Writing a "WOW" Resume
One of the key ingredients of a successful job search is a good resume. Once the research, networking and information interviewing is complete, it's time to create a resume that will get you the interview where you can convince the employer to hire you.
Consider the following planning steps when constructing your resume:
- Know who your audience will be. If you've done your research and information interviewing you'll know about the company and the position you're interested in having within it. Then you'll also know if you're addressing a manager, vice president or business owner when you send your resume.
- Choose the messages you want to convey. What skills do you want to emphasize? What experiences do you want to use which show your expertise and abilities? You get to tell the story you want about yourself.
- Collect accurate and exact facts (dates of employment, etc). Nothing will harm you more than having false statements on your resume. An interested employer will check.
Here are some suggestions to make your resume rise above the crowd.
- State a problem, how you solved it and the beneficial results. Here's an example: " Transformed a disorganized work station into an efficient space by totally redesigning the layout; saving time and minimizing frustration by all who used it. Be sure to use action words ('transformed' in the example here) when describing what you did.
- A job title doesn't reflect your level of responsibility can be improved by adding a title that's more reflective, such as 'Administrator (Network Design).' Be sure to add the details when describing your duties.
- If you're worried about age discrimination, only list 'Recent Work History' or 'Relevant Work Experience' and talk about your last 10-15 years of jobs. If you worked for only one employer for 20 or 30 years, list each position you held there, and the dates, so your job progression within the company is obvious.
- If you've never had any 'real' jobs ? just self-employment, volunteer, summer or odd jobs ? create an accurate job title for yourself that reflects an accurate description of what you did.
- A to Z Computer Service (Self-employed)
- Freelance programmer, Self-employed
- Symphony Orchestra Database Designer (Volunteer)
- Be sure to have available references of people you worked for, with their permission of course. As for dates worked, 'Summer 2005' is better than 6/2005-9/2005.
- While you wait for your degree, or if you never completed one, your can list your partial education like this:
- Eligible for HTML credentials
- Graduate studies in Computer Science, in progress
- MS in Engineering anticipated May 2006
Finally, check for spelling errors and formatting. Choose a font that's easy to read, not too small. And a clean resume with lots of white space will also show off your skill at effective communication, an essential part of any job.