Tips for Resume Writing

1. Be neat and error free.

Catch all typo’s and grammar errors. Make sure somebody proofreads your resume, preferably someone attentive to details. Even the smallest error could land your resume in the reject pile.

2. Write a powerful opening testimonial.
Form a solid, clear opening testimonial that will help you carry a focused message throughout the resume. The best opening statements summarize your skills and emphasize your strengths.

3. Focus on your benefit to employers.
Focus on highlighting accomplishments that will arouse the interest of employers who read your resume. Answer the question: “How can this candidate fulfill the role and make a positive impact?” Remember that the goal is to get the interview.

Build a good first impression. On average, employers spend less than 30 seconds scanning each resume. Most employers are more anxious about career achievements than education. Place the most remarkable and convincing facts about yourself at the beginning, such as a list of accomplishments in order of relevance.

4. Emphasize your skills.
Use a skills or capabilities part in your resume that is organized around the main talents you have to propose. Prioritize everything.

5. Use industry terminology.
Use industry terminology and acronyms to reflect your awareness with the employer’s business, but not to the point where it makes your resume hard to read or understand. Spell out acronyms in parentheses if they are not clear, such as TQM (Total Quality Management).

6. Avoid personal pronouns.
Never use personal pronouns such as ‘I’ or ‘me’ in your resume. Instead of entire sentences, use short Action-Benefit statements, like: “Coordinated and published a weekly newsletter that raised awareness for local community events.”

7. Highlight key points.
Use bold, italics, and underlining to highlight the most related information on your resume. For ASCII text-only resumes, you may use capital letters, quotation marks, even asterisks, to emphasize important words or section titles.

8. Summarize information.
In your resume, use only the amount of space required to express your qualifications for the position clearly and succinctly.

9. List only current information.
The general rule of thumb is to show your work experience only for the last 10 to 15 years, unless there is specific past experience that is especially relevant to the position you are seeking.

10. Quantify or qualify experience.
Numbers are a powerful tool, and should be included in your Action-Benefit statements. Instead of writing “Responsible for increasing sales in my territory,” use “Increased sales in my territory 150% over 6 months. Managed 30 accounts rising revenues from $1.5M to $2M annually.”

11. Be organized, logical, and concise.
In addition to reviewing your experience, employers also use the resume to sense whether you are organized, logical, and concise. Make sure your resume is balanced, neat, visually appealing, and flows consistently. Clearly separate sections and emphasize section titles. Leave sufficient blank space between sections for easy reading.

12. Just communicate.
Abandon the use of exorbitant, exquisite vocabulary. In other words, don’t try to impress employers with the depth of your vocabulary. Use words everyone can understand.

13. Omit salary information.
Never refer to salary in your resume. Save this information for the interview.

14. Avoid questionable subjects.
Never refer to personal information such as race, religion, marital status, age, political party, or even personal views. In all but a few instances, it would be illegal for the employer to consider such issues. Also, avoid the use of humor and clichés in most resumes.

15. Be honest.
Lying or exaggerating your abilities will always come back to haunt you. Since employers usually check into serious candidates, you will want every detail to check out.

16. Sell your strengths.
Do not under-emphasize your strengths and experience. Portray yourself in the best possible light. Skills that seem natural to you, others may never grasp.

“Do not under-emphasize your strengths and experience”

17. Write your own resume.
Be personal, yet professional. Create a resume that reflects your best personal characteristics and positive traits

18. Personal traits.
If you want to include personal traits in your resume, such as “Dependable, Highly-Organized, Self-Motivated, and Responsible,” rather than just listing these traits, try demonstrating these characteristics examples from your experience. For example, instead of writing a resume “Dependable”, write “Never missed an important deadline in five years as a project manager.”

19. Use common section Objective
Experience, Employment, Work History, Skills, Summary of Qualifications. Accomplishments, Achievements, Capabilities, Education, Professional Affiliations, Publications, Licenses and Certifications and Honors,

20. Position yourself in the best possible light.
To de-emphasize glaring gaps in your work history, consider using a Functional resume, which focuses on your skills and accomplishments rather experiences. Chronological format, which emphasizes the progression of your experience

21. Be positive.
Remove any negative comments or feelings conveyed in your resume, especially when it comes to previous employment experience.

23. Combine sections when possible.
Try to combine any short sections to make your resume more compact. For example, if you only have one entry under training, consider placing it under your education. instead and change the section title to “Education and Training”.

How to format your resume

Having a well-formatted resume is almost as important as having a well written resume. There are a number of rules you should keep in mind when formatting your resume. First, start with a blank page. Avoid using templates that are already available in Microsoft Word. These templates are outdated, and they will make your resume appear general and unpleasant. Additionally, these templates, while well formatted in Microsoft Word, will not translate well when emailed or uploaded to job search engine web sites. You can find samples of resumes on the Internet; search for resumes by your industry to find the templates that make most sense for the job you are seeking. Than work on a blank page to reproduce the look and feel of the resume you like.

Ideally, your resume should fit on one page; if you have extensive experience, limit the length of the resume to two pages, but only list experiences and skills relevant to your career objective. Even if you are applying for a job in a creative field, do not insert images or pictures into your resume. Your summary should be in form of a short paragraph or bulleted statements, containing only several sentences. Your summary should begin by a headline that summarizes your professional title and/or your professional statement. When trying to align your resume, be ware of spacing and tabbing. Use tabs, rather than spaces. As a last formatting check point, ask your friends or your family for help out in reviewing your resume. Send the resume file via email to a few of your friends – ask them to review the resume and make sure nothing seems out of place. Print out the resume on paper and review to make sure that margins are accurately set, and that the content doesn’t appear crowded on the page.

Writing a Winning Resume

The first step in writing a winning resume requires you to define the position or type of position you are looking for and assess your top qualifications. If you are applying for several types of jobs, consider writing a different resume for each. Your resume will be most effective when you target a specific type of job, and then describe how your skills, abilities, and experience qualify you for that position.

For each job type, research the job responsibilities and requirements for the position. You can find this information by browsing through the job advertisements for your occupation. Find out what your responsibilities will be, what skills, abilities, and data you’ll need, and what personal and professional qualities are required for success. Once you have determined the requirements of the position, analyze your past experience, accomplishments, education, and training for examples of work and personal character and begin building your resume in a way that best demonstrates your ability to succeed.

To write an effective summary, you should first understand what information should not be communicated in your resume. While descriptive of who you are, this information is not related to your potential employer in order to pre-screen your qualifications for their opportunity. Additionally, the summary should not contain your previous professional experience, except you can clearly demonstrate how such background can be of value in your future career development. Beware of generic statements, such as “I am well organized and detail oriented.” Employers want to hear your unique voice and get a sense of your communication skills while reading the summary portion of your resume.

What is a Resume?

A resume has traditionally meant a brief account of your professional work experience and qualifications. However, in today’s job market, your resume must be much more. You must analyze your professional experience and determine which elements best demonstrate your qualifications for the position. Your resume must communicate your accomplishments, achievements, skills, abilities, and talents in a way that sets you apart from other candidates in your field.

A resume is often the first formal communication with prospective employers. A resume is also a demonstration of the quality of your work.

A resume will do two things for you during your job search.

Second, your resume will provide a guide for the interview. Employers often base their interview questions on the skills and experience listed in your resume. Prioritize the most relevant information at the top of your resume.