42 Resume Dos and Don'ts Every Job

Seeker Should Know

By Aja Frost, January 08, 2015

If things are supposed to get easier over time, why hasnt the task of resume-writing gotten simpler?
Actually, it feels like were heading in the opposite directionevery month, we learn about a fresh
resume commandment, like Thou shalt not use an objective statement or Thou shalt not send a
traditional resume to a creative company. Its enough to make any professional a little frustrated.

Fortunately, weve rounded up the ultimate list of resume dos and donts, from the traditional rules to
the brand-spanking-new ones. Take a look, then pull up your resume and make sure its recruiter-
ready.

Showing Off Your Experience

1. Do Highlight Your Most Relevant Experiences

Rule #1 of resume writing is that you should be turning in a different version for each role you apply
to, tailored and targeted to the position. After all, your resume should demonstrate you have
the specific set of skills, experience, and accomplishments necessary to do the jobnot just a set.
Make it easy for the hiring manager to see why youre the right fit.

2. Dont Freak Out if You Have No Relevant Experience

Whether youre fresh out of college or switching to a brand-new industry, you can help bolster your
lack of relevant work experience by listing your transferable skills, related side projects, and relevant
coursework. Read more about how to do this here.

3. Do Optimize for Applicant Tracking Systems

Many large organizations (and even some smaller ones) use applicant tracking systems to weed out
unqualified applicants. The systems scan your resume for contextual keywords and phrases,
mathematically scoring them for relevance and sending only the most qualified ones through for
human review.
As you can guess, this strategy isnt perfect. To ensure your resume makes it past the ATS and into
the hands of a human, keep your formatting simple, include the right keywords (but dont go
overboard), and quadruple check for spelling mistakes. (More on how to do it right, here.)

4. Dont Steal the Job Descriptions Exact Wording

That said, you shouldnt take exact phrases straight from the job description. If a company says its
looking for candidates who learn rapidly and have a diverse knowledge of programming
languages, your skills section shouldnt read learns rapidly and has a diverse knowledge of
programming languages.

Instead, find a different way of saying the same thingmaybe devote a resume bullet to a software
you learned in two weeks, or list the seven different programming languages youre familiar with.

5. Do Use Data

Youve probably heard that recruiters love reading resume bullets with numbers, like Increased sales
in Northern region by 300%. And they do! So use them whenever possible.

Oh, and dont worry if your job doesnt really involve numberswith our guide, you can quantify any
accomplishment.

6. Dont Include Anything Confidential

Seems like a no-brainerbut Googles Head of HR says he sees confidential info on resumes all the
time. When deciding whether to leave something on your resume, use the New York Times test. In
other words, if you wouldnt want it published next to your name on the front page of a major national
newspaper, take it out.

7. Do Include Soft Skills, Too!

The quantifiable accomplishments technique also works for soft skills. Make sure each bullet point
describes a skill the hiring manager is looking for, then use facts and figures to shownot telljust
what a skilled manager or effective communicator you are.

Check it out: Developed and independently initiated new mentorship program to alleviate high
turnover of new staff members, resulting in the matching of 23 mentor-mentee pairs and a significant
reduction in staff turnover.

Sounds like a skilled manager to us!

8. Dont Include Obvious Skills

Because everyone assumes you know how to use Microsoft Word. And the internet. Use your
valuable resume space to highlight skills that actually make you stand out.

9. Do Consider Volunteer or Other Non-Work Experience

Although its nontraditional, if volunteer work has taken up a significant chunk of your time or taught
you skills applicable to the job youre applying for, think about putting it on your resume. Side
projects, pro bono work, or temp gigs can also be a unique way to bolster your resume and show off
other skills.

10. Dont Include Work With Controversial Organizations

Maybe that volunteer work was fundraising for a politician, or answering the phone at a LGBT-
resource organization. Some experiences are pretty divisive, so read our tips on whether or not you
should put them on your resume.

11. Do Include Personal Accomplishments

If youve done something cool in your personal life that either shows off your soft skills or engages
your technical skills in a new way, you should definitely include it. Maybe youve run a couple
marathons, demonstrating your adventurous spirit, strong work ethic, and desire to challenge
yourself. Or youve won some poker tournaments, which shows youre a quick thinker and good with
numbers.

