More than two million people apply to work for Google each year, which is more than 20 times the number of employees at the company at any given time.

With that kind of volume, it makes sense that Google proactively tries to tell applicants what they should do to improve their odds of getting noticed within the herd.

Among its tools are a series of YouTube videos and articles detailing best practices for resumes (embedded below, along with two articles by Google's former senior vice president of personnel operations).

Here are some of the most important resume tips the company offers, including the simple, three-part formula that Google says applicants should always use. Even if you're not eager to work at Google, reverse engineering their expectations could give you some smart ideas regarding how to ask candidates to apply for opportunities with your business.

1. Basic formatting

Google very rarely requests or will even look at a cover letter, so there is a lot riding on resumes. At the outset, the key rule is to keep things simple when it comes to format, and ensure that your resume is highly readable. That includes things like:

• Formatting your resume as a pdf. This seems like a no-brainer in 2019, but Google's guides repeat this advice several times, so we have to assume not everyone does this automatically.
• Skipping the objective. (They know what your objective is: to land this particular job.)
• Using black text, and keep the font and size clean, simple, and consistent.
• Checking for typos. This is so important, we'll say it again: Check for typos.
• Using bullet points. (How's this for meta advice, since you're reading it in a bullet point?) Don't include long lines of descriptive text. Put yourself in the place of a human resume-reviewer, who is likely reading dozens of resumes at a time.
• Making sure you include your contact info. Yes, this seems obvious -- but make sure your name and email address are prominent. If you're applying for technical positions, include your Github link (more on that below).

2. Customization

You should write a new, tailored resume for every position you apply for. Also, the Google recruiters advise keeping it under a single page.

The exception to this is that if you are applying for a technical or engineering position, you can legitimately have a large number of relevant projects to list, and that might take you onto a second page. But for almost any other type of position, one page is the rule.

This also means that you have to be a ruthless editor. If you have tons of relative experience, you'll want to describe it all as succinctly as possible, while still getting your message across.

One specific piece of advice is that if any bullet point on your resume spills over by a word or two into a second line, figure out a way to write shorter, so it stays on one line. Space is at a premium with a suggested one-page maximum.

3. Use the X by Y by Z formula

This is the crux of the advice by Laszlo Bock, a former Google senior vice president of personnel operations. You want to adhere to the bullet-points format as we've discussed, and articulate your experience in this very specific way.

Google describes this as: "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]." But just to make it easier to remember, let's shorten it to X-Y-Z.