How To Make The Resume That's Right For You: Expert Tips

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- No matter how much experience or education you have, job hunting starts with one simple document -- the resume.

But with so many different formats out there, how do you know what's right for you?

CBS2's Alex Denis sat down with Dana Leavy, founder of Brooklyn Resume, to learn the best tips and tricks to optimizing your resume for your dream job.

According to Leavy, many resumes are scanned by a computer before they are ever seen by human eyes.

"You have to kind of optimize for both robot and human eyes," Leavy said. "If that employer is using, say, an applicant tracking system that scans resumes for keywords, you're gonna have the right language in there."

Leavy says to try to match what the company is looking for in the job description, but don't forget to personalize it with some phrases that best describe you and how far you've come.

"More powerful verbs that kind of show proactivity and maybe where you kind of took charge in some places," Leavy said. "...Introduced, intiated, developed, spearheaded.."

When writing your resume, start at the top and work your way down.

"I always like to open up resumes with kind of a short summary statement that kind of introduces who the candidates is, what they can do, what they can bring to the table," Leavy said.

Up next should be your job experience or education, depending on the type of job you're seeking.

"If you're in a field where the degree or license is really key, in order to do the job, that should come up top," Leavy said. "If it's not, i would start more with the experience, and kind of work down."

If you've been unemployed for a long time, Leavy suggests focusing on how you've been spending time growing your career outside of a job, including taking classes, volunteering or improving skills.

And as far as design goes -- Leavy says to keep in simple.

"Sometimes people go too far with it, and make it too flashy and that's not going to add anything to it," Leavy said.

Bold and underlined words are fine, but if you do want to add color, stick to one choice. In the end, it's all about making your resume appealing to the eye.

"You wanna kind of think about how your reader is going to move through the information," Leavy said.

And if all of this confuses you, head to the Internet. Websites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and CareerBuilder.com can help you design a resume that may get you hired

"I think it's really just being able to tell a good story that most all just being able to speak to what you can bring to the role," Leavy said.