First step is the research! But why do you need to do research?
Researching your role, job postings, job title, industry and potential employers allows you to get an insight on the current trends and job market scenario. Having explored it all, you will know how to present your profile in the most efficient manner.
Once you have done the research, you need to choose the resume format.
The formats & templates
There are various professional formats that you can choose from:
- Functional: It is suitable for the freshers and the recent graduates because is focuses on the skills and education section.
- Reverse chronological: It is suitable for the seasoned professionals or even the professionals who have significant experience or work history because it focuses on the experience section.
- Combination or hybrid: Combination of above two, this format is suitable for the professionals who are looking for the career change.
Once you have chosen the format, you can choose the template that seems the most suitable and visually appealing for your warehouse associate resume. There are many templates such as minimalist, traditional, modern and so on, you can explore them online.
Contact information (formal)
On the top of your warehouse associate resume, you will have the contact information section that must be written in utmost formal manner-meaning- with the most accuracy!
Your contact information section should begin with your name in slightly bigger fonts. Next you need to mention your contact number with area code, your professional email address, your LinkedIn profile link if you have an updated LinkedIn profile and you are active on LinkedIn, your professional headshot in formal attire and your home address.
From the above listed details, your photograph and the home address are not mandatory, you can choose to not include them on your warehouse associate resume.
To emphasize, make sure the information is accurate because otherwise the recruiter will not be able to contact you for interview.
Summary statement
Profile summary or resume summary is where you need to highlight your best skills, most important aspects of your warehouse associate experience or work history and the achievements.
First you need to mention your role or the job title such as Warehouse associate or Warehouse Assistant. This job title is the roles you have already had, the role you are applying for may be different (i.e. You have been warehouse assistant and now you are applying for warehouse associate, mention warehouse assistant in your summary section in the place of role or your professional job title).
Next, you need to write about 3 to 5 bullet points, no more and no less, on information such as your total years of experience or professional career, your most notable achievements or the job responsibilities that you have handled impeccably and the relevant warehouse associate skills that helped you do it all.
You need to remember that summary section is only for your top skills and the most important parts of your work history, you need to leave out extra information or the information that is relevant but not all that important or information that must be highlighted. You can include all the other information later on in your experience section, the summary section is only for most important information on your profile.
At last, you need to mention what kind of opportunity you are looking for and how you will leverage your skills, experience and knowledge to contribute to your next employer's success. You can also mention something positive (i.e. Seeking opportunities to leverage my skills while also learn new skills to expand my skill set).
Experience section
Warehouse associate resume examples will show you how various professionals write their experience sections. The common theme you may notice is the experience sections written with the use of bullet points.
While describing your work history, you need to use the reverse chronological order meaning you begin from your latest job and walk back to your first job. While describing each experience, you need to mention your job title at particular job, the employer's full name or the employer company's full name, the period of time for which you worked at the particular job with the company.
The details of your experience at each job should be all-inclusive meaning you need to mention everything. From having handled pallet jack to having done inventory management and everything in between. You need to include every single task and responsibility of the job, regardless of how mundane or obvious it may seen to you because it will showcase your tendency to be thorough.
(Source: IBIS World)
You should also include your respective skills for each task and responsibilities. In addition to these usual details, you need to mention any exceptional performances such as the results and success you may have achieved with your performance, any strategies or changes you made that resulted in improvement or success of any kind and also any exceptional skills that may not be specific for the warehouse associate role but helped you perform well nevertheless.
Education section
What are the chances that you have relevant education? Your education section is all about your educational background. Your high school diploma, your bachelor's degree and so on.
The likeliness of you having studied a directly relevant course is low because there are hardly any courses that would qualify as relevant education for the role of warehouse associate. So what do you?
You can always think of aspects and subjects of your education that may be relevant. For example, you might have studied engineering of various equipment used in warehouse, you might have studied statistics and math or economics, you might have studied administration or management, you might have studied supply chain management or economics theories on supply and demand.
