subject: Guidelines For Writing A Good Resume [print this page] Author: Amit Puri Author: Amit Puri
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. In order to stand out, your resume needs to be a demonstration of your ability to fulfil a certain role and achieve results that will make a positive impact on the bottom line of a company. The following are some guidelines to help you write a better resume. Some may seem like common sense but I am including them in any case, since I have seen people make these mistakes. Do your ground work
Before writing your resume it is essential that you know the career field you are seeking and understand the skills, abilities, and experience required. You must also analyse your achievements, skills, abilities, talents and so on. This will help you write a resume in a way that sets you apart from other candidates in your field Be neat and error free
Catch all typo's and grammar errors. Make sure someone proofreads your resume, preferably someone attentive to details. Even the smallest error could land your resume in the reject pile Write a powerful opening statement
Form a solid, clear opening statement that will help you carry a focused message throughout the resume. The best opening statements summarize your skills and emphasize your strengths 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 fulfil the role and make a positive impact?" Remember that the goal is to get the interview Make a good first impression
On average, employers spend less than 30 seconds scanning each resume. Most employers are more concerned about career achievements than education. Place the most interesting and compelling facts about yourself at the beginning, such as a list of accomplishments in order of relevance Emphasize your skills
Use a skills or capabilities section in your resume that is organized around the main talents you have to offer. Prioritize everything Use keywords
Include specific keywords and phrases that describe your skills and experience, such as Product Launch, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Sales, Account Management, C++, Visual Basic, Word Processing, MS Excel, Adobe Illustrator, Graphic Design, and Advertising Use industry jargon
Use industry jargon and acronyms to reflect your familiarity 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 obvious, such as TQM (Total Quality Management) Use action verbs
Portray yourself as active, accomplished, intelligent, and capable of contributing. Examples: Managed, Launched, Created, Directed, Established, Organized, and Supervised. Avoid personal pronouns. Avoid personal pronouns such as 'I' or 'me' in your resume. Instead of complete sentences, use short Action-Benefit statements, like: "Coordinated and published a weekly newsletter that raised awareness for local community events." Highlight key points
Use bold, italics, and underlining to highlight the most relevant information on your resume. Be careful not to overdo it though. 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 increasing revenues from $1.5M to $2M annually" 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. 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. Omit salary information
Never refer to salary in your resume. Save this information for the interview 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. 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 than a Chronological format, which emphasizes the progression of your experience Combine sections when possible
Try to combine any short sections together 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" A good resume writing software can make it much easier to turn out a good resume. The more comprehensive ones are very easy to use, take you through a step-by-step process and contain lots of information. I recommend ResumeMaker or Winway.About the Author:
Amit has over 10 years of career advisory, organisational psychology, business management and finance experience/education. He is the Managing Consultant at Sandbox Advisors, a career, job search and HR consulting firm.
