Easy Tips for Making a Resume Better

Resume writing doesn’t require the wisdom of Shakespeare. You can put together a strong, professional-looking document yourself by paying attention to a handful of small details most candidates overlook. The resumes that get rejected often aren’t done in by big mistakes — they’re done in by little ones that quietly dent the first impression.

“Emphasize your strengths on your resume, in your cover letters and in your interviews. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people simply list everything they’ve ever done. Convey your passion and link your strengths to measurable results. Employers and interviewers love concrete data.”

Ten tips that quietly raise the quality

1. Use simple, clear language. Skip jargon and dense academic phrasing. The recruiter needs to grasp your value in seconds, not decode it.
2. Pick one readable font and one size, and stick with them. Mixing fonts and alignments makes a page feel chaotic before anyone has read a word. Something common like Arial at 11 or 12pt is a safe default.
3. Skip pictures, charts and tables. A resume is a document, not a presentation — quantified data carries the visual weight better than decoration.
4. Drop first-person pronouns. “Led the rollout” reads sharper than “I led the rollout” — and saves a line of space you can use better.
5. Write short, scannable lines. Sentence fragments are fine. The goal is crisp and professional, not literary.
6. Use industry terms instead of long descriptions. The right keyword signals expertise faster than two sentences explaining the same thing — and it’s also what automated screening tools look for.
7. Bullets, not paragraphs. Walls of prose dilute the impact of every individual point. A bullet list keeps each line standing on its own.
8. Start broad, then get specific. Open each section with what matters most so the reader is pulled in line by line, rather than buried in detail up front.
9. Avoid decorative fonts, borders and shading. Save creative formatting for roles where visual flair is genuinely part of the job — and even then, send a clean version alongside the designed one.
10. Mind the presentation. If you’re handing the resume over in person, fold it neatly with the cover letter. Print on clean, white paper. The physical first impression still matters more than people think.

In short

A polished resume isn’t about flair — it’s about a hundred small choices that make the page feel deliberate. Tighten the language, settle on one typeface, and let the content speak. Everything you cut clears space for the points you actually want the recruiter to remember.