Résumé Do’s and Don’ts

Here from the staffing industry professionals at Quality Staffing Specialists are several valuable suggestions regarding résumés. Remember, hiring professionals review résumés for their employment. Make their job easier, so they can assist you in finding the job you are seeking!

Do…

• Use a crisp, clean, bold format to highlight your job skills.
• Insure that your résumé is well written, with proper syntax and correct spelling.
• Display month/year dates of employment.
• Insure your job title is in bold print, located near the name of the company for whom you worked and the location of the job.
• Use bullets for each job responsibility, duty, and/or accomplishment. Bullets allow the reader to scan and absorb pertinent information quickly and easily.
• Use action verbs to describe what you did on the job.
• Give clear, concise explanations of the job duties you performed. Accurately reflect the measurable skills and responsibilities you performed in your jobs.
• Explain any gaps in employment, i.e., family leave, traveling the world.

Don’t…

• Misspell words!
• Leave off the month/year dates of employment. It looks as if you are trying to hide something.
• Use paragraphs to describe your job duties. Paragraphs are almost impossible for the reader to quickly scan.
• Give vague, flowery opinions of how you did your work.
• Be careful when using industry specific verbiage that the reader may not understand. The rule of thumb is to use standard English when transferring your job skills to a new industry.
• Leave gaps of employment unexplained. Gaps make the reader wonder what was going on during the unexplained time periods. Most likely, the reader will assume the worst!
• Let your résumé go over 2 pages. Anything over 2 pages is a curriculum vitae, appropriate mainly for professors and researchers in the academic environment.
• Include references in your résumé. If you want to submit references along with your résumé, do so on a separate sheet of paper.