Self-Employed Resume Example & Writing Guide

The employment landscape has shifted in the past few years to facilitate more remote and freelance work. It’s not uncommon for individuals to start their own businesses or seek employment after being self-employed for a while. In the second case, you need a strong self-employed resume to impress recruiters.

In this detailed guide, we’ll explore the intricacies of crafting one such document. You’ll learn how to emphasize your skills and experience and convince potential employers that you don’t have gaps in employment but an extensive professional history. 

Best Format to Use For a Self-Employed Resume

There are three commonly used self-employed resume formats that bring job-seekers the most success:

Self-Employed Resume Layout

The purpose of a resume layout is to create a pleasant visual experience and ensure that the details of the document are easy to read. You can achieve that by following these guidelines:

Self-Employed Resume Sections

No matter your qualifications, every self-employed resume needs to have these five sections:

You can also boost your chances with recruiters by including optional sections, like:

If this is your first time writing a resume or all this sudden information looks daunting, you’re welcome to use our resume builder. It features pre-built templates created by professionals to ensure they have all the necessary parts.

Further, you can adjust every template to your liking to include and remove optional sections, add your information in preset places, change font and color, and more. The process is so simple and intuitive that you can have a self-employed resume ready and downloaded in minutes!

Here’s a self-employed resume template to show you the potential of our resume builder and to help you visualize what the final product should look like:

How to Include Contact Information in Your Self-Employed Resume

Contact information goes at the top of your resume in its header. It’s a clear-cut section that’s all about precise data. The details to include are:

Based on your profession and the job ad, you can include additional information, like:

Let’s see that in practice:

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing this section:

How to Write an Ideal Self-Employed Resume Objective/Summary

An objective and summary are catchy introductory paragraphs written to grab the attention of recruiters and potential employers. You can think of them as brief and impactful descriptions of your self-employed resume.

Inexperienced applicants should write a self-employed resume objective to highlight their motivation, skills, and career goals. On the flip side, seasoned professionals should sum up their careers through a resume summary, mentioning a couple of key accomplishments.

Emerging Self-Employed Software Engineer Resume Objective

If you haven’t been in the field for long and you have little to no professional history, a resume objective will help you portray yourself as an eager candidate with a lot of potential.

Here’s a good example:

On the other hand, if you don’t include any concrete information, you’ll get a bland resume objective, like in the next example:

Established Self-Employed Graphic Designer Resume Summary

As an established professional, you want to highlight some of your most impressive accomplishments from the start.

Here’s a good example of a self-employed resume summary:

Compare that to this bad resume summary where the candidate showed no proof of their competence:

Self-Employed Resume Professional Experience

A professional experience section is usually the most important one in any resume. Since you’re a self-employed individual, this part gives you the opportunity to showcase your past work and, through it, emphasize your competence. Let’s find out how to make this section perfect.

General Tips

Every work experience section should follow this format when listing past endeavors:

Of course, when you’re listing self-employed or freelance work, there likely won’t be a company to name. Still, you should accurately include your professional titles and periods of employment (because of both recruiters and the ATS) while listing past jobs in reverse-chronological order.

The key part of this section is the accomplishment list. Here’s how you can make it stand out:

Work History Section for Self-Employed Individuals With Little Experience

If you haven’t been self-employed for long and you lack a work history, you can leverage other endeavors to craft an engaging professional experience section. This includes personal projects, volunteer work, internships, and more.

Here’s an example:

Experienced Self-Employed Individual

Experienced self-employed candidates likely have multiple valuable skills that recruiters want to see. Running your own business (even if it ultimately fails) is particularly impressive as it involves specific abilities, strong motivation, and impressive drive.

Here’s an example:

Freelance Self-Employed Individual

As a freelancer, you’ve likely worked with numerous clients on many different projects. You should highlight that diversity to portray yourself as a versatile, multi-skilled, and accomplished individual.

Here’s an example:

Self-Employed Resume Education Section

The education section for most candidates should be brief, and it should simply feature your highest degree. Here’s an example:

If you have limited work experience, you can put more emphasis on your education to validate your skills and competence. In that case, you can add a bullet point list under your degree that can feature notable academic achievements, relevant coursework, projects, high GPA, and various other accomplishments.

