When employers see any of the five resumes below, their eyes tend to light up. Visit Free Resume Builder for formatting and editing help and make sure your application finds its way into the winner’s circle.
Five Resumes Employers Love
1. The one that requires a single click to access and read.
Unless directed otherwise, send your resume as a Microsoft Word document. For fonts, choose Times New Roman. Don’t include photos, .gif files, videos, clip art, or colored text, and don’t send PDFs or Richtext files. Keep it simple.
2. The one that grabs from the beginning.
If the hiring manger already likes you and is already rooting for you after reading just your Summary section, you’re on your way. At that point, the job is yours to lose.
3. The one that doesn’t play games.
Hiring managers don’t enjoy being jerked around, especially not in a ham-fisted, transparent way. Don’t exaggerate your accomplishments (they tend to see through this), and don’t razzle-dazzle readers with marketing spin and jazzy business buzzwords. They aren’t buying.
4. The one that helps them do their jobs.
Of course you want this job, and of course you’ll do anything to elbow ahead of your competition. But instead of putting on a fireworks display, try to do this by making your reviewer’s job easier. She doesn’t want to be entertained. She wants to find a person who will fit easily into the workplace, pull his weight from day one, and offer skills and capabilities that other candidates can’t.
5. The square peg for the square hole.
The employer didn’t bother mentioning this in the posting, but the candidate who steps into this position will deal with several clients from Sao Paolo and Lisbon on a yearly basis. The clients are bilingual, so language skills aren’t an issue… But if your resume happens to mention that you speak fluent Portuguese, you’ll stop traffic. How can you know this ahead of time? You can’t. But if you stay true to yourself, present your skills honestly, and have confidence in who you are, the right position is out there waiting, and it won’t pass you by.