Make Your Resume Stand Out
 

A FEW GUIDELINES FOR A BETTER PRESENTATION

Visually enticing - a work of art. Simple clean structure. Very easy to read. Symmetrical. Balanced. Uncrowded. As much white space between sections of writing as possible; sections of writing which are no longer than six lines, and shorter if possible. Maximum use of italics, capital letters, bullets, boldface, and underlining, with uniformity and consistency. Absolute parallelism in design decisions, for example: if a period is at the end of one job's dates, a period should be at the end of all jobs' dates; if a degree is in boldface, all degrees should be in boldface.

As mentioned above, the resume's first impression is most important. It should be exceptionally visually appealing, to be inviting to the reader. Remember to think of the resume as an advertisement.

Absolutely no errors.

No typographical errors. No spelling errors. No grammar, syntax, or punctuation errors. No errors of fact.

All the basic, expected information is included.

A resume must have the following key information: your name, address, and phone number, (immediately identifiable and at the top of the first page), a listing of all jobs held since beginning your career, in reverse chronological order, educational degrees including the highest degree received, in reverse chronological order. Additional, targeted information will of course accompany this. Much of the information people commonly put on a resume can be omitted but these basics are mandatory.

Jobs listed should include a title, the name of the firm, the city and state of the firm, and the years.

Jobs earlier in a career can be summarized, or omitted if prior to the highest degree, and extra part-time jobs can be omitted. If no educational degrees have been completed, it is still expected to include some mention of education (professional study or training, partial study toward a degree, etc.) acquired after high school.

It is targeted. A resume should be targeted to your goal - to the ideal next step in your career. First you should get clear what your job goal is, what the ideal position or positions would be. Then, you should figure out what key skills, areas of expertise or knowledge, or body of experience the employer will be looking for in the candidate. Then, gear the resume structure and inclusions around this target, proving these key qualifications. If you have no clear goal, take the skills (or knowledge) you most enjoy or would like to use or develop in your next career step and build the resume around these.

Strengths are highlighted / weaknesses de-emphasized.

Focus on whatever is strongest and most impressive. Make careful and strategic choices as to how to organize, order, and convey your skills and background. Consider: whether to include the information at all, placement in overall structure of the resume, location on the page itself or within a section, ordering of information, more impressive ways of phrasing the information, use of design elements (such as boldface to highlight, italics to minimize, ample surrounding space to draw the eye to certain things).

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