Writing a resume
What to put on a resume: enough for a parse, nothing that burns space
Put contact in the body, a short summary, reverse-chronology jobs with month-year dates, a Skills heading, and education. Skip photo, age, and references on a US file — Workday will ask later. One column and selectable text so Greenhouse can store the email before a human reads the proof.
Written by EnhanceCV Editorial Team·Editorial review: CPRW
Published August 27, 2026·Last updated August 27, 2026
Key takeaways
- · Contact, dated jobs, Skills, and education are the blocks Workday and Greenhouse actually map. Everything else must earn its lines.
- · Put phone and email in the body. A header, footer, or text box is the usual reason the extract comes back empty.
- · Skip photo, age, marital status, and “references available” on US files. The application form will ask if the employer needs them.
- · Proof beats hobbies. Three strong bullets on the relevant role beat a Interests block that eats the first screen.
- · Export selectable text, then check the parse before you upload.
The blocks a parser and a recruiter both need
Key takeaway: If Workday cannot hang a field on it, and a human cannot use it at 7 a.m. on a phone, it does not belong on the first page.
A resume is not a biography and not a form you fill for completeness. It is a one- or two-page argument that you can do this job. Workday, Greenhouse, Taleo, Lever, and iCIMS extract text and try to fill name, email, phone, employers, titles, dates, and education. If those pieces are missing, pretty, or labelled with a clever heading, the database search never finds you. The writing sequence lives in how to write a resume; this page is the inventory.
Start with contact in ordinary body text: name, city or region, phone, email, LinkedIn URL if you use it. No icons. No photo unless the country and the employer clearly expect one. US Workday pipelines usually do not. Then a short summary or, on a UK CV, a personal statement — three to five lines of title, setting, and one proof point, not a wish list. Comparison: resume objective vs summary.
Work experience comes next for almost everyone past a first job. Company, title, city, month and year. Reverse chronology. Three to five bullets on the most relevant role; older roles get two or a single line. How to write those lines: how to list experience and resume bullet points. Skills as its own heading — nouns you can defend, grouped, no star ratings. Education: degree, school, year. Details: how to list education and resume skills.
Optional extras that sometimes change the decision
- Licence, registration, or security clearance the posting names (NMC, QTS, CPA, CISSP).
- Selected projects when the job is the proof, not the employer brand — common in career change and early career.
- Languages with a real level (professional working Spanish), not “conversational” padding.
- Publications or a portfolio URL if a hiring manager would open it before the screen.
Layout: one column, standard headings, selectable text. Two-column templates and text boxes are how emails vanish — see resume format and ATS resume. If you write in Docs, Google Docs resume template covers export. Keep a master file with everything; upload the filtered version for this posting.
What to skip — and what Workday will ask later
Key takeaway: Space on page one is expensive. The application form is cheap. Do not print what the tenant will collect anyway.
References. “Available upon request” wastes a line every hiring manager already assumes. US employers who want names will ask in Workday or after a screen. Putting names and phone numbers on the PDF also exposes those people to every board you spam. Full treatment: references on a resume.
Photo, date of birth, marital status, national ID, and health data. Follow the country. In the US, skip them. In some EU and LATAM processes a photo is still common — and still risky for ATS extraction if it sits in a header image. Never put a headshot in a graphic Workday cannot parse as text.
Hobbies unless they are the job. “Reading, travel, music” tells Greenhouse nothing. A volunteer treasurer role with a named accounting tool can live under Experience or Projects. Otherwise cut. See hobbies on a resume.
The form will ask; the PDF should not repeat
- Workday often collects eligibility, salary, veteran status, and EEO fields after the file upload. Do not print them on the resume.
- Cover-letter boxes and “why this role” essays sit in the tenant, not in a second summary paragraph.
- Duplicate job entries: if you already typed employers in the form, still keep them on the PDF — recruiters open the file. Just do not add a third copy in a footer.
- A keyword dump of every noun in the posting. Taleo will ingest it; a human will skip you. Put nouns in bullets you can defend.
Length: under about eight relevant years, one page is enough. Mid-career proof can take two if the second page still earns it — resume length and mid-career resume. Padding with interests to “look complete” is how a hiring manager never reaches the line that would have gotten the screen.
Three lines people add that waste the first screen
Key takeaway: If a line could sit on anyone’s file, cut it or turn it into proof. Steal the pattern, not the facts.
Recruiters skim. They look for a verb, a number, and a tool. Footer habits and “complete” templates hide all three. Three rewrites from edits.
Before
References available upon request.
After
Cut the line. If a posting in Workday requires referee names, add them in the form field, not on the PDF you will post to every board.
Before
Interests: reading, travelling, cooking, and spending time with family.
After
Volunteer treasurer, 2023–present, neighbourhood association. Quarterly cash reports in Excel for a 40-household group. (Only if the posting cares about books or community finance — otherwise delete the whole block.)
Before
Photo in the header plus “Date of birth: 12 March 1994” and a full street address.
After
Name, City, ST, phone, email, LinkedIn in body text. No photo on a US Workday or Greenhouse file. Street address only if the employer’s country still expects it — city and region are enough for most US parses.
If you do not have a clean metric for a real bullet, use scope: team size, caseload, shift, systems. “Night coverage for a 32-bed unit” is a number. “Excellent communicator” is not. Keep resume action verbs next to this page while you rewrite.
Stop adding sections to look busy. A Skills heading plus dated jobs beats an “Awards / Hobbies / References / Objective” stack that pushes proof below the fold on a phone.
A 12-step inventory you can finish in one sitting
Key takeaway: Do the steps in order. Designing first is how people ship a complete-looking file Workday stores without a phone.
