50 Resume Tips to Propel Your Job Search to the Next Level

Resume Format

11) Choose a resume format that will attenuate your weaknesses and showcase your strengths: reverse chronological, functional, or hybrid. (Please see the Resume Formats section.)

Resume Design

12) You have decided on the structure, format and basic content of your resume. The next step is to choose a professional resume design that will catch the recruiter's interest and draw his/ her attention to what sets you apart from other candidates. There are no rigid formulas to a well-designed resume, but keep in mind the following guidelines:
- Keep your resume simple. Avoid visual distractions on your resume.
- Make it easy for the reader to scan through your resume. Avoid font sizes that are too small.
- Be consistent throughout your resume.

13) Keep your resume black and white, or you can also use shades of grey. Avoid colors. Most companies will make photocopies of your resume which they will pass around the office for the various persons concerned.

Resume Writing

14) Following are four key rules to effective resume writing:
- Be clear: Candidates know what they did in the past and assume that what they wrote down is clear to the reader. Big mistake. Clarity is one of the major handicaps of most resumes. What matters is not whether your resume is clear to you, but rather whether your resume is clear to the person reading it.
- Be concise: Recruiters have a lot of applications to go through. They won't have the patience to read through lengthy sentences.
- Be selective: Everything that you put down in your resume has to have a purpose. If a statement serves no purpose, take it out.
- Be on point: This goes to the clarity of your thought process. What message are you trying to convey and are you effective in that endeavor?
- Be accurate: Be careful not to over exaggerate and don't lie.

15) Writing might not be your strength. If that is the case, ask someone to help you.

16) Resume writing is about "making a statement." What statement are you trying to make?

Work Experience

17) Make sure that the person reading your work experience will have an appreciation of what that job entailed. You can undertake to do this in many ways:
- You can choose to have one sentence below your job title where you describe your employer's line of business. This may be necessary if the company you worked for is small or is in another industry than the industry to which you are applying to.
- As opposed to discussing your experience in function of what you did, you may want to elaborate on what your responsibilities were.
- You can choose to include the URL of the company for which you worked.
- You may choose to have a short paragraph describing what your responsibilities were, followed by bullet points highlighting specific accomplishments.
As you can see, resume writing is not necessarily a mechanical exercise. A lot is also left to creativity and imagination.

18) Support your propositions by concrete and specific examples, if possible.

19) Emphasize the jobs in which you demonstrated skills that are relevant to the position you are seeking. Don't fall into the trap of giving the same weight to all your past jobs. Some jobs are more relevant than others.

20) Keep in mind what the requirements for the position are and word your experience in function of those requirements.

[1] Reverse chronological resumes list the candidate's work experience starting from the most recent one based on the premise that it is also the most relevant to the job. That is often true for career-oriented people looking for another job in the same field. A reverse chronological resume has the advantage of showing a natural progression. Some employers like to see where you come from and how you evolved to become the person that you are. The reverse chronological resume is the most commonly used resume format.

Functional resumes list a candidate's experience by skill areas. This resume format is used most often when a person decides to switch career, when a person has held many different types of jobs during his career, or when there has been a prolonged period of absence from the workforce. The focus is therefore no longer on "career progression," but instead on "transferable skills."

Hybrid resumes possess some characteristics of both reverse chronological resumes and functional resumes. For instance, they can list a candidate's work experience by skill areas, but also include dates of employment.