Writing Effective Resumes

Resumes are an essential component of the job interviewing process. The resume is the interviewing committee's first impression of you as the potential employee, and should reflect your skills and abilities. The major tips given by professionals and websites suggest a couple basic guidelines to ensure resume success.

Keep it on one page
Even if you have extensive experience, employers usually don't want to look at more than one page. A person will spend an average of 15 seconds looking at a resume. Therefore, you want to put as much relevant information on one page as possible.

Maintain a consistent voice
Many times I have read resumes that change voice. They start out in present tense with, "I am writing," and then later down the page change to "I wrote." Keeping the resume in the same tense and voice throughout the resume helps to avoid confusion and allows for easier reading.

Keep it simple
More is not always better in a resume. You want to highlight your achievements, but don't overdo it. The design shouldn't be distracting from the actual content of the resume, and large blocks of text look foreboding the unattractive to the reader.

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