We all have one and we all spend (probably) too much time writing and editing them.  That’s right– a resume.  Every career services office offers resume writing services, the internet is filled with similar services.  But I am here to tell you that a resume is a tool to screen you OUT of a job not into a job.

There are many people who may disagree with me but in my 20+ years of screening resumes, I always looked for someting wrong in a resume.  Maybe I’m a cynic but when I had 200 resumes on my desk for one position, I wanted to see somethig that was easy to read.  I also wondered if anyone within the company knew the candidate.  After all, if I received 200 resumes for one position, my eyes got bleary after a while.  They all looked alike. 

So, what can you do to enhance your resume?

• Make the title and company name as easy to read as possible.
• Tell me what you did in easy to read terms and what value you added.  The words “responsbile for” are a given.  What measureable result did you achieve?
• Leave lots of white space to make it easy to read.
• Use a yellow marker to highlight 2 or 3 key words on your resume.  Again, it makes it eady to read. 
• Finally, make sure your resume comes to me by someone I know and trust.  It makes you a more credible candidate.