By Grace du Prie for Emotional Wellbeing

09/03/2011 1. Don't be vague, and be sure to customise your resume for each employer. The inability to do this online accounts for some of the low return rate online applications. Anytime you try to do a "one size fits all" approach (by agency, computer, or just passing a resume around an organisation courtesy of a friend) you lose the all-important opportunity to craft the resume to fit a particular position.

2. Don't be long-winded. Be pithy and keep it to one (preferably) or two pages unless you want a job in academia, research or the arts.

3. Don't confuse a resume and a curriculum vitae. The latter is for employers who will want to know all about what you've studied, taught, written, researched, exhibited. Resume readers want a quick summary of what you've done with just enough detail to let them know the depth of your skills. The rest they'll find out in the interview. If you drown them in verbiage, you'll never get to the interview.

4. Students and recent graduates: put your education up top and include relevant courses.

5. Find out which skills the employer is seeking and be sure to showcase them. If you're short on actual job experience, include a HIGHLIGHTS or SKILLS SUMMARY section to "editorialise" about yourself a little.

6. Be clear about what you want. If you intend to be both a full-time student and a full-time employee, it might be a turnoff for some employers.

7. Use verb phrases - "conceived campaign for student elections", "created online student newspaper", "initiated weekly meetings for minority students", "lead charity drive" -- not sentences; this is not an essay or an obituary you're writing.

8. Use dates to show when you did things, not just the vague "one year".

9. NEVER overlook spelling errors or typos. That's a one-way trip to the circular file. Check and recheck. Typos and spelling errors usually occur when you try to do something at the last minute. So leave enough time!

10. For new graduates without much work experience, have an "EXPERIENCE" section rather than one called "EMPLOYMENT," because you can include traineeships, class projects and independent study under the former, but not the latter.

11. Tailor the objective to a given position or leave it out altogether. Objectives are helpful when you're trying to show the relationship between your skills and a particular position, but they merely annoy when they say inane things like "a challenging position suited to my education and skills." What position? What skills? Resume readers will give yours, on average, seven seconds; don't make them cranky with filler.

12. We had an entry from a poet. Poets don't write resumes, they write and rewrite poems, enter contests, and try to sell them. Better to start there.