How to Write a Résumé That Doesn't Annoy People (Harvard Business Review)

But in our fear to avoid saying anything that might get our résumé tossed out of the pile, we end up saying nothing at all. As a result, the hiring manager feels like she's reading tea leaves, not CVs. One feels forced to come up with arbitrary rules to narrow the field. Nobody with an objective statement, no résumés longer than three pages, no serif fonts.

It would be nice if the above was a joke, but it's probably not. With so many résumés to sort through, even the tiniest thing can land yours in the "Toss" pile instead of the "Keep" pile. The author's list of suggestions (with additional comments in the article) are as follows:

1. Get the formatting right.
2. Insert dates for everything
3. Fill up on the buzzwords.
4. Choose verbs that mean something.
5. Rewrite your résumé for each job application.
6. State career objectives or outside interests - but be very careful.
7. The further into your past, the less detail you should have.
8. Keep it short.
9. No typos.

Back in the day, I had to look through literally hundreds of résumés when we were replacing an assistant at my company, which prompted me to put together a little list of my own. You can check that out in the next post (above). And as always, please share your thoughts.

Read the full HBR article here.