When it comes to writing you resume, there are several things you need to keep in mind to make it both easy for the recruiter to read, and to make yourself stand out.
Personal Information:
1. Create a professional email address
The use of a professional email address is a must. The most common is to use your name. This tip may just be one of the most important as an unprofessional email address will get you rejected most of the time.
2. Clean up your online presence
- Hiring managers will look into your online presence. Make sure to check your privacy settings on your social media accounts and to keep your future posts tasteful.
- Now is also a great time to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
- Do a quick sweep to make sure there is nothing else out there on this internet that could be damaging to your chances.
Formatting
1. Name your files properly
This is probably one of the biggest formatting tips you could get. If your resume is not named properly, it could get lost in a sea of resumes that the job poster or recruiter receives.
Correct:
John_Doe_Resume
Incorrect:
Resume
2. Choose an attractive and readable font
You may think that a font is trivial in the larger scheme of things, but the right font is going to do a lot for your resume.
Stick to fonts that are most commonly used:
- Times New Roman
- Verdana
- Arial
- Helvetica
If you choose a font that is hard to read will likely lead to your resume not even being read.
- Comic Sans
- Papyrus
- Curlz MT
3. Set your font size to 10-12 points
While choosing a font is important, making sure that it is the right size is equally as important. Keeping your font size between 10 and 12 points will keep the hiring manager from straining their eyes to read it.
4. Make strategic use of bold, caps, and italics
You need to be consistent with your choices. If you’ve made one of your subheadings bold – make them all bold. The idea of bolding something is to make important information easier to find.
5. Use reverse-chronological order
You should always use reverse- chronological order. The hiring manager is most interested in your most recent jobs as well as your highest degree. So those should be listed first followed by the remainder for your degrees or jobs.
Content:
1. Only add jobs from within the past 10-15 years
There is no need to go back more than 10-15 years on your resume. As I mentioned above the hiring manager is more concerned with your most recent jobs.
2. Insert action verbs wherever possible
Take a look at some of your verbs in your resume. You will surely find a lot of them are over used. Spice them up, find some verbs that are not used as much. This makes your vocabulary look more impressive as well.
You should also try to avoid weak verbs like “managed” or “communicated.”
Here are some possible alternatives:
Incorrect: Managed
Correct: Orchestrated
Incorrect: Communicated
Correct: Persuaded
3. Add numbers and details where possible
Adding numbers and details to emphasize your skills is very important. This can make you stand out in a pool of resumes. Anytime you can illustrate an achievement or skill with numbers or details, you should go for it! You want to make your accomplishments quantifiable.
Correct:
Increased sales by 12% over a 5 month period.
Incorrect:
Responsible for sales.
4. Make good use of the top third of your resume
Try to put the best stuff at the top. Because recruiters are scanning through tons of resumes for any given position. Putting your most important information in the top third of your resume keeps them from having to scan through the entire thing. If a recruiter can not quickly find the information they are looking for, your resume may get passed over. You can do this by adding a brief summary to the top of your resume highlighting your most appealing accomplishments.
