MAKE YOUR RESUME STAND OUT

Recruiters may receive hundreds of resumes per day. On the first pass, each resume will receive an undivided time of about 20 seconds, possibly with only one telephone interruption, to assess whether your resume is printed or deleted. Bearing that in mind, does your resume advertise your qualities, experience and achievements succinctly to inspire the recruiter?

RESUME TEMPLATE

[Your Full Name]
Street Address
City, State, zip
Phone number and email address

[Career Objective]
Brief and specific

[Employment]
Most recent first.
Name of Company, Location you are assigned, dates of employment (month/year), Title. What is the scope of your responsibility, i.e. size of company, revenue, number of people reporting to you, specific duties, etc?

What are the most significant accomplishments you have had in this position? Bullet point format and quantified if possible. List several. Remember, people hire because of what has been accomplished, not where you have been.

Repeat this process for at least the last 10 years. Prior to that you can list Company, title and date of employment. (If you have had multiple positions with an employer, use the employer name, dates of employment and description of the company as the “main” employer heading, then list specific positions with dates under that employer including scope and accomplishments for each position).

[Education]
Degree, major, grade point average if over a 3.0 and College or University attended. If you do not have a degree, but have some college, show the College and the amount of time attended.

TOP TWENTY THINGS RECRUITERS HATE ABOUT RESUMES

  • Not checking for spelling errors.
  • Resumé is too duty oriented and reads more like a job description without explaining accomplishments and achievements.
  • Not including accurate contact information or use of an unprofessional email address.
  • Using poor formatting (Templates, boxes, tables, headers, footers, etc).
  • Submitting a Functional Resume as opposed to writing a Chronological Resume.
  • Your resume is too long.
  • Using paragraphs instead of clear, concise bullet points.

  • Applying for positions you’re not qualified for.

  • Including personal information not relevant to the job.

  • Previous employer information is not included.

  • Misleading information or lying, especially in terms of education, dates, or inflated titles.

  • Including objectives or meaningless introductions.

  • Poor or unreadable font choices/style.

  • Resumes sent as a .pdf, .zip, fax, web page, or mailed instead of a word document.

  • Not easy to follow summary.

  • Keep in either 1st or 3rd person.

  • Gaps in employment.

  • Burying important information.