Resume Guidelines

When it comes to the presentation of resume, some applicants still makes the old classic mistakes. The presentation of a resume is one of the first elements of the document that a prospective employer will notice, so don’t fail at the first hurdle. Pasted below are few pointers that will facilitate your chances of getting through the initial screening –

• Editing & Proofreading – Most of the times, resumes are rejected by employers for misspellings. A fresh eye can spot any mistakes you may have missed, and another reviewer may also notice when there is a better way of saying something, a clearer way to make a point.
• White Spaces – The use of white space is crucial too. Keeping margins at a standard size rather than trying to squeeze every information onto one page.
• Use of Standard Font – One should be using a standard font too, which is not too large or small. Arial and Times New Roman are the most acceptable fonts. Try to make the formatting of your resume as clear and logical as possible, using short bullet points. Never use ‘resume’ or ‘CV’ as a heading. It will be obvious to a recruiter that this is what the document is!
• Avoid overusing capital letters, underlining or bold letters too (other than for job titles), as this can make your resume difficult to read and is a negative for the overall presentation of your resume.
• Use of Colour – Remember that white paper is the norm and the use of colour should be minimal, if not non-existent. A resume is a professional document that may be photocopied, so you should minimize your design flair when presenting your resume.
• Use of Graphics – We do not recommend the use of any graphics on your resume including logos.
• Parsing Services – In the earlier days, recruiters were actually reading through your resume. Today, most of the companies are using “Resume Parsing Systems.” These computer programs instead going through your complete CV’s scrutinizes it basis the percentage of industry specific keywords of the Job Description. Therefore it’s useful to include actual wording from the job posting within your resume. This may require tweaking your resume, but if it gets you noticed, nothing like it!
• Use of appropriate Titles – Please ensure that the job titles on your resume match the job position for which you are applying your candidature. Use of appropriate titles over the traditional ones is the need of the hour.

For instance:
“Career Coach“ versus the traditional “Manager of Human Resources”
“Educational Administrator“ versus the traditional “Manager of Training”
“Crew Leader“ versus the traditional “Supervisor”
• Don’t use the Page Header and Footer – Your resume will probably not make it past the Parsing system if you put your contact information, etc. as a header or footer. Only the text is downloaded into the system. Also, speaking as a recruiter, we have to remove the headers when emailing your resume. Using a page header or footer on your resume is a good way not to get noticed.

The main rule is to remember that your resume is a professional document, so make it look as professional as possible to convey yourself and your skills in the best possible light.

We wish you great success in your job search!!