Answered by Nell, Hiring Expert at Pitney Bowes, on Monday, December 29, 2014
That is a great question. The average time that a recruiter spends looking at a new resume is about 30 seconds. So you have to make it count. Here are tips for you:
Clear information: I love a resume that is lined up esthetically and is easy to read fast. I don’t have time to hunt for the information that I am looking for. Don’t try to hide anything, or make it overly complicated; just standard, straight forward information.
No branding or designs. Even if you are a marketing genius, leave the creativity to your portfolio. I want straight facts.
Keep it to one page. I am serious. One page. I cannot tell you how many resumes I get that are pages upon pages that include, hobbies, and so much unnecessary information. If you are intent on including so much information on yourself, then I would recommend creating an online portfolio that is comprehensive that you can link on your resume, but keep your resume to one page.
Do not include your birthday, gender, nationality, or any other information of that nature.
Tell me your hard skills-Technology is becoming more and more pervasive in all professions these days, so I love to see a section dedicated to hard technical skills associated with your industry.
Send it in a word or pdf doc. By doing this you make my life easier. Don’t send it in a zip or cloud, or any other way that makes it harder for me to open or forward on to a hiring manager.
Dates. Please include dates that you worked somewhere, and if you are in school, put your anticipated graduation date. This is important for us to know in order to match you to opportunities.
Speak to results. Tell me what you accomplished in each position and include hard numbers if possible.
Make sure to not have any grammatical errors.
Best wishes to you!
-Nell