I thought for sure that everyone has heard all of the advice out there for spicing up your resume. I’ve been recruiting for several positions and have been looking at thousands of resumes, and I’m sad to report that most of the resumes I come across, need some serious attention. So over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some advice with you, and hopefully helping you to spruce up your resume so someone calls you back! Your first five steps to cleaning it up:

• Title your resume with YOUR name – hiring managers/recruiters are looking at hundreds of resumes, it’s incredibly difficult to remember who you are if you are one of 20 with a resume titled… resume. For you, that makes sense – but please add your name so we can easily access it and find it when we are ready to give you a call. My preference: LSmith_Resume.doc or Lisa_Smith_Resume.doc.

• If you are applying to a position posted through LinkedIn.com, it is critical that your resume actually matches your LinkedIn profile. There is nothing more confusing than having a resume in-hand that does not match the information that comes WITH the resume and submission. As a hint, when you apply via LinkedIn, an overview of your LI profile with your titles and companies, is attached with your resume.
• Your location in your profile should match your resume, which would ideally, match the location of the job. If you are seeking a job in a different city or state, make sure you take the time to write a cover letter. Tell me why you’re looking for a position in a different location – perhaps you are planning on moving to the area, you have family in the area. I don’t really care WHY you are looking out-of-state, but in lieu of having a reason, I’m gonna assume that you are simply applying for every single job that is posted. And if your profile location is different from your resume, it tells me that you are not at all detail-oriented and not taking time to update your resume for each submission.
• Gmail is free – for the love of Nancy, please please please create a professional email account. Preferably and email that matches your actual name. I kid you not, I had someone with a three name email address apply one – and when we spoke, she indicated that she had a new last name which didn’t match anything in her resume or her email address. It was confusing and I never remembered to call her by the correct name.
• This may be controversial, but I’m not a fan of having an objective in your resume. More times than not, it’s counting you OUT versus helping your cause. Since you applied to my job opening, I’m assuming your objective is to get a job – my specifically. If you say anything other than that, it’s not adding any value. Most common mistake I have found, is people stating their objective for a different type of job than the one the applied to. For example, “I’d like to obtain a job in sales” when they applied for a marketing role. Remove it altogether and get yourself some more space on your resume.