Bob Bly

From Bob Bly in the Wealth Builders Club: In today’s job marketplace, three out of four job applicants who submit a résumé don’t hear back.

But a well-crafted résumé boosts your chances of landing an interview.

And that means knowing exactly how to articulate your accomplishments.

We scoured several sites and developed the following list of 12 tips for modern résumé writing. We even ran the list past a few of our hiring managers. They agreed with the advice:

  1. Keep it short—no more than one or two pages. Recruiters receive more résumés than they can possibly read, so be brief and poignant.
  2. Make it easy to read—on a level any high school senior could understand.
  3. Be clear about what your current company—and your particular division—does. Not everyone may be familiar with them.
  4. Use 9- to 12-point Times New Roman font on white paper. Limit boldface, italics, and underlining.
  5. Prepare the résumé in a simple Word format. Save the final version as a PDF. Not every office computer can read .docx files, but virtually all computers can open a PDF. Saving your résumé as a PDF also reduces formatting errors that can occur on different computers.
  6. Use reverse chronological order. Your most recent work should appear at the top of the page.
  7. You don’t have to use full sentences.
  8. For each position, give the name of the company, what it does, the dates you started and left, the positions you held, and your accomplishments. Use numbers and statistics… like “Increased profits by 28%.”
  9. Don’t include an objective. An employer doesn’t care about your objective. She cares about hers.
  10. Don’t include personal information about your family. And avoid using photos. Tony Beshara, author of Unbeatable Resumes, says, “You’re looking for a job, not a date.”
  11. Avoid clichés, such as “customer oriented,” “excellent communication skills,” and “creative.” As Beshara explains, “These words lack meaning and do absolutely nothing to get you an interview.”
  12. Cater the résumé to the precise requirements of the job.

All Wealth Builders Club members can read more tips—including how you can make a freelance living writing résumés—inside the Club. Look for Extra Income Opportunity No. 32: “Make People Look Good on Paper… and Change Their Lives.”