Open More Doors with Your Resume

The purpose of a resume is to secure you an interview or phone screen.  Period. That is it.  The resume is a marketing tool and as such, it has to have a few key ingredients to get the attention you need.

What can you do to ensure your resume rises to the top?

Besides the obvious categories, educational & experience, the resume has to quickly say, I am the resume you are looking  for, pick me.  How do you make that happen?

Accomplishments

First, your resume needs to be clear and concise.  Don't list every single job duty you've ever had.  Think in terms of major accomplishments.  What have you done to streamline a process or save your company time or money?  For example if you work at a fast-food restaurant, rather than saying, "Work as a cashier at a restaurant," you could say, "Provide fast, efficient, yet excellent customer service while taking orders..."   If you are a software engineer you can stress your technical abilities while showing that you are a team player.

Focus

With distinctive proficiencies in mind, you must focus the resume to increase its effectiveness. That is, tailor it for each opportunity. As arduous as that may seem, it really is quite simple if you organize your resume properly in the first place.

Keep several versions with optional skills and summary sections. Remember, the reader is seeing an average of 50-100 resumes at once and is looking for reasons to eliminate yours.

Below is a brief description of the sections that should be included in your resume. Remember, the reader's eye goes from top to bottom and left to right.

The Summary

The summary section is a quick and easy way to spark the reader's interest and make them want to go further. Whether you discover a job lead through a job board, a friend, or a recruiter, get a written or verbal job description. Then customize your summary section to that description.

This simple step will significantly increase your chances of landing an interview. Include your major marketable strengths and preferences, including your specific knowledge.

Objective

Use of the objective is completely a matter of taste. I prefer instead a title after the applicant's name. This should either be the title of the job as advertised or the title you really want -- "project manager," for instance, even though your current title may be "team leader."

Each company has their own way of delineating job titles, so try to use industry-standard titles.  Be clear about the job you want because resumes with vague objectives get put in the "maybe later" pile.

Technical Skills

You can design this section in any logical manner, as long as your most marketable or most recent skills are first.

Accomplishments And Experience

Now that you have the reader's attention, keep them interested. Your detailed list of accomplishments should be expressed in quantifiable results in order to demonstrate credibility. For example, "completed all projects on time and under budget" or "won team award for outstanding achievement."

Start sentences with powerful action verbs: "designed," "developed," "wrote," "tested," "managed," "saved." Giving tangible examples that measure your accomplishments eliminates the impression that you're just bragging.

Education And Training

List your degree or degree candidacy, both bachelor's and master's. Many companies today still prefer degreed employees. Include any honors or awards earned, such as "Graduated with honors" or "GPA 4.0." It's a different way of saying, "I'm a hard worker."   Include recent training courses that relate to the job you are seeking.

Before mailing your resume, sleep on it. When you pick it up the next morning, think of the reader and ask yourself these three questions. Is my resume pleasing to the eye? Does it emphasize my pertinent skills? Does it present the benefits of hiring me?

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By Janice Schooler Litvin
Litvin is a recruiter with a focus on resume writing and editing.  Located in the East Bay Area of San Francisco.  She can be contacted at jlitvin@microsearchsf.com and is available for Skype or FaceTime Resume consulting.  Reasonable Rates.