Taking a Look at How Your Resume Reads

One thing that job seekers typically don't think of when working on their resume is the difference between how they write it and how it reads. Very often, they only think in terms of the message the want to convey; however, thinking about how the person reading it will receive the message rarely crosses their minds.

One reason that many people choose to work with professional resume writers is because they take every element of resume creation into consideration. However, you could do the same by taking a closer look at how your resume will look to its recipient.

Avoid "Business-ese"

You may feel very tempted to write your resume in a super "professional" fashion where you use all of the big words the thesaurus can produce for you. However, it's very rare that the hiring manager wants to read something written like this because it looks contrived.

Instead taking the "business-ese" route, it's a better idea to just write in a conversational tone. Of course, you want the resume to be professional, but you don't have to use "business-ese" to accomplish this goal.

Steer Clear of Wordiness

Another mistake that some job seekers make when writing their resume is making it too wordy. If you were talking to the hiring manager in an interview, you could probably read from his or her body language that your responses were too wordy. However, you don't have this luxury on paper, so you have to make the judgment call on your own.

If you're not sure how wordy your resume is, you could read it to a friend to make sure you're getting to the point fast enough. As you're writing, just keep in mind that if your resume is too wordy, the person reading it may very well toss it to the side rather than spend time reading words that don't belong.

Making sure that the person who connects with your resume reads it is a tricky proposition. You need to have the right balance of keywords, conversational tone, eye-catching design, and of course, zero errors. But once the reader can get past the first potential irritants, he or she can get to the meat of the resume - your experience, skills and accomplishments - which is what you really want.