With recruiters and employers receiving hundreds of resumes weekly, you must make sure that your resume hooks an employer's attention within a 10-second glance. So when writing or reviewing your resume, always look at it from their point of view. What do they want to see? What is irrelevant to them? What will develop interest and excitement about you as a potential candidate?
Length
Keep it to two pages maximum. According to most recruiters, any longer and you risk losing your audience.
Bulleted Information
Use bullets with short sentences rather than lengthy paragraphs. Resumes are read quickly, therefore make key phrases stand out. Bulleting information will help the reader view your accomplishments at a glance.
Use Action Words
Action words like prepared, managed, developed, championed, monitored, and presented will make your resume stand out.
Highlight your Strengths
What is most relevant to the potential employer is your strengths. Resumes are typically reviewed in 10-30 seconds, so put forth the effort and determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put the strong and most relevant points first where they are more apt to be read. This is your hook for the reader, the rest of your resume reels them in.
Use %'s, $'s and #'s
Symbols like %'s, $'s and #'s stand out in the body of a resume.
Match Your Skills to the Needs of the Company
Review the job postings that interest you and use the keywords listed to match them to the bullet points in your resume. Using a customized resume instead of a one-size-fits-all version will greatly decrease your chances of being screened "out".
Personal Details
Provide only relevant information here that supports your candidacy for the particular job. Include education (if not in a separate section), memberships, language/technical skills and other topical interests.
Editing
Proof read for typos, spelling and grammatical errors and then ask someone else to double-check your document for you. People do notice mistakes, to the detriment of your application.
Formatting Guidelines
The font size should be no smaller than 10 point, typeface such as Times New Roman, Courier or Arial. Keeping your fonts standard will help combat conversion issues from PC to MAC and from one program version to another.
Six Things Not to Do
To ensure your resume gets proper attention, avoid these six all-too-common hang-ups:
- Skip the cover letter.
Cover letters are so important to the application process that many hiring managers automatically reject resumes that arrive without them. Make the most of your cover letter by expanding on a few of your qualifications, explaining any gaps in employment or providing other information that will entice the employer to read your resume.
- Going long. Your resume shouldn't be longer than two pages so only include your most recent and relevant work history.
- Focusing on duties, not accomplishments. Instead of writing a list of job duties on your resume, demonstrate how each duty contributed to your company's bottom line.
- Guesstimating your dates and titles. Any 'upgrades' you give your titles or stretching of employment dates to cover gaps will likely get caught.
- Including personal information. It's fine if you enjoy old movies and tennis, but unless your hobby relates to your career, it doesn't belong on your resume.
- Assume spell-check is good enough. Spell-checkers can pick up many typos — but they won't catch everything. Proof it!
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