Apart from being neat and free from grammatical, spelling and typographical errors, it should stand out and be well-structured, clean, concise and precise. Editing and eliminating some commonly included items in your resume can help polish up and create an effective resume.

First things first. All your most important information should be on the first page. Your first page should make them want to flip to the second page, which is rarely viewed if the first page is a dud. Do away with superfluous information. They eat up valuable real estate on your resume. Your resume should contain only your work experience, your achievements and relevant training, education and skills. Except for your name, email and mobile number, do away with all other personal information such as your street address, religion, birthdate, photo, marital status, number of children and home phone. There is also no need to label your resume “resume” or “curriculum vitae”. Only include your photo if it is required and the role you are applying for is dependent on your physical appearance. (LinkedIn however advises you put a photo for more clicks. Just be sure your photo is professional and makes you look competent and reliable.)

There is also no need to include your hobbies, character references or your salary. Your hobbies are something you can discuss at the interview. Your salary, past or present, could either sell you short or eliminate any chance of an interview happening. Like your hobbies and interests, compensation and references are topics best discussed at the interview, when the hiring manager has already gotten a better idea of the value you bring and what you have to offer. If you really want to include your hobbies and interests, and only if you happen to have extra space, list instead awards that you’ve received for community service or from your previous work.

Delete high school or college jobs (unless you just graduated) or employment that’s irrelevant to the role you are applying for and dates too far back. Delete also irrelevant skills and skills you don’t care to practice or develop in your career moving forward. This will allow you to list and focus on skills you want to continue developing and enjoy practicing. Doing so will also free up space for information that matters and work you want to continue doing.

Along with positions you held a long time ago, you can also omit other age-definers such as graduation dates. Unfortunately, age discrimination sill does exist in the workplace. You at least want to get an interview and a chance to show them that your experience, skill and character, make your age completely irrelevant.

Typically, the resume starts off with the objective section where job seekers declare what they’re looking for and hope to achieve in their career. Use this section instead to tell your future employer about the value and contributions you can bring to their company. In this professional summary, you can include the skills you want to continue developing and which are relevant to your future employer.

Recruiters go through lots of resumes as they quickly look for one that jumps out at them and seems like the best if not perfect fit. They don’t have much time or patience to read through heavy-content paragraph descriptions of your work experience. Serve the information instead in clean succinct bulleted points. In line with this, instead of listing your duties and responsibilities, list what you’ve achieved for your previous employers, challenges at work and how you overcame them, how you improved profitability or productivity or how you left your previous companies better than when you started.

Present your information in an eye-catching, fresh and clean format, using consistent font all throughout. This will make it much easier for the recruiter to see and get a better picture of you as part of the company. Having an overly designed or wild looking resume will be too distracting and will take more effort to sift out in order to get to the information. Similarly, refrain from using silly emails. Always use a professional email on your resume.

Keep in mind that when it comes to resumes, the first impression is the last impression. Unless your relative is the owner or top honcho in the company, your resume is the first if not the only way for the recruiter to know about you. So, take the time and effort to craft your standout well-written resume. Chances are, you’ll get to meet the recruiters and prove your resume spot on.