Formatting Your Resume Tips

The average human resource specialist spends 10 – 20 seconds reviewing a resume. What can you do to make yours pack the most punch in the shortest amount of time?

Don Goodman, a resume specialist and career coach, has some suggestions that may move you to the top of the resume pile.

Use the Harvard format.

People are going to scan your resume, so you want the accomplishments to stand out. Use the Harvard format, which is paragraph form for your roles and responsibilities and bullet points for your achievement statements.

Differentiate the sections.

Use bold and italic typefaces to guide the reader to different sections of your resume highlighting your strengths.

Use Numbers and symbols.

Using numbers quantify your results and immediately grab the reader’s attention.

Avoid fancy graphics, logos, and uncommon font types.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are being used by more and more employers. Using uncommon graphics, fonts, etc., can keep the Applicant Tracking System from reading your resume properly. Do not chance it.

Keep it appropriate to your industry.

The resume style should be appropriate to your industry. Keep the style and format in a context that is readable and understandable to those in the industry you are trying to get into.

See Don’s article for a more detailed description at Careerealsim.com

Go to www.TADPGS.com, click on the “Looking for People” tab, then view “Veterans Solutions” to see more for information on our Veterans Solutions for Employers. Please join our LinkedIn group, Veterans Hiring Solutions for Veterans at http://linkd.in/Sg346w. If you have specific questions about hiring veterans or the incentives for doing so, contact me at Ben.Marich@Adeccona.com.