• Don’t Start Blind- Research outstanding relevant examples: Many resume styles, templates and formats exist online, offline and everywhere in between. Research and explore some of the most impressive within your industry and apply significant aspects of the writing style, verbage/industry terminology and presentation that would be relevant to your skills, experience and your search process.
• Prioritize and crop content: Ensure the most significant achievements are displayed first. You should also aim to have no more than 2 pages , many candidates are presenting one-page resumes right now. Beyond the second page, many recruiters tend to lose interest, unless something unique pops up. They want to move on to the next applicant as quickly as possible.
• Use easy-to-read font styles and lots of spacing: Font styles like Ariel, Calibri and Times New Roman tend to work well . Font size 12 is a great font size but aim to use nothing smaller than 11 if you need to go smaller. White gaps ensure that your document  doesn’t appear too cluttered and is easy to read.
• Match content: Make sure your objectives match the job you are applying for. We see candidates apply for finance position , yet their profiles state they are interested in only insurance positions. If your focus shifts. or you are transitioning to a new industry sector, switch your resume to reflect that change.
• Unanswered questions: Explain all gaps in employment including job transitions, relocation, education, care for vulnerable family members including elder/child care etc. Do not leave room for guess work or assumptions -The worst case scenario will be assumed. Some assumptions might include incarceration/jail time, inability to find work due to lack of skills etc. If any of these were the reason for gaps, provide more information about the situation as soon as the opportunity is presented.
• Be quantitative: Use numbers where possible to show contribution to previous employers’ businesses.
• Words matter: This is especially important with many automated online screening software; Use keywords from jobs you are interested in when writing up a resume, ensuring it is customized to have same keywords that appear in the job description.
• Check and check again: Check for typos and grammatical errors.
• Your Impact: Emphasize accomplishments and results not job roles and duties.
• Contact details: Always update your contact information as soon as it changes. Don’t make it difficult for recruiters to contact you.
• Attach: Send your resume as an attachment, not as inline text, unless advised otherwise.

Contact Brand Leverage at www.brandleverageusa.com or call us on 763 347 0122 or 763 208 9774.