How to Write a Resume When English is a Second Language

Have you ever felt like your resume is not good enough because English is not your first language? We all have been there. Listen, don’t sweat it. 

There are two areas that you should mainly focus your attention in writing, the summary profile and the experience section. 

  • Summary Profile

This is a short paragraph about yourself. It is 2-3 sentences highlighting your relevant experience, area of expertise, and most proud accomplishment. This is not an objective section. Don’t write an objective on your resume, they already know why you are applying for the role. 

  • Accomplishment Bullet Points

Under the experience section, you will have to highlight relevant experience in bullet point forms. Each experience should have no more than 5 bullet points. Each bullet point will feature your accomplishment with quantifiable impact and NOT just a responsibility performed. Add action verbs to emphasize the impact even more!

Lastly, for international talents out there, make sure you proofread your resume or have someone else look over it for you. One spelling or grammatical error can put off the reader, so make sure you avoid the rookie mistake. We recommend using Grammarly to proofread and check spelling & grammatical errors.  

Pro tips: check out this FREE paraphrase tool, Quillbot, to help you structure your sentences in multiple different creative ways! 

Don’t know where to start? Download a free template from Isempower by visiting our resources page.