Many job seekers don’t realize that an HR manager has a limited amount of time to look through a large stack of resumes on his or her desk. To make the review process flow more smoothly, they often scan each resume for just a few seconds to decide whether they want to read further.
During that scan, they are likely to look at the format of your resume to decide whether it’s “instantly denied” or one to “check out later if nothing better pops up”. If you want to ensure that yours becomes a must-read resume, it’s a good idea to consider the following five tips for creating a well-formatted resume:
1. Keep Paragraphs Short
Paragraphs are the basis of most resumes but can become cumbersome if they are too long. To avoid losing the interest of an HR manager, be sure to keep the paragraphs between three and five lines. Once you exceed the fifth line, you can bet you’ve lost the manager’s interest and granted yourself a one-way pass to the denial stack.
2. Use Bullet Points
Adding bullet points to your resume is a great way to highlight specific aspects of your professional background while making the document easier to read. Keep in mind, however, that it’s possible to overwhelm your reader with them. To ensure you don’t add too many, it’s good to stick with about four to six bullets per section.
3. Use Subheadings
Creating white space in a resume is crucial to ensuring that a manager is not overwhelmed by content. You’ve already combated the dense resume by keeping your paragraphs short and adding bullet points. Another good way to combat white space is by adding subheadings. They not only help to create a more attractive resume but also make important details easier to find.
4. Watch Your Fonts and Sizes
As hiring managers scan resumes, they sometimes look for font issues. If you choose a font like Jokerman, it obviously will be difficult for you to be taken seriously. This is why it’s good to stick with Serif and Sans Serif types like Georgia or Tahoma.
When it comes to size, you don’t want to make them too small or too large. A good rule of thumb is to keep the size range at 10 to 12 for document details and 12 to 14 for subheadings.
5. Make Use of Underlines, Italics, and Bold
If you want to make sure that important information is highlighted, it’s good to bold, underline, and italicize text in addition to adding your bullet points. This helps the busy hiring manager learn important details about you without having to dig for the details.
As you work on your resume, it’s good to remember that how it’s formatted is almost as important as its content. So take time to make sure you have a neat, well-formatted resume to help you get past the initial scanning process.
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