6 call center resume examples, skills, and writing tips
Create a winning call center resume and stand out from the competition with these tips and tricks.
Last updated June 2, 2022
The call center industry is large and booming. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2022, the volume of customer service calls jumped by 24 percent from 2020 to 2021.
With the increase in demand comes the need for companies to hire more call center representatives. The average number of job listings for call centers surged more than five times between February 2020 and November 2021.
While open positions are growing, the call center job market remains competitive (especially for sought-after remote call center work). It’s an attractive field because call center agents can advance fairly quickly. The median pay for an entry-level agent is $32,900, but that number jumps to $54,200 for more senior reps and $87,500 for managers.
To set yourself apart from other candidates and land your dream call center job, you’ll need a top-notch resume. Whether you’re looking to work in a call center for the first time or to advance to a higher call center role at a different company, our resume writing guide will help you nail this initial step in your job search.
6 best practices for writing a call center representative resume
No matter your level of call center experience, these resume writing tips will help you get noticed by recruiters.
1. Highlight the most relevant experiences and skills
It’s tempting to list every single thing you did at each job (especially if you haven’t been working long), but doing so makes it easy for the most notable tasks to get lost. Also, TalentWorks research found that resumes over 600 words are 43 percent less likely to be selected than ones that stay within 475 to 600 words. So, it’s better to be purposeful and concise.
Think of your resume as your career highlight reel—not your full-length career documentary. Focus on the most important activities and attributes that connect back to the call center job posting.
If you don’t have call center experience, showcase the transferrable customer service skills you’ve honed—such as communication, empathy, and problem-solving—to prove you’re a good fit for the job.
If you’ve worked in a call center before, describe related accomplishments (e.g., “Responded to X customer calls daily, maintained a 94 percent customer satisfaction rating over X months”). It’s crucial to be as specific as possible when describing your wins—the call center industry is big on using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how well representatives are doing.
Think of your resume as your career highlight reel.
Let’s look at an example of KPIs in action. Who would you be more likely to hire: an applicant who “helped agents improve their customer satisfaction scores” or one who “coached a team of 20 agents on customer service best practices for eight weeks, improving their average quarterly satisfaction scores by 30 percent”? We know who we’d pick. (P.S., it’s the second candidate).
2. Use a variety of action verbs in your work history
On your resume, what you say matters just as much as how you say it. Strong action verbs, in particular, help you communicate your work experience and stand out more to call center hiring managers.
The verbs you choose to describe your work history “can mean the difference between being seen as a leader and being seen as a follower,” writes Monster contributor Caroline Zaayer Kaufman. A variety of action verbs also makes you more likely to pass resume screens from automated or artificial intelligence-based applicant tracking systems.
For call center agent resumes, Resume Builder suggests applicants use verbs such as achieve, explain, respond, resolve, and sell. You can also check out The Muse’s list of 185 action verbs for more ideas.
3. Write a focused summary section
Recruiters spend an average of six to seven seconds looking at a resume. (For context on how brief that is, even the best-performing TikTok videos range from 21 to 34 seconds.) So, your resume needs to quickly make a good first impression. And the best way to do that is with a succinct career summary at the top of your resume.
A career summary should read like a good news article lead—it draws people in and gives them the most important information upfront. Use one to four short sentences to explain why you should be considered for the position.
For example, if you’ve worked in the call center sector for years, your career summary might read something along the lines of: “Senior call center representative adept at maintaining above-average customer satisfaction scores while handling high ticket volumes. Six years of experience resolving tickets for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and software as a service (SaaS) companies.”
If you’ve never worked in the industry, frame your summary to highlight attributes that make you a good fit: “Enthusiastic, diligent professional looking to apply my significant customer service background to a call center agent role. Skilled in conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, and sales.”
4. Choose the right call center resume design and text formatting
Because recruiters spend such a short amount of time looking at resumes, the design and format matter. As Best Company’s Head of HR Jennifer Rogerson admits, “There are people I will interview just for having a very professional-looking resume, even if they don’t meet all the qualifications.”