Learn more here on how to include these in the right way.

12. Dont Include Random, Unrelated, or Off-Putting Hobbies

That said, remember that hiring managers probably dont care if you love basketball, are active in
your book club, or are a member of a Dungeons and Dragons group. Eliminate anything thats not
totally transferable to work-related skills (or a really, really epic conversation starter).

13. Do Think of New Ways to Frame Your Accomplishments

Dont have the exact experience for the job youre applying to? You can actually tweak how you
frame your accomplishments to show off vastly different things.Career expert Lily Zhang explains with
examples here.

14. Dont Go Overboard

Meaning: Dont oversell your high school babysitting experience. In fact, anything from high school
should probably go.

15. Do Show How You Moved Up (or Around) at Past Companies

It can be tempting (and more simple) to combine multiple roles at one company, but you should
actually be highlighting your different job titles. After all, it says a lot about you if you were promoted
within an organization or were able to transition your role.

Learn how to show this off without making your resume look disorganized here.

16. Dont Use an Objective Statement

Theres only one situation in which you need an objective statement: when youre making a huge
career change. Making the leap from, say, business development to marketing means your resume
could definitely use a clear explanation that youre transitioning roles and have the necessary
transferable skills. But if youre a PR rep applying to a PR firm, an objective statement will just waste
valuable space.

17. Do Consider a Summary Statement

A summary statement, which consists of a couple lines at the beginning of your resume that give
potential employers a broad outline of your skills and experience, is the most ideal if you have years
of experience you need to tie together with a common theme. Theyre also good if you have a bunch
of disparate skills and want to make it clear how they fit together. Heres more on when you need one
and how to put it together.

18. Dont Try to Hide Gaps

While its okay to glaze over gaps a little (for example, by just using years to show dates of
employments instead of months and years), you should never outright lie about them. Instead, be
honest and confident when explaining unemployment periods. Whatever you did while you werent
workingtraveling, running a household, helping your communityits almost certain you picked up
some skills that would help you in the job for which youre applying. So mention them!
19. Do Tell the Truth

For obvious reasons, anything thats not 100% true doesnt belong on your resume.

Choosing Your Words Carefully

20. Dont Use Clichs or Jargon

Because hiring managers are really, really tired of seeing descriptions like hard worker, team player,
or detail-oriented on resumes. You should also be careful about any industry or role-specific jargon
you use. In many companies, if you want to your resume to land on the hiring managers desk, youve
got to get it past HR firstwhich means putting everything in terms a layperson can understand.

21. Do Use Real English

Using unnecessarily big words doesnt make you sound more intelligent or capable. Not only are
hiring managers totally aware of what youre trying (and failing) to do, but resume speak can
obscure your real experience. So, instead of utilized innovative social media technique to boost
readership and engagement among core demographic say, posted on Twitter three times a day and
brought follower count from 1,000 to 3,000.

22. Dont Use Negative Phrases

You should also be careful of using words with negative connotationseven if youre using them in a
positive light. Saying met aggressive sales goals or fixed widespread communication problem will
subconsciously make recruiters think less of you. Instead, write delivered on ambitious number of
sales or proposed and implemented solution to make company communication easier and more
efficient.

23. Do Use Powerful Verbs

Skip the tired and all-too-frequently used led, handled, and managed, and go for verbs like
charted, administered, consolidated, or maximized, which make you look both confident and
competent. Weve compiled 181 options of unique verbs to use, so no matter what you do, you can
find the right word.
24. Dont Include References Upon Request

It takes up room you could otherwise use for experience and skills. And, um, it looks presumptuous.

25. Do Include Your Contact Info

Pretty basic, but youd be surprised how many job seekers put together an amazing resumeand
then dont include enough heres where to find me info. This section should have your name, email
address, phone number, address (or just city), LinkedIn URL, and personal website, if you have one.

Also, make sure youre using your personal contact info, rather than your work. Because thats a
recipe for disaster.

