You already know that your resume is your first impression with an employer, but did you know that you only have seven seconds to make that impression? According to The Ladders eye study, the average recruiter spends 6–7.4 seconds skimming through a resume. That means your resume needs to be clear, clean and attention grabbing from the minute it’s opened.
Style
We all see the fancy resume templates available in Word and on the Internet, and while you do not need to select the plainest of the standard templates available, consider picking one that is straightforward without too much complicated formatting and styling. Your presentation really does matter as 83% of recruiters say they are more likely to hire a candidate who has a well-formatted resume, and 73% of hiring managers are more likely to interview a candidate with a visually appealing resume, per Jobvite’s Job Seeker Nation Report.
So, what makes a resume visually appealing? There are several design choices you can make to catch a recruiter’s eye:
- Bold the section and your job titles. The first thing recruiters are looking at are those job titles, so make sure they are easy to spot.
- Keep it concise. The ideal length of a resume is between 600 and 900 words. If you have more than 10 years of experience, you may exceed this word count, but focus on including more details in your current role and summarizing older ones as you go further back in time.
- Use one of these recommended fonts. The standard Word fonts are recommended, such as Aptos, Calibri, Cambria and Garamond. Keep the font size between 10–12pt—it’s ok to vary the size for headers versus body text.Use bullet points rather than paragraphs. Concise bullet points help the hiring manager to mentally digest the information quickly.
- Be consistent. As an example, if you bold the company name, be sure to do it throughout. Write in the present tense for your current role and past tense for any previous roles; make sure you update this as you change roles and make new versions of your resume. Also keep line spacing and spacing between sections uniform throughout.
Content
Think of your resume pages as pieces of real estate: there’s only so much space to highlight your experience and grab the reader’s attention—and more importantly, keep it! When choosing how to organize your experiences and skills, consider these tips:
- Skip the overview section and jump right into your legal experience. According to the Jobvite report, 88% of hiring managers say that work experience is the most important section of a resume, so focus your real estate on the work you have done that relates to the job at hand.
- Tailor your resume to the job description for which you are applying. A survey by CareerBuilder found that 54% of candidates don’t tailor their resume to the job description. This is a mistake as recruiters are looking for someone who is a match for their role. Thus, when you include your specific responsibilities and accomplishments, make sure you include keywords and examples that illustrate the request from the employer.
- Carefully consider your word choice. For example, instead of just writing “experience drafting and negotiating SaaS agreements,” write “experience drafting and negotiating services agreements, including SaaS, etc.”
- Include your education at the top if you went to a top law school or undergraduate school, but otherwise place your education after your experience section.
- Focus your resume on the most recent 10 years. This may mean dropping older or irrelevant roles that do not align with the one you are focused on now. When removing older roles, include the phrase “Prior work history available upon request” at the end of your Experience section. It also may mean the length of your resume exceeds two pages; that is ok. A resume that is clean and legible is more important than squeezing all your content into a set page length.
Your resume should be a living document that you are tweaking and adjusting for every role that you are applying to. Using AI may feel like a useful shortcut to get you started, but we caution about utilizing AI for more than an initial rough draft. It is very apparent to the hiring manager when a resume was not written in your own authentic voice. AI also cannot thoroughly describe your personal experiences or elaborate on your exact expertise.
The goal of your resume will be to make a quick and impactful impression, and based on research, it needs to be concise, clear, and consistent in your formatting, content, and tone. Remember to highlight your accomplishments and impact, not just your responsibilities. And most importantly, be authentic and use your own voice to convey your personal brand and professional story.
