| A resume has traditionally meant a brief account of | | | | Use action verbs |
| your professional work experience and qualifications. | | | | Portray yourself as active, accomplished, intelligent, |
| However, in today's job market, your resume must | | | | and capable of contributing. Examples: Managed, |
| be much more. In order to stand out, your resume | | | | Launched, Created, Directed, Established, Organized, |
| needs to be a demonstration of your ability to fulfil a | | | | and Supervised. Avoid personal pronouns. Avoid |
| certain role and achieve results that will make a | | | | personal pronouns such as 'I' or 'me' in your resume. |
| positive impact on the bottom line of a company. | | | | Instead of complete sentences, use short |
| The following are some guidelines to help you write a | | | | Action-Benefit statements, like: "Coordinated and |
| better resume. Some may seem like common sense | | | | published a weekly newsletter that raised awareness |
| but I am including them in any case, since I have | | | | for local community events." |
| seen people make these mistakes. | | | | Highlight key points |
| Do your ground work | | | | Use bold, italics, and underlining to highlight the most |
| Before writing your resume it is essential that you | | | | relevant information on your resume. Be careful not |
| know the career field you are seeking and | | | | to overdo it though. |
| understand the skills, abilities, and experience required. | | | | Quantify or qualify experience |
| You must also analyse your achievements, skills, | | | | Numbers are a powerful tool, and should be included |
| abilities, talents and so on. This will help you write a | | | | in your Action-Benefit statements. Instead of writing |
| resume in a way that sets you apart from other | | | | "Responsible for increasing sales in my territory," use |
| candidates in your field | | | | "Increased sales in my territory 150% over 6 months. |
| Be neat and error free | | | | Managed 30 accounts increasing revenues from $1.5M |
| Catch all typo's and grammar errors. Make sure | | | | to $2M annually" |
| someone proofreads your resume, preferably | | | | Be organized, logical, and concise |
| someone attentive to details. Even the smallest error | | | | In addition to reviewing your experience, employers |
| could land your resume in the reject pile | | | | also use the resume to sense whether you are |
| Write a powerful opening statement | | | | organized, logical, and concise. Make sure your |
| Form a solid, clear opening statement that will help | | | | resume is balanced, neat, visually appealing, and flows |
| you carry a focused message throughout the | | | | consistently. Clearly separate sections and emphasize |
| resume. The best opening statements summarize | | | | section titles. Leave sufficient blank space between |
| your skills and emphasize your strengths | | | | sections for easy reading. |
| Focus on your benefit to employers | | | | Just communicate |
| Focus on highlighting accomplishments that will arouse | | | | Abandon the use of exorbitant, exquisite vocabulary. |
| the interest of employers who read your resume. | | | | In other words, don't try to impress employers with |
| Answer the question: "How can this candidate fulfil | | | | the depth of your vocabulary. Use words everyone |
| the role and make a positive impact?" Remember | | | | can understand. |
| that the goal is to get the interview | | | | Omit salary information |
| Make a good first impression | | | | Never refer to salary in your resume. Save this |
| On average, employers spend less than 30 seconds | | | | information for the interview |
| scanning each resume. Most employers are more | | | | Be honest |
| concerned about career achievements than | | | | Lying or exaggerating your abilities will always come |
| education. Place the most interesting and compelling | | | | back to haunt you. Since employers usually check into |
| facts about yourself at the beginning, such as a list | | | | serious candidates, you will want every detail to |
| of accomplishments in order of relevance | | | | check out. |
| Emphasize your skills | | | | Position yourself in the best possible light |
| Use a skills or capabilities section in your resume that | | | | To de-emphasize glaring gaps in your work history, |
| is organized around the main talents you have to | | | | consider using a Functional resume, which focuses on |
| offer. Prioritize everything | | | | your skills and accomplishments rather than a |
| Use keywords | | | | Chronological format, which emphasizes the |
| Include specific keywords and phrases that describe | | | | progression of your experience |
| your skills and experience, such as Product Launch, | | | | Combine sections when possible |
| Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Sales, Account | | | | Try to combine any short sections together to make |
| Management, C++, Visual Basic, Word Processing, MS | | | | your resume more compact. For example, if you only |
| Excel, Adobe Illustrator, Graphic Design, and | | | | have one entry under training, consider placing it |
| Advertising | | | | under your education instead and change the section |
| Use industry jargon | | | | title to "Education and Training" |
| Use industry jargon and acronyms to reflect your | | | | A good resume writing software can make it much |
| familiarity with the employer's business, but not to | | | | easier to turn out a good resume. The more |
| the point where it makes your resume hard to read | | | | comprehensive ones are very easy to use, take you |
| or understand. Spell out acronyms in parentheses if | | | | through a step-by-step process and contain lots of |
| they are not obvious, such as TQM (Total Quality | | | | information. I recommend ResumeMaker or Winway. |
| Management) | | | | |