Does Resume Formatting Matter? In a word-Yes!

You are putting together your resume in the hopes that it will reflect the awesomeness that is you, your work experience and skill set. That's great!

Let's put the actual content aside and talk strictly about the nuts and bolts of formatting for a moment...

In today's job market if you are in a highly creative career field, the wildly unique is rightfully rewarded. If you are in a more standard line of business or job role, you will want to pull in the creativity just a bit. There is still room to be unique and catch the attention of Hiring Managers, but with the following best practices in mind.

It is good best practice to stay away from the following:

Text boxes with various icons and lots of changes in the fonts and colors.
Fonts that are difficult to read. Too many busy lines, cursive or being too small.
Graphics that over power the resume or distract. One simple line at the top to delineate your name if you must is sufficient.
Too many dots, dashes, roman numerals, and numbering. Bullet points are great for each listed position to highlight accomplishments.
There's no need to label your contact information such as typing out the words "email address". Simply type the email address itself. Applications like Microsoft Word will automatically format an email address if you hit the enter/return key at the end just like it did with this one: janedoe@yahoozi.com . Same with phone numbers. Format them in a standard way i.e. (999)555-1212 and it's clear.
It is good best practice to incorporate the following:

Include your name, address (city & state are sufficient) a contact phone number and email address. I have seen advice out there stating not to list your city and state. Please know that many national companies are looking to find candidates in geographic regions of the U.S. Listing your city and state will let them know where you are. Decide accordingly.
Choose a straightforward streamlined professional format with your contact information at the top. It’s a good idea to make the contact information a bit larger than the remaining resume content so it jumps out at your reader.
There is still plenty of room for individuality in choosing what font(s) you use, how you format the resume content and even how you lay out your contact information. Experiment with different looks and templates, being sure you stay in the guidelines of “clean, straightforward, and easy to read”
I realize some of this advice goes against the long standing “old school” accepted practice of resume design. There was a time when complicated formatting, with extensive and often “flowery” fonts were used. That was all before the introduction of current technology that now changes the way a resume is seen, evaluated and processed. Today, many HR Managers, Hiring Managers and Recruiters are using ATS (applicant tracking systems) so reducing the amount of formatting “fluff” will be greatly appreciated when they are viewing, and trying to upload your resume to their company’s data base.

Bear these things in mind when constructing your resume, and it will be the right reflection you are looking for.

Good Luck to You! Much Success in Your Endeavors!

Yes, Resume Formatting Matters

You are putting together your resume in the hopes that it will reflect the awesomeness that is you, your work experience and skills. That's great!

Let's put content aside and talk strictly about the nuts and bolts of formatting for a moment...

In today's job market unless to you are going into a very creative field, it's a great idea to stay away from the following:
• Text boxes with various icons and lots of changes in the fonts and colors
• Graphics that over power the resume or distract. One simple line at the top to delineate your name if you must is sufficient
• Too many dots, dashes, roman numerals, and numbering. Bullet points are great for each position to highlight accomplishments.
• Always include your name, address (city & state are sufficient) a contact phone number and email address
• There is no need to label your contact information such as email address: janedoe@yahoo.com simply type the email address. It will be apparent that it’s an email address. The same with phone numbers, etc... You can indicate (C) for cell (H) for home phone if needed
• Choose a straightforward professional format with your contact information at the top. It’s a good idea to make the contact information larger than the remaining resume content so it jumps out at your reader.
• There is still plenty of room for individuality in what font(s) you use, how you format the resume content and even how you lay out your contact information. Experiment with different looks and templates, being sure you stay in the guidelines of “clean, straightforward, and easy to read”

This advice goes against the long standing accepted practice of resume design. That was before the introduction of technology that changed the way a resume is seen, evaluated and processed. Today many HR Managers, Hiring Managers and Recruiters are using ATS (applicant tracking systems) so reducing the amount of formatting “fluff” will be greatly appreciated when they are viewing, and trying to upload your resume to their company’s data base. Bear that in mind when constructing your resume and it will be the right reflection you are looking for. Good Luck to You!

