Look at your resume this way.. when you go shopping, chances are you make a purchase because you have seen the product advertised. What grabbed your attention? The ad, the product description, the benefits, or the packaging? Your resume is an advertisement that highlights YOUR relevant skills, accomplishments, and answers the interviewer's question, "What can this candidate do to solve our problems?"
The layout must be modern, professional, and eye-catching. Arrange the information for easy and enjoyable reading. Make sure your key skills and accomplishments can be located at a glance. Remember, 10-20 seconds is all your resume gets in the first screening round.
Does the quality of the paper and print look great? Don't mix fonts. Leave lots of white space. Highlight or capitalize relevant job positions to make them stand out. Use bulleted lists. If you are faxing the resume, use only white paper.
If emailing your resume, use an ASCII Text format (fix the formatting after the conversion). Many companies do not open email attachments for incompatibility and virus reasons.