I have been working in management for over 10 years now and have hired approximately 400 people during that time. For the last 6 months I have been focused on recruiting and have read hundreds of resumes. Sadly most resumes are not well written and require lots of time form a recruiter to fix them.
Your resume is your first impression, and a well written resume will get you the face to face interview you need. As a hiring manager I would often have to read 30 resumes for every position. If a resume was difficult to read, I would toss it and move on. This is how most managers operate.
The following are some of the more common mistakes that you can avoid and make your resume easier to read, and present it in a better light.
No Tables
Tables make a resume easy to format and let's face it; Microsoft Word's resume templates use tables, so most resumes use tables. The problem with tables, is that they are difficult to manage for the creator and can cause some formatting issues. Avoid tables and your resume will look better and so will you.
Get Rid of the Objectives
I don't know where the idea of an objective in a resume got started, but they are a waste of space. I have never considered the content useful in making a hiring decision. Most of the time they contain generic statements that are meaningless to a manager such as "Energetic and innovative analyst with strong customer service skills desiring employment with a progressive company where I can perform as a leader or key team member in assisting the company to meet its goals and commitments." The first page of your resume is prime real estate; use it wisely and get rid of the fluff.
Skills Lists
Skills lists are another space waster. They provide little value, especially when they are filled with items like how many word per minute you type. There was a time when these skills got jobs, but the 80's are over and this section needs to die.
Fonts
I see many resumes that use several different fonts and several font sizes. The problem with using different fonts is that it makes the page look busy and difficult to read for some. When sizing your fonts, you should only use different sizes for titles, and then minimize the number of size differences. This whole article is one font size and I use bolding to set my titles off.
Additionally fonts should not be smaller than 12pts. It was pointed out to me years ago by a VP at Intel that some of us are a little older and have trouble reading smaller font sizes. If you can't read it you will probably toss it.
Long Resumes
Anything over three to four pages is too long. Most managers will not read past your second page. Ideally, you should detail the positions you held for the last five years and then summarize any positions before that.
Well that is it. If you can apply these ideas to your resume you will have a better looking resume that will stand out above 99% of the resumes on the market.
