooks that decreased support escalations by 22%

5. Education 

This section should be short and direct, especially if you’ve been in the workforce for a few years.

Include:

• Degree type and field of study
• School name and location
• Graduation year (optional)
• Relevant coursework (only if you’re a recent graduate or making a career change)

🚫 No need to include your GPA or academic honors (such as “cum laude”) unless they’re especially notable or standard in the field you’re targeting (e.g., academia or law). 

Example:

Bachelor of Arts, Communications
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign – Champaign, IL

6. Certifications

Certifications are especially helpful if you’re switching careers or strengthening skills in a new area. Plus, adding them to your general resume means they’re already in place when it’s time to tailor.

For each certification, include:

• Certification title
• Issuing organization
• Year earned (optional)

🚫 Leave out expired, outdated, or unrelated certifications.

Example:

Google Project Management – Coursera (2025)
HubSpot Inbound Marketing – HubSpot Academy (2024)

7. Skills 

Before diving in, let’s address a common resume myth: 

📌 “My Skills section needs to include soft skills.” 

It doesn’t—and shouldn’t. 
The most effective Key Skills sections focus on hard skills—the specific tools, technologies, systems, and processes you’re proficient in. 

Soft skills like “team player” or “strong communicator” are important, but they’re better shown through your achievements in your Work Experience section, not listed here.

So, in this section of your resume, list 8–10 hard skills directly related to the kind of job or industry you want.

To include the best ones:

1. Check out job descriptions for the type of role you’re after to see what they prioritize 
2. Be specific—e.g., write “Figma” instead of “Design Software”
3. Skip tools you haven’t used in a while or can’t speak about confidently
4. Include transferable skills from past roles if relevant

Example:

• Salesforce
• Google Analytics
• Figma
• SQL
• Asana
• Email Marketing
• Tableau
• Budgeting
• Customer Onboarding

Languages

Including language skills can be great if you’re after roles in global companies or businesses that serve diverse populations. 

But you should include only languages in which you have professional working proficiency or higher—at least level 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale or B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale.

In your Skills section, you can list:

• Languages relevant to your target role, industry, or geographic market
• Proficiency level (ideally standardized, such as through ILR or CEFR)

Example:

English (Native Proficiency)
Spanish (Professional Proficiency – CEFR Level C1)

8. Optional sections

These sections can help round out your resume, but only if they relate to the role type or industry you’re targeting. 

Awards & Scholarships

Use this section to highlight recognition for performance, leadership, or academic excellence.

You can include:

• Industry or company awards
• Academic scholarships or honors
• Competitive recognitions

Example:

Dean’s Leadership Award, College of Business (2020)
Rising Star Award, Regional Marketing Conference (2023)

💡 Pro tip: If an award is related to a specific job, consider listing it under your Work Experience section to make a bigger impact. 

Projects 

Sharing projects can show your drive and hands-on skills, which is especially helpful if you’re freelancing, changing careers, or building a portfolio.

Here, you might include:

• Freelance or side projects
• Team-led or cross-functional initiatives
• Other work that involves relevant tools or solves real problems

For each project, be sure to note a measurable outcome if possible.

Example:

Website Redesign – Freelance (2023)
Redesigned UX for a nonprofit, cutting bounce rate by 35% and doubling donations within 2 months.

Volunteering & Leadership

This section helps demonstrate your ability to lead, collaborate, and contribute beyond your day-to-day work. 

In this section, you can list:

• Volunteer roles
• Skills-based contributions (e.g., fundraising)
• Leadership positions in nonprofits or community groups

As in the Projects section, list measurable results if you can.

Example:

Volunteer Coordinator – Local Roots Garden | 2022–Present
Lead 15+ volunteers and manage weekly programming. Launched a newsletter that grew donor engagement by 25%.

Publications

If you’ve written anything related to your target industry, share it here. 

Some examples of publications you could mention include:

• Blog posts
• White papers
• EBooks
• Journal articles
• Internal or external content (with permission)

For each, include the title of the publication, where it was published, and the publication date.

Example:

“Improving CX Handoff Processes” – Medium (May 2024)

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General resume best practices

Here are a few simple ways to keep your general resume effective and easy to use:

Align it with your LinkedIn profile

Although you won’t use your general resume to apply for specific positions, there are situations where someone may compare it to your LinkedIn profile. To avoid confusion, make sure your job titles, dates, and overall career direction are consistent across both. 

Use a simple layout

While Canva designs and Etsy templates can look great, they’re often full of tables, graphics, and embedded icons that can break the way an ATS reads your resume. Plus, they’re harder to update when tailoring for specific roles. 

Instead, stick to a neat, one- or two-column layout with sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Calibri) and plenty of white space.

Keep it current

Your general resume is meant to be ready-to-send when networking or submitting general interest and ready-to-tailor when going to apply to specific roles. But that works only if you keep it up to date.

If you’ve taken on new responsibilities, received a certification, completed a project, etc., add that information ASAP.

💡 Pro tip: Set aside time to review and refresh your general resume regularly—e.g., once per month or once per quarter.

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General resume template

‍Name: [First Last Name]
Phone: [Phone Number]
Email: [Email Address]
LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/your-link]
Location: [City, State]

Target Title
[Title of the job you're applying for]

Professional Summary
[A 3–4-sentence summary that highlights your core strengths, experience level, industries you've worked in, and the kind of roles you’re targeting. Emphasize flexibility, relevant skills, and value.]

Work Experience
[Your Job Title][Company Name] | [Location] | [Start – End Year]
[1-sentence company description if not well known]
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• Led [project/initiative] that resulted in [metric or business improvement].
• Supported [team/function] by [action], improving [process or result] by [X]%.
• Managed [tasks or responsibilities], contributing to [outcome or goal].

[Your Job Title][Company Name] | [Location] | [Start – End Year]
[1-sentence company description if not well known]

• Improved [process/efficiency/communication] through [strategy or tool], saving [X]% time or cost.
• Collaborated with [teams or departments] to [action], enhancing [customer satisfaction/productivity/etc.].
• Trained or mentored [team/individuals], increasing performance or knowledge sharing.

(Add a third role if needed based on relevance or space.)

Education
[Degree] – [University or Institution]
[Graduation Year]

Certifications
• [Certification Name] – [Issuing Organization]
• [Certification Name] – [Issuing Organization]

Projects or Volunteer Work [Project or Role Title][Organization or Context] | [Year]
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• [1-sentence description + 1–2 bullet points]
• [Action] that led to [result or outcome]
• [Tool/skill used] to support [goal]

Skills
[8–10 hard skills relevant to the type of role or industry you’re after.]
• [Skill 1]
• [Skill 2]
• [Skill 3]
• Etc.

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General resume example