How to Write a Winning Work At Home Job Resume (Including a Template)

There are many reasons people struggle to get a work-at-home telecommuting job. One is that they don’t look for the right jobs in the right places. Another is that they don’t send a work at home job resume that stands out to employers.

How Can Your Resume Make or Break Your Telecommuting Job Search

Most people don’t take the time to tweak their work at home resume to fit what the employer wants. Instead they send the same generic resume to every job announcement. If you’ve ever been on a a hiring committee, you know that these types of resume are not only boring, but are more likely to have you end up in a “possible hire” pile instead of “we need to talk to this person” pile. I hired a freelancer immediately after earmarking several possibilities because he targeted his resume to my needs.

 

What’s In a Winning Work At Home Job Resume?

It’s important to understand that resumes are not boring documents that list your skills and experience. They are marketing tools that sell you as the solution to the employer’s problem. To do that, you need to match your skills and experience to directly meet the needs of the employer. Here’s how:

1. What is the employer asking for? While most job announcements list an over all job title, such as “virtual assistant” or “customer service,” in most cases, there are variations in what employers say they want or need in a worker. For example, they might want you have specific knowledge, experience, or equipment that other employers with the same job don’t ask for.
2. What industry is the employer in. The more you can show an employer that you know and understand what he wants and needs, the more you’ll stand out. By doing some research on the industry to understand what the company does and who it provides it to (what is the company’s market), you can tailor your resume to show your knowledge of the industry. For example, if you want to be a virtual assistant and you see a job announcement from a Realtor, learn a little bit about the real estate industry so you can talk about how your skills work in real estate.
3. Highlight your skills and experience that fit the job in your resume and cover letter, with only a reference to non-job related work. Depending on your work history, you may have a ton of work experience that has nothing to do with the job you’re applying too. Because you want to keep your resume to one page, you want to make sure you focus mostly on the skills and experience that the job needs, with only a mention of other experience.
4. Include a cover letter/email intro that focuses on your most qualified skills and experience. You have one chance to get an employer to look at your resume, so make sure you start off with a bang.
5. Use basic text for your resume and cover letter, especially if you’er pasting the information in an email or online. Formatting, such as bullets, bold, tabs, etc don’t email or format online line well. If you’re uploading or attaching a resume document (never attach a resume to email unless you’re asked to), you can use formatting.

Work At Home Cover Letter/Resume Checklist

Now that you have an idea of what you need to do, here’s how to do it.

1. Print out or write down the major skills and experience the job announcement asks for. If it wants a specific typing speed, write that down. If it wants a set number of years of experience, write it down. Note that you might not meet all requirements, but if you meet many of them, especially the important ones, you should be able to compete for the job.
2. Match your skills and experience to what the employer is asking for. If it wants someone who types 60 words a minute and you can do that, it’s a match.
3. If you have experience in the same industry, that is a match. If you don’t have experience in the industry, do a little research so you can at least write about it in your cover letter to show you understand what the company is about.
4. Note the name of the person you need to contact if it’s provided.

Work At Home Cover Letter Template

At the end of the samples below, I provided a link to an article on writing a resume for a work-at-home job and a video tutorial on how to prepare an email-friendly resume (because you never want to send your resume as an attachment or paste from Word).

Email Subject Line: Application: Job Title

Your Name
Your Address
Your Phone
Your Email
(optional: LinkedIn Profile URL or online portfolio)

Date

Salutation with Name of Hiring Person (if you can find it). (i.e. Hello Ms. Smith,)

I’m applying to the position of (Position title) at (Company name).

I have (x years) of experience as a (position) in (industry – if it’s a match). (Add specific info about you that matches the job, such as “I type 60 words a minute” or “I’ve used Excel to organize and analyze data for x years”).

(Other experience or information that directly related to the job, such as education, other jobs, awards etc).

I have a dedicated home office equipped with high speed Internet and security (and any other equipment the job asks for).

I have included my resume below.

Please let me know if you need further information.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Work At Home Resume Template

List your most recent experiences first. If you have a job experience that doesn’t relate to the job you’re applying for, you can simply list the date, company, and job title.

Your Name
Your Address
Your Phone
Your Email
(optional: LinkedIn Profile URL or online portfolio)

Date Company – Job Title

– Duties
– Duties

Date Company – Job Title

– Duties
– Duties

Date Company – Job Title

Education
Date Degree, College or University
Date Certification, Organization

Skills

– Skill 1 related to job
– Skill 2 related to job

Work At Home Cover Letter/Email Intro & Resume Samples

Work At Home Cover Letter/Email Intro

Sally Sue
123 Address
Phone
Email

Date

Hello Ms. Smith

I’m applying to the position of Real Estate Assistant posted on Career Site, January 21.

I worked as an office assistant for 15 years, writing business letters, keeping spreadsheets of clients, and managing my boss’ calendar.

I have a dedicated home office with a computer that has the most recent version of MS Word and Excel, Skype for video calls, and I’m familiar with Slack for collaborative project management.

I have included my resume below.

Please let me know if you need further information.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Sally Sue

Work At Home Resume

Sally Sue
Address
Phone
Email

Job Objective: Real Estate Assistant

2009 to Present – Administrative Assistant, ABC Company
– Draft business letters to clients
– Managed database of clients
– Managed calendar
– Handled correspondence and customer assistance.

2005 – 2009 Customer Service Manager, DEF Company

Education
1988 BA Psychology, Go University, Town, State

Skills
Writing
Fluent Spanish

___________ End Sample ___________

Emailing Your Work At Home Job Resume

Once you’re ready to submit your resume, make sure your submission reaches the other end intact by sending it correctly. Emailing and copying/pasting into online forms can be tricky from a word processing program. You risk all sorts of things going wonky. Here is a video on how to prepare your resume for emailing or pasting online.

For information on how to create an email-friendly resume, check out this video tutorial: