Lay-out of a resume

One page? Two pages? European-style 6-pager with a photo?
  • One or two pages is fine. The days of the one v two page arguments are long gone. US resumes are never more than 2 pages. Well, occasional exceptions. Academic resumes are a special case, too). European-type c.v.s are just not the norm here, and tend to freak out HR Departments. And freaking out HR Depts is not the point of sending resumes.
  • Do not add a photograph. Not relevant, and possibly illegal for potential employers to use the information. Don’t do it.
  • Do not write age, marital status, number of children on your resume. See reasons in point above…Don’t do it.
  • Bullet points versus prose to describe responsibilities? Up to the mid-‘90s, it could be either but this is 2012 and prose looks old-fashioned. Bullet points just look crisper and make the highlights easier to read.
  • Education at beginning or end of resume? Up to you…Mind you, if you have less than a 4-year degree, I’d recommend leaving it to the end. There’s nothing wrong with NOT having a 4-year degree, of course, but common sense perhaps says it’s not the first thing you want potential employers to notice.
  • Don’t use exotic fonts. Some of them look like old-fashioned typewriter fonts (e.g. Monotype Corsiva isn’t even given as a choice in Outlook). Although you want your resume not to be too cookie-cutter you want it to stand out in an up-to-date professional way.