Tips for creating a good resume and landing an interview

Polish your resume

Review and discuss your resume with people you respect. Ask them what stands out, what puts them to sleep, what turns them off and whether anything is missing. Great resumes are a combination of business document, marketing piece, and personal preferences. Conflicting opinions are to be expected so don't get hung up on them; the final decision is yours.

Avoid partial pages

Though many career search professionals recommend a one page resume, you may find that a two page resume is necessary if you have extensive work experience. Avoid a 1¼ page resume; it can look awkward. If your resume is 1¼ pages, lengthen it by increasing white spaces (e.g., adding blank lines between sections). To shorten it, condense information or decrease white space so it fits on one page.

Put your best foot forward

The ideal resume is succinct, defines your strengths and uses proper grammar and spelling.

Be honest

Be sure you can support every point you make on your resume during an interview

Quantify achievements

Numbers are important in resumes. Be sure to include dollar amounts and percentages that support achievements you include in your resume. Example: "Reduced costs by 20%."

Use Keywords

When preparing your resume for a specific job, you need to show the recruiter and hiring manager that your experience matches the requirements of the job. Review the job posting or job description carefully and highlight the key words you find there. Then review your resume to see how you can use these key words to describe your knowledge, skills and background.

Label your resume clearly

When emailing your resume, label it clearly. Don't label your resume file, "resume" or "My Resume." Include your name, the abbreviated job title and the name of the company in the filename. For example, if Victor Smith applies for a Marketing Project Manager job at XYZ Company, his resume file might be named VictorSmith-MktPM-XYZ.doc.

Choose formatting wisely

Use a readable font! You have approximately 30 seconds to make an impact on the person reading your resume and nothing turns off a reader faster than a resume that is difficult to read.
Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, should be no smaller than 11 points and sans-serif fonts, like Arial, no smaller than 10 points.
Try to keep margins at one inch all the way around.
Print your resume on a high-grade, bright white paper. Do not use cream-colored paper or paper with visible fibers as these papers can confuse scanners and optical character recognition software that employers may use to digitally store and search resumes.

Send a personalized cover letter

This is your opportunity to emphasize how your knowledge, skills or experiences make you an ideal candidate. SuccessHawk provides some templates to get you started.

Follow up

Always make a follow-up contact with people to whom you have sent your resume to be sure that the hiring manager received the document, to restate your interest in the position and to ask about next steps.