A resume typically constitutes a job seeker's first impression to their prospective employer. Here are some tips, to make yours stand out from the pack:

1) Put your name on your resume. If you have a nickname that you prefer to be called, indicate it, e.g., Agatha "Aggie" Smith.

2) Include your complete contact details (address, cell phone, email and, if you have one, Skype name) on your resume. If one method of contact (e.g., cell, email, text) is better than the others, indicate this.

3) Make sure your contact details are correct.

4) Make sure your resume is up-to-date. Typically for Middle East applications, it is important that you list all your education and employment since graduation.

5) Because employers in the Middle East are particularly concerned about experience being current indicate the exact dates (month/year) of work experience and education.

6) A chronological resume is the best for your application. Functional and combination style resumes can be misleading.

7) Indicate the year you received your diploma/degree, as well as the school from which you received it, and the city/state or city/province in which the school is located. An added issue recently is that the governments/licensing bodies do not accept online/distance education degrees. We will ask if your education was from a traditional, in-class program, or from a distance education/online program.

8) If you didn't complete a degree, make sure this fact is clear. Believe it or not, a good number of resumes are written so that the text implies that a degree was completed, when in fact it wasn't.

9) If you have a gap in your employment history, explain it. This is especially true if the gap means that you do not have the required minimum experience.

10) Indicate whether a position is full-time, part-time, PRN, etc. This is particularly important when one is working several different jobs at once. If the job is part-time status but you work full-time hours, note this.

11) Indicate the unit (or units) on which you work. If you rotate between two units, but spend the majority of time on one unit, indicate this (e.g., Surgical ICU 80% of shifts, ER 20% of shifts).

12) When you are sending a resume by email or via a website's upload feature (e.g., through our website's "Apply to this Job" function), make sure that what you are uploading is actually your resume. We have accidentally received, rather than a person's resume, items such as: a different person's resume; images of clothing; a graduation photo; a schedule for a party, etc.

13) Indicate the location (city/state or city/province) of the hospitals at which you have worked. If you work at a hospital that operates on several sites, indicate at which site you work.

14) Provide useful facts about your experience and skills: avoid jargon, cliches, and buzz-words. Specifically, for current and recent positions, give details about your work, such as types of patients and types of duties.

15) If you choose to include an objective in your resume, make sure it is geared towards the job for which you have applied.

16) Use a standard font, e.g., Arial, Times. Some fonts are very attractive … but more suited to a wedding invitation or birthday card than to a resume.

17) Before you send your resume, check it for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Don't rely solely on the spell check: "patent" is spelled correctly, but it isn't the same as a "patient."

18) Send your resume in a common format, such as in Word or as a PDF, or pasted into an email query. Try to avoid old formats like .wps.

19) The file name for your resume should be yours, to help identify it (e.g., Smith,Jane-resume or JohnDoe-CV).

20) Be as brief and concise as possible, while still being informative.

Happy job hunting!