Employers tell me they HATE parchment paper and pretentious brochure-folded resume “presentations.” They think they’re phony, and toss them right out. Use plain white or ivory, in a quality appropriate for your job objective. Never use colored paper unless there’s a very good reason for it (like, you’re an artist) because if it gets photo-copied the results will be murky.

Don’t mystify the reader about your gender; they’ll go nuts until they know whether you’re male or female. So if your name is Lee or Robin or Pat or anything else not clearly male or female, use a Mr. or Ms. prefix.

Don’t include hobbies on a resume unless the activity is somehow relevant to your job objective, or clearly reveals a characteristic that supports your job objective. For example, a hobby of Sky Diving (adventure, courage) might seem relevant to some job objectives (Security Guard?) but not to others.

Then list separately each different position you held there, so your job progression within the company is more obvious.

Students can make their resume look neater by listing seasonal jobs very simply, such as “Spring 1996″ or “Summer 1996″ rather than 6/96 to 9/96. (The word “Spring” can be in very tiny letters, say 8-point in size.)