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Mention, justify and support your qualities and strengths relevant to the position.
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Use effective and significant keywords. To do so, review the job ad and find out relevant terms that are emphasized.
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Proofread your resume at least twice to eliminate possible errors.
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Avoid paragraphs. Use bullets instead to highlight ideas and information.
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Do not forget to include professional objectives.
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Mention the most important data first. Previous work experiences are most important than academic history, personal information and references.
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Use bigger fonts, like 12 or bigger. Font 11 could be tolerable but smaller than that could be disastrous.
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Omit the phrases ‘Available for interview’ and ‘References available upon request.’ They only sound as if you are kidding.
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Delete negative information that may turn off any prospective employer.
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List professional achievements and avoid enumerating past job responsibilities, which could bore any possible employer to death.
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Do not attach pictures unless asked for. That is if you are not applying to be a model or an actor.
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Use numbers in describing achievements. It may sound more interesting to say you bolstered sales in your previous company by 80%.
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Assume possible age discrimination. Employers may deny such a practice but they really do. Do not put your age unless asked to.
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There is no need to enumerate all your job experiences. Focus on those relevant to the application.
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Exclude irrelevant information like religion, sexual preference and political affiliation.
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If your first name is gender neutral (like Sam, Toni or Alex) include prefixes Mr. or Ms. to avoid gender confusion.
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Do not lie. Most human resource departments conduct background checks to verify information.
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Produce a resume that could match your desired salary.
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Have your resume reviewed and critiqued as honestly as possible by a friend, relative or colleague. Improve it if there are flaws.
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Make the resume as short as possible. Two pages could already be enough, and a single page is simply better.
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Use quality paper and printer for the hard copy of your resume.
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Do not mention hobbies and likes especially if they are not relevant to the vacant position.
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Do not fail to update the resume regularly.
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Mention the previous companies you have worked with especially if those firms are well known and respected in the industry.
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Keep your resume focused. Do not show indecisiveness. Do not mention about your modeling stints when you are applying as an auditor.
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Layout the resume in a way there are ample white spaces. Do not make it appear jammed and overcrowded, which could be painful to the readers’ eyes.
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Skip jargons and slang language.
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Do not rely heavily on resume templates. You should aim not to make your resume look like other candidates.
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When sending resume via email, put up a text version of the document aside from the Word attachment, which might be blocked by several spam filters.
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Avoid fancy layouts and designs.
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Do not use pronouns as doing so will be redundant. Your resume is a document in itself about you.
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Your name should get larger fonts than the rest in the document. The characters should also be in bold.
