Your resume gets a 15 second glance according Human Resources personnel and hiring managers. 15 Seconds! You have got to garner their interest fast or you are sunk. I’ve written over 5000 resumes and hired hundreds of people personally so I’ve seen most of the errors job hunters make that torpedo their resume.

In today’s competitive job market more than ever your resume can be a door opener, or a career stopper.

The first step to developing a much-improved resume is to see how employers might view your current resume. Begin by taking the Resume Assessment QUIZ – it’s free – and it’ll give you some feedback on your current resume. Follow that by reviewing the tips below. These will help you to make some good editorial improvements and changes. These 21 tips come from responses made by hiring managers in a national survey about resumes.

1. USE KEYWORDS! Many employers sort resumes electronically, so resume selection is dependent on the keywords contained in your resume. Make a list of the “buzz words” connected to perform your type of job. Look through employers’ job ads to uncover the major ones. Incorporate these keywords into the sentences describing your previous work experience.

2. EMPHASIZE RESULTS! This was the top survey response. Employers said results achieved matter the most. Lace your resume with the accomplishments you achieved in past positions. Show the impact you had and your productivity by including details concerning money earned or time or dollars saved. Use numbers to reflect, how much, how many, and percentage of gain or reduction.

3. FOCUS THE RESUME. It’s imperative to use a job title for the career objective to identify the name of the job being applied for. It’s most effective to create a different resume for each job title (i.e., one resume for Project Manager, another for Engineer) and only incorporate the information pertinent to doing that stated job. This will eliminate the tendency to crowd your resume with too much non-related information.

4. BE CONCISE. No vague generalities or long job descriptions. Say exactly what you mean, using the smallest number of words to make the point. State only the specific qualifications you have to best perform the job advertised, employers say they quickly eliminate any broad scope or generalized resumes submitted.

5. LIMIT RESUME TO TWO PAGES. Employers stated that they are primarily interested in worked done in the last 5-7 years no matter what level position the candidate applied for. Cover in detail the major job duties performed noting results achieved. Be a skillful editor, deleting old portions or anything not relevant or helpful to your securing a particular position and at the level you seek.

6. USE A BULLET STYLE FORMAT. Employers can gather more info faster and prefer the bullets layout over the paragraph style format.

7. ADD A SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS SECTION. Employers find this highly desirable in the survey. Encapsulate your most marketable skills and experience into four to six sentences so this section is a mini-verbal business card that details what you are bringing to the new employer.

8. SHOW BUSINESS SAVVY. Only submit resumes created in the Microsoft WORD software or a PDF file since these are the business world’s standard. Be warned that many home computers use a word processing format which is not compatible to MS Office and can’t be read by many employer computers.

9. COVER YOUR BASES. Whenever possible always mail a hard copy of your resume after you have submitted one electronically since you would never be informed if the electronic version wasn’t readable.

10. MAKE IT VISUALLY APPEALING. The formatting of your resume must be kept readable, sharp and professional. Make sure sentences are concise and that there is adequate white space between points. Use a clean easy to read font like Arial font no smaller than 11 preferable 12 point size.

11. DO NOT MISSTATE! Employers stated that over 50% try to exaggerate their skills, or outright lie about their level of experience or claiming a college degree that actually do not possess. Employers are doing extensive background checks these days and they often uncover your lies during interviews and reference checks. State your skills, qualifications, education, and experience as positively as possible without misstating the truth.

12. CLARIFY A JOB TITLE. If your job responsibilities are not adequately described by your company’s job title, then alter that title and indicate your responsibilities with a title in more appropriate terms i.e. IT Systems Analyst, instead of Tech lll.

13. USE ACTION VERBS. Start each sentence with a descriptive action verb — such as directed, organized, established, created, planned, etc. They add power to your sentences. And, never use “I” on the resume. Action verbs and short impact sentences gather more attention.

14. BE COMPLETE. No abbreviations or acronyms Spell out names of schools, cities, business terms, abbreviations, and titles completely, as employers may not recognize the exactly what the letters stand for.

15. USE THE CORRECT TENSE. In all your sentences, use past tense words since they imply that you “have done it” before. Employers focus on past results even if you are still currently performing the duty at your job write the resume using the past tense only.

16. SKIP THE GIMMICKS. FedEx arrivals, personal deliveries, sending a resume with flowers, candy or covering a box full of cookies did not impress employers at all.

17. AVOID GRAPHICS. Lines across the page, artistic designs, color inks, clipart, and photos should be avoided. Most electronic resume software can not read designs, long lines or color ink correctly and often eliminate or change anything they see that is not text.

18. NO TAG LINES. Employers know you’ll provide references if they request them, therefore it is not necessary to put “References upon request” at the end of your resume.

19. DON’T ADVERTISE NEGATIVE INFORMATION. The resume is the wrong place to advertise that you were laid off, fired, or had an extended illness. Never state why you left a position; simply list the dates of employment. Never, ever, mention what salary you were paid or seek in your resume.

20. PROOFREAD. Careful read and make your resume flawless. No spelling errors, mistakes or typos, especially in emails. Many HR managers reported they do not hire offenders. Don’t trust computer spell checkers since a correctly spelled word like “sea” would go unnoticed by your computer but would be incorrectly read if you meant to say “see.”

21. FINAL TEST — ARE EMPLOYERS CALLING? Is your resume getting results? Are employers calling on appropriate jobs you are qualified (not over or under) to perform? If not, start editing and rewriting. Implement the above guidelines, and read the book Winning Resumes following the writing instructions and samples. Another option is to get professional help to improve your resume so your resume is indeed the best possible advertisement about you and your skills.

Source: “Winning Resumes” book by Robin Ryan. Copyright 2010 Robin Ryan. All rights reserved.