You can mention your high school diploma, any degrees, the education institute (school or college or university) and mention the relevant subjects.
You can also mention any exceptional academic performances (GPA or grades or such). If you participated in any extra curricular activity that may be related to warehouse associate role, you can even include that on your education section.
In case your education section seems pretty dull and empty, you have the option of including online courses and programs. You can easily access various short term options online and acquire the certificates for the same upon completion, such details can also help you stand out.
You can also mention any training you may have had or any volunteer work experience that may be relevant and useful for the warehouse associate tasks and job duties.
Skills section
Warehouse associate skills are important for your professional resume and while you may have already mentioned the warehouse associate skill in your experience section, profile summary statement section and education section, the skills section on its own can also add value to your warehouse associate resume.
When you write the skills section, you list the skills in few words (2 or 3) and that means the the reader doesn't have to read through a sentence to find your skills, they are highlighted and catches attention quickly which makes them easy to comprehend.
The skills mentioned in experience, summary statement and education section may be mentioned as a backing evidence of other details such as warehouse associate duties and so on. The skills listed in the skills section are your top most skills that you are confident about.
You may have many skills but you cannot be equally talented and have same level of every skill. The list of skills in the skills section are your skills that make you confident and the ideal employee because they are your biggest strengths.
You need to choose warehouse associate skills from various skills section of warehouse associate resume examples and refer to many job postings to find out exactly which skills are the ones that the recruiters look for on your warehouse associate resume. These skills will be prioritized by the recruiter and they will look for them first and if you don't have these skills, it will decrease your chances of getting the job.
We have prepared a list of relevant skills for you that you can take advantage of for your own warehouse associate resume.
- Inventory management
- Transportation and delivery duties
- Managing delivery trucks
- Coordinating with warehouse associates
- Inventory control
- Communicating with the sales floor
- Supply chain management
- Warehouse operations
- Warehouse inventory
- Pallet jacks operation
- Operating pallet jack
- Handle warehouse equipment
- Communication skills
- Managing warehouse environment
- Unload trucks
- Unloading trucks
- Safety policies
- Customer satisfaction
- Organizational skills
- Working with warehouse assistant
- Monitoring inventory
- Quality assurance
- Operate heavy machinery
- Maintain records
- Managing delivery trucks
- Manage inventory levels
- Maintain company standards
- Maintain computer database
- Physical tasks
- Purchase orders
- Hand truck
- Problem solving
- Minor repairs
- Handle food products
In addition to using these skills listed above in your skills section, you can also use them for other sections of experience, summary statement and education.
Extra
In addition to the resume sections discussed until now, you may add extra sections if you have more relevant information that could increase your chances of standing out by adding more value to your warehouse associate resume.
Any information that is relevant could help you impress the recruiter. The fellow job applicants for the warehouse associate position are likely to have the experience and skills that you have and you need to offer something more, something different so that the recruiter can consider you when shortlisting the candidates.
Relevant information that you include can be the language proficiencies that might help you communicate better with your team and colleagues. You can also add relevant personal interests such as logistics, finances, management, administration or any other such areas that may be relevant for your role of warehouse associate.
You can also include any workshops, seminars, online courses and programs and any training that may have been relevant for the warehouse associate position and job duties.
References
What are references? The references are few of your past colleagues or superiors that you mention on your resume in the references section.
Warehouse associate is a role that requires many skills and certain attitude, approach and capabilities, some of which cannot be verified simply with text information on your warehouse associate resume.
The recruiter might try to get some reassurance and feedback from the people that have worked with you in the past so they can reassured that you will be a truly valuable addition to the team.
Your ability to lift heavy weights and managing inventory levels is valuable but what kind of an employee you will be is important as well. The references on your warehouse associate resume allows the recruiter to contact your colleagues from the past jobs and ask them all about you.
