I’m a hiring manager. During the last seven years I’ve reviewed an estimated five thousand to ten thousand resumes while hiring or promoting fifty people for three different companies. I’ve hired sales people, tech experts, managers, marketing people and editors. While my experience may not be as extensive as some long time HR professionals, odds are pretty good that I’ve seen many more resumes than the average job seeker.
Having just completed one job search and being in the midst of another, I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on how to build a successful resume. These views are my own, and in no way reflect the views or positions of my employer. My tips cover 20 recommendations, broken down across three categories:
Resume Design
1. Use white space liberally. Going through a three inch thick pile of resumes makes you immediately appreciate the ones that are easy to read. Do not under any circumstances present a resume with quarter inch margins or less. The goal of building a resume is not to just jam one sheet of paper with information, but to present your qualifications in a readable and professional manner.
2. Font choice. Don’t use a font that invokes humor or “dares to be different”. Keep it simple. Stick with aerial (or times new roman if you must). Sans serif fonts are generally easier to read in electronic and printed form. Steer clear of comic sans, and never use courier.
3. Use bullet points…sparingly. Do not go to extremes. Avoid crafting a resume with only bullets or with only narrative text. A blended approach is preferred. A few sentences to describe each position, with 3-5 bullet points describing your achievements or accomplishments at each job is a nice balance.
4. Convert the resume to PDF. PDF is a gift to job seekers. Converting your word processed resume to PDF allows you to control exactly what I see. Uploading a word document to our HR system means you are taking a risk that my settings might skew your resume in some way, making the document more difficult to read. Recent versions of word allow a simple conversion to PDF through the “save as” function. If your word processor does not include this functionality, try an online conversion. Just search for “PDF converter” in the search engine of your choice!
Keep your reader in mind
5. Be sure you are qualified. It goes without saying, but make sure you’re qualified for the position. Pay close attention to the job description and requirements. I know you want to apply for the job that would be just a bit of a stretch assignment. Just be sure it’s not too much of a stretch. Applying for positions you are not qualified for wastes both our time. Also, applying for any job that has “xyz” word in it just because it was recommended to you by your automated job search agent is rarely a good idea. Research the position and company to ensure a reasonable chance of a good fit.
6. Create a career management document. If you’re a working professional with more than a few years of workplace experience, I recommend not having only one resume. Instead, create a “career management document” that you update quarterly with your workplace achievements and accomplishments. Naturally, this document will grow over time to be fairly sizable. Then, when you see a position you are interested in, pull the specific accomplishments that relate to the job requirements over into a resume. In this way, you are sure your resume is custom built for the task at hand, winning you that specific job.
7. Highlight elements that satisfy the job description. Pay close attention to the job requirements and consider re-ordering your resume to be sure the elements of the job description are contained in your resume and are easily seen. You don’t want to bury an important element at the bottom of a two page resume. Make those things stand out by either placing them at the top, or bolding them. Especially the ones we label within the description as “not required but preferred” because those elements are likely to put you ahead of the competition.
Personal Pet Peeves and other Miscellaneous Stuff
8. Keep it reasonably short. One page preferred. Personally, I’m OK with two pages, so long as your experience warrants it. However, there is no reason to submit a six page resume. Ever.
9. Get with the technology. Upload one document. Do not upload six different one page documents. Ever.
10. Get with the 21st century. Lose the AOL e-mail address. It makes you look like you’re stuck in yesterday’s technology.
11. Create a professional e-mail address. Ensure the first part of your e-mail address is “flattering”. You don’t want to submit a resume that with an e-mail address of chronicgambler@xyz.com. Every little thing matters. Pay attention to the details.
12. Minimize your warts. Only include class rank info if it is flattering. Does it help your cause for me to know that you ranked in the bottom third of your class? If not, leave it off. Maybe I won’t ask about it during an interview. Including unflattering info increases the likelihood you won’t get to the interview stage. Here’s a dirty little secret – I could care less about your class rank. The only way that impresses me if you were top 10% at a great institution, while also juggling an incredible out of class schedule.
13. Keep references separate. Do not include on the resume, please.
14. Eliminate the personal commentary. I don’t care that you are into backpacking. And I surely don’t care that you were rush chairman of your social fraternity in college (unless I’m hiring for an event planning position, of course).
15. Eliminate the objective. You know that part of your resume that’s usually at the very top, that’s usually titled “objective”? The section that begins with “To obtain a position the utilizes my…”? Eliminate it. I know you want to job you applied for. It’s implied by the fact you applied.
