Unless you are incredibly talented--or happen to own a printing company--there’s a good chance that anything out of the ordinary will look hokie or home-made—NOT the image you’re trying to project! Therefore, don’t use fonts to distinguish yourself from the rest of the candidates: stick to Times New Roman! And make sure to put your documents on a plain white piece of paper. (No electric pinks or putrid greens, please!
Also, save the photos for a future occasion when you are actually in the same room with your interviewer. It is cumbersome to attach jg or gif files and is likely to get you tossed out of consideration anyway.
USING A FONT THAT IS SO SMALL THAT THE RECIPIENT CAN’T READ IT WITHOUT STRAINING
Hint: if it can’t be read, it'll be trashed! Make your type face at least 18 point. The whole idea here is for you to be memorable—in a good way!! Don’t forget to use the exact same form of your name throughout your resume. i.e. if you use Louise M. Smith at the beginning, don’t start using Louise Mary Smith elsewhere. Consistency is the key.
STANDARDIZE YOUR FORMATTING THROUGHOUT YOUR DOCUMENT.
If you start off with a 5 space indent, keep that all the way through. And, instead of simply hitting the space bar 5 times, tab over. Not only will this preserve the uniformity of your document, but it will also make the text appear more pleasing to the eye.
REFRAIN FROM INCLUDING TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY THAT THE RECIPIENT IS UNLIKELY TO UNDERSTAND.
In many cases, resumes are first viewed by lower level employees who possess neither the knowledge nor the desire to understand uranium enrichment to its fullest. Tone it down and explain things in layman’s language.
Don’t forget to explain why what you did was significant. Perhaps it contributed to the bottom line, or allowed your company to win another several contracts. Make sure you share this information with your readers.
Where possible, quantify your efforts. (i.e. instead of saying ‘participated in a marketing project’ say that you were able to capture 22% more clients, or manufacture 18% more product.) But be careful not to ‘dumb down’ your statements to such an extent that they are meaningless.
Have a friend read your resume with a view to seeing whether he can understand what you actually accomplished on the job.
DON’T PUT EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF HARDWARE YOU HAVE EVER TOUCHED ON YOUR RESUME IN LIST FORM.
Select some of the most important ones and focus on them. Besides, if you list things you only have passing acquaintance with, you may be called upon to talk knowledgeably about them, and then where does THAT leave you?
Similarly, if you received honors or citations from your company, leave off the one saying that you were the greatest softball pitcher the team has ever known!
Pick out one or two clubs/professional organizations to which you belong and focus on these, providing a sentence or two about their importance. And please, leave out the ubiquitous "references provided upon request.” (Well, DUH…! You ARE applying for a job, aren't you?)
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