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!

Five Quick Tips to Creating an Online Searchable Resume

1) USE KEYWORDS: Resumes are skimmed initially by hiring managers and recruiters in 5 - 10 seconds, sometimes faster if they are keyword searching large sites like Monster or CareerBuilder. They are looking for specific information to fill a specific role. Be sure to include keywords in your resume that will zero in on your desired position. A resume with the pertinent keywords will ensure your resume gets found and gets a longer look.

2) NOT TOO MUCH INFORMATION: Resumes with too much information or too much "fanciness" get passed over quicker. The pertinent information is too hard to find. Keep it simple, straight forward and easy to pinpoint your experience and strengths. Refrain from fancy fonts, lines, headers and too many additional nonessential things.

3) SIMPLE FORMATTING: When you submit your resume through a website or ATS/RTS (applicant/resume tracking system), that fancy formatting is often removed or altered. This means that your resume doesn't look at all like what you intended. If it doesn’t get altered on the site you upload to it is likely to get altered when recruiter and hiring managers upload it to their company’s tracking site like Sales Force. Be sure you are looking at it from that perspective. The more straightforward you make it initially, the more intact it will stay as it travels through the screening process. In today’s hiring landscape it is best to stay streamlined, bullet pointed and easy to follow.

4) AVOID ALL CAPS & CATCHY TITLES: Catchy titles and placing your name in ALL CAPS were both “best practices” at one point in the hiring game. Today it is best to instead use the same size (not all caps) font and save your resume with a title that is just your name or even the year or something similar such as “Christy McDonald Resume” or “Christy McDonald 2015 Resume”. Eliminate catchy titles when using career websites. Instead of “dynamic sales professional” opt for something that is concise such as “Licensed Multi-state Health/Life Agent”. That way you are already ahead of the game on using keywords and giving hiring managers/recruiters a heads up as to exactly what type of sales you are in.

5) BE SURE TO HIGHLIGHT SKILLS PERTINENT TO YOUR DESIRED POSITION: It is really important to list out specific skills that are pertinent to the position you desire. For example if you are in healthcare claims processing and have used three different claims processing systems you will want to be sure to list them on the resume. I would suggest a targeted “Skills/Systems Experience” section on your resume that would bullet point them out. That way they are easy to find when someone is quickly looking over the resume and when hiring manager and recruiters are doing keyword searches on large sites like LinkedIn, CareerBuilder or Monster.

Here are two great FREE resources that will aid you in creating a great resume:
http://resume.monster.com/
http://advice.careerbuilder.com/?categories=Resumes

3 Tips to Make Your Resume a "Quick Read"

1. Don't center any of your text

Even your section headings should be aligned to the left. This improves readability because the eye naturally returns to the left margin once it's ready to move on to the next line of text.

2. Align your dates and locations to the right

You can only fit so much different information (company name, job title, location, dates of employment) on one line of text before it gets unwieldy. To help separate out your information, make a separate column for dates and locations that is right adjusted. On most word processors, you should be able to just create a right-tab.

3. Don't justify your resume

Overall, using a justified setting for your bullets may make your resume look tidier, but it does nothing for readability. This setting leaves uneven gaps between words that ultimately make text harder to read, so for your bullets and resume overall, stick with regular ol’ left alignment.

Read more tips at: http://mashable.com/2014/07/29/resume-changes-skimming/

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!