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Guideline Two: Write Using Bullet Points
When you write bulleted statements, remember the following:
When it comes to the words on your resume, superior writing is all about being concise (and using clear, jargon-free language). One firm’s vice president tells us, “If you can’t reduce your resume to one page, I immediately think you’re unable to tell the important from the trivial.”
• Keep them short (one line if possible).
One of the best ways to fulfill this goal is to use bullets. Why? • Bullets make your resume easier to scan. • Bullets highlight key content. • Bullets make your resume more concise. Insiders tell us that hiring managers are more likely to toss a resume into the reject pile than to spend extra time plowing through clunky prose to find what they’re looking for. “I’m impressed when someone has enough confidence to write just one line followed by short bullet points,” one hiring manager tells us. “I know candidates can bullshit their way through things by writing prose,” comments another.
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• Start them with action verbs. • Structure them consistently. To see the benefits of using bullets, take a look at the following resume revision. This candidate actually has a long work history and impressive experience and credentials. Look at the original version. What do you gather after scanning the resume for 10 seconds? Not much. Now compare the resume “makeover” on the next page.