The Times They are a Changin

Not all advice is good advice. Here are some outdated resume tips you should be avoiding at all costs!

1. “Your resume should only be one page long.”
Two pages is currently the ideal length for resumes. It allows you enough space to be thorough without the information getting buried among itself. Certain positions in the medical and academic fields require a CV (curriculum vitae), which is typically longer because it includes research, publications, or other items that the position asks for. Two pages is a good length for resumes, though.

2. “You need an Objective Statement.”
When we started learning about writing resumes, our career counselors, parents, and teachers deemed this to be a “must.” But times have changed and the objective statement often ends up being a waste of precious resume space. After all, you only have two pages to gain a prospective employer’s interest and persuade them to pick up the phone to schedule an interview. Your objective when sending your resume to someone or submitting it to an open position is implied in the act itself—you want to be hired for the position you have expressed interest in.

Instead of an objective, use that space to add a customized link to your LinkedIn profile and explain any employment gaps that you may have. Doing this gives the recruiter more information and eliminates the risk of them passing on you because of a concerning gap in your employment history. Some recruiters will call to ask you about them, but some will just move on to the next.

Also, the client could have instructed the recruiters to send the resume to them if the candidate had a legitimate reason to explain the gap (e.g. finishing a degree, taking care of a sick relative, etc.), but not respond to any that are unexplained because of the quantity of resumes they already have to sort through.

The bottom line: You probably won’t know who your resume will get in front of or what instructions the recruiters were given, so it is a good idea to cover your bases.

3. “Include ‘References available upon request’ in your resume.”
As with the objective statement, this is implied and the space could be used for better purposes. So far, I have not come across a candidate who refused to provide references when asked for them.

4. “You need a traditional resume.”
With the fierce competition and wide array of job sites, forums, professional networking sites, and so on, the need to set yourself apart from others has been steadily increasing. As a result, businesses have gotten more social and interested in one’s ability to market themselves. This is evidenced by the emergence of all those “Create your personal brand” advice articles geared toward job seekers and any professionals looking to advance their careers.

The creation of non-traditional resumes reflects this idea as well. Although I do advise keeping the bullet point format because it is easiest to read, you can include narration and even a quote from one of your LinkedIn recommendations to spice up your resume. For instance, I have a quote from my former boss on mine and the feedback I have gotten thus far in interviews is always positive. A few have referred to it when I mentioned my work with him. It is a great credibility-booster and is also the only item that is in color (just the brackets around it), which helps it stand out.

If you are planning to submit your resume directly to a company’s website, have a simply formatted version as well (Times New Roman, no bold or underlining, spaces in lieu of indents, standard bullet points or dashes, no images or text boxes, etc.). Many employers, staffing agencies, and recruitment firms utilize an applicant tracking system (ATS), which will jumble any unrecognized formatting into plain text.

Read more at http://www.careerealism.com/outdated-resume-tips-avoiding/#op3VSAEUjeSQDZA9.99

Common Resume Mistakes

Here are a couple of COMMON Resume Mistakes:

Spelling Company Names Incorrectly
A job applicant assumed she correctly remembered the names of all the companies she worked for. But she didn’t; she misspelled two of them. Mistakes like that make recruiters and hiring managers wonder if the resume is truthful.

Being Inconsistent

A sales executive described his success at landing multi-million dollar contracts for various companies. But each time he listed a dollar amount, he changed the form: $1 million; $2M; $3,000,000. Another example would be the date format you use when listing employment history: Jan 2013, 2/2010 4/4/14. This is one that you really want to hone in on and make sure you address while proofreading your resume.


Read more at http://www.careerealism.com/resume-mistakes-dont-get-caught/#XDtPkEJcUCLChKGb.99