It’s a rare day that goes by where someone doesn’t ask me to critique his or her resume. To be brutally honest, most resumes are not up to par. From the spelling errors to the lousy formatting, from the boring, never-ending laundry lists of duties, to the straight copy-and-paste job descriptions full of fluffy business-speak, I can only say that medals should be bestowed on recruiters and HR professionals for having the staying power to trawl though them without jumping out the nearest window.

“Of course”, I hear you saying. “Naturally Gayle would say that! She’s a professional resume writer! But not all of us can afford a top notch writer to represent us, and some of us just want to go it alone!”

So for those people—you know the ones, the people who want to do their own tax returns, fix the leaky taps, build their own house extension, operate “Rambo” style on themselves and represent themselves in court, here’s the top 5 things you must do to have half a chance of competing against my clients.

1. The most important information; this is everything the employer/recruiter needs to know to sell you, should be in the first half of page one. Notice I say “everything ‘they’ NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU”. Yes I put that in capitals because it’s worth shouting out loud about this one. I didn’t say, what you want to tell the employer/recruiter. It’s what they want. Everything is about what they need to know, not what you feel warm and cosy about (this includes a project 20 years ago where you had your finest hour and you being part of the canoe rowing squad where you won first prize in 1985). The most important information includes: keywords (skills you have that are pertinent to the position), a powerful first paragraph that provides an overview of you and your experience and strengths, some key achievements to whet their appetite, and a pointer right at the top of the page that tells the reader what type of a job you want.
2. Don’t make your reader guess what type of job you’re pitching for by having to turn to your employment on page 2. At the top of the document state either what you are (eg, Senior Finance Manager ~ Manufacturing Sector) or what you want the reader to consider you for (eg, Business Development Manager and then second line, Hands-on Technical Background in Engineering and Manufacturing)
3. Make your document interesting to read. Look at your resume critically. Would you be fascinated by it? Excited to read it? Would it give you pleasure? Think of the last really bad book you read. Truth be told it was possibly one of those “new age” books on business you were given during a team work exercise at your place of business. Remember how you tried to read it a dozen times, but you kept re-reading the same paragraph over and over because it was so dull, you keep getting distracted? That book is probably the same as your resume. Revise everything in there. If phrases are “fluffy” (if you cannot grasp and understand an actual achievement), delete them ruthlessly. Delete anything that looks or sounds like a position description or a cliché. In their place, think of problems you had to overcome, how you overcame them, and the results of your actions. Then start the sentence off with the result (eg, Delivered a 50% increase in productivity) followed by the action (eg, via the development of a new computerised monitoring widget) followed by the original problem (that resolved history of time consuming, erroneous processing). Boring your reader senseless must be avoided at all costs.
4. Proofread. Proofread. (I’ll say it again) Proofread. Every resume sent to me for critiquing contains spelling and grammar errors. One of the best things you can do is to read it aloud to yourself. (Yes I do this as a professional resume writer too). If you find yourself turning blue and falling on the floor, then the sentence is too long. Revise it. Cut it in half. If you find yourself stumbling, then that is your head hinting to you that something isn’t quite right. Keep your grammar parallel. By that I mean that if you start a sentence with a word in the past tense—say, “Delivered” and half way through your sentence changes to “…overseeing and instructing…” the sentence has lost the plot and probably taken your reader with it. Revise.
5. Learn how to use the word processor properly because your document needs to look attractive as well as sound compelling. Learn how to change the size of the paper so it is appropriate for the country you are living in (or applying for) and adjust the spelling for the country you are living in (or applying for). Word processors are set with standard defaults which are usually for the United States. That’s fine if you live there, but if you live in Australia or elsewhere like the UK or Europe your resume will end up poorly formatted and the spelling will be wrong. Words such as organize, specialize, defense, labor, color, center are words that are correct in the United States. In Australia, these words are organise, specialise, defence, labour, colour, centre. While you’re at it, if you do not have the skills to create your own format and you either fill the page with goofy tables because you don’t know how to indent or tab, or you feel compelled to use one of Microsoft’s templates used by 90% of the jobseeking population, then please, spend a few dollars and take your content to a secretarial service where it will at least be typed with some style. There is nothing more amateurish as a resume were the dates are tabbed across the page, and content fills table blocks. Remember you’re trying to sell your skills as a professional, not as an incompetent typist.

Of course there are just as many “must nots” as there are “must haves” but those we’ll leave for another day. At least, until you get your “must haves” under control and implemented.

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