How Many Bullet Points Per Job on a Resume Should You Include?

Have you ever been panicked about how to get a job? It's easy to lose sleep and feel worn out. Job searches can be stressful. Having the right resume can help with that.

To create an effective resume that impresses employers, it is necessary to know how many bullet points to include for each job on your resume. This can be tricky, as there are many ways to go about designing your resume. Many people offer advice and recommendations on this particular topic, but the confusing part is: They all have different suggestions.

This blog post walks you through expert resume recommendations and advice you should use to craft your resume and land the right job for you.

Bullet Points or Paragraphs on your Resume?

While the format of resumes has changed greatly over time as more and more job seekers make theirs visually appealing, bullet points have remained popular. Paragraphs are acceptable, but not recommended. It's standard to print a resume in bullet point format.

Why are bullet points more effective? Because recruiters are extremely busy employees, and bullet points allow them to process information quickly. It helps them quickly find important details without dealing with unnecessary fluff and words.

Think about it: when you’re reading a big chunk of text without bullet points, it takes more effort to find the important information. When you break up blocks of text with bullet points, it becomes a lot easier to find the highlights. It helps recruiters save time by avoiding picking through an entire paragraph.

How Many Bullet Points Per Job on a Resume?

Most employers will only read your resume for a few seconds before deciding whether or not to continue reading it. If they don't get a good sense of who you are and what you bring to the table in those first few seconds, they'll probably pass. Then, your experience won’t matter.

So how can you make a good impression? Include only the most relevant experience for the job you're applying for. That way, the employer immediately knows that you'd be an asset to their team and will want to learn more about you.

You want to keep your resume concise and focused so that employers can quickly get a sense of your experience and how it relates to their needs. So use the bullet points for each job to highlight only the most important responsibilities, projects, and achievements that are related to the role you're applying for.

There’s no golden rule, and you have a few options.

Option 1: Equal Amount of Bullet Points Per Job

Many resume experts recommend writing 3–6 bullet points per job, with each bullet point being 1-2 lines each. This formatting option features an almost-equal amount of bullet points per job.

Option 2: Most Recent Experience gets More Bullet Points

Another option is to highlight your most recent two job experiences, which are typically the most important and relevant in your career. For this formatting option, your two most recent jobs get 8 bullet points each. Afterwards, your next two jobs get 4 bullet points.

After that, all the rest of your job experiences should have no more than 10 bullet points altogether. Most hiring employers don’t care about super old jobs you had (unless they were instrumental in building your career). If the jobs are very old, or they weren’t at all related to your career, consider omitting them altogether.

Again: There’s no Hard and Fast Rule

Again, there’s no one specific number that applies for every single situation. Generally, stick with what's relevant. For example, if you have over 5 years of experience in your field, only include jobs that are related to your career path. Employers often don't want to see jobs you had in high school or college, unless those experiences directly relate to the position they're hiring for.

Also, narrow down on bullet points by avoiding repetition. Don't include bullet points describing the same or similar tasks. Make sure there’s no repetition on your resume, even if a lot of your jobs were similar. Highlight the differences.

Resume Bullet Point Examples

Before jumping into examples, here’s our top piece of advice: Add quantifiable data. Listing awards, certifications, and quantifiable data shows employers that you're a go-getter. It shows what you actually did. For example, instead of writing a bullet point that says, "Provided customer service,” write one that says, “Provided customer services for over 200+ guests a night.” That’s a quick way to showcase your quick skills and efficiency.

It’s hard to move forward with creating a resume without examples. We’re going to be illustrating more examples, just like the one above. Each example is for a random job, but focus on the fact that they all offer quantifiable data.

Here are some bullet point examples to model your resume after:

• Planned, marketed, and coordinated panels for audiences of 25–50 people on a monthly basis
• Increased attendance to events by 70%
• Grew email list by 30% in 3 months

Did you notice that these examples also showcase accomplishments, not responsibilities? Show how you helped and made a difference at your workplace, rather than just listing what your responsibilities were.

Creating a Resume is Challenging

Creating an attention-grabbing resume is so much more than just deciding the right amount of bullet points to include per job. For example, should they be written in present or past tense? What bullet points should you include? How can you give your resume a professional appearance? It can all be overwhelming.

Rocket Resume can help with building a resume crafted for your dream job. Craft your resume with Rocket Resume now!