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Resume building is often made more complex than it needs to be. Remember that exchanges of work needs occur on an individual level, and this includes job seeking. This means that making broad generalizations can immediately set a job seeker down a wrong path when building the resume.

For instance, a popular approach is to customize the resume in order to optimize search engine returns, making sure to state every relevant buzzword that may be desired. The problem: This is built on the assumption that the employer is having so many applicants they are needing to filter many out. What if some or most of the positions you are applying for aren’t overwhelmed with applicants?

Because the skilled worker is writing a piece summarizing their accomplishments in their specific field, broad guidance is very difficult. Although a very good resume template is provided here, in truth there is no perfect template or resume.

With that said, there remain two major pieces of universal resume guidance to endorse:

Your resume is primarily an advertisement for you as a worker

Everything that is presented in the resume is part of the advertisement for you as a worker. Aside from the content you add, this includes formatting and spelling, switching tone of voice, and most of all, if your resume is attractive to the eye or off-putting at first glance.

Take a three second glance at your resume. Literally look at the resume for three seconds then away. Did it look appealing? Were the margins, fonts, and spacing all consistent? Does it look especially monotonous and boring? Is the template you’re using working, or do you need a different style? Did anything in particular stand out as wrong?

I’ve seen hundreds of resumes in my work, and the worst I’ve seen was a word document with no formatting, just a bullet point list of jobs and skills.

You don’t have to have a stellar format and appearance, or the best content from your resume. Appearance will matter significantly, and it’s easier to change than the content.

2. After editing or adding to your resume, always read it out loud to yourself, to be sure it makes sense.

I believe this is not only critical for resume writing specifically, but some of the best general writing advice available.

Writing is difficult. Summarizing your accomplishments is even harder. Many workers tend to put on an authoritative voice when writing the resume, and often try to use jargon that they think will sound good. This often can backfire, and make the resume actually difficult to understand.

It’s better to use simple language that can be understood than to overwrite a resume with jargon and figures. It’s also better to cut content than have a resume that is too large and stretches into multiple pages.

Do use language that you use while working, do add accomplishments and appropriate figures, don’t lose yourself in it. The easiest solution - read the resume out loud to yourself.