Little research has been done to substantiate the advice given by commercial writers of "self-help" books, and the research that has been done often arrives at conflicting results. This study examined resume preferences of personnel professionals (N=31). The personnel professionals, who represented major corporations, government agencies, and public schools, filled out a questionnaire regarding preferences for resume content, ratings of sample resumes' style and format, overall rating of resume style, and whether an applicant would be invited for an interview based on resume style. The results of the study indicated that the following factors were not used as criteria for screening applicants out of the hiring process: (1) omission of, or a low or average grade point average; (2) extensive education in an unrelated field; (3) prior employment length of less than one year; and (4) color of resume paper. Factors used to screen an applicant in for an interview were: directly related work experience (but not unrelated work experience); information in a related capabilities section; and information about awards, honors, and memberships. Misspelling and poor grammar, a resume of two pages or longer, and hand-writing the resume were factors that would usually screen the applicant out of the hiring process. (ABL)