LYJ friend Vicki Salemi is a career expert with 15 years of corporate recruiting experience. She is a national public speaker and the author of Big Career in the Big City. Here are Vicki’s tips for creating a stand out resume:

1. When revising a resume, what do you tend to focus on most?

Clarity. I revise a resume from a recruiter’s perspective in terms of the questions candidates will get asked. Are there any red flags? Any gaps and are they explainable? Then I focus on cohesiveness and if it makes sense in terms of their specific skill set and how it’s marketable/applicable/relevant for the position they’re pursuing.

2. What are your preferences on formatting?

I love a chronological resume that’s crisp and easy to read. No funky fonts, no weird margins, just very standard. Sometimes it takes me all of two seconds to review a resume to see if it’s a viable candidate so the format should not jump out at the recruiter; rather, it should be easy on the eyes.

3. One page or two?

It doesn’t matter. I’ve seen three pages actually, too and as long as the resume explains itself to the recruiter and serves as talking points for the interview, two pages are completely fine. In most cases I almost expect it because top notch candidates should have enough robust experiences to not squeeze into one little page!

4. As a recruiter, what’s the number one mistake you see when it comes to resumes?

Unclear resumes in terms of what they’ve done and their skill set.

5. On the flip side, which resumes stand out and why?

Ones which are extremely succinct in terms of what they did. I also like quantifiable bullets such as “Managed a budget of $2 million annually” versus managed an annual budget. Or, “Supervised a staff of 8 people” instead of supervised a staff. Make it easy for the recruiter to ask questions and inquire further about the “talking points” you’ve outlined on the resume.

See http://www.vickisalemi.com for more career tips and information on Vicki’s upcoming Career Boot Camp for College Grads.