Resume House Format

Contract

Enforce this exact house style on any resume you format, clean up, or reorganize. These are fixed conventions, not preferences — apply them even when the input uses a different (and common) form.

Rules

1. Section order (exactly this, top to bottom)

1. CONTACT block (name + contact line; no literal "CONTACT" header word)
2. PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY (only if the candidate provides one)
3. SKILLS
4. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
5. EDUCATION
6. CERTIFICATIONS (only if relevant)

SKILLS ALWAYS appears BEFORE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE. Never place Experience first, even though most resumes do.

2. Header vocabulary (exact words, ALL CAPS)

Map whatever the input calls a section onto the canonical header:

• PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY — never "Objective", "About Me", "Profile", "Summary of Qualifications".
• SKILLS or TECHNICAL SKILLS — never "Competencies", "Expertise", "Core Strengths", "Proficiencies".
• PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE or WORK EXPERIENCE — never "Work History", "Employment", "Career", "Career History", "Experience" alone.
• EDUCATION, CERTIFICATIONS, PROJECTS.

Every section header is UPPERCASE. Do not Title-Case ("Skills") or sentence-case them.

3. Contact block

Exactly three lines, in this order:

FULL NAME
email | phone | linkedin-url
City, State

• Line 2 is pipe-delimited with | between fields, in the order email, phone, linkedin (omit linkedin if not given; keep the rest pipe-delimited).
• Line 3 is City, ST with a two-letter state abbreviation. Convert a spelled-out state ("Colorado" → "CO").
• Never include a street address, photo, date of birth, or marital status.

4. Dates

Format every job and education date as Mon YYYY:

• Three-letter month abbreviation (Jan, Feb, Mar, … Dec) + 4-digit year.
• Ranges use - between endpoints: Jan 2020 - Mar 2023.
• A current role ends in Present: Feb 2022 - Present. Map "now", "current", "still there", "to present" onto Present.
• Never full calendar dates (March 15, 2019), never bare year ranges for jobs (2019-2021), never numeric 03/2019. Infer the month abbreviation from a numeric or written month.

5. GPA

List GPA ONLY if it is 3.5 or higher. If it is below 3.5, omit it entirely — do not include it with an apology or caveat. 3.5 itself qualifies (the threshold is inclusive).

6. Layout

Single column. No tables, no multi-column layouts, no images, no skill bars or progress indicators, no emojis.

7. File name

FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf, or FirstName_LastName_Resume_Role.pdf when a target role is given. Underscores between words, no spaces. Never include final, v2, (1), FINAL, or dates.

Worked examples

Rule 1 — Skills before Experience

BEFORE (base default — experience first):

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Nimbus Inc — Software Engineer ...
SKILLS
Java, Kotlin, AWS

AFTER (conforming):

SKILLS
Java, Kotlin, AWS

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Nimbus Inc — Software Engineer ...

Rule 2 — Header vocabulary

BEFORE: Objective, Work History, Competencies, Expertise kept as-is, Title-Cased. AFTER: PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY, PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE, SKILLS, SKILLS — all ALL CAPS canonical headers.

Rule 3 — Contact block

BEFORE (input: "Marcus Lee. 88 Birch Ave, Denver, Colorado 80014. marcus.lee@mail.com. 555-0100. linkedin.com/in/marcuslee"):

Marcus Lee
88 Birch Ave, Denver, Colorado 80014
marcus.lee@mail.com, 555-0100

AFTER:

MARCUS LEE
marcus.lee@mail.com | 555-0100 | linkedin.com/in/marcuslee
Denver, CO

Rule 4 — Dates

BEFORE → AFTER, each maps onto Mon YYYY:

• March 2020 to now → Mar 2020 - Present
• 01/2021 - 12/2022 → Jan 2021 - Dec 2022
• June 5 2018 - August 30 2021 → Jun 2018 - Aug 2021
• 2019-2022 → Jan 2019 - Dec 2022
• 05/2018 - 09/2020 → May 2018 - Sep 2020

Rule 5 — GPA threshold

BEFORE (input "GPA 3.1"): GPA: 3.1/4.0 printed in EDUCATION. AFTER: GPA line omitted entirely. BEFORE (input "GPA 3.7"): omitted. AFTER: GPA: 3.7 shown.

Rule 7 — File name

BEFORE: Emily Stone resume final.pdf or resume (1).pdf. AFTER: Emily_Stone_Resume.pdf (with a role: Emily_Stone_Resume_Engineer.pdf).

Edge cases & exceptions

• No summary given. Omit PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY entirely — do not invent one. The order skips straight to SKILLS.
• GPA exactly 3.5. Include it; the threshold is inclusive (3.5 qualifies, 3.49 does not).
• GPA like 3.55. Compare numerically: 3.55 ≥ 3.5, so include.
• Missing linkedin. Keep line 2 with email and phone pipe-delimited; do not leave a dangling | .
• State already two-letter (e.g. "FL"): keep it; only convert spelled-out states.
• "summer 2019" or other vague dates. If no usable month, keep the year and approximate to a month only when one is implied; never invent a precise day. Prefer the clearest Mon YYYY you can justify.
• City given without state, or vice versa. Output what you have on line 3; never fabricate a state.
• Multiple jobs, one current. Only the ongoing role ends in Present; past roles get explicit end months.

Do / Don't

• DO place SKILLS above PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE. DON'T lead with Experience.
• DO write headers in ALL CAPS canonical vocabulary. DON'T keep "Objective" / "Work History" / "Competencies".
• DO pipe-delimit the contact line. DON'T use commas or newlines between email/phone/linkedin.
• DO drop the street address. DON'T print "88 Birch Ave".
• DO write Mar 2020 - Present. DON'T write 03/2020, March 2020, or 2020-.
• DO omit a sub-3.5 GPA. DON'T include it "for completeness".
• DO name the file First_Last_Resume.pdf. DON'T append final/v2/(1).

Common mistakes the base makes

• Putting EXPERIENCE before SKILLS (the conventional resume order) — house style inverts it.
• Echoing the input's section words ("Objective", "Career History") instead of remapping to canonical headers.
• Title-casing headers ("Skills", "Professional Experience") instead of ALL CAPS.
• Keeping numeric or full-calendar dates because they were in the input.
• Including a GPA below 3.5 because the candidate supplied it.
• Preserving the street address from the raw contact line.
• Joining contact fields with commas rather than | .

Quick checklist

• ] Section order: CONTACT → (SUMMARY) → SKILLS → EXPERIENCE → EDUCATION → (CERTS)
• ] SKILLS above EXPERIENCE
• ] All headers ALL CAPS, canonical vocabulary
• ] Contact line pipe-delimited; City, ST; no street address
• ] Dates as Mon YYYY, current → Present
• ] GPA shown only if ≥ 3.5
• ] Single column, no tables/images
• ] File name First_Last_Resume.pdf, no version suffix