6 Simple Rules of Resume Writing

My last post drew on the wisdom of CEO, Marc Cendenella (The Ladders)—reading his thoughts on simplicity inspired me to take it a step further. So, while advising people to keep it simple, I would like to extend that advice specifically to resumes.

In a competitive market, I certainly understand the temptation to add more detail when you should probably be taking some away. Trust me when I say that we’ve all been guilty of “under-editing.” The resume is important; it’s two pages (or less) that represent your entire career to a complete stranger. And as that complete stranger, what I want every job seeker to remember is: time is money.

Now, if you’re currently unemployed, I know it seems like no fact could be more painfully obvious. But it’s important to understand what that means to those of us on the other side of the ropes.

For people like me (recruiters), that means getting the right candidate in front of my client as soon as possible. For my clients, that means filling the position as soon as possible because every day that it’s open is not only costing them money, but also negatively impacting the satisfaction of the people sharing the burden of those extra responsibilities. And with employee-company loyalty at an all-time low, that’s something no company can afford right now.

The bottom line is: hiring managers and recruiters don’t have five minutes to devote to deconstructing each resume that comes across their desks. In truth, a typical initial assessment—his or her or my first pass at your information—will go from start to finish in less than 30 seconds.

So, with all of the above in mind, here are some tips that can help make the difference between a call back and ending up in the recycle bin—jobseekers who want to get noticed, take heed:

1. Be consistent. Check for spelling and grammar but also make sure that your tabs, justifications, punctuation, fonts (no more than 2; no exceptions), spacing and character size are consistent throughout the resume.

2. Keep it clean. When you have completed writing your resume, preview the document and reduce the view to 50%--enough to obscure the text so you can focus on the image of the document. Did you leave enough white space, is your line spacing even, did you use a reasonably sized font (12pt) and leave at least a 1” margin?

3. Headings. Put your contact information at the top of your resume; it should be complete, easy to read and above all, easy to find.

4. Experience. Surprisingly few people seem to realize that your resume should not read like a job description; your resume should clearly outline what you have done but it should do it in a way that demonstrates why a hiring manager should talk to you.

5. So, highlight your accomplishments. This can most easily be done by using bullets—a very reader-friendly tool. Tangible successes and quantifiable accomplishments should be out in the open and found throughout your resume.

6. BE CONCISE. Never put a paragraph where a sentence could convey the same message—anyone who looks at your resume should be able to quickly and easily come away with a sense of whether or not you could perform the job functions. Make sure hiring managers can get enough in a glance to know they want to read the rest.