by David Monk

Created on: December 07, 2008   Last Updated: October 26, 2011

How would you like to be a busy employer faced with a pile of 200 resumes, all in an almost identical format, all far too long and all written in the same generalised language which tells a strange anonymous version of the truth? As potential employer your initial interest, generated by the opportunity to glimpse into other people's lives and minds, will last for about three resumes, then boredom is likely to set in. Any resume lower than about tenth in the pile is likely to have no chance!

Most articles on resume writing cover similar territory and it's good territory. Put a summary of your skills at the beginning of the resume, emphasise those skills which are appropriate to the job you are applying for, find something in your background to show your suitability for all aspects of the job applied for, and so on.

But also consider the employer's point of view when preparing your resume. You don't want to bore him, send him to sleep or drive him to the coffee machine. So, keep it short, factual, full of information about you as an individual, and try to be a bit different so that the resume will stand out from the crowd.

You can bet that any text beyond about two pages will not get read. Reams of detailed information about a job you did twenty years ago are unlikely to interest your potential employer. Concentrate on the last few years of your career (to be honest, you're probably only as good as your last job) and condense the rest as far as possible. Keep stuff about hobbies etc to a minimum. You may have been table tennis champion at your local church club in 1987 but, really, who cares?

You say you provided "material assistance to a blue sky research team aimed at significantly improving 21st century communications". Oh, you mean you made the coffee at a mobile phone company? Keep the language straightforward, factual and accurate. When your potential employer reads your resume he is not only assessing the suitability of your background, he is also assessing your character based on what and how you write. Clear explanation of the facts of your career will rapidly establish your credibility. Let him know by the content and language of your resume that you are honest, straightforward and trustworthy. This can easily be done by adopting a simple factual approach. How about "as office assistant at the Vodaphone research centre, I learned a great deal about mobile phone operations".

Like holiday brochures, resumes seem to have developed a bizarre language of

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