Every article and book you read on resume writing offers the basics of putting together a professional document. Here are some pointers on fine tuning it that perfectionists recruiters will especially appreciate.

Twelve ways to maximize the impact of your resume:

  1. List each bullet point under each position you have held in order of relevance they have to the job description you are applying for.
  2. Do not say you have “excellent communication skills”; say what your skill is. for example: “Present confidently and articulately to all sizes of groups.” OR “Concise, grammatically-perfect writing of reports, minutes, articles and letters”.
  3. Don’t use “responsible for…” OR “successfully… “.  Start with the action verb not an adjective. When you say you have the “ability to” you are suggesting that you do have a skill in theory, but that you haven’t actually used it on the job.
  4.  Avoid using more words than necessary. If you have too much content, ask yourself, ‘if I leave out a particular line, could I still get an interview?’
  5. Read the points out loud. See if you could combine two thoughts together in one line. Sometimes one line is the action and the second is the result and they would be more powerful if combined.
  6. Can you leave out the odd preposition or article, like “an” or “the” and still have the sentence flow?
  7. Check for redundancies. Have you said the same thing twice but in a different way?
  8. Is the Action – Result explained in simple language understandable to the intended reader?
  9. Would bolding make something stand out better, and is it aesthetically pleasing? Bold the action verb at the front of the sentence or a catchy word in the middle of the statement.
  10. Make mention that you worked on a team, at the end of a sentence. eg) Designed the marketing plan to introduce the iPad2 to the Canadian marketplace, as part of a team.
  11. Combine more than one skill in a sentence if they are related: eg) Managed four employees and trained them on a new system designed by the R & D department.
  12. Spelling, grammar and punctuation must be perfect.

Sometimes it is the little things that make the difference between a good and a great resume.  Always have an objective set of eyes edit your resume before you send it out. Spell check alone won’t cut it! Where you can, paint a picture with your words as people remember and relate to stories over sentences.