by Robin Eads

Created on: June 15, 2009

So the economy is in turmoil and you've suddenly found yourself without a job. What now? It's time to update that resume, or in some cases, build one from scratch. What should you include; what should you leave out?

Before you get started, it's important to know that a potential employer only spends about 30 seconds scanning your resume, initially. If they like what they see, they may spend up to 2 minutes reviewing it further. That's a short window of opportunity to make a good impression.

Here are some helpful tips to guide you on your way to building a great resume:

Formatting:

Always use a common, easy to read font; such as Times New Roman, Arial, Book Antiqua, or similar. Using an odd font not only makes it more difficult for a human to read your resume, but also more difficult for OCR software. OCR is Optical Character Recognition; it translates what it sees into predetermined data fields (name, address, etc).
Bold Sparingly. Only titles, employer names/dates, headers and footers should be bolded. Too much bolding creates confusion for the reader.
Use bullets sparingly. Bullet if you must; however, it is always best to use full paragraphs when composing your summary and/or work experience.
Do not use tables. Ever. Every person that processes your resume, including recruiters who are often required to reformat your resume, will hate you if you use tables.
Learn how to set and use tabs. Simply hitting the Tab key over and over until you get to the right spot isn't proper formatting. Using set tabs will help your resume to have a more even appearance. Make sure dates of employment line up accurately, to make it easy to see the years at each employer listed.
Text or Microsoft Word format are the preferred documents. Very few employers use WordPad, Works, WordPerfect, et al. PDF files are acceptable in some cases, but generally it needs to be a document that can be editable. This is especially the case when working with an agency recruiter; they must have the ability to remove your contact information before sending to their client.
Your resume does not have to be 1 page. It doesn't need to be 10 pages, either.

Content:

A good resume includes a header with your full name, address, phone number and email address. Below that should be your summary (not an objective), a skills section, education and/or certifications and employment awards or accolades, and finally, your employment content.
Do not include your hobbies, marital status, religious beliefs, number

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