An average of one minute is spent by a recruiter reading one resume.  If in that one minute, the recruiter cannot locate the information required to consider you for an interview, your resume will be discarded.  Follow the following tips to avoid this from this happening!

• Never send a resume without a cover letter!  See cover letter section for more information on how to compose a letter.
• Use action verbs (i.e., analyzed, created, managed, trained, etc.)
• Be consistent in form throughout the resume.
• If your education is your strongest selling point, place it first.  If you have more relevant job experience, place that first.
• Use present tense verbs for a current job, and past tense for previous jobs.
• Convert information to numbers where possible:  number of people, quantity of projects, dollars budgeted, etc.
• If most of your experience is related to the military, try to think about your duties in civilian terms.
• Do not list sex, weight, height, age, marital status, children, etc.
• Proof your resume and then have someone else proof it!
• Be consistent in how you spell out acronyms, use of bullets, and font.
• Keep your resume to one page.
• All information should be truthful!
• Avoid columns and tables in your resume.  Some companies use computer scanners, which may interpret the columns/tables into unreadable text.