I've been reviewing hundreds of resumes lately and I have a few tips. I know these are all published elsewhere, but here's my suggestions and pet peeves.
1. Use a consistent font, and preferably one that is nice and clear. Good choices are Calibri (my fave), Times New Roman, Arial, etc. Avoid flashy or weirdly justified fonts.
2. Be consistent in your format. If you underline one heading underline the next one, don't change bullet types mid resume, make font size consistent throughout, etc.
3. Use the goddamn spellchecker. Multiple or blatant misspellings will get you DQ'ed instantly with me.
4. Put accurate contact information and indicate which you'd like me to use. Your email address should be professional and not ostenatious. Avoid things like partydude@gmail.com, hot_biker_dude@yahoo.com and l33thax0r@hotmail.com. These are lame and have no business on a resume. Also, if the number 420 is anywhere in your email you won't get a call from me, I'm not an idiot.
5. Understand that I WILL look you up on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. These represent you and your professionalism. I won't discriminate based on race, religion or that other stuff, but if your MySpace background has pot leaves on it or swastika's (to name a few) don't wait near your phone.
6. I don't care about perfect attendance in high school, if you were in the Thespians Club or if you were Employee of the Month at Dairy Queen. What I want to see if relevant work experience, education and affiliations. It's great that you set the state discuss record, but I really don't give a shit. Only put down RELEVANT job histories. If this is your first resume that's fine, I'd rather have you put that down rather than try and relate Waffle House Cook to what we do.
7. References are lame and I never call them. No one ever puts down someone voluntarily who will not vouch for them.
8. If your GPA is under 3, don't put it on their, I'm less likely to call. Why advertise you're dumb?
9. Avoid obvious BS and lengthy objectives. Your objective is to get a job, I get it.
And in conclusion....
10. Be reasonable. If you're a recent college grad you're not going to get into managment. Accept entry level work. And don't ask for $45k a year and stock options. I don't care if you graduated Summa Cum Laude, in IT you need to prove yourself and all that paper shows me is that you're able to memorize stuff and see something through to completion. These are great skills, however they don't mean you're worth more to me than someone who has 5 years of OJT and can handle himself/herself during a real live IT crisis.
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