16. Eliminate the summary. You know that part of your resume that’s usually at the very top, that’s usually titled “summary”? The section that begins with “Hardworking, innovative college graduate….”? Eliminate it. It’s all fluff and I know it.
17. Proactively address my questions. If you know I’m wondering about something, address it directly and forthrightly in the resume. If you were laid off, tell me in the resume. Word it however you want, but I’m wondering about it anyway, so eliminate the open question. Saw a resume that listed that recently and it was refreshing. I’m not going to hold that against you. Similarly, if my job is located in Chicago, and your address is listed as San Diego but you’re willing to relocate for it, say so.
18. If you’re going to include a cover letter, make it a killer. In my view, cover letters are not a requirement in this day and age. I just eliminated 90% of the resumes I received for this latest job opening without reading a single cover letter. That said, if you are going to go to the trouble of including one, make sure it is terrific. Customize it to me, to my company and to my job. Nothing will put you in my dog house faster than being careless and uploading a cover letter addressed to another company because you were resume spamming every job you could find.
19. Get active with your accomplishments. Make sure your accomplishments are written in the active voice and include the business outcomes of your involvement.
20. Find a trusted third party to give you feedback. Creating a resume is a difficult thing to do well, partly because we are so emotionally attached to the thing. This one sheet of paper is supposed to represent your professional capabilities. It is not a facsimile of you as a person. Family members don’t count, because they are just as invested in your success as you are. Find a mentor or work colleague you trust to review the document (preferably someone who has hired more than a handful of people), and be prepared to act on the feedback you receive.
Obtaining an online MBA is not a bad idea to boost your resume either! In fact, any business degree is a great foundation for a solid resume.
At the end of the day, you want your resume to be:
• Professional
• Readable
• Organized
• Targeted
Keeping these four things in mind will help you get that phone call to take things to the next level. Best of luck in your job search!
Get the inside scoop on opportunities, communities, products and events we think you'll love. Sign up by entering your email:
If anyone can relate to where you're at in your career, it's Nicole Crimaldi: Nicole spent 5 years in corporate America, switched career paths, worked at a start-up, survived a layoff and is now self-employed. Nicole believes that career satisfaction is a huge part of overall happiness. Therefore, she started Ms. Career Girl to help other women get off the treadmill and onto a more fulfilling path.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Good stuff Sean. I really like the idea of a career management document since it gives you a way to quantify all of your accomplishments for the purposes of your resume.
Srini and Sean- I also love the idea of a career management document. Thanks to this post, I started one this morning and made a list of projects I’ve volunteered for and other things I’ve done beyond the basic job requirements. Review time comes up so fast and if you don’t write things down as they come, you’ll miss out on highlighting accomplishments.
Thank you both. The idea of a career management document is one I picked up from a favorite managerial resource a while back. I believe in it completely. It’s important to pre-schedule a meeting to update this document in our calendaring system. I recommend scheduling a few hours a quarter to update the CMD with your accomplishments. It will absolutely help you come review time as well (as was mentioned in another comment). I track my achievements against my objectives monthly, formally update my boss on those achievementd and update the CMD quarterly, and then review those notes annually as I prepare my self assessment come review time. Nobody cares as much about your career as you do. It pays for you to take an interest in (and schedule time for) managing that career.
Great post Sean. The PDF tip is one I always seem to forget. I agree with you about cover letters. Whats the point? They always end up sounding the same- calculated and boastful. I hate writing them, and I’m sure hiring managers hate reading them. I appreciate it when applications just ask for a resume or essay questions instead of a cover letter.
I think the big problem with cover letters is that they sound robotic. Personally, I would want to hire someone who I enjoy working with. It’s extremley difficult to show personality AND competence in a cover letter. I’m glad to hear that many hiring managers don’t read them.
Ashley – don’t get me wrong, a well done cover letter is a big help, provided it is done well. The risk is big, however, for those that either don’t do it well, or worse, paste the wrong one into the system. It looks careless and is certain to tarnish even the best written resumes, resulting in a missed opportunity. If writing is something you do well, and if you have a true passion for a particular position, by all means take the time to write a good cover letter. I reviewed 100+ resumes for this last position and I have yet to review a cover letter while whittling those down to 14 to be screened. However, I guarantee you I will look closely at each cover letter prior to scheduling a formal interview and some otherwise good people might not make the cut based on a poorly executed cover letter.
This is a very helpful post. Especially the idea of the career management document – so brilliant and yet so simple! It will also come in handy at Year End Review time.
I always have thought the cover letters and “objectives” section on a resume usually sound like a bunch of hooey anyway, so it’s rather freeing to hear somebody say to eliminate the objectives section and focus on the meat of your resume.
