As HR professionals and recruitment specialists, we see résumés every day. They come in all sorts of formats, fonts, and lengths, some with cover letters and some without. Some applicants simply send a link to their LinkedIn page. What should a professional résumé look like?

The Basic Dos and Don’ts

  1. Do decide on a font and stick to it: use a modern and easy-to-read font like Arial, Bookman, Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, or Times Roman.
  2. Do use a font size between 10 and 12. Use of boldface or italics should be minimal and restricted to titles only.
  3. Do list your career goals and objectives; ideally, these should be consistent with your past work experience.
  4. Do personalize the content to the job you want.
  5. Do use brief sentences and point-form lists: use action verbs like coordinated, facilitated, organized, designed, and developed.
  6. Do run spell check one more time; ideally, ask someone else to proof it.
  7. Do put effort into the accompanying cover letter: it should be a simple one-page introduction indicating why you are interested in this particular position and why you are right for this particular job.
  8. Don’t forget to include your full name, address, and phone number.
  9. Don’t list all your job duties and responsibilities: tailor your on-the-job accomplishments to your potential employer.

For more information, read this interesting article from our friends at HR Morning, describing some not-so-smart statements that candidates have included in their resumes – HR Morning.

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY THE HR EXPERTS AT HR PLATFORM.COM