Your Resume Checklist

Wait! You’ve been reviewing and updating your resume feverishly since you embarked on your job search. After looking at it over and over, it can be hard for you to see the small mistakes that may remain. However, a tiny error may stick out like a sore thumb to someone who is scanning through dozens of resumes in one sitting. Before you send out your newly updated resume, use this checklist to ensure you didn’t miss something.

___ Actions, Results and Accomplishments Your resume is not a list of tasks, like a job description. Differentiate yourself by noting what you did and why it was important. Consider this enhancement:

Change: Marketed new products

To: Created marketing campaign that increased sales by 50%

___ Verbs Make sure all of your bullets start with a verb. ___ Tenses Your current position is written in present tense, all past jobs are in past tense. ___ Formatting Ensure you are consistent in your use of bold, underline, italics and alignment. ___ Punctuation Resume bullets are typically not full sentences. If there is not a full sentence, you should not include a period at the end. (This one tends to spark debate. A good rule is to never use periods or use them every time. Keep it consistent!) ___ Acronyms If you are using acronyms, ensure you are using periods consistently. For example, Human Resources should not be listed as HR in one section and H.R. in another. ___ References They don’t belong on your resume. It is not necessary to say they are available upon request. This line wastes valuable resume real estate. ___ PDF Send your resume out in PDF form. This will ensure that formatting isn’t compromised when different operating systems are used.