If you are like most job seekers who are looking for a job, you are likely to turn to the internet or Microsoft Word when it comes to writing your resume. Most of us get started with a free resume template. This template gives us a design and an overall layout to build from. Unfortunately, this is where many individuals make a mistake. Read any website that offers free resume tips and they will tell you to be careful. Many job seekers go overboard and choose the wrong template.

Choosing the wrong template or design for your resume might not seem like that big of a deal. Honestly, you’d hope that it wouldn’t be. What you need to remember though is that the hiring manger has not seen you and they will not see you unless they decide to schedule a job interview. This means that your resume is speaking for you. What does not just the information your resume says, but its design and layout say about you? Does it say you couldn’t care less, does it say you are too over-the-top, does it say that you seek attention?

To help ensure your job search goes as you had hoped, here are some help free resume tips that focus on your design and layout:

Flashy, bright, and over-the-top colors are attention grabbing, just not in the way you’d like. Especially with today’s job market, hiring mangers have thousands of resumes to sift through. They might be scanning them quickly to look for good candidates. Your resume on pink paper and with dark yellow lettering isn’t easy to read. In this case, it might be automatically bypassed.

Cut Out the Fluff: Some of the free resume templates you find online are really more designed for your life story. Remember that many hiring mangers are limited on time. They rarely have time to go through your resume line by line and they don’t care about your volunteer work from over 20 years ago. Eliminate headings in all templates that don’t apply to you. This means delete the volunteer work one if you don’t have anything to write. Most importantly, just make sure the basics are there (objective, work history, skills, and education).

Keep It Simple: As stated multiple times, your resume needs to be easy to read. A free resume template you found online with fancy lettering looks nice, but it might not be in your best interest. Now, you can go with a fancy headline, but ensure the words you type into that template are in plain format and very easy to read.

Once you have that perfect resume, it is time to start your job search. Let the JobFinder http://www.motiont.com/JobFinder.aspx help you find jobs with ease because it searches hundreds of job sites for you with one single search!