Resume and Cover Letter Readability: 5 Tips for Success
There are differing opinions regarding what constitutes the ultimate resume style and format; however, there is unanimous agreement about the importance of readability. After all, what point is there in creating a resume, if no one reads the content?
Here are a few practical tips to make sure that your resume and cover letter get the attention they deserve once in the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager.
- Keep paragraphs to a reasonable length. Extremely long paragraphs are very hard to read whether online or off, and can be overwhelming. Keep paragraphs relatively short; it is more likely your information will be reviewed rather than skipped over.
- The exact length of each paragraph will vary, but you can test the resume and cover letter on a small sampling of friends and colleagues, asking them specific questions about the last sentence of each of your paragraphs. This will give you a good indication as to whether or not the information was reviewed.
- Bullets should be used for specific quantifiable accomplishments. While I generally recommend no more than 5 or 6 consecutive bullets, the exact number is dependent on each individual resume. I have seen resumes that have upward of 20 bullets in a row! This is a big ‘No-No’. As I have said (and will continue to say) your resume should be like a skirt: long enough to cover the topic, but short enough to keep things interesting.
- The most significant bullets should be at the top of the list, just in case a reader’s attention does wane. The bullets themselves should not be too wordy either. A 4 or 5 sentence bullet may be more effective if the information is consolidated, or if the bullet is broken into two separate accomplishments.
- Bold should be used judiciously to highlight critical information. Too much bold will become ineffective. I have a friend that put yellow highlighter on every single line in the textbook he was studying while in college. When it came time for his final exam, he had to reread everything because none of the important things stood out.
While there are many other things you can do to enhance the readability of your resume and cover letter, these suggestions will go a long way to ensuring that the valuable information you spent your time and effort preparing gets reviewed.
This blog's author, Debra Wheatman of Careers Done Write, provides executive career services including resume and cover letter preparation, job search / interviewing strategies and professional branding including how to effectively use LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media in your career.
Visit CareersDoneWrite.com to learn more about how we can put your career in gear with interview catching resumes and professionally written career documents.