Hoping to land your dream job or just a position that will help you earn some spare cash over the summer months? Whether you’re applying to be the chief financial officer of a multinational corporation or trying to become WalMart’s newest customer service rep, a great resume is essential. Here are some tips to make yours stand out.

1. Know what you want: Your resume should clearly state what type of job you are looking for and what you are hoping to achieve in your career. This is also known as an objective, and it is an essential entry on every resume.

2. Keep it concise: Your resume isn’t a long, detailed document that tells potential employers your entire life story. Avoid using lengthy paragraphs and opt for bullets and short sentences instead. Your resume is simply a snapshot of your education and experience so there’s no need to go into great detail. Your prospective employer can always ask you to elaborate during the interview.

3. Be positive: Your resume isn’t the place to be negative. Don’t say you quit your last job because of poor management or long hours. Keep it upbeat, and never trash a former employer on your resume or in an interview.

4. Know your strengths: Because many of us are taught as children to be modest, it can be hard to tell others what we’re good at but that’s exactly what you should do on a resume. Know your strengths and mention them. If you’re good at communicating with the public, you’re reliable, and you work well independently, let prospective employers know!

5. Make it action-packed: When you’re describing your experience, use action words. Organized, arranged, supervised, and promoted are just a few examples.

6. Be what your potential employer needs: Make sure you are suitable for the position you are applying for. Otherwise, you’re just wasting the employer’s time, and your own as well. You should also tailor your resume to suit the position. If you’re applying for a sales position, for example, highlight your experience in that area. If it’s a customer service position, highlight your experience working with the public instead.

7. Draw the reader’s attention with symbols: If you want your potential employer to know that you increased profits for a company, don’t say you “increased profits by two hundred thousand dollars in 1998,” or that you “increased profits by 200 thousand dollars in 1998.” Use the symbol instead. Say you “increased profits by $200,000 in 1998.” Using symbols is an effective way to draw attention to this information. Always use the symbol for percent (%), the dollar sign ($), and the number symbol (#) when you are preparing your resume.

8. Follow the crowd: You can make your resume unique to a point, but there are some accepted and unwritten rules you should follow. Limit your resume to a page or two, never make the font size smaller than 10, and resist the urge to use wacky font styles. Stick to the basic serif and sans serif choices.

9. Phone a friend: It’s difficult to critique your own work so ask a friend, teacher, or (honest) family member to help out. In addition to general feedback about the overall look of your resume, they can point out spelling and grammatical errors as well. If you don’t know anyone who would be up to the task, a professional resume critique service may be able to help.

Image taken on 2009-11-09 18:45:08. Image Source. (Used with permission)