How to write Impressive Resume

Here are four sure-fire ways to ensure your resume makes the right impression.

1. Your personal life is just that -- personal: One candidate included that he spent summers on his family's yacht in Grand Cayman, while another included family medical history. Hiring managers don't need to know personal information such as your waistline measurement or where you spend your summer vacations. Instead, include information on activities that are business-related such as memberships in professional organizations and community service involvement.

2. Simple. Bold. Professional: Using pale blue paper with teddy bears around the border (like one candidate did) isn't going to strike anyone as anything but weird. Three key ideas to keep in mind when formatting your resume are: simple, bold and professional. Instead of flashy formatting and stationary with borders or graphics, create a clean and polished document on resume paper with consistent formatting for headings and bullet points. To gain a hiring manager's attention, use strong action words such as 'achieved' and 'managed' instead of unconventional fonts or colored text.

3. One size does NOT fit all: If you're applying for a sales position, it wouldn't make much sense to focus on your experience in an unrelated field like education or information technology. Not only should you play up achievements and experience specific to the job you're applying for, but also provide quantifiable results. For example, it's easy to say that you have experience in sales, but employers will take note if you say that you were responsible for a 10 percent growth in overall sales.

Note: Including a picture of you in a cheerleading uniform, as one applicant did, also doesn't make sense.

4. Two sets of eyes are better than one: After you proofread your resume a few times, ask someone else to review it. A second pair of eyes may be able to catch mistakes you missed and could provide a fresh perspective on how to improve your resume