Block an hour with the job ad, your last resume, and a notes app. If you want a layout that already keeps contact in the body, start in the Enhance CV builder and paste facts as you go.
- Save the posting. Circle the title, five required skills, and every named tool or licence.
- New file. Name, city/region, phone, email, LinkedIn in the body — not in a header text box.
- Leave the summary blank. List roles reverse-chronologically with month-year dates Workday can tokenise.
- Under the most relevant role, draft messy bullets of work you actually did. Do not polish yet.
- Delete anything that does not help this posting. Move leftovers to the master file, not the footer.
- Rewrite remaining bullets as verb + object + number or tool.
- Add a Skills heading. Nouns you can defend. No stars. No prose paragraph instead of a list.
- Education: degree, school, year. Drop GPA unless you are early career and it helps. Drop “references available.”
- Optional extras only if they change the decision: licence, clearance, selected projects, languages.
- Cut photo, age, marital status, and hobby lists that are not the job. Follow country rules if they differ.
- Export selectable text. Open on a phone. Confirm the email is tappable and the first job still sits on page one.
- Paste resume and ad into the ATS checker. Fix contact and headings, then upload to Workday or Greenhouse and read autofill.
People invert steps 8–10. They add references and a photo to look finished, then wonder why the parse is empty. Inventory first. Decoration never.
If you are changing fields, keep chronology and add Selected projects rather than a functional cloud — career change resume. If you have no paid work yet, lead with a project that used the posting’s tools — resume with no experience.
Include, skip, or let the form ask
Key takeaway: Use this as a desk-side filter. If a choice is not in the table, ask: will Workday store it, and will a human still understand it on a phone?
Mixing these columns is how files get long and parses get empty. Name the bucket before you add a heading.
What belongs on the file versus what the tenant will collect
| Item | On the PDF | Skip or move |
|---|---|---|
| Contact | Name, city/region, phone, email in the body. | Header/footer text boxes; icons; photo on US files. |
| Summary | 3–4 lines of title, setting, one proof. | A long objective about growth; a UCAS-style essay. |
| Jobs | Reverse chronology, month-year, relevant bullets. | Every weekend job; duties copied from the old job description. |
| Skills | A real heading and a simple list of nouns you have. | Star bars; a stuffed footer repeating the posting. |
| Education | Degree, school, year. | Course lists once you have relevant jobs; GPA unless it helps. |
| References / photo / hobbies | Only when country or role clearly needs them. | Default US skip — Workday or email will ask later. |
Functional resumes that hide dates under skill clouds still appear in career-change advice. Greenhouse can parse them; humans distrust the timeline. Keep dates visible. For visual rules, stay with resume format.
Edge cases: country rules, licences, two pages, two fields
Key takeaway: The inventory stays. You only change which optional block earns a line.
Country. US: no photo, age, or marital status. UK and much of the EU: still no need for a photo on most private-sector ATS files; academic and public-sector packs may differ. If you keep a German tabular CV as a master, the Workday upload should still be a single column with mapped headings.
Licences. If the posting names a licence, put it near the top — summary or a Certifications heading — not only inside a buried bullet. Workday search uses those strings. Do not invent a status you do not hold.
Two target fields. Two files. LinkedIn can be broader; the upload cannot. The version you submit should not make the recruiter guess which person you are this week.
Student or internship. Projects and clinical rotations that used the posting’s tools beat a coursework dump. Pair with student resume and internship resume.
What to do next today: pick one posting, run the 12 steps, cut one skip-list item, then score the file. If the checker flags a missing email or a heading Workday will not map, fix that before you add another section. The Enhance CV home page returns you to the builder and the checker.
Name the export FirstLast_Role.pdf or .docx so the recruiter and the tenant log match. Then submit. If the checker still flags a missing heading, rename it before you add another optional block.
FAQ
What should you put on a resume first?
Contact in the body, then a short summary, then the most relevant experience. Education goes first only when you are a new graduate and the degree is the main qualification. Skills can sit after experience so the nouns still appear in context.
Do you need references on a resume?
Almost never on the PDF. US hiring managers assume you can provide them. Workday or an email after the screen will ask if they need names. Printing “available upon request” only burns a line. See references on a resume.
Should you put a photo on a resume?
Follow the country. In the US, skip it. In some EU and LATAM processes it is still common — and still risky if it lives in a header image Workday cannot parse as text. Never let the photo replace a selectable email.
What should you not put on a resume?
Photo, age, marital status, and national ID on US files; hobby lists that are not the job; a references line; keyword footers; two-column text boxes. Also skip anything you cannot defend in a screen. Taleo will not save you in the interview.
Do hobbies belong on a resume?
Only when they are evidence for this posting — a volunteer treasurer role with Excel, a public GitHub, a coaching licence. “Reading and travel” does not help Greenhouse search. Full guidance: hobbies on a resume.
How many jobs should you list?
The roles that help this posting, usually the last 10–15 years. Merge very short gigs at the same employer. You do not owe every weekend job from college unless it teaches a tool in the ad.
Will Workday ask for information that is not on the resume?
Yes. Eligibility, salary, EEO, and sometimes referees sit in the form after parse. Put proof on the PDF; answer the form honestly. After upload, read every autofilled field — how to upload a resume to Workday.
How do you check the inventory still parses?
Select-all in the PDF. If contact does not highlight, fix layout first. Then run the Enhance CV ATS checker against the posting for contact, dates, headings, and noun gaps. Fix those, then apply.
Build the inventory in a layout parsers already map
Open the Enhance CV builder, keep your facts, and cut the lines that do not help this posting. Then score the file against the ad.