Writing a Resume for Remote Jobs: What Employers Look For

A resume for a remote role has the same job as any resume: get you an interview. But the reader is looking for a few extra things, and is often in another country, reading your resume alongside applications from many places. Clarity wins.

What remote employers are looking for

• Clear written communication. Your resume is your first writing sample. Short, specific sentences signal that your Slack messages and documents will be readable too.
• Ownership. Things you drove from start to finish, not just tasks you were assigned.
• Outcomes. What changed because of your work: faster, cheaper, more users, fewer errors, a shipped feature, a closed deal.
• Experience working asynchronously or across time zones, if you have it.
• Tools they use: version control, project trackers, shared documents, video and chat tools.
• Where you are, what hours you can work, and on what basis you can be hired.

Start with location, time zone and work authorisation

Put this near the top, under your name and contact details. It answers the first screening question before the reader has to ask it, and it stops you being filtered out by a recruiter who assumes you need a visa.

Example: ‘Pune, India (IST, UTC+5:30). Open to remote roles as an employee via an Employer of Record or as a contractor. Available for 3–4 hours of overlap with European or US East Coast mornings.’

Write bullets that show outcomes

A useful pattern is: what you did, how, and what resulted. Use numbers only when they are true and you could explain them in an interview. These before-and-after examples are invented for illustration:

• Before: ‘Responsible for customer support tickets.’ After: ‘Handled email and chat support for customers in the UK and Australia; wrote 25 help-centre articles that became the team’s standard replies.’
• Before: ‘Worked on the backend team.’ After: ‘Built and owned the invoice export service; reduced month-end export failures by moving to queued background jobs.’
• Before: ‘Good communication skills.’ After: ‘Wrote weekly written status updates for a client team in Germany, replacing a daily call.’

Formatting for applicant tracking systems (ATS)

Many companies use applicant tracking systems that extract text from your resume into a form. Unusual layouts can scramble that text, and a human may then see a garbled profile. Keep it simple:

• Use a single-column layout. Avoid tables, text boxes, columns and graphics for important information.
• Use standard section headings: ‘Experience’, ‘Education’, ‘Skills’, ‘Projects’.
• Use a common font and normal font sizes. Do not put contact details in the page header or footer only.
• Write dates in a consistent format, such as ‘Mar 2023 – Present’.
• Save as PDF unless the application asks for another format, and check that you can select and copy the text in the PDF.
• Name the file clearly, for example FirstName-LastName-Resume.pdf.
• Mirror the job listing’s wording for skills you genuinely have. Do not paste in keywords you cannot back up.

What to leave out

Some details that are common on Indian resumes are not expected by most international employers, and some can invite bias. Unless a specific employer asks for them, you can usually leave out:

• A photograph.
• Date of birth, marital status, religion, father’s name and full home address (city and country are enough).
• A generic ‘objective’ statement. Replace it with a two-line summary of what you do and the kind of role you want.
• A declaration and signature at the bottom.
• Every school mark. Your highest qualifications are usually enough.

Aim for one page if you have a few years of experience, and two at most for longer careers.

Portfolio, code and writing samples

• Developers: link to a GitHub or similar profile with two or three projects that have a clear README explaining what the project does, how to run it and what you would improve.
• Writers and marketers: link to three to five published pieces, or a short portfolio page. Say what your role was in each piece.
• Designers: a portfolio with a few case studies explaining the problem, your process and the outcome beats a gallery of final screens.
• Analysts and operations roles: a short anonymised write-up of a project, or a public analysis on a dataset you chose.
• Respect confidentiality. Do not publish a previous employer’s code, client documents or internal data. Describe the work instead, or build a small public example.

A cover note you can adapt

Keep cover notes short. Many remote employers read them as a writing sample. Here is a template; replace everything in square brackets, and cut anything that does not fit.

Hi [name or team], I’m applying for the [role] position. I’m based in [city], India (IST, UTC+5:30), and can work [overlap hours] with your team. Over the last [period], I’ve [one specific, relevant achievement]. In this role I’d expect to [one thing from the job description you would do well, and why]. I’ve worked [remotely / with teams in other countries / asynchronously] by [one concrete habit, such as written handovers or weekly updates]. My portfolio is at [link]. I’m open to joining as [an employee via an EOR / a contractor]. Thanks for reading, [your name]

Final check before you send

1. Location, time zone and hiring basis are near the top.
2. Every role has at least one outcome, not just duties.
3. The PDF text can be selected and copied.
4. Links work and are not private.
5. No spelling mistakes in company names, including theirs.
6. You have checked that the role is open to people in India. See our guide on remote job eligibility.