"A" is for Appearance

The next letter in the FAKTSA acronym is “A” for apperance. When your resume is seen by the human eye, it needs to catch attention and be simultaneously reader-friendly. In a study by the former Career Masters Institute (no Career Management Alliance) employers ranked easy readability as the most important resume point in terms of first impressions.

Avoid instantly recognizable Microsoft Word resume templates. Employers have seen a million of them, so they don’t stand out. They are also somewhat inflexible and contain some problematic formatting. “Using a template or any kind of boilerplate to demonstrate your value to a company is the worst thing you can do to yourself when job hunting,” says Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter. “You’re supposed to be uniquely qualified so the company will choose you instead of some cookie-cutter drone — right? Do you really want a template?”