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Resumes are facing hefty competition these days. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make your resume stand out among the hundreds of applicants for so few available positions. If your resume needs a “face-lift” because it’s not getting the results you need, these tips will help you create a standout resume that’s sure to catch the eyes of recruiters and hiring personnel alike.

Keep it Simple

Don’t go with fancy fonts or templates. You want to create clean, crisp lines with plenty of white space. Include one-inch margins all around and use standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Verdana, or Arial. Also, make sure you match the fonts between all documents you send including cover letters, salary histories, etc. Consistency is important and can reduce eye strain for the person reading your resume.

What is white space?

That’s the space around your words where the page is white. Proper formatting can eliminate much of the clutter on the page and create a fair amount of white space that makes your document easily readable. One-inch margins, as mentioned above, help with that. So does avoiding over-sized fonts and crowded text on the page.

Use High-Quality Paper

Print your resume on high-quality paper before sending it to potential employers. Since so few paper resumes are actually sent to employers these days, the quality of the paper, and the fact they received it in the mail will often stand out. Just don’t forget to include social networking and/or email information so they can reach out to you through these mediums if they prefer. It also lets them know that you do not suffer from some sort of phobia when it comes to technology.

Make it Scannable

Scannable documents are documents that are easy to quickly read and pick out important details. Things like boldface type and italics (when used sparingly) combined with bullet points can really make your resume pop and bring the eyes of the reader to the important points without reading through the minutiae that may not be interesting to them. Why is scannability important?

Hiring managers and HR personnel have hundreds of resumes to sort through for each available position. The amount of time it takes them to read through each one is time they’ll never recover. When you point out the important information on your resume with the use of boldface and bullet points, it’s something they’ll notice and appreciate. It can be the deciding factor between you and someone with similar qualifications who didn’t have the foresight to highlight those qualifications appropriately.

Knowing the right moves to make with your resume can make a world of difference for your chances of getting the job. Remember these tips about appearance when creating your own resume and you’re sure to enjoy a better response from potential employers. Contact the Jackson MS staffing experts at TempStaff today.


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