Top Resume Trends in 2025: Emerging Best Practices Explained

Resume trends are leading practices for creating resumes that yield job seekers the most success. They help candidates capture the attention of recruiters and employers before conveying valuable details about their skills and qualifications.

In this article, we’ll explore the trends that work best in the contemporary business market. We’ll tackle aspects like using artificial intelligence and optimizing your resume to pass the ATS scan. On top of that, we’ll go through some of the outdated practices that you should avoid to maximize your chances of success. Let’s dive right in!

The Evolution of Resumes: From Paper to Digital

Resumes were first typed paper documents delivered by hand or via mail. They mostly represented chronological lists of candidates’ work history written to demonstrate their competence.

When the digital age came, it changed how many things in the recruitment field are done, introduced many new professions, and brought new resume trends. Professionals turned to more convenient methods, like sending their resumes as bodies of text in emails, before turning to standalone documents (e.g., PDF or DOC).

The latest trends in resume writing involve leveraging artificial intelligence for assistance and using specific techniques to optimize for applicant tracking systems. This ensures that a resume both grabs the attention of a human reader and passes the software screening process.

Top 7 Resume Trends Dominating 2025

Let’s explore current resume trends that can help you get the most out of your document. These are helping job seekers secure interviews and land dream jobs by making their resumes professional, well-designed, and eye-catching.

#1. AI-Optimized Resumes for Applicant Tracking Systems

Using AI to optimize your resume is one of the best ways to make it compatible with applicant tracking systems (ATS). This is because artificial intelligence can analyze every aspect of your resume to help you fine-tune it or provide suggestions for a complete overhaul.

Many employers, especially large companies that receive countless applications, use ATS to filter resumes and help recruiters be more efficient. Software scans resumes to look for relevant keywords, proper formatting, and more.

ATS-optimized resumes need to have the specific sections, an established format, and a compelling layout. Plus, they need to be tailored to the job description and the company. Artificial intelligence can do all those adjustments for you, ensuring you get the perfect document.

#2. Interactive and Digital Portfolio Elements

Digital resumes and portfolios made it possible to include interactive elements with which the viewer can engage in a resume. This is prominent in creative and technical fields, where professionals often have personal websites and online projects to highlight.

While standard PDF resumes remain the norm, they can have links to interactive portfolios where inventive professionals can develop entire experiences. That way, instead of just describing their work, they can show it.

For instance, Bruno Simon created an entire browser-based video game that visitors can play to review his projects. Interactive elements keep recruiters engaged, making sure they spend more time analyzing your work and considering you as a viable candidate.

#3. Skills-Based Over Chronological Formatting

While the chronological resume format was (and still is) one of the most common options, skill-based formatting is becoming increasingly popular. This is also referred to as the functional resume format, and it emphasizes a candidate’s skills over their experience.

Many professionals who have gaps in their employment or are changing careers are jumping on this resume format trend. It allows them to showcase abilities and emphasize versatility rather than focus on past employment to demonstrate competence.

However, some recruiters can be wary of functional resumes, and the format isn’t compatible with all ATS systems. As such, hybrid options, like the combination resume format, offer a good middle ground between the chronological and functional formats.

#4. Personal Branding Statements Over Objectives

Resume objectives give job seekers a chance to introduce themselves, point out their abilities, and underscore their career goals. However, recruiters can see them as generic and outdated, which is why more and more professionals opt for concise personal branding statements.

These statements have the same purpose as objectives and resume summaries and also help differentiate you from the other candidates. You should use them to emphasize your vision and experiences in unique projects that will demonstrate to recruiters how you can excel as a member of their team.

#5. Quantifiable Achievements vs. Job Descriptions

Merely describing your past jobs and everyday assignments isn’t enough to impress recruiters anymore. Instead, you want to showcase concrete results to highlight the impact that you can make.

The best way to achieve that is to include quantified achievements whenever possible. This means adding specific results with concrete numbers and statistics to back them up. For instance, instead of saying “Managed social media accounts,” you can write “Boosted social media engagement for a client by 35% across three different platforms.”

Exact numbers, percentages, and other quantifiable data add measurable value to your efforts, showing how you saved time, cut costs, increased revenue, and more.

#6. Customized Designs for Different Industries

A generic resume design is not as effective as it used to be. By having an industry-tailored resume layout, you aren’t just creating an attention-grabbing document; you’re demonstrating an in-depth knowledge of your field.

Contemporary resume design trends still mandate your document to be clean, professional, and organized. However, you can include subtle aesthetic elements relevant to the industry to set yourself apart from the competition.

For instance, if you’re in a creative field (e.g., when making a graphic design resume), you can opt for a touch of color and a modern sans-serif font. On the other hand, professionals in traditional roles (e.g., for a paralegal resume) should go for a minimal look and a serif font.

