Learn From the Pros

As part of "Throwback Thursday" on Facebook, NFL quarterback Tom Brady posted his professional résumé for fans to view. The Super Bowl MVP may perform well on the field, but according to business pros who deal with these documents regularly, his résumé from 1999 needed a little work. Here's what readers can learn from the pros by looking over Brady's curriculum vitae.

Business Insider asked several professional résumé gurus to analyze Brady's document. The basic nuts-and-bolts of the quarterback's résumé are sound, such as previous employers, dates of employment, accomplishments, skills, awards, education and contact information. However, Brady lacks a professional summary of his work, misses a few typos and the format down the side of the page isn't eye-catching.

Brady used action-oriented verbs to describe his work, such as "exposed," "gained," "researched," "monitored," "developed," "supervised" and "attained." These words can make or break a professional résumé thanks to the technology of keyword programs that scan online documents. Words such as "reduced," "improved," "created," "accomplished" and "increased" all denote action and being a go-getter. These terms connote different aspects of job performance and reveal a well-rounded candidate.

Résumé tips from Brady's CV include a glance at his typos. One time, he capitalized "Construct" as the second word of sentence. The phrase "day-to-day" should have hyphens, which Brady used twice. The phrase "hands-on" is also missing a hyphen. Brady needlessly capitalized "visitor" under his "additional" skills. Although most of these typos are minor, they stand out to those people who get paid to pour over a professional résumé.

The HR managers congratulated Brady for not using a generic "objective," but they faulted him for not having a professional summary of his goals. Playing football is great, but what did the quarterback want to accomplish at his potential non-football job? Plus, there was no room left on the page for that type of summary because he included excessive address information and failed to sum up some job experiences efficiently. The professional résumé gurus noted that a one-page document is a limited space in which to catch a supervisor's attention.

Another thing for Brady to consider is adding more keywords to make his résumé more job-specific. Industry jargon, professional organizations, technical terms, buzzwords and service types make candidates jump out of a crowd. More viable résumé tips include adding facts and figures, using job-specific terminology and linking quantitative tasks to your job skills may get a résumé a second look from a potential supervisor.

While Brady's one-page document is not a disaster, professional résumé authority Tina Nicolai told Business Insider if the NFL MVP tried to earn a job in 2014, his 1999-style résumé would end up at the bottom of the stack. At least Brady's football career was successful.

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