The good news is you don’t have to be a graphic designer to craft an effective resume. There are a lot of free resume templates out there—including some in the last section of this article—so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Impress recruiters by following these professional resume design guidelines:
Uncluttered layout
While there are plenty of templates out there with bells and whistles (such as photos, charts, and multiple colors), too many extra elements can distract recruiters and make your resume harder to read. For the best results, keep things simple. If you’d like to add a pop of color, choose one hue and use it in a single element, like in a sidebar background. Voila!
Bold section headers
A bold font creates contrast, allowing call center recruiters to easily understand what each part of your resume is about. Some of the headers you’ll probably use (and need to bold) include Contact Information, Career Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills, and Certifications.
Appropriate text sizing
You also want to ensure your font size isn’t too large or too small. And you don’t want to use the same size for every component. Resume Writing Services CEO Peter Yang says the best resume font sizes are:
- 18- to 24-point font for your name at the top of the resume
- 12- to 16-point font for headers
- 10- to 12-point font for body text
Bullet points
Nothing makes a resume look worse than giant walls of text. Bullet points keep things skimmable, which is incredibly important when you have only seven seconds to make an impression.
Easy-to-read fonts
Okay, we lied. There is something that makes a call center resume look worse than a giant wall of text: unusual, unclear fonts. Not only do “unique” fonts make your resume more difficult to read, but they can also make you appear unprofessional.
Based on the criteria of “professionalism, design, spacing, and readability,” Yang recommends using Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, or Verdana. (Sorry, Papyrus.)
5. Tweak your call center resume based on each job posting
When you’re applying to multiple positions, it’s very tempting to reuse the same resume across similar job postings. But while it may save you time, it’ll hurt your chances of getting interviews. Different companies have different expectations, even for similar roles. Take the time to tailor your resume for each one, and you’ll set yourself up for greater success.
Carefully read through every call center posting, and create custom resume versions that match the specific requirements and language. You can gain additional insights by reviewing the company’s career section on its website. Look for any recurring phrases they use to describe their team members and weave them into your resume.
6. Review call center experience resume examples
If you’re struggling with your resume, see what other people in the industry have done with theirs. Look at call center agents’ LinkedIn profiles (and at the examples included later in this article) to get a clear idea of what your resume should include.
Call center resume skills to include (and why)
Even if you design a great resume, include powerhouse action verbs, and write a solid career summary section, you probably won’t get an interview if you don’t list the right call center skills.
Why? Because of the growing use of resume bots. These digital tools screen candidates before recruiters even look at resumes, scanning for certain keywords to determine whether an applicant seems like a good fit.
To beat the system, include key terms listed in the job description throughout your resume as well as in a dedicated “Skills” section. It’s best to list 4 to 10 skills—it should be a mix of hard skills and soft skills.
When writing your hard skills, concentrate on the following:
- Mastery of customer service channels. Just because you’re applying to an inbound call center doesn’t mean you’ll never need to resolve tickets through other mediums like email or chat. Let recruiters know that you’re comfortable working across channels to boost their confidence in you.
- Examples: Phone customer service, online chat customer service
- Software proficiency. Call center software is the backbone of the industry, and it continues to evolve with new automation and artificial intelligence capabilities. Show you’re familiar with these types of platforms so recruiters can see that you’re able to keep up with changing tech.
- Examples: Zendesk Talk, Microsoft Suite
- Language fluency. Speaking multiple languages means you can help more consumers feel valued and taken care of, ultimately leading to a better customer experience.
- Example: Bilingual customer support (English and Spanish)
- Typing efficiency. Even if you’re primarily handling phone calls, typing is a critical skill. The faster you type, the more customer inquiries you can document and resolve. Not sure what your words-per-minute (WPM) score is? Take LiveChat’s free one-minute typing test. Shoot for above 40 WPM to beat the average.