26. Dont Include Anything That Could Be Discriminated Against

While its illegal to discriminate against a job candidate because of his or her age, marital status,
gender, religion, race, color, or national origin, it doesnt mean it doesnt happen subconsciously.
Dont give recruiters the chance, and just leave these details off.

Making it Look Amazing

27. Do Keep it to One Page

Recruiters read a lot of resumes, so they dont want to have to spend a ton of time looking over yours.
Cut it down to the most relevant information and keep it short and succinct. Laszlo Bock, Googles
senior vice president of people operations, recommends one page of resume for every 10 years of
work experience as a good rule of thumb.

28. Dont Squish it All In

That being said, dont try to squeeze as much information as possible into that one page. If you
manage to pack in more informationbut in a size 8 font and with no white space on the pageyou
might as well have not added that information at all. Cut it down to an amount of information you can
comfortably fit on the page, in a readable font and with enough white space to make it easy on the
eyes.
29. Do Consider a Creative or Digital Resume

Resumes that look like infographics, data visualizations, or even videos or multimedia presentations
can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. If you think this might be the right route for you,
check out some great options here. (Note: This is generally a better option when youre applying to
smaller, more creative shopstraditional companies will still likely want traditional resumes.)

30. Dont Spend All Your Time on the Design

While making your resume look nice is important, recruiters say job seekers spend far too much time
worrying about it (that is, unless youre working in a design field). Focus on the content, make sure
the right information is highlighted, and just make sure it looks nice enough to make the information
easy to digest.

31. Do Start From a Template

Want your resume to look well designedwithout the extra time? Weve found 41 of the best resume
templates ever. Theyll make formatting a breeze.

32. Dont Use More Than 2 Fonts

And really, its best to stick to one basic font. Unless youre a designer and know a lot about
typography, its easy to choose fonts that clash or are distracting.

33. Do Make Sure Your Job Titles or Companies Stand Out

Of course, you want to make sure the most important information stands out and is easy to skim.
Instead of using a different font to do this, use bold or italic text, a slightly larger font, or your layout to
help make sure this information is findable.

34. Dont Go Overboard With Text Effects

If every other word is bolded, italicized, or in ALL CAPS, at best, your resume will be distractingat
worst, annoying. Use emphasis sparingly, for your most important info.
35. Do Align Your Dates and Locations to the Right

This small change will make your resume way easier on the eyes. You should be able to make a
column of dates and locations for each job by creating a right tab.

36. Dont Use More Than Two Lines Per Bullet

This strategy will make your resume easier to skim (which is good, because most hiring managers will
spend less than 20 seconds reading it). Again, cut it down to the most important information.

37. Do Use Digits

Because 4 and 22% take less time to read than four and twenty-two percent. Plus, using digits
saves you space.

38. Dont Send it as a Word Document

Sending your resume off as a .doc file will most likely result in all of this careful formatting getting
messed up when the recruiter opens the file. Save your final version as a PDF to make sure
everything stays just as is.

Getting it Written

39. Do Swap Resumes With Colleagues

Look at how they describe their duties and the company. Chances are, youll get some inspiration for
your own descriptions. Plus, having some fresh eyes look at your resume is always beneficial. Ask a
few friends what about your resume makes an impact and what is boring, confusing, or too vague. If
the same things keep popping up, its probably time to edit.

40. Dont Forget to Spell Check

And proofread. Multiple times. For help, check out this editors guide to perfecting your resume.

41. Do Create a Master Resume

Remember rule number one on tailoring your resume? Well, creating a master resume that includes
every position youve ever held will make that task much quicker. Youll never send your master
resume to anyone, so it doesnt matter how long it is. Just write out each and every job experience
youve ever had. With all of the possible corresponding bullet points.

Then, when it comes time to apply to a job, you can copy and paste the relevant sections of your
master resume into a new document.

42. Dont Send the Wrong Message

Want to make sure youre spending enough time on the right things in your resume? Run your
resume through a word cloud generator like TagCrowd. This will create an image representing the
most frequent words, with the most common ones showing up larger and darker. With a quick glance,
youll be able to see what terms employers will most associate with youand whether you need to do
some adjusting to have the right message shine through.

FUENTE: https://www.themuse.com/