Thursday, January 9, 2014

10 Commandments of Resumes

1. Thou shalt not Bold ALL
Bolding is great for headers like company and job title, but if everything is in bold, you're just yelling at me, and I don't appreciate it

2. Thou shalt not use multiple colors.
Annoying and tacky, don't do it

3. Thou shalt not use tables
Tables
A lot of templates come in tables, they're nearly impossible to edit or change formatting and usually waste a ton of free space on a resume

They frustrate recruiters to no end.

4. Thou shalt not include a picture
Profiles, headshots, watermarks, anything, don't do it.  It's tacky, unnecessary, and recruiters will laugh at you.

5. Thou shall restrain from stating the obvious
"References available upon request"; "looking to use my skills to benefit your company". two words: NO DUH

6. Thou shalt not use meaningless buzzwords
detail oriented, hard worker, team player... these phrases don't mean anything significant on their own and are on almost every resume.  Instead, explain what you do to show these characteristics.  Do you mentor new employees, manage several tasks, volunteer for ad hoc projects?  Put these things on your resume instead.

7. Thou shalt not bear false witness
Do not, under any circumstance, lie on your resume.  It can, and eventually will be found out. Plus it's just bad karma

8. Thou shalt use bullet points
Paragraphs are hard to skim through and recruiters won't take the time to read through everything.  Change your formatting to bullet points so your skills and accomplishments can shine

9. Thou shalt review thy resume for spelling and grammatical errors
The fastest way to be rejected is to have tons of spelling and grammatical errors on your resume.  Your resume is your first impression with a company, and if you don't care enough to proofread it, you're probably not going to care enough to be accurate on the job, so I'll pass.

10. Thou shalt not spend hundreds of dollars on a resume writer
I got into the resume writing business because I found out that resume writers charge $200-$700 per resume.  I find it outrageous to charge people who are looking for jobs such high prices.  I charge anywhere from $89-250 to create or revise a resume and do not charge extra for additional corrections or revisions.  If you're looking for help with your resume please comment below or email me at info@insiderecruiter.com

Do you have other resume commandments or completely disagree with one of mine?  Let me know in the comments!

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