How to Make Your Resume in PowerPoint (With Creative PPT Templates)

Planning to get hired? There are numerous job seekers out there. What are you doing to stand out from the competition?

The globalization of jobs means you’re not only competing locally, but also with global applicants–landing a job has never been this tough.

To make sure you're noticed, create a resume that'll captivate recruiters instantly. No matter what your credentials are, your resume is your first step to score an interview.

While a traditional resume is sometimes enough, a stunning resume PowerPoint can level it up. If you’re not a designer, there are PowerPoint resume templates that could easily help you with how to make a resume on PowerPoint.

What Is a Visual Resume in PowerPoint & Why Even Use It?

A resume in PowerPoint is a non-traditional way to present your resume. With a multi-slide presentation, you can convey your credentials more creatively and powerfully. We’re not saying that you need to ditch your traditional resume–you just need a creative addition to complement it.

Human resources and talent acquisition staff receive tons of job seekers every day. They’re probably bored with all the look-alike resume applications. A visual resume in PowerPoint will instantly catch their attention, thus, helping you stand out from the crowd. Plus, you can even upload it to SlideShare for an instant online presence.

But, of course, take into consideration the industry you’re in and the company you're applying to. A resume PowerPoint is highly recommended for those who are looking for a job in industries and companies that embrace creativity like fashion, film making, and advertising. It’s also good to consider the job you're vying for. If creativity is part of the job description, then it’s about time to learn how to make a resume on PowerPoint.

How to Make Your Resume in PowerPoint

The following steps will guide you on how to write a resume PowerPoint presentation that'll surely help you in landing your dream job:

Step 1. Choose From 3 Formats

The first step in making a resume, traditionally or in PowerPoint, is choosing the right resume format for you. Your resume format will determine how you relay certain details visually.

You've got three choices: 

1. reverse-chronological


2. functional


3. combination. 

Here are the distinctions to help you choose the best one for you:

Format 1. Reverse-Chronological Format

The most traditional format, a reverse-chronological resume emphasizes an individual’s career progression in reverse-chronological order.

Learn more about chronological order resumes here:

• 
  Careers
  
  
  How to Make a Chronological Order Resume with Templates
  
  
  Charley Mendoza

Format 2. Functional Format (Skills-Based)

A skills-based resume that heavily highlights an individual’s functional and technical skills over work experience. While work experience is included, it's de-emphasized by omitting time periods.

This article explains more about a functional resume format:

• 
  Resumes
  
  
  What Is a Functional Resume? Why You Shouldn’t Use It in 2018
  
  
  Charley Mendoza

Format 3. Combination Format

You’ve guessed it correctly! The combination format incorporates some components of reverse-chronological and functional formats. It’s like the functional format but instead of focusing on skills, it focuses on chosen qualifications while still including work experience in chronological order.

For a more in-depth look at combination format resumes, study this article:

• 
  Resumes
  
  
  How to Make a Great Combination Format Resume With Templates
  
  
  Charley Mendoza

Step 2. Add Your Personal Details & Contact Information

The next step on how to make a resume on PowerPoint is to gather all your personal information like professional backgrounds, education, honors, awards, and other necessary accomplishments.

While personal details are important in any resume, it's a skill to discern when to give information and when to hold back. Here are our recommendations:

• 
  Required Contact Information. Name, phone number, email address


• 
  Optional Contact Information. Mailing address, brief professional title, branding statement, social media like LinkedIn, portfolio website, blog


• 
  Contact Information to Avoid. Birthdate (this could lead to ageism), photo (unless you’re applying for a modeling gig)

Step 3. Write a Winning Resume Introduction

You want to make a favorable impression from the very start. A powerful resume introduction should be included in your PowerPoint resume slideshow to help you win the hearts of potential employers. Plus, it’s a great way to showcase your personality and who you are as a person.

In general, you want to give a glimpse of you just by reading your resume introduction. It should be brief, but also captivating so that recruiters will be hooked already. There are many ways to write a winning resume introduction in your PowerPoint resume slideshow, here are some selections to choose from:

• 
  Qualifications Summary. Your main focus is on your qualifications. You can make a bullet point of your most outstanding career accomplishments.


• Career Objective. This briefly provides an overview of your professional skills and experience. It’s usually a statement written in two or three sentences.


• Professional Profile. A combination of qualifications summary and career objective, it's the most flexible resume introduction style. It can be written in a bullet point form or as a short paragraph.


• 
  Professional Summary. This resume introduction summarizes the entire content of your resume. It’s usually formatted into four or five bulleted sentences that highlight a specific portion of the resume. 

Step 4. List Your Relevant Work Experience

In a reverse-chronological format resume, work experience is the king. However, even with other resume formats, you still need to include your relevant experiences.

In this resume building PowerPoint step, we’ll take a look at the recommended details to include in your resume PowerPoint:

• 
  Job Title. This is the most important part of your work experience section. It should be placed on top of each work entry and must be highlighted for easy scanning.


• 
  Company Details. This should include the company name, city/state, and country.