This means that you need to mention the people as references on you resume, that have positive views about you as a professional and would vouch for you in positive encouraging manner. You should not mention anyone that might have anything negative to say about you.
Having references also reflects how good an employee you are because it implies that there are people who have a lot of positive things to say about you and that means you must have been a really good employee and also a person to have on team.
When you mention the references, you need to let them know that they are mentioned along with their contact information on your warehouse associate resume.
While putting references on your warehouse associate resume, you need to mention their full name, their connection with you (supervisor at xyz company or colleague at xyz company or such) and their contact information. In the contact information you should mention their contact number with area code as well as their professional email address.
Tricking the ATS
You might have heard of applicant tracking systems or the ATS. The applicant tracking systems are basically software that runs on artificial intelligence. What it does is scans thousands of resumes and/or job applications (along with cover letters) and shortlists the most suitable ones for the hiring managers.
The scanning and shortlisting is done on the basis of the set parameters, parameters are set by the hiring managers. They usually use the relevant keywords and job description or job posting for the parameters setting. The ATS scans and filters the resumes that have the keywords.
If your warehouse associate resume has all the relevant keywords, your resume will beat the ATS and end up in shortlisted resumes pile, otherwise it might get rejected.
The relevant keywords can be noted down by doing some research on your role, your job duties, job ad, industry, potential employers and everything related to the same. You need to use these keywords on your warehouse associate resume in sensible and meaningful manner from the beginning to the end.
You should not stuff the keywords randomly anywhere, the repetition of the keywords should not exceed the sensible amounts. You need to make sure the readability of the warehouse associate resume is not compromised and the content reads seemingly.
In case you stuff the keywords randomly, the hiring manager is likely to figure it out and that would be unprofessional as this strategy of beating the ATS is supposed to be subtle.
If you think about it, using keywords should be very easy because the details of your profile such as your skills, your experience and job responsibilities will naturally consist the relevant keywords.
We have prepared a list of the relevant keywords that you can use for your own warehouse associate resume, in addition to the list of keywords below, you should pay close attention to the job ad and pick the keywords from the same for your resume.
Reason to take advantage of the job ad is that the content of the job ad is exactly what the hiring manager is looking for is likely to have used it as a parameter for resume scanning and filtering in the applicant tracking system or the ATS.
- Warehouse associate
- Warehouse worker
- Warehouse manager
- Inventory management
- Transportation and delivery duties
- Warehouse supervisor
- Warehouse associates
- Inventory control
- Warehouse associate position
- Sales floor
- Warehouse duties
- Warehouse inventory
- Pallet jack operation
- Warehouse equipment
- Warehouse position
- Unload trucks
- Communication skills
- Warehouse environment
- Unloading trucks
- Safety regulations
- Warehouse assistant
- Customer satisfaction
- Delivery trucks
- Operate heavy machinery
- Maintain records
- Inventory levels
- Personal computers
- Physical tasks
- Purchase orders
- Operate heavy machinery
- Operate forklift
- Stock room
- Microsoft excel
- Organizational skills
- Pallet jacks
- Complete orders
- Operate forklifts
- Hand truck
- Shipping orders
- Pallet movers
- Fork lift
- Problem solving
- OSHA compliance
- Shipping area
- Company standards
- Stock items
- Time management
- Minor repairs
- Food products
- Product quality
- Timely matter
- San Diego (Locations)
- Safety regulations
- Safety policies
You can also refer to warehouse associate resume examples to get more keywords that you might have missed out on.
Value of a cover letter
You must have read a number of job posting and job ad that describe the job description for the warehouse associate role, job ads also describe what all you need to apply for the job, filling out google forma or an application form on the employer's site, uploading your updated warehouse associate resume, providing cover letter and any other supporting documents or certificates.
Sometimes, the cover letters are mandatory to be uploaded in the job application however most of the times they are not demanded or are optional. You might think, 'well, if it is optional, it's not gonna matter!' But you may not know how a simple cover letter can make a huge difference.
