Do I Look Old in This?

It’s a fact.  Before I ever see you, I see your resume.  If done right, a cursory glance should tell me what I need to know; the result will either draw me in for more detail or send me back to the drawing board.

Your resume is an incredibly powerful document; it should be a thoughtfully crafted record of your career path and accomplishments.  It should convey your personal style, your qualifications, your value, your “brand.”  And when you’re writing it, it’s one of the only times in your entire life that it’s not impolite to brag—sales and marketing folks, I’m talking to you.  But even if you’re doing everything else right, adhering to outdated rules about resume writing can make you look outdated, past your prime, out of the loop, even irrelevant…

In an age when culture (as in “fit”) is as important as qualifications, image matters.  If you want a resume that stands out from the crowd, let your accomplishments, not the uniqueness of the document, be the key differentiator that separates you from the competition.      

Has it been a while since you last considered an updated resume format? 

Dead giveaways:

T.M.I. or Superfluous Personal Details: Your age, date of birth, social security number, marital status, the ages of your children, your hobbies, and your religious or political affiliations, do not belong on your resume (neither does your photograph).

Object of My Objection, Your Objective Statement: Your resume’s headline, the first (and therefore most valuable) part of the page I will read, is the very last place you should consider putting a generic throwaway statement to confirm what any hiring manager already knows—you want a job in your industry that allows you to grow and make a valuable contribution to the organization.  Instead, use this space for an executive summary; craft a brief, but inclusive, statement that encapsulates your skills, experience, and achievements. 

You Know What Happens When You Assume: 
1. You went to college?  So did 95% of the other qualified applicants for this job.  Again, don’t waste the headline space on something I’m going to assume you did, anyway.  Leave Education & Training for last.  2. For future reference: don’t include your references with your resume—if I want them, I’ll ask for them.  And I won’t wait for your written permission to do so, so you needn’t bother ending the document with “References Available Upon Request” because, of course, they are.
3. Accomplished, Dynamic, Detail-Oriented, Team Players don’t misuse prime resume real estate with buzz words; they demonstrate their marketable qualities through quantifiable, easily describable achievements, which they list in context throughout their resumes. 

Colors, and Fonts, and Graphics (oh my!): Unless you are an artist or graphic designer, your resume is not the appropriate place to demonstrate your affinity for a decorative flourish.  Remember that YOU are the main attraction.  The goal is to create a document that is consistent, accurate, well-written (not overwritten; don’t be glib), aesthetically inoffensive, and easy to read.

My One and Only: There is still an incredibly prevalent misconception that resumes should not exceed one page in length.  While I will be the first to agree that sometimes less is, in fact, more (see above, don’t be glib), the one page rule was created for a time when your resume was read on paper, not a computer monitor.  The idea was to prevent pages from becoming separated and leaving a hiring manager with an incomplete profile.  You don’t need to leave out important details, edit out half of your work history, use a microscopic font, or drastically reduce the margins to create a resume of acceptable length.  Write until you’re done.  If I’m looking at it on paper, that’s because I printed it out (and I printed it out because I felt it was strong enough not to delete from my email, where I can easily find another copy should the pages become separated).

Enough is Enough: Words for the sake of length suggest a lack of substance or that you paid someone else (by the word) to write your resume.  The more you write, the harder it is to find the information I need.  The harder it is to find, the less likely I am to look.  Hiring managers look at a steady stream of resumes—don’t expect to get many phone calls if you have buried your skills, accomplishments, and background in needlessly verbose paragraphs.  Respect white space on the page.  Don’t make me squint.  Don’t make me read for comprehension.  Use bullet points and make the reasons I should hire you so obvious it’s practically impossible not to see them.

-Contributed by Kate Harlow