Why Your Resume Should Be Mobile Friendly

How often do you surf the Internet on your smartphone or tablet? In fact, what device are you using to read this article? According to the Pew Research Center, almost 66 percent of Americans own smartphones, so imagine how high the number is among business professionals. Hiring managers no longer depend exclusively on a PC to read through resumes. Now they also do so on their subway or bus commute, lunch breaks, at family gatherings and even at home, particularly as telecommuting options increase. That’s why it’s important that your resume be mobile friendly. Here’s how to do it.

Optimize Formatting
When you’re designing for mobile devices, simplicity is even more important. That means:

• one-column resumes
• fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman
• font sizes 12 or greater to avoid the pinch-and-zoom curse (a hiring manager won’t bother to zoom, instead trashing your resume)
• the top one-third grabs attention

You should focus on the top one-third, anyway, because no matter where a hiring manager reads your resume, you want to grab her attention right away. Put experience before education. Quantify your resume bullets, using numbers up front to illustrate your duties and accomplishments.

Shorten Your Wording
Shortening doesn’t mean using common text abbreviations. Instead, it calls for swapping dates like January 2009-June 2015 in favor of 1/09-6/15. Think along the same lines for all numbers—$5K instead of $5,000, 12 years instead of twelve years, and so on.

Also get rid of “the” and “a,” but only if the wording still makes sense. Continue avoiding passive voice.

Trial Runs
Always test the final product. Pretend you’re a hiring manager, and email the resume in Word and PDF formats to yourself. See how it looks on your phone and tablet. Also, grab a friend with a different operating system and check how your resume looks there.