Designing your resume to grab employer attention

Designing your resume to grab employer attentionJob hunting can be one of the most exhilaratingand yet one of the most agonizing experiences inyour life. While you look forward to the newchapter in your professional life, finding a wayto stand out from other candidates, who are atleast equally qualified for the position you want,is a difficult task.Your resume is the first contact your potentialemployer has with you. A well formatted and awell-written resume can make a difference between

getting the interview and getting the job, andbeing passed over. Most employers receive a stackof resumes of qualified candidates and scan themquickly before they decide whether or not hey wantto read further. You only have a few seconds tomake a lasting impression. Don 抰 panic. Instead,focus on the design of your resume as it is thefirst thing your employer, whether on paper or inelectronic form.The most commonly made mistake in resume designinclude using templates that are alreadyavailable in Microsoft Word. While thesetemplates provide a quick, easy to follow toolsto create your resume, they are outdated, and theywill make your resume appear generic anduninviting. Additionally, these templates, whilewell formatted in Microsoft Word, will nottranslate well when emailed or uploaded to jobsearch engine web sites.Second most commonly made mistake in resume

design is inclusion of graphics on the page. Yourpicture and/or any other graphics are notappropriate for a resume. Including anythingoutside of plain text will make you stand out ina way that makes the employer think you are nottaking yourself seriously as a professional, andthis is certainly not the first impression youwant to make. You can find samples of resumes onthe Internet; search for resumes by your industryto find the templates that make most sense for thejob you are seeking. Than work on a blank page toreplicate the look and feel of the resume youlike.The following are basic formatting rules for yourresume:- Limit the length of the resume to two pages.- The page should have one-inch margins, top andbottom, right and left.- Use left justification only ?as a rule, do notcenter the content of your resume.- The font and font size should be consistent.- The bullet points should be basic ?use circles

or squares, but never any symbols that may nottranslate well when you email your resume to yourpotential employer.- Headlines can be in all caps; the remainingtext should not have special formatting.- Do not underline any of the information in yourresume. In the world of Internet driven jobapplications, underlining in a document impliesa web link.- The font size for headlines should not exceed14 points; the remainder of the text in the resumeshould not exceed 12 points.- Use the Tab key instead of the Space bar tocreate spaces between the text in your resume.As a last formatting check point, ask your friendsor your family for help in reviewing your resume.Send the resume file via email to a few of yourfriends ?ask them to review the resume and makesure nothing seems out of place. Print out theresume on paper and review to make sure thatmargins are accurately set, and that the content

doesn 抰 appear crowded on the page. Keep inmind ?when it comes to your resume, sleek simpleappearance, and great writing, will get you thejob you are seeking.