by Nayab Naseer

Created on: March 03, 2009

Your resume is in most cases the only document employers consider before they take the decision to consider you for employment. It is your most important marketing took, akin to a product advertisement or a brochure. Just as you, as a customer would be put off by any mistakes in the product advertisements you see in newspapers, or in their brochures, your prospective employers would also be put off my mistakes in your resume.

The number of job applicants has always been greater than the number of jobs available, and this has been the case throughout history. Even though you may be the most qualified and the most talented fit for the vacant position, the company will not hire you until your resume is considered, and for this, your application should stand out from amongst the hundreds or even thousands that come in for the same position. Studies prove that when there are many resumes piled up, a single resume gets a consideration of around 15 seconds before it goes either to the shortlist side or to the reject side.

It is imperative that your resume is perfect and free from errors. Some of the points to consider are:

1. Avoid typing and grammatical mistakes. Typographical errors, spelling mistakes and faulty grammar reveal your incompetence and carelessness, and any employer worth its salt reject resumes that contain such bloopers.

2. Do not use illegible or uncommon fonts or file extensions. When you send your resume by email or upload the same into the company's website, many things can go wrong. It is not necessary that the font you use is available in the company's server. Similarly, different versions of MS-Word would make the formatting go awry. You might send the file as an Open Office Document, and since the company would not be having Open Office, they would not be able to open your resume.

It is thereby imperative that you use common and popular font like Arial or Times New Roman, use standard font size between 10 and 12. Always save the attachment in the specified format, or if nothing is specified, in MS-Word or PDF format.

3. It is essential that your resume is simple and easy to read, yet attractive. If you use too many formatting features, chances are the formatting would go awry when the employer opens the file using a different version of the same software.

You can take more liberties with formatting when printing out applications and submitting hard copies, but make sure to use easy to read fonts and font size, and be careful to ensure there are no

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