Writing the Best Resume

Finding a Career Niche with an Effective Resume

May 5, 2009 Therese Haberman

A resume is not merely a fact sheet with a list of past jobs. It should be a testament to the individual's skill sets, abilities and record of success. Read on for more.

The best resume is the one that reveals the essence of the person and his drive, personality and enthusiasm for his career. The resume is basically a sales tool used to attract the customer, a hiring manager.

Start With A Clear Professional Objective

Include a brief line or two on long range career objectives. This can be customized based on the job and should incorporate keywords from the advertisement or job posting if available. Make the professional objective realistic and as open ended as possible without being vague.

Highlight Skill Strengths

Too often, job candidates get bogged down in detailing a mundane list of job duties, as if they must incorporate every line of a job description. Do not bore the hiring manager with this minutia. Think big picture and accomplishments on a grand scale that went above and beyond the traditional job parameters. This is what makes an applicant interesting and allows the personality to shine through the pages.

Regarding what to include and exclude, while it is a red flag to leave large holes of time unaccounted for, a job candidate need not include extensive detail regarding jobs that are not directly applicable to the position in question. A brief mention of jobs that are are only tangentially related to the current position would be sufficient.

Though chronological resumes are easiest to navigate, when recent job experience is not related to the job being sought, it may make sense to order jobs first by applicability and secondly by chronological sequence.

Include Logical Life Experience

Talk about work accomplishments in very specific terms. The same goes for skills. Software program familiarity, gross profit margins, project management skills all matter, whether they came from a job or volunteer work.

Keep Details Intact on the Resume

There is a fine line between details and boredom when it comes to resumes. Taking too long to tell a story will lose the audience to a more compelling document that does this concisely. Remember that job hunting is a sales process with the applicant as the commodity.

Be neat and check spelling and grammar carefully. Everything counts including punctuation, formatting and writing style. Make sure the document is flawless, or it could be rejected for carelessness.

Honesty is Vital on the Curriculum Vitae

Give a good impression but be careful not to over-embellish. Never say anything on a resume that is not entirely true. If one is close to getting a degree, use the phrase “B.S. degree candidate” and include projected completion dates.

The best resume is like an exciting marketing campaign. People read about it and are anxious to learn more and get to know the person who sounds so terrific on paper.

The copyright of the article Writing the Best Resume in Career Advice is owned by Therese Haberman. Permission to republish Writing the Best Resume in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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May 5, 2009 12:08 PM

Guest :

As a recruiter, I find reading resumes and cover letters to be tedious and dull UNLESS, something tells me right off the bat that I have a good candidate in my hand. This might be a cover letter that says, "Here are my qualifications:" then lists everything I said I was looking for when I posted. If I said in my job post I needed a degreed accountant and all you have is a few bookkeeping classes, I don't want to waste my time reading your whole CV. On the other hand, if you have exactly what I am looking for, experience a company in the same industry, or some other quality that will make me want to look, I want to see that first! Since you don't want to rewrite your resume for every job posting, you can tailor your cover letter or email to grab my attention first.

Also, some of your skills and areas of expertise can be put in a list form at the top of the resume to make them easy to eyeball AND easy to search in a database!

May 5, 2009 1:01 PM

Guest :

Keywords in the resume are really the critical thing. Thanks for an insightful article. Love your blogs too.

Jun 3, 2009 2:39 PM

Guest :

Great insights here. I am going to start a rewrite.

3 Comments