Resumes - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Resume writing is an art, not a science.  There is no set formula that will make your resume the one that gets the interview.  Recruiters look at hundreds of resumes every day, many which are not remotely related to the job we're hiring for, and we tend to become a bit jaded.  You can read several articles with statistics on all the little things that will get your resume thrown in the trash, like misspelling.  However, we're also easily pleased, so if you have a well written resume with clean and simple formatting, you're going to get a call about the job (given that you're experience is relevant to the position).

I'll get into more specific items on resumes in a later post, but let's keep it to the basics for now (I like the K.I.S.S. motto - keep it simple stupid).

It's very easy to make your resume look more appealing with just a few minor formatting changes.

• Use one font, like Calibri, Times New Roman, Arial, etc.  
• Make your headers (work experience, skills, education) bold, possibly underlined, and one size bigger then the rest of your content.  Keep everything left adjusted (there's really no reason for large indents or centering).  
• Don't use a template, there's always sections that are not deleted when they should be, and many templates have strange formatting tables that make it almost impossible to edit your resume (Yes we do edit your resume and fix things before passing it over to a hiring manager).

The Basics:

• Name, email address, and phone number in the heading.  You don't have to put your address, but should put the city, state, and zip (if you're relocating say so).  
• Under work experience you really need to include company name, months and years worked, responsibilities, and accomplishments.  
• For education you just need to put your school and degree/diploma.  If you haven't graduated yet, include target graduation date.

Finally, and maybe most importantly: Any recruiter's biggest pet peeve is lack of proofreading.  If you really want the job, you'll look over your resume for spelling and grammar errors.  Then, have someone else look it over to catch anything you missed.  Update your resume regularly - add your responsibilities and accomplishments when you're in that position, not a year later when you're trying to remember what you did.  If you get a promotion, added responsibilities, or transfer departments, update your resume.