• Print your resume on plain white or off-white, high-quality paper
• Avoid clip art or logos
• Use a readable type face
• Align only the left margin, leave the right margin ragged
• Use a laser-quality printer
• Mail your resume with cover letter flat in an 8” by 11” envelope.

Every typographical error, misspelling, or punctuation mistake strikes a mark against you and decreases your chances of getting an interview. Spell-check programs and the ease of editing on computers have raised the stakes – typos are no longer acceptable or forgiven. Use the following suggestions to find mistakes:

• Give yourself a cool-down period. If time permits, prepare your resume and cover letter a day or two before it is submitted so that you can proofread them as if you were reading them for the first time.
• Know the limitations of spell-check programs. They can’t distinguish an error that also forms a word, such as “ass” for “as,” and they won’t pick up subject/verb agreement errors, such as “was” instead of “were.”
• Have knowledgeable colleagues read your resume and cover letter to find mistakes.
• To find typos and misspellings, read your resume and cover letter backwards from bottom to top and from right to left. This forces you to read letter by letter and word by word to find mistakes.
• Enlarge a draft copy to make mistakes stand out more easily.
• Cut a small window approximately the size of a word in a piece of colored paper. Then use it to read your resume and cover letter word by word while covering the rest of the resume.
• Read your resume and cover letter aloud. Your ears can often hear mistakes that your eyes ignore.
• Repeat your proofreading process after you make all your corrections. Your corrections are as prone to mistakes as was your original version.
• Accept that mistakes are hard to find, but worth the effort to fix.

When your resume is scanned

Some healthcare agencies and companies use optical scanners and character-recognition programs to enter resumes into the company’s networked computer system. Then they discard the paper version. This saves the time and expense of copying resumes for the many people who may review the candidate. But some companies may still use early versions of optical scanners that can’t recognize complex resume designs. If your prospective employer scans resumes, use a conservative design or ask about the restrictions the equipment may impose. Even the most primitive scanners will recognize the following elements:

• 12-point type
• Fonts with serifs, for example, Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd
• Standard line spacing (single or double spacing – not 1.1 or 1.5)
• The same font (i.e., style of type) and line spacing used throughout.You should also avoid underlined or bold-faced type sections because they may be interpreted as solid black bars.

Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN, is a frequent contributor to The Nursing Spectrum.