A friend of a friend e-mailed me seeking resume help.
Consider resumes as marketing documents disguised as resumes.
I offered my unvarnished opinions based on 22 years being face-to-face with professional men and women in transition.
I replied.
You must, in my view, KNOW as much as you can about the potential new job so you can customize (tailor) every resume.
Those who insist on sending out generic resumes stand a huge chance of being excluded, which is the first task of all hiring officials.
Make room above your summary for a headline, bold face, 22 - 24pt, upper and lower case, that matches exactly the job title you are going for.
If you don't have that information, research, research, research like you mean it.
Also, ask.
Do not use light face italics.
Italics are hard to read.
Italics turn gray or become corrupted when resume documents are manually faxed.
Old fax machines still exist.
Get rid of all ruled lines.
They serve no purpose.
White space is your friend.
Ask an experienced ad person.
She'll tell you why.
White space causes recruiters to devote more than THE average 6.
5 seconds (not minutes) typically spent with your document, first time through.
The only time more seconds are spent reading your resume is when you are "fortunate" enough to be in front of the interviewer.
Hiring officials often don't do their resume reading homework unless they have read books by career maven, Lou Adler.
Do not equivocate.
See recommended edit examples to ensure you are consistent with the assertiveness you have displayed elsewhere.
You either did the work as an individual contributor or as a key team member or you did not.
You don't "help", you do.
You don't "assist" or "work with", you drive.
"Help", "work with", and "assist" are weasel words that diminish the one-of-a-kind results you delivered.
Take full credit if you had 60% or more responsibility.
We don't lie, cheat, or fudge in a resume.
That's because in USA (maybe elsewhere too) 75% of all resumes contain, politely, "inaccuracies", otherwise known as lies.
People are fired years later when someone or the new boss "vets" old resumes to make your life miserable.
Look up (Google) to learn what happened to Georgia Tech Head Coach George O'Leary when he was named head coach of Notre Dame.
For 5 days.
Oops.
Headline your prospective new job title.
That makes your resume look fresh, which it is.
Light face italics suck.
Bold them or better yet, don't use.
More white space trumps light and heavy ruled lines.
Be assertive.
Get credit for your accomplishments.
If you don't, who will?