Craft a Smoother, Better Resume

I read resumes for a living.  I read other stuff too but resumes are the main focus during the day (and sometimes evenings, much to my husband’s consternation).

It never gets boring, Each resume, like each person, is interesting and unique. People take different paths to the same role, have different educational chapters and insert more or less of themselves in their resume.

BUT

• Spelling mistakes
• Fonts with curly cues
• Indented boxes and sidebars that get mangled by my software
• Leaving out dates or titles
• Pretending a company or university is in Canada when it clearly is not
• Squishing in information by using narrow margins and 8 pt letters
• 20 bullets for one role and only three for the others
• Acronyms that are not widely understood

These are all things that take away from the positive impression that your resume is supposed to provide. It’s like you are strolling along and you suddenly trip on the rug.  Once you recover, it can be hard to remember what you thinking about before.

So before you send me your resume, have someone read it for you.  Ask them if it’s smooth.  They make look at you funny but it will give them a constructive perspective which should generate good, usable feedback.