With the sluggish economy leaving more people out of work and competing to find limited jobs, having a top-notch resume is more important than ever. Any applicant can type up and submit a standard resume. The applicant with an excellent resume has the best chance of landing the job. Here are six tips for making the most out of your resume.

Make a Great First Impression

Your resume may be the hiring manager’s first impression of you, so make it count. Your resume should look professional, not cutesy. It should be written in black ink on standard-sized white paper in a 12 point professional-looking font. It should be organized into easy-to-skim paragraphs with headers. Your resume should also be completely free of typos and incorrect information.

Highlight Your Education and Experience

Show your hiring manager that you have the knowledge and skills necessary to complete the job correctly the first time. If you have limited work experience, highlight that you have an online management information systems degree and include all of your accomplishments during that time. If you have more work experience vs. education. Then you should highlight the high points of your career.

Show Off Your Awards and Professional Recognitions

If you have any noteworthy professional accomplishments, your resume is the place to show them off. If you graduated top of your class, were invited to be a member of an exclusive organization or were named employee of the month eleven months in a row, mention it.

Answer the Question “So What?”

In addition to listing accomplishments on your resume, you should also include a short bit of text that tells why the accomplishment is noteworthy. Do not just say “received a B.A Degree” Tell the specifics about the extra coursework you took or that you maintained a 4.0 GPA. This will give them insight into what kind of student or worker you are.

Give Statistics

Hiring managers love statistics. Do not simply state what company you worked for. Tell how you increased their sales by 58 percent or how you reduced their costs by 30 percent. Tell how you managed over 50 sales accounts or how you designed new software that reduced page load time by 12 percent.

Tailor Your Resume to the Job

Resumes are not one size fits all documents. If you are applying for jobs in different industries or even to dissimilar jobs in the same industry, create multiple versions of your resume that are perfectly suited to each job you are applying for. This way your resume will always have the most relevant information.