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The importance of the appearance of your resume cannot be overemphasized. It is vital that your resume appear neat, clean, organized, and easy to read. Remember, your resume is an example of your ability to organize and communicate.

On average, your resume is scanned the first time by any given employer for approximately 25 seconds. It is imperative you organize your information so important points are emphasized and easily distinguishable. There are seven general rules to follow regarding resume layout and appearance:

• ABSOLUTELY NO typographical or spelling errors are allowed! Your resume is an example of your writing ability. If it has errors, your employer can only assume you work in a careless and haphazard manner, and as an employee, your work would need to be checked constantly.

• Use plenty of white space and do not crowd information. Your resume text should be balanced on the page, top to bottom and side to side. White space should be utilized to emphasize important points and increase the scannability of your resume.

• Remember people read from top to bottom, left to right. Place your most important information in the upper left-hand corner and down the left margin, decreasing in importance from top to bottom.

• Use good quality white, off-white, or conservatively colored paper with an easyto- read font type. Putting your resume on purple or hot pink paper to stand out in a stack of resumes is not advised. Remember, business people are generally conservative (especially in industries such as banking and accounting), so a resume on hot pink paper will probably produce a negative reaction.

• Emphasize important points through the use of bullets, italics, bolding, and underlining. Along with positioning on the page, utilize the tools available on your computer to emphasize and organize important information and increase readability.

• Use phrases rather than complete sentences. Phrases are much more scannable and easier to comprehend than complete sentences. In resume writing, a few carefully chosen words are infinitely more effective than a beautifully written half-page paragraph.

• Try your best to limit your resume to one page. For new college graduates with limited related experience, one page is usually sufficient. However, if this is not possible without over-crowding, make your resume two pages but no longer. A two-page resume definitely has its place and is sometimes absolutely necessary. The rule of thumb on length: if your resume is two pages long with the second page of text covering less than half of the paper, edit it down to one page.

Scannable Resumes

Many larger companies are now using scanning technology to enter resumes into their databases. Rather than have a person manually enter all pertinent information into a computer, many larger companies have scanners which “take a picture” of resumes and enter their likeness into their database. Therefore, resumes submitted to large companies must be easily readable by the computer and the simpler the better. To achieve a scanner-ready resume, follow these basic guidelines:

• Use non-decorative fonts without serifs.
• Use a font size of 10 to 14 points.
• Avoid italic scripts, underlining, graphics, shading, and the use of vertical and horizontal lines.
• Don’t compress space between letters. Text too close together is unreadable.
• Use a laser printer rather than a dot matrix whenever possible.
• Send originals rather than copies.
• Minimize the use of abbreviations - spell things out.
• Use black ink on white paper.
• Do not fold your resume - creases cause difficulties for the scanner.

One final point about this technology is that scanners put resume information into a database. Companies then search the database based on industry-specific key words often found in resumes. Those resumes that are chosen as a result of the search are considered for the position at hand. Therefore, you must pay attention to the verbiage you use on your resume, and include key words related to your chosen field. Specific names of hardware and software, position titles, academic majors and degrees, and specific skills are key words which should be used.

A very effective way to ensure you have adequate key words included on your resume is to include a key words inventory, or a block of key words presented in list form. For a person with experience in marketing, sales, and public relations, a key words inventory might look something like this:

Customer Service
Merchandising
Image Campaign
Outside Sales
Retail Management
Public Relations
Marketing Materials
Event Planning
Media Relations
Promotions
Fundraising

This inventory should appear at the top of your resume, and serve as a snapshot or summary of your experience and skills.

References

Specific reference information (names, addresses, phone numbers of references) need not appear on your resume. Instead, a separate reference sheet should be prepared and taken to interviews. You will need to provide the following information for 3-5 professional references: name, job title, address, phone number, and relationship to you.

The purpose of a reference is to tell a potential employer what kind of an employee you are; therefore, try to provide names of former supervisors. If this is not possible, the next best references are co-workers or colleagues with whom you worked closely, or professors and/or academic advisors from college. Friends and relatives should not be listed.

Always make sure you receive permission before listing someone as a reference, and keep in touch. If it has been a year or more since you last associated with a particular reference, he or she may not remember you.

List of Action Verbs

accelerated	accomplished	accounted for	accurate	active	alert
achieved	acquired	aided	ambitious	analytical	bold
anticipated	arbitrated	authored	broad-minded	businesslike	capable
awarded	bolstered	briefed	challenging	clever	competent
budgeted	cataloged	chaired	confident	conscientious	consistent
cleared up	composed	conducted	cooperative	courageous	deliberate
coordinated	crafted	defined	determined	discreet	dominant
delegated	demonstrated	devised	eager	efficient	energetic
directed	edited	educated	fair-minded	farsighted	flexible
enlisted	established	executed	forceful	formal	frank
expedited	explored	familiarized	good-natured	helpful	honest
forecast	formulated	fostered	humorous	imaginative	independent
grossed	handled	heightened	individualistic	industrious	intelligent
highlighted	identified	implemented	likable	logical	loyal
improved	incorporated	initiated	mature	methodical	meticulous
innovated	interviewed	jump-started	moderate	modest	motivated
launched	lectured	maintained	natural	obliging	opportunistic
managed	mapped out	maximized	optimistic	organized	original
monitored	motivated	negotiated	outgoing	painstaking	patient
netted	observed	operated	persevering	pleasant	poised
organized	overcame	participated	practical	precise	progressive
perceived	performed	persuaded	prudent	purposeful	quick
pioneered	prepared	presented	rational	realistic	reflective
prevailed	programmed	projected	relaxed	reliable	reserved
qualified	rated	recommended	resourceful	responsible	self-confident
renovated	researched	resulted in	self-controlled	sensible	sensitive
revealed	reviewed	revised	serious	significant	sincere
saved	screened	scrutinized	sociable	spontaneous	stable
sifted	simplified	smoothed	steady	strong-minded	successful
spearheaded	streamlined	strengthened	supportive	tactful	teachable
submitted	suggested	summarized	tenacious	thorough	thoughtful
surmounted	targeted	taught	tolerant	tough	trustworthy
tightened	totaled	toured	unaffected	understanding	unexcitable
tracked	trained	transformed	uninhibited	verbal	versatile
uncovered	updated	welcomed	warm	wise	witty

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