Ask the Experts Best Resume Formats, Worst Advice, and How to Stand Out

Ask the Experts Best Resume Formats, Worst Advice, and How to Stand Out Ask the Experts Best Resume Formats, Worst Advice, and How to Stand Out Whether youre selecting a resume template or formatting your own, the way you structure your past  work experience could make or break your your job search. So we asked 7 experts  job search strategists, resume writers, and recruiters to weigh in on the best resume formats, worst formatting advice, and a few novel ways to stand out. Jobscans resume match report has added new resume checks that overlap with the advice below, including date formatting, headings, web presence, sentence length, and more. Additional information at the bottom of the article. What is the most important thing to keep in mind for your resume format? Sarah Johnston, Job Search Strategist The most important thing to keep in mind when formatting a resume is to be consistent. If you are going to use Month-Year for the employment time range on one position, keep that format throughout. A common mistake is swapping to just year half-way through the resume. Inconsistencies can cause recruiters and hiring managers to question whether you are trying to hide something. Jessica H. Hernandez, Executive Resume Writer Choose a resume format that’s easy for the employer to scan quickly. Hiring managers are not reading the entire resume on the first pass. They’re going to scan over it for position titles, employment dates, keywords and metrics that stand out before deciding to read it thoroughly. The resume format you choose should make those areas of information simple to locate and read. Consider bolding or italicizing position titles, employment dates, important keywords and numbers so they stand out as the eyes scan across the page. Tabitha Trent Cavanagh, IT and Gaming Recruiter There is some debate around this, but I say ditch adding your complete physical address to your resume. Include your personalized LinkedIn URL instead. This will save the hiring manager valuable time as they inevitably search for you on LinkedIn. No more, “Wait… are you this Derek Smith or that Derek Smith?” You may, however, want to indicate your current location somewhere in the header in case the employer is looking for candidates in a specific geographic area. What piece of resume formatting advice makes you cringe every time? Jenny Foss, Job Search Strategist and Recruiter 1. Photos (when you dont work in an industry for which your physical appearance is critical). 2. Over-stylized formatting with little meat in the actual words (especially if youre sending that baby through an ATS). 3. Listing References Available Upon Request. After 15 years of recruiting, I can assure you that if/when theyre ready to check your references, they will ask you for them even if you dont list that on the resume. 4. Not listing dates (because youre trying to draw the readers eyes away from gaps, etc.). If I see no dates, I immediately think something is up. Virginia Franco, Executive Resume Writer When I see dense blocks of text (4+ lines with little space in between paragraphs/bullets), it makes me cringe every time. While this formatting poses no problems when reading in print, our eyes have a tough time digesting it on screens, particularly when the screen is small and we are reading in a rush. I recommend keeping bullets short and sweet (2-3 lines max). Add at least half an inch of white space in between to facilitate online, skim reading. What is one of your favorite pieces of unconventional resume formatting advice? Adrienne Tom, Executive Resume Writer Employ design components that help key content pop without being too over the top. Design features don’t have to be flashy to have a big impact in a resume. Consider adding simple break-out box, chart, graph, or other visuals to capture the reader’s attention and draw the eye to major career wins. Visuals are likely to capture a reader’s eye faster than simple text. In the executive resumes that I create, I frequently include a design component as a way to highlight big selling features like business development, revenue growth, sales improvement, market share expansion, or specialized skills. These visual aids add interest and promote value while keeping the resume from looking like all the rest. Truly, most marketing materials use some form of visual aid to guide a reader’s eye to key points. Tactics include larger text, color, bolded text, boxes, or graphs. Utilizing a similar approach in a resume (in a tasteful way) is an excellent strategy to make the file more appealing. A caveat, content in some design components may not be ATS-friendly â€" meaning the content within these features may not be read by a computer screener â€" so ensure you repeat details in the actual resume content. Kerri Twigg, Certified Resume Strategist Some unconventional formatting advice that has worked well, especially for people who are in marketing, web development, or web designers, is doing the combo of a creative resume as your first page then doing it a little more conventionally on the second. That way you can have that visual element that really matters to you while still having the content and space to add a couple of stories on the second page. Its not too creative but it has that creative edge. I also look at the font the company is using on their website or their job ad.  Try to match that font (and in some cases even the color scheme) on your resume so it looks like youre already part of that company. Even if its not a font traditionally used on a resume, like something outdated like a Times New Roman, use it because thats what the company has chosen and youre speaking their language. Its not just keyword matching.  Jobscans optimization tool  is checking your resume formatting. New intelligent checks make even the best resume formats more ATS compatible and recruiter-friendly than ever. ATS Checks Hard skills, soft skills, and keyword matching Job title and education matching ATS-friendly section headings  NEW ATS-friendly date formatting  NEW ATS-friendly file type  NEW ATS-friendly resume templates  NEW Recruiter Checks Measurable results, word count, and words to avoid Sentence length  NEW Predicted skills missing from the job description  NEW Industry-specific insights  NEW Keep an eye out for additional new features. Jobscan is updated every two weeks and even more formatting checks are on the way!