You know the feeling. You spend hours, or even days, creating a resume. You pore over every word of your cover letter and worry about what to say in your email. Then you hit ‘send’ and wait. And wait. And wait. no one calls no one writes You don’t know if someone saw your resume. When this happens, it’s easy to get discouraged and worry that employers aren’t interested in you. Whose! Remember, they have not met you. They have only seen your resume and that may be the problem.

An overwhelming majority of job seekers make basic mistakes with their resumes, mistakes that ensure they won’t get the interviews they deserve. If you feel like you’re sending your resume down a black hole, try this ’10 Step Program’ to diagnose problems and make your resume work for you.

1. Is your resume the right length?

You may have heard that your resume should fit on one page. This makes no sense. Recruiters or hiring managers don’t care if your resume is one or two pages long. But they do care if it’s easy to read and provides key information up front. Your resume can be one, two, or (occasionally) even three pages long. The only rule is that the length should be appropriate for you. When in doubt, follow the (very general) rule of thumb that less than 5 years of experience probably only requires one page and more than that may need two.

2. Does your resume clearly position you as someone who can meet the employer’s needs?

Think of a resume like an advertisement for a product, only this time the product is you. Like any other ad, positioning is everything. The person receiving your resume will quickly scan it, perhaps for no more than 20 seconds, to determine if it can help your company. Your job is to say quickly, clearly and out loud that you can!

Don’t just throw out a timeline of your career history. Instead, determine your own positioning by spelling out your message at the beginning of the resume and giving the reader your side of the story up front. For this reason, you should use the first third of your resume to create a compelling personal profile that highlights your key strengths in an engaging, easy-to-read format.

3. Does your summary start with a goal?

Don’t start with a goal. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t like them because they focus on the needs of the job applicant rather than the needs of the potential employer. Consider this factual statement:

“I am looking for a software engineering position with a progressive employer where I can contribute to the development of new technologies and work with bright and committed people.”

This may be very honest, but it’s irrelevant to the reader, who doesn’t care what you want and only cares what you have to offer. Instead of an objective, try using a positioning statement that clearly and concisely explains what you have to offer.

“Senior software engineer with 10 years of experience developing cutting-edge technologies.”

Now the reader can immediately see its value to the company. (For even greater impact, tailor this statement to each position so the reader immediately sees a match between your needs and her abilities.)

4. Does your resume contain details?

You should put your achievements in context by providing details. For example, don’t say something vague like “contributed to the design of the product.” This tells the employer nothing about his actual contribution. Instead, be specific about what he did:

“Market analysis was conducted for (product name) to determine design and mechanics. Led changes to original design specifications, despite initial developer objections. Received critical acclaim and sold over 4 million Of units”.

See how being specific makes a difference? This level of detail shows the reader the contributions that he has made in the past (and therefore the contributions that he is expected to make in the future).

5. Have you described achievements and responsibilities?

Don’t provide a long list of responsibilities without showing the results you achieved. Most employers already know what your main job responsibilities were. They want to know what makes you different from all the other applicants. An effective resume summarizes job responsibilities in a few awards, and then provides details of quantifiable accomplishments.

Focus the bulk of your resume on the results you’ve achieved, not your regular job duties.

6. Are there sources?

Your resume has to be perfect. Review it over and over again. When you’re sure it’s perfect, have other people try it! If at least one word is misspelled, the reader will assume that you didn’t know how to spell the word (this is bad) or that you didn’t care (this is even worse!). Nothing puts the reader off faster than misspellings or typographical errors

7. Is the resume easy to read?

At least 50% of the impact of your resume comes from the design. A strong resume design will draw attention throughout the document, making it easy to read further and clearly highlighting your key strengths. But if your resume is poorly designed, disorganized, or difficult to read, it will be discarded before the reader knows how qualified you are.

To see examples of how to design your resume, go to the library or bookstore and look under the career section. You will find collections of sample resumes. Take the time to understand how the page was designed, and then apply what you’ve learned to your resume.

8. Have you listed irrelevant information?

Don’t mention your hobbies unless they directly support your qualifications for the position. Do not list your marital status or the number of children you have. Do not mention non-professional affiliations, such as political or religious volunteer work, unless it directly relates to the position for which you are applying. Any personal information runs the risk of turning off the reader. As proud as you are of your personal accomplishments, you shouldn’t risk alienating someone before you’ve even stepped foot in the door.

9. Are you too modest?

Don’t feel uncomfortable about blowing your own trumpet. Too many people downplay his accomplishments. While he should never go overboard on a resume, he should definitely take credit for the things he’s accomplished. Some people are uncomfortable bragging on paper and preferring to explain it in an interview. But if your resume doesn’t spark interest, you may never get that opportunity, so don’t be modest!

10. Have you created a web-ready version of the resume?

If you have to post your resume online or apply for a job through an online system, you’ll need to convert your resume to a text-only format. If you don’t do this, your resume will be nearly unreadable because most online systems don’t support the type of formatting used in a resume (bold, italics, bullets, underlined, etc.)

Summary

When you submit your resume, you must speak articulately for yourself. You can’t explain inconsistencies, clear up confusion, or fill in things that are missing. Your resume has to present your sales pitch clearly and convincingly in 20 seconds. Invest the time to make it exceptional and you will see an immediate increase in response rate.