#7. Soft Skills Emphasis and Emotional Intelligence

While job-specific hard skills remain essential in most professions, soft skills are gaining more traction. Employers know that professionals with a robust set of these abilities can be more efficient, collaborative, and adaptable in dynamic environments.

Skills like communication, time management, organization, problem-solving, and leadership are in demand in various industries and at every position in the employment hierarchy.

However, since soft skills are hard to prove, it’s best to demonstrate them through examples. For instance, you can mention a relevant skill next to an accomplishment in the work experience section of your resume.

5 Outdated Resume Practices to Avoid

Not all resume trends are beneficial to your job-hunting efforts. Some outdated practices can do more harm than good, so let’s see some examples of resume trends you should avoid.

#1. Generic "One-Size-Fits-All" Resumes

Creating a generic resume might look like a good idea from an efficiency standpoint, but it will significantly reduce your chances of impressing recruiters. Not only that, but generic resumes can run into issues with the ATS scan, so you might not even pass the initial stage of the hiring process.

Instead, your resume needs to show that you’re the best person for the specific role that you’re applying for. This means you should research the company and analyze the job ad to figure out which skills and achievements recruiters are looking for.

Moreover, tailoring your resume to the role shows that you’re genuinely interested in it and willing to go the extra mile to get it.

#2. Lengthy, Text-Heavy Documents

Recruiters often skim through resumes, sometimes spending just a few seconds on each until they find the one that grabs their attention. Because of that, they will most likely skip lengthy resumes that offer too much information.

That’s why most resumes should be one page long. You want to go for quality over quantity and ensure that every bit of information about your skills and qualifications relates to the job that you’re applying for. A concise resume packed with valuable details will almost always outperform a text-heavy, multi-page document.

#3. Including References or "References Available Upon Request"

Listing references on your resume is an outdated practice that, in most cases, only takes up valuable space on the document. Employers who want references will specifically ask for them, at which point you should provide them in a separate document for privacy reasons.

Even adding a “references available upon request” line is considered obsolete and unprofessional. Instead, you should use the available space in your resume to list additional skills and accomplishments relevant to the job you’re applying for.

#4. Unprofessional Email Addresses and Social Media

Having an unprofessional email address and social media handles in the contact information section of your resume is a red flag to recruiters. It indicates that you’re not serious about your job application or your profession in general.

If you’re still using an old, informal, or otherwise unprofessional email address, you should create a new one. For best results, you can follow simple formats, like “firstname.lastname@email.com.”

The same goes for your social media profiles. Since many recruiters perform social media background checks, it’s vital to polish your profiles and keep them professional. This includes updating your bio and making sure that your publicly visible posts and comments are appropriate.

#5. Generic or Clichéd Language

Using resume buzzwords and clichés often doesn’t add value to your document, but is seen as unnecessary and vague. Overused phrases like “hard worker” and “go-getter” lack specific meaning and don’t do anything in terms of describing your actual competence.

Instead, you can moderately use action verbs and power words to strengthen your writing and better describe your accomplishments. Make sure to always add them next to quantified accomplishments to demonstrate your competence instead of just making unsubstantiated claims.

How Hiring Managers Evaluate Resumes in 2025

In 2025, hiring managers typically evaluate resumes briefly and often with the assistance of ATS. An eye-tracking study conducted in 2012 showed that they often assess resumes in only 7.4 seconds. This means the resume you spent hours writing and polishing usually only has moments to grab their attention.

Here are some of the details they are most likely to focus on:

By optimizing these aspects of your resume, you’ll maximize your chances of grabbing the recruiter’s attention. Then, you should focus on improving the following aspects that influence their decision-making the most:

Tools to Keep Your Resume Up-to-Date

Specialized tools and AI-powered software updated to align with the latest resume trends can help you effortlessly craft job-winning documents. Our resume builder is a tailor-made platform for designing documents that grab human attention and pass ATS screening.

The platform comes with ready-made resume templates that follow trends in formatting, designing, and writing. That way, you’ll always get the most impactful and relevant resume possible.

While you can look at some current resume examples and create exceptional documents from scratch using software like Google Docs and Microsoft Word, a specialized resume builder is easier to use, faster, and more accurate.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to using it:

Final Thoughts

Following the latest resume trends and avoiding outdated practices is vital in helping you impress recruiters and land a job interview. By using a current resume format, optimizing for ATS, quantifying your achievements, and subtly designing your document to match the industry you’re in, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition from the get-go.

To make the process much more straightforward, you can use our resume builder and design tailor-made, trendy documents in minutes. That way, you’ll effectively communicate your skills, experiences, and value, and maximize your chances of getting a callback and landing the role of your dreams!