When hiring managers get thousands of resumes and job applications, the information is only information with no context of what kind of person the job applicant is. When you write a cover letter, you get the chance to personalize the letter for the hiring managers and create an impression beyond simple information of your work profile.
Your cover letter can be used to include more keywords to beat the ATS even more efficiently than a warehouse associate resume with keywords might on its own. In addition to personalized letter body, you can also look up the hiring managers and address them directly to make the letter even more personal.
Your cover letter is your chance to get a bit informal and talk about your personal interest, journey, passion, dedication and reflect your genuine interest in the position and this can make a big difference in convincing the hiring managers that you are the right person for the job and should be hired. (or at least brought in for an interview)
You can also describe your experiences, skills, knowledge and your unique experiences and instances where you performed incredibly which will impress the hiring managers.
Bottomline is that you should write a cover letter along with your warehouse associate resume because it can make a huge difference, you can also personalize the cover letters for every job application, especially when you really want particular job or want to work with a particular company or employer.
Tips to make your resume a professional resume
There are certain characteristics of a professional resume that are defining and also expected by the hiring managers from a potential employee. You need to follow those guidelines because they are the bare minimum criteria for a professional resume.
- Use paste tense & third person
- Keep the length of resume 1 to 2 pages
- Use as many number as possible to quantify the information
- Use action verbs & words to amplify the impact of information
- Use the compatible document format so that your warehouse associate resume can be read through any medium and scanned through various ATSs i.e. Microsoft word, PDF
- Use simple label for the warehouse associate resume document i.e. Your Name Resume (Rachel Green Resume)
- Proofread the whole resume twice and remove any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors & factual errors, ensure the absolute accuracy of everything on your warehouse associate resume
- Fix the margins, font sizes, white spaces etc. in case you used resume template or resume builder options
- Use bullet points wherever possible and avoid long textual content, especially paragraphs
- In case there are any abbreviations, mention the full form of the term as well as the abbreviations because either or both can be the required keywords on your warehouse associate resume
Conclusion
In conclusion, your warehouse associate resume should meet the professional resume standards and for that you need to follow the guidelines discussed above.
In addition to meeting the professional standards you need to present your profile in the most efficient manner so that the hiring managers are impressed with you and decide to give you a chance at the opportunity by inviting you for an interview.
Writing a professional warehouse associate resume is not very difficult if you have done some basic research, make use of resume format and templates and follow the guidelines. All you need to work on is figuring out how to highlight and focus on your top most skills and experience aspects along with any achievements that may be exceptional.
After reading this article, you may want to check out our resume examples and resume templates collection, we have carefully curated collection of details resume writing guides for every profession, role and industry along with some guides on job search concerns.
Good luck with the job search, go get that dream job with an excellent warehouse associate resume!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which are the job description aspects that I should focus on, on my warehouse associate resume?
There are various areas and aspects of a warehouse associate position and its job description. Some of the prominent ones may be:
- Inventory management
- Inventory control
- Storage areas management
- Maintaining company standards
- Computer database management
- Quality assurance
- Monitoring inventory
- Customer satisfaction
- Unload trucks
- Utilizing pallet jack
- Supply chain management
- Warehouse operations
Which are the top skills for an ideal warehouse associate resume?
The skills section as well as experience & summary sections will include your skills, we have discussed the same in depth in the article above. The top skills for an ideal warehouse associate resume may be:
- Inventory management
- Inventory control
- Supply chain management
- Warehouse operations
- Unload trucks
- Achieving customer satisfaction
- Monitoring inventory
- Quality assurance
- Managing storage areas
- Time management
- Stock items
How long should an ideal warehouse associate resume be?
A standard professional resume of warehouse associate professionals should be 1 to 2 pages long and not more than that as it can lead to the reader (recruiter) getting bored or not paying attention closely to the whole resume.
