• Put all the information on the pages and then work on your format.  Don’t get married to a format first.  What worked for you before may not work as well now.
• Ensure there is a good balance between white and black space.  Don’t cram everything on one page and end up with a 1/4″ margin all the way around.  By putting all the information down first, you can play with format to determine if you should increase your font size and/or margins to have a good two page resume or if you should adjust your margins and/or font size down a bit to maintain one page.
• Highly recommend you use an 11 pt font.  Don’t go smaller than a 10 pt font.
• The rule of thumb for work experience is to go back 10-15 years.  If you have gaps of employment, you may be able to address those in your cover letter.
• Do not put high school information on your resume unless you just graduated from high school and have no college.
• List college if you’ve attended, even if you didn’t complete a degree.  Employers like to see some college attendance.  If you’ve attended multiple colleges over the years, consider showing the college that has the most relevance for the position you’re applying or the most recent college.  Do not list a degree if it hasn’t been completed. 
• Proofread, double check, spell check and proofread again.  Yes, I mentioned this last week as well. It’s extremely important!

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• Use a clean font like Tahoma or Arial; a sans serif font.  It’s easier for a recruiter to read when going through hundreds of resumes.
• Use bullet points rather than the paragraph format.  Again, it’s easier for recruiters to pick out the key points.
• Start each bullet point with an action verb if at all possible.  If your verb is “managed” or “administered” is there another verb that is more descriptive?  Collected, gathered, collated, tracked, etc. may be better.
• Think about the results for each bullet point and describe them if applicable.  Recruiters and hiring managers want the “oh wow” or “so what” factor.  Tell them what you did that sets you apart from other candidates.
• No more than two pages, unless you’re in IT or academia.  Wonder what a typical resume might look like for your position or industry?  Try googling to find out.  e.g. inside sales resume, direct sales resume, attorney resume.  Review a few to ensure you’re seeing similarities.
• Proofread, spell check and proofread again.  Ask family and friends to proofread for you.  Read it out loud, and read it backwards.  You can’t proofread it enough!  Miniscule mistakes may cost you.  You get only one chance to make a good first impression.  Many employers think if you make a mistake on this important marketing tool you are using to promote yourself, your work product will be the same (less than 100%) or worse when working on their behalf and they’ll pass you by for the person whose resume has no errors.

More resume tips next week.

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