The Do’s and Don’ts of Crafting the Perfect Resume

If you consider the attention span of a goldfish is six seconds, then consider this: your resume needs to grab the attention of a goldfish. That’s because it takes recruiters an average of six seconds to make their initial “fit/no fit” decision, according to a recent study. 

If you’ve only got six seconds to make a killer first impression, make sure your resume doesn’t have any glaring errors or red flags that will immediately catch the recruiter’s eye. This is a time to sell yourself and your work experience, and mistakes are not going to get you to the next step.

We rounded up some do’s and don’ts from top hiring professionals for getting your resume right the first time.

Be Specific and on Point

"Recruiters and hiring managers screen dozens if not hundreds of resumes a day. We focus on your education, longevity in previous roles, relevance of your job titles and career growth. Additionally, we want to see what you’ve done in each job, what technologies you’ve worked with, how you’ve used them, and what results you achieved. Make that information stand out, and be specific but succinct.

You should not write large paragraphs in complete sentences. We need to quickly digest your background and what you bring to the table, but don’t have time to read an essay or search through pages of information. Additionally, DON’T make spelling or grammatical errors, watch your punctuation and spacing, and don’t use weird fonts or colors. It hurts our eyes! You may also avoid including tons of information about positions you held ages ago (just a bullet point is sufficient), and if your GPA was less than a 3.5, don’t include it, and don’t include it at all if you graduated more than five years ago." -Irina Erskine, CyberCoders Executive Recruiter

Tell the truth

"Putting a lie on your resume is never, ever, ever, worth it. Everyone, up to and including CEOs, gets fired for this. (Google "CEO fired for lying on resume" and see.) People lie about their degrees (three credits shy of a college degree is not a degree), GPAs (I've seen hundreds of people "accidentally" round their GPAs up, but never have I seen one accidentally rounded down -- never), and where they went to school (sorry, but employers don't view a degree granted online for "life experience" as the same as UCLA or Seton Hall). People lie about how long they were at companies, how big their teams were, and their sales results, always goofing in their favor.

There are three big problems with lying: (1) You can easily get busted. The Internet, reference checks, and people who worked at your company in the past can all reveal your fraud. (2) Lies follow you forever. Fib on your resume and 15 years later get a big promotion and are discovered? Fired. And try explaining that in your next interview. (3) Our Moms taught us better. Seriously." - Via Laszlo Bock, SVP, People Operations at Google and author of WORK RULES!

Don't cut and paste

"There is a difference between a candidate who kind of blasts their resume across 100 different companies to see which sticks, versus actually applying to a job at Trello with a resume and cover letter that is dedicated to us. There should be a reason why you want to work at Trello specifically." -Liz Hall, VP of People at Trello 

Tailor your resume

"Although it can be time consuming, it’s worth it in the long run. If the job posting is a little quirky or has certain nuances and ways of saying certain terminology, definitely tweak your resume.

Make it easy for the recruiter to say yes to your resume. Similar words will pop out and that’s a win-win for both you and the recruiter who is eager to fill this job. Secondly, once your resume is submitted online to the applicant tracking system and married to a specific requisition, the keywords used by the company may be easily searched by other recruiters (or even the same one) for different job openings. If you incorporate words a specific company uses, chances are you’ll be covered across the boards and appear in searches they conduct for similar roles." -Vicki Salemi, career coach and former corporate recruiter

Condense and correct

"You know, if you’re just running a chronology, that's not a very entertaining read. Some people feel they have to list out everything with the keyword of every technology they ever participated in in order to get their resume reviewed. I would state the accomplishments that folks have had throughout the resume. When they do that, they'll be highlighting important points and keywords and keep it clear and concise." -Russ Campanello, Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Communications at iRobot