• Date of Employment. The timeframe of your employment for each of your work experience entries. This can either be a year or month and the year.


• 
  Key Responsibilities. This should encapsulate your job description. Be as specific as possible. Tailor fit this to the position you’re applying for. Sprinkle some keywords that employers are looking for in a candidate.

Resume PowerPoint Tip: If you're a fresh graduate or you've little to no working experience, then skip or put this part beneath the education section.

Step 5. List Your Education Correctly

Your educational attainment provides your potential employers a glimpse of the foundation of your knowledge and aptitude. If you don’t have a wide range of professional experiences, then highlight your education first. In contrast, make this section brief if you've got a wealth of work experience.

The right order when writing our educational background is to put your highest degree first. If you've got other degrees of the same importance, add them in reverse-chronological order. These are the things to keep in mind when listing down your education:

• 
  University/College/Technical school you attended. Remove high school unless you didn't attend college.


• Degree(s) attained. List the degrees you've received.


• 
  Location of schools (city/state, country). List the school locations.


• 
  Graduation date (month, year). Recent graduates can list the graduation date, but if you've been out of school a while you may want to leave this off as it can contribute to ageism.


• 
  GPA. List this only if you've got 3.0 or greater GPA.


• 
  Academic honors. List academic honors and awards.

Step 6. Include Relevant Skills

Recruiters are particularly interested in skilled individuals. The more senior the job is, the more they want to hire people who have relevant skills because it means they won’t have to invest in training and development.

There are many types of skills that you can include in your resume PowerPoint. But they generally fall under the following skills category:

• 
  Hard Skills. These are teachable and measurable abilities and know-how (e.g.. Programming, Photoshop).


• 
  Soft Skills. These are traits ideal for a good and professional employee (e.g., etiquette, adaptability).

Should you use only hard or soft skills? The answer is to combine both of these skill sets. Hiring managers are particularly looking for a wide range of abilities and skills. While hard skills are a necessary requirement for recruiters to know that you can do the job, soft skills will determine if you're a good fit for the company culturally.

Here's a rundown of hard and soft skills to include in your resume PowerPoint:

• technical skills (e.g., computer know-how).


• verbal and non-verbal communication skills (e.g., spoken and written language).


• leadership and management skills (e.g., critical thinking, decision making).


• transferable skills (abilities that can be carried over to a new role).

Step 7. Highlight Your Key Achievements and Awards

At this point, you've already covered the foundation of your resume PowerPoint. However, highlighting your achievements and awards will help you solidify it more. Here are some things that you can include in this section:

• certifications


• licenses


• awards (industry specific, leadership, etc.)


• publications.


• grants


• academic honors


• scholarships


• work-related projects

Step 8. Show Some Personality

The above sections will already be expected by hiring managers. This gives them vital information to know if you're qualified for the job. But it won’t really show much of your personality. What if you aren’t a good fit culturally?

Add this section to help you stand out in your resume PowerPoint. Here are some suggestions to include:

• volunteer positions


• professional affiliations


• languages


• hobbies and interests


• personal projects

Step 9. Write a Complementary Cover Letter

In traditional resume templates, a cover letter isn’t really mandatory. But, it’s also a great tactic to make sure you stand out from the rest of the applicants. You don’t need a lengthy letter. Recruiters are too busy to read that.

Instead, write a cover letter to say the things that you can’t place normally in the above sections. Don't tell things that hiring managers can read in your resume. Use your cover letter to connect to the recruiters on an emotional level.

Step 10. Proofread, Save & Email Your Resume Correctly

You've created your resume PowerPoint, but are you confident you didn’t miss out anything? Don’t rush sending it off. You still have to make sure you've got things in order. From misspellings, grammar up to formatting–you've got to double-check your drafted resume PowerPoint prior to emailing it out.

It's also important to edit and remove any unnecessary things that you've included. Length isn't important. Being concise is the key. Also, aside from PowerPoint, consider saving it in PDF format and in online places like LinkedIn or SlideShare.

Professional and Creative PowerPoint Resume Templates

You can find a lot of PowerPoint resume templates out there but finding quality ones is the challenge. Here's a list of beautifully designed creative resume templates PowerPoint to save the day.

However, aside from knowing how to make a resume on PowerPoint, you shouldn't discount your traditional resume at all. It should also be a priority. Plus, a traditional resume doesn't have to look traditional too. Envato Elements has curated the best contemporary looking traditional resume templates for convenience.

Here are some of our top traditional resume templates:

• 
  Resumes
  
  
  Best in 2019: 25 Professional Resume Design Templates (Cool + Modern)
  
  
  Andrew Childress

Download a PowerPoint Resume Template & Get Started on Your PowerPoint Resume

When applying for a job, you should be able to impress your hiring manager when they look at your resume. While a traditional resume will suffice, it won’t really give them a taste of who you are and your personality.

A well-edited and beautifully designed resume PowerPoint will help you stand out from the rest of the job hunters. There are unlimited PowerPoint resume templates within your reach so you won’t waste your time designing your resume. And of course, there are plenty of top-notch traditional resume templates available as well.