I’ve received thousands of resumes throughout my entire career — and believe me, I’ve seen them all: Too long, too short, too boring, too many typos, too hard to read and every layout imaginable.
To be completely honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of resumes. Heck, I even wrote a book about all the things that are more important than the resume. Of course, you need one, but what most experts don’t tell you is that resumes only account for 10% of the hiring decision.
That said, it would take a lot to wow a tough critic like myself. A few years ago, however, I was surprised to find a resume that actually managed to impress me.
In fact, it was one of the best resumes I had ever seen. It had no gimmicks, no Fortune 500 company listed and wasn’t folded into an origami airplane.
Needless to say, I hired the candidate. Here’s what made it stand out from the rest:
1. It was easy to read
This resume had plenty of white space and was two pages long, which is expected if you have more than 10 years of experience.
Everything was nicely organized: Line spacing was just right, company names in bold, titles italicized and job details arranged in bullet points. Oh, and not a single typo to be found.
I liked that the font was nothing fancy. Too many candidates waste time obsessing over which font to use. I won’t weigh in on Times New Roman versus Calibri, but I will say that it should always be simple and easy to read.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/most-impressive-resume-ever-based-on-20-years-of-hiring-and-interviewing.html