Over the years I’ve read tons of articles on what you should and shouldn’t include in your resume.  Each comes from a different industry and point of view.  Not everything is applicable to every industry or position.  As an IT recruiter, I’ve seen a lot of good and bad resumes over the years.  From these, I have compiled a list of tips to help you get your resume from my inbox and into the decision-makers’ hands faster and generally with a higher degree of overall success.

Don’t zip your resume.  

If your resume is really that large that it has to be zipped, then it is an autobiography and not a resume.  I am not impressed that you know how to zip it.  The exercise of unzipping a 2 page resume will not earn you points with a recruiter.

Don’t bold key words in your resume

Have you ever tried to read one of these at length? I may be seeking other words than the 50-70 words that you may have decided are important for me to see.  A red flag goes up that you are an expert at “Buzzword Bingo” and not an expert at those listed.

Don’t list the exact same functions on every job

We do like to see some details, but when you use the exact same, or virtually the same, verbiage on 3 projects we can’t help to wonder what you really did.  Show your wordsmith and communication skills – this is especially important if you are a business analyst or documentation writer. 

Refrain from including a separate Accomplishments section  Listing a whole page of accomplishments should be saved for your annual Christmas list and not your resume.  Tell me about each of them under your actual work experience where they occurred.   Listing them in accomplishment form will only have me asking you to “Prove it.” 

Give me some background

Many times technical resumes jump into the deep IT  verbage which I am interested in but I would also would like to see if you can explain how your project supported your previous employer.  Consider your resume as if you were telling it to Grandma, give me a paragraph on what the company does as there is  a good chance I may be unaware of the company or industry for that matter.  Draw me into why your project was significant and what it accomplished.  Most IT projects solve a business problem, enlighten me on what it was.

Formatting

Refrain from tables or a lot of formatting in your resume.  Many times what is aligned when you send it may not be presented correctly in the reviewers system. Also, many recruiters reformat your resume into their template before presenting it to clients, so having to strip out complicated table formatting and so forth can significantly slow down your resume from reaching the client.  Keep it clean and simple!  When in doubt, ask for an example of what the recruiter considers his/her “dream format”.  Unlike those who zip, make my life easier with your format, and this “will” earn you points!