Resume Rules

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Whether you're gainfully and happily employed, considering a job change or on the hunt, it's always smart to keep an updated resume. Whether you are polishing or starting from scratch, Harvey Nash offers a few Golden Rules of resume writing to keep in mind as you build an attention-grabbing resume.

Keep It Concise

Remember, less is always more. Your resume should be no longer than one to two pages. Unless you have 20+ years experience and are a top executive, there are almost NO circumstances under which a resume should be longer.

Several hundred resumes arrive at Harvey Nash every day. Most of them contain information that is unnecessary and clutters up the critical information employers and recruiters need to find. All recruiters and hiring managers have horror stories of messy, verbose 4, 5 and, yes, even 10-page resumes. Those lengthy bios all end up the same place - the trash bin.

Give Them Want They Want

Recruiters have a very clear idea of the experience and skills they need to find before they pick up your resume. That means you need to hook them right away with the information they want.

The first two things recruiters will look at on your resume are your experience and your skills. They will look at the last employer (experience) and what job you were doing (skills). If that experience is relevant, they will look deeper into your resume.

Make sure you take the time to quickly demonstrate the skills you used and the skills you gained in each role you held. Use simple, bulleted statements that capture the core of your work and the contribution you made. If experience and skill information is clearly presented, you stand a much better chance of being selected for an interview. If, however, the information is buried deep in several pages of closely typed, poorly laid-out, badly written text, then no one is going to bother hunting for it.

Break Your Skills Down

While you will be listing skills within your work history, it's not a bad idea to break out a specific skills section in your resume. For example, you may have a long list of software skills that would demonstrate outstanding technology competency or talent with critical finance and accounting programs. Or, maybe you have international finance experience or you are multilingual? Whatever your unique set of skills includes, take a bit of space to call attention to the talents that make you an outstanding hire.

Choose the Best Format

There are a variety of ways to build your resume. Below are descriptions of the three most common. Take a moment to consider the various ways to arrange your resume and pick the one that best expresses your experience and talent.

Time-based Resume

The traditional, and for most people, preferred layout. Arrange your career history with your current/most recent job and work back. Make the job title and your employer clear. If your job title does not really explain what you did, then expand on it to provide enough detail. Jobs held more than 15 years ago should be very briefly dealt with.

Skills-based Resume

Organized around your skills. May be more appropriate for someone who has moved jobs frequently or has significant experience gleaned from other areas, such as volunteer work. Also useful for candidates contemplating a major career switch so that previous experience needs to be put in context to make it relevant.

Combination Resume

A great approach for candidates with a rich skill base is a combination resume. It allows them to first catch the eyes of recruiters and hiring managers with their skills but also detail out their work experience. The resume begins with the candidate's objective and is followed by a skills summary that overviews specific software, industry and business expertise. After the skill summary, the resume will then tackle experience with a career history that covers responsibilities and value delivered to previous organizations.

Stick to the Facts

Whichever format you adopt, stick to the facts. Explain what you did, what your achievements were and provide the evidence for it. Avoid self-promotion and use bullet points.

Do not lie.

If falsehoods and exaggerations are found on your resume, you can be dismissed, and it is unlikely that the company, a recruiter or any agency involved in your hire would deal with you again. That does not mean you have to tell the whole truth - nor should you. There is no need, for example, to include details of exams you took, but failed. Leave out the facts that will hurt you, but never lie.

Stay within Your Rights

While you want to give a clear picture of you as a potential employee in your resume, you don't have to share everything with an employer. The following list is a reminder of the information you do not need to divulge on your resume in the United States.

• Marital status
• Number/ages/names/sex of children
• Details of elementary and primary education
• Any exams/qualifications/certifications you failed or haven't yet achieved
• Place of birth
• Religion
• Race
• Age

Save Hobbies & Interests for the Personals

If you have represented your country in the Olympics, written a best-selling book or hold a world record, you may include the information. These impressive facts will make you stand out from the crowd of applicants. If your interests are gardening, reading, traveling and golf, as so many people's are, then leave them off unless hobbies are requested by the employer.

Get Support from Harvey Nash

And the last but not least of our rules is this: remember that Harvey Nash is here to help. Our recruiters are more than happy to review your resume and give you tips on how to improve your professional positioning. Set up a time with your recruiter of choice and get some veteran insights on what today's hiring managers want to see and how your resume is meeting their needs.