Perspectives from Employers

Below are comments made by various Human Resource Managers and Employers about what they look for in a resume.

• Be consistent with your formatting – Sometimes applicants change the order of their work experience halfway though and it makes it difficult for the reader to follow.  I prefer for applicants to list their most recent job first and to stick with that.
• If you don’t have a lot of work experience draw on other experiences such as Army Reserves, St John Ambulance, Sporting Groups (e.g. coached the under 15 cricket team), voluntary jobs etc.
• With the layout of your resume use good spacing to make it easy to read.
• Pre-warn referees that they may get a call from a perspective employer.
• Use a good printer (i.e. make sure it is not too faint to read) Make it easy for the person at the other end to read.
• You don’t have to go overboard with your presentation.  Employers are more interested in the content.  However, make some effort; it should be neat and easy to read but you don’t have to go to great expense on fancy paper or folders.
• Take care when folding it into the envelope.  Make sure the envelope is an appropriate size.  Don’t make it into an origami piece!
• Attach your cover letter to the resume – this will reduce the amount of work for the person at the other end.   Also, sometimes cover letters get stuck in the envelope when the resume is taken out and the reader may not know it is still in the envelope and assume one wasn’t sent with the resume.