- Example: Typing (60 WPM)
While soft skills tend to speak more to personal qualities that vary across candidates, it’s a good idea to consider highlighting traits such as:
- Interpersonal communication. Call center agents interact with countless people every day. To be successful, you must know how to actively listen, explain complex topics in simple terms, and respond to complaints with tact and positivity.
- Problem-solving. In a fast-paced call center environment, you need to think quickly to resolve issues. Ideal candidates embrace problems as opportunities to deliver more value to customers.
- Flexibility. The ability to navigate unforeseen hurdles and pivot to other priorities will serve you well when working in a high-volume call center. And from a managerial perspective, this willingness to pitch in where needed shows you’re a team player.
- Empathy. Consumers want to be treated as human beings, not just another ticket to resolve. Demonstrating genuine empathy for customers helps you authentically connect with them. And when you prioritize a buyer’s emotional needs, you can earn their trust and loyalty.
- Organization. Call center representatives are responsible for keeping track of all their customer conversations and any follow-ups. Diligently staying on top of your notes and files will set you up for success.
- Time management. You’ll be expected to handle a certain amount of calls each day, so you need to manage your schedule and workflows well. The better your time management, the better you can serve customers.
What they want to hear
Using data from customers, agents, customer experience leaders, and technology buyers in 175 countries, we identify some top trends in messaging in this free report.
6 call center resume examples
Now that you’ve learned some tips and tricks for crafting a winning resume, it’s time to look at call center resume samples that bring those strategies to life.
Entry-level call center agent resume templates
Why this resume works: Though John has no call center experience and limited work history, he does a great job of pulling out details relevant to a customer service professional. He includes key soft skill terms—like problem-solver and communication—that will likely get him past the resume bots. He also strategically mentions his ability to handle customer interactions in person and over the phone. His resume is well organized and easy to read, too.
Why this resume works: While John is a high school graduate, Pam is a recent college grad with a bit more professional experience. Because she has a background in sales, she’s able to highlight hard skills and include a specific KPI to quantify her work at American Eagle. She emphasizes her leadership and customer service abilities throughout the document, suggesting she has the potential to rise quickly. Like John, Pam has a clear, easy-to-read resume.
Mid/senior-level call center representative resume templates
Why this resume works: As someone with years of experience, Olivia uses hard numbers to back up her call center operations work in key areas like CSAT (customer satisfaction) and FCR (first-call resolution). Action verbs like promoted, coached, and cross-sold showcase her growth, leadership, and industry expertise. She includes specific call center software in her Skills section and notes she’s certified by ICMI in managing difficult customers.
Why this resume works: AJ’s resume concentrates on his call center work in one particular industry: insurance. He includes relevant KPIs and key terms. He also describes how he applies new knowledge to serve customers and emphasizes his bilingual fluency in supporting callers.
Call center manager resume templates
Why this resume works: As a call center manager, James hones in on specific examples that demonstrate his business intelligence and team leadership. He cites instances of improving KPIs, leading process changes, and analyzing data to support strategic planning. He also emphasizes soft skills like emotional intelligence and active listening, which are important for managers and representatives alike.
Why this resume works: Like James, Daphne includes strong examples of her leadership abilities, from implementing a new remote work policy to launching a diversity and inclusion initiative in hiring. She quantifies her results and emphasizes her role in helping employees and businesses to grow and evolve.
Create a call center agent resume with confidence
Call centers often receive dozens of resumes a day, if not more. With our templates and guidelines, you can create a strong resume that helps you pass the seven-second test, showcases your skills and experience, and puts you in a good position to land a call center job interview.
If you need to write a cover letter as well, don’t panic about this universally dreaded task. With a high-quality resume in hand, the process will be much easier—you’ve already put in the effort to capture your achievements and know which industry-specific buzzwords to highlight.
Now go get ’em!
What they want to hear
Using data from customers, agents, customer experience leaders, and technology buyers in 175 countries, we identify some top trends in messaging in this free report.
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