Black ink on
white bonded paper is always the best bet - timeless, classic and easy to read. Limit the number of fonts to one, or at the most two. Avoid adding pictures or graphics to your resume. 2. One Page Only
In
this day and age where resumes are faxed, e-mailed and shuffled from one desk to another, it's best to keep it to one page and avoid possible lost pages. Most importantly, remember that the resume is a summary of your
experience. It is meant to get you an interview, where you can further go into your background. Good editing and prioritizing helps to keep your resume current and concise.
3. Accuracy and Honesty
Your
resume must be a truthful reflection of your background and skills. Padding it will only cause problems later on.
4. It's All Fair Game
Never assume that any entry on your resume is too old or trivial for a
prospective employer's inquiry.
5. Start Fresh
When updating your pre-existing resume; do not start by cutting and pasting from an earlier version. You might have written it a long time ago and don't
remember what you originally intended. Begin by jotting down everything you can remember about each past position, regardless of how unimportant it seems.
6. Edit for Clarity and Variety
Eliminate
repetition by examining all the different ways you have said the same thing. Choose the most unique and impassive words from each one. One version may describe the task you performed in great detail, while another may
contain a dynamic action verb. The combination will give your resume an effective variety of descriptions.
7. Display Strength and Action
Many resumes contain vague verbs that communicate very little about
a candidate's abilities. "Worked on," "Handled," "Communicated with, and "Assisted" could mean anything. Be specific, for example, do not use "Assisted at trial" if you
prepared witnesses for their testimony, and formulated questions for direct examination.
8. Group and Organize
The type of position you are pursuing will be determine the overall structure of your resume.
Group together like tasks and skills. Litigation Attorneys, for instance, could separate their experience into motion practice, discovery and trial work. You may also compose your groupings as related to your particular
area of expertise, for example: housing development, urban renewal and construction law.
9. Bullet Points
It is advisable to have a maximum of five bullet points within a grouping or heading. And within
each bulleted entry, try to include more than one item. A resume filled with too many bullet points becomes very distracting.
10. Prioritize
The final step is to determine the order of relevance within each
heading or group. The average employer spends about twenty seconds skimming over a resume. You should give them guidance as to what's important. Keep in mind the prioritizing concept known in journalism as the inverted
pyramid. If the opening phrase of your experience is weak, hiring managers are likely to skip over the rest of the entry or even entire resume. Building to a strong finish never pays off.
