Resume writing is an art as well as a skill. It has the right balance of information, marketing and persuasion to get the reader to say "Yes, this could work for us." To achieve a "good" resume you must keep in mind all of the rules about resume writing.

To help understand "the rules," Resumedoctor.com recently surveyed 2,500 recruiters and headhunters across North America to uncover their "pet peeves" about resumes they receive. If you are in the job market, or even considering sending your resume around, be sure NOT to fall into the trap of any of these "Top 20 Pet Peeves":

20. Burying important information in the resume

19. Gaps in employment

18. Resumes that are written in the 1st person or 3rd person

17. No easy-to-follow summary

16. Pictures, graphics or URL links no recruiter will call up

15. Resumes sent in .pdf, .zip files, faxed, web page resumes, mailed resumes and not sent as WORD attachment

14. Font Choice - poor font choice or style

13. Objectives or meaningless introductions

12. Lying, misleading (especially in terms of education, dates and inflated titles)

11. Employer info not included and/or not telling what industry or product candidate worked in

10. Personal information not relative to the Job

9. Unqualified candidates - candidates who apply to positions they are not qualified for

8. Paragraphs - long paragraphs ... not bullet-points

7. Long resumes - too long

6. Functional resumes as opposed to writing a chronological resume

5. Poor formatting - boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers, etc.

4. Contact information - none or inaccurate contact info or unprofessional email addresses

3. Dates not included or inaccurate dates

2. Too duty oriented - reads like a job description and fails to explain what the job seeker’s accomplishments were and how they did so.

1. Spelling errors, typos and poor grammar

Find out more about each of these pet peeves and you'll end up with a resume that gets noticed - in a positive way!