An Executive Search Company
• An experienced recruiter can review a resume in 30 seconds and determine if this candidate has the experience they are looking for. So you need to be clear & concise and it is very important that you research the industry, company and position. Key words are going to make a difference.
• Determine your "Objective"- but it is not necessary to put your objective on the resume. Remove the objective on all the resumes. Everyone seems to have an objective. But candidates get hired based on your skills, knowledge and experience. You can leave the objective off, but have an objective in order to focus your resume.
• Make it easy to follow. Keep it clear and concise. Don't go into great detail - the purpose is to gain the employer's interest and schedule an interview.
• List your Education first, just below your name. If you just graduated college, let the hiring authority know this right away.
• Dates of employment - Ideally down the left hand column - keep dates clear and easy to follow.
• Bullets can help - (short sentences versus lengthy sentences) again this helps your resume to look and read clear and concise. You are trying to hook the reader and get more then 30 seconds out of the resume. The first bullets should be the most relevant and strong. The rest should be of value but less important. But you want to go into more detail - wrong. You want an interview!!! You can go into the details when the hiring authority requests the information.
• Bold and Italics can help – but we would not recommend it. If you bold or italicize something that is not of interest to the hiring authority, you have distracted the reader from what may have been of interest.
• Font - again simple and easy to read: Times New Roman, Verdana or Arial Size 10 or 11.
• Tense - Verb Tense - make sure you are consistent throughout the resume. Tense is an area in which we see a lot of errors.
• Spelling and Grammar - have a couple of friends look it over for spelling and grammar error. Avoid repetition.
• Cut out extra words.
• Gouge out the "I"s & "Me" Your resume is all about you. I & Me are just redundant. We know it is you. If you worked with others to achieve certain goals, objectives, etc., you can use "we.”
• Use Action words such as: prepared, managed, supervised, developed, monitored, led.
• Today many resumes are scanned for key words before they are ever read. If the key words are not in the resume, your resume does not get read. You need to know the industry and add key words related to that industry in order for your resume to be spotted.
• You should always use %'s, $'s and #'s. Dollar totals, numbers, and percentages stand out in the body of a resume. Below are two examples of a job duty described with them (good), and without (bad). As you can see by the examples, being specific does not mean being lengthy.
Example 1
Bad: Account manager for advertising agency
Good: Managed 15 strategic accounts billing in excess of $15MM annually
Example 2
Bad: Sold widgets to clients located in the Midwest
Good: Increased sales by 17% in a 5-state territory
• You can have several different resumes and send out your resumes based on the position description you are applying for. But let's not be too unrealistic - you can rewrite your resume, within reason, to correlate with the position description. But unless you have those experiences do not claim you do. If you have the experience, use the keywords in the position description.
• "Reference Available" Or "Reference available upon request" is not needed. I assume you will have a few references that on a good day may even say a few nice things about you.
• Avoid being so creative that the resume becomes difficult to read. The recruiter is looking for 3 or 4 key items. If the resume is so confusing that the recruiter is unable to read it, your resume will be set aside.
• A lot of people reading over your resume have no real knowledge of the position you are applying for. Make it simple for them to see you have some of the skills, experience and education to be moved into the good stack.