Resume Writing - What's the best format for my resume?

Host: What's the best format for my resume?

Louise Kursmark: Resume formatting can be as variable as resume content. There's no one answer for that. However, there are some guidelines that you should follow to write a resume. Number one, you want to make it easy for people to read, easy for people to scan and easy for people to pick up key information. So, when you are designing your resume, you want to select a font that is easy for people to read and they are likely to have on their computer. You do' t want the font that you choose for your resume to come up corrupted on the other end or go to a default font that doesn't give the same look that you have selected so carefully. Keep it as simple as you need to, to get the message across. Use bold type if appropriate, you can use italic type, you can use underlining on your resume. In most cases, you are going to be sending as an attachment in Microsoft Word File. That's the standard and that's what you want to have so that people on the receiving end can easily access your resume, read it, print it, put it into their system, enter it into their Automated Computer Applicant Tracking System. So, use Microsoft Word doc File. That will be your best bet for e-mailing a resume. However, it's also important that you create a txt only file, take that Word file and convert it to txt only so that when you are pasting into an online application, you are not going to have formatting errors and the content is going to be exactly as it should be for the person receiving it or should I say, the machine receiving it because that doesn't have to look pretty, it's going to computer to computer. Finally, I ca' t overstate the importance that your resume be accurate and that it be professional looking, clean and error free. There's no excuse for spelling errors, there's no excuse for grammar errors. Keep the formatting simple so you don't have text going all over the page and messing up the flow of the resume. Proofread your resume really carefully several times, don't rely on spellcheck and make it as pristine and clean and accurate as you possibly can. You definitely want to get a third party to review your resume. People will pick things up that you will miss because you are so familiar with the material. Employers do, everyday eliminate candidates from consideration because of typographical errors and careless mistakes in a resume. You don't want to be in that camp. So, take the time, make your resume as perfect as you possibly can.