I use the Save-As-PDF all the time, but some companies job posting websites still only allow DOCS. Very frustrating for all the reasons you mention.
I totally agree! Objectives are especially cheesy for entry-level grads considering they don’t have tons of experience yet. I think so many peoples sound exactly the same yet they say nothing relevant at all.
Beth – you’re dead on right about the CMD coming in handy at review time. I just worked with a colleague on a resume a few days ago and during that exercise, we talked about the different languages executives and individual contributors use looking at resumes. I’m a firm believer that most executives care about accomplishments, and they have to be quantified. That means improving top line sales, reducing costs or growing profit. Most everything else is window dressing. My view is the resume is the place to quantify what you achieved. The interview is your chance to expound on that achievement and inform the hiring manager how you achieved those things. Probably worth another post on how to formulate an accomplishment on a resume. I’ll tee that one up for a future post.
Thanks for the tips Sean (and Nicole),
Re: #3
I just started testing a new resume style that’s heavy on bullets, after using a more traditional, chronological format. The bullets allow me to list all of the diverse jobs & internships that I’ve worked in, while staying on one page (which is difficult to do using the traditional format). I’ll consider incorporating the blended approach.
Andre – see my note above. I like the blended format because it allows you to tell the reader what the core responsibilities of the job entailed while also hitting hard on the specific accomplishments in each job. Pull the best 3-5 achievements over into the resume, but make sure they fit the job description. This is easier to do when you are early in your career, and becomes more difficult as your career progresses, because of all the cool things you’ve achieved during a 10-20 or more year career!
Great post – Thanks.
Tip 21: Create your own digital business card website, digital curriculum vitae, personal branding landing page – http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/wog
Great tips, Sean! Thanks for sharing these with your readers. I think there are several that could go either way, however. When it comes to the objective, it’s pretty much a matter of preference. Some hiring managers like them, others despise them.
One thing that I think would add to this list would be to add keywords throughout the resume, especially if a candidate is going to upload into an ATS (most are required). Using keywords that are in the job description will help someone stand out.
All in all, great advice! Keep up the great work.
Kirk
One tip I would add is to ‘save as’ a lower version in Word. Just because you have the latest version of Word it doesn’t mean that everyone one else has.
Of course the PDF option is great for getting round this, if the web site accepts PDF and it ensures that your CV looks the way you meant it to. Also it can’t be modified.
Tym
keep in mind that this is ONE persons opinion, one cocky person for that matter, cover letters are important, so is personal experience, someone who doesn’t appreciate individuality is not worth the time, be yourself!!!
rachel:
Thanks for the feedback – and dialog. You’re right about this being only one person’s opinion. The piece was meant to reflect my views about what works and what doesn’t when submitting a resume. There is little doubt that people’s mileage may vary.
Reading back on my comments about cover letters, I want to clarify my position a bit.
There is no doubt that a terrific cover letter is a positive addition to any resume submission. The real problem is so few of them are actually terrific. My experience is most cover letters are so-so at best, and good many – perhaps 25% or more – are just dreadful. A cover letter that is addressed to another company, references a wrong job description, or is riddled with typographical errors is tantamount to a fatal flaw; and would trump an otherwise qualified candidate from being considered for a position. And because so many of the ones I have seen do not add value in the way the candidate hopes, I simply recommend avoiding them as a way of creatively avoiding a weakness.
That said, when a cover letter is great, it can change everything…..
To illustrate the point, I am reminded me of a situation a few years ago. A candidate had applied for an internship we had open in my department. The candidate’s cover letter was so strong and so well written that I was blown away. I shopped her cover letter and resume to several others within our organization. The end result was we CREATED a position for her. She got an internship, and ultimately a position with the business. None of that would have happened without the cover letter.
Regards,
Sean
These tips provide learning for me personally, I’ll try to write articles that refer to the tips from you Sean. Thank you for sharing.
Pebi
You’ve got some great tips on resume writing in this post! I’ve done a lot of hiring my self, and heartily agree with many of your points.
One thing that you alluded to, but never outright said is that the resume is really an entity that you have to design, and that you need to consider it as such when you’re creating it. In a comment on a recent blog post of mine (shameless link, I know), someone pointed out this out, as well as the fact that one of the key design elements to consider is the user interface (which was actually the subject of the blog post they commented on). I’d never considered a resume in this way before, but it really resonates with me. What are your thoughts?
Professional, Readable, Organized, Targeted. If you live by those 4 words, then you won’t needs tips for you resume. Happy job hunting everybody!