You can even include multiple degrees (e.g., a bachelor’s degree under your master’s degree). However, if you have higher education, you should avoid listing your high school degree, as it’s considered redundant.

Self-Employed Resume Skills

Self-employed resume skills are generally the second most important section after professional experience. After all, skills and experience go together to paint a complete picture of the candidate’s competence and qualifications. 

The skills in your resume need to be the ones recruiters are looking for. For instance, you might not want to emphasize your writing skills when applying for a video editor position. That’s why you should research the company and read the job ad. After that, cross-reference the requirements with your skill set and include them in a dedicated section.

Furthermore, it’s important to make a distinction between hard and soft skills. Hard skills are highly technical and usually specific to a certain career or position. They are the first thing recruiters and potential employers are going to look for.

On the other hand, soft skills are transferable and usually obtained through experience. They might not be essential for the role, but many employers still hire candidates based on them. That’s why these skills should be listed separately from hard skills.

Self-Employed Individual Hard Skills

Which hard skills you should list on your resume depends on the position that you’re going for. For instance, a graphic designer might list some of the following abilities:

On the other hand, a web developer might want to list skills like:

Self-Employed Individual Soft Skills

Highlighting soft skills is especially important for self-employed individuals, as they commonly work alone. That’s why you want to show potential employers that you have strong interpersonal skills that can help you fit in with their team or work with clients. Some of the most sought-after soft skills include:

Self-Employed Resume: Other Sections

Optional sections can transform a strong resume into a fantastic one. As long as you have some room left after including all the mandatory information, you should consider adding some of the sections that we’re about to examine.

Awards

Awards are a recognition of excellence, and they are perfect for adding credibility to your competence. They demonstrate that you’ve achieved outstanding results and that the peers in your field acknowledged that.

Personal Projects

Personal projects are particularly important for self-employed individuals and can be just as impactful as professional history. On the one hand, they are a testament to the hard skills and knowledge required to work in the field. On the other hand, they indicate passion, creativity, initiative, and many other valuable soft skills and traits.

Conferences/Lectures

Participation in conferences or lectures shows that you’re up-to-date with the latest trends and happenings in the industry. It speaks of your networking capabilities and indicates that you’re engaged with the community. Furthermore, you should mention if you were a lecturer or a speaker, as that demonstrates additional abilities, such as communication and leadership.

Publications

Having relevant publications positions you as an authority in the field. Anything from blog articles to publications in professional magazines shows that you have extensive knowledge of the topic and strong communication skills to propagate it.

Languages

Language skills can be essential in today’s globalized economy and international workspaces. They help you communicate with a broader range of clients and coworkers while being more culturally aware, leading to improved outcomes. That’s why you should list all languages you’re proficient in, starting with the highest one.

Hobbies & Interests

A brief mention of some of your hobbies and interests can help you stand out among the competition and make you more memorable to recruiters. It’s even better if they are related to your profession, as that shows that you’re truly passionate about your craft.

Do I Need to Include a Cover Letter as a Self-Employed Individual?

If you want to maximize your chances of getting an interview, you should submit a tailored cover letter with your self-employed resume. It’s another brief document (250–400 words) that gives you the opportunity to go into more detail about your skills and qualifications. Moreover, it shows that you’re a hardworking individual who goes the extra mile to complete your goals.

3 Expert Strategies for Crafting a Self-Employed Resume

Let’s finish with three expert tips that are bound to help you perfect your self-employed resume:

Self-Employed Resume Example

Use this example

Before we conclude the article, here's a complete self-employed resume example to guide you while making yours.

Closing Thoughts

Self-employed job descriptions have changed over the years. Today, you can do almost anything as a self-employed professional, freelancer, or business owner. However, if you decide to join a company and become a part of a larger team, this guide will help you craft a resume that will impress them with your qualifications.

The skills and experience you obtained during your time as an unaffiliated professional are guaranteed to convince many recruiters to call you over for an interview. This guide will simply guide you toward achieving that. Best of luck job-hunting!