By Peter Newfield – Career-Resumes.com®
A resume is your personal marketing tool-- a critical document
required to get you called in for a job interview. A professional
resume should present your career history, accomplishments, and
education in a concise, informative one to two page document.
Is A Resume Really Necessary?
A professional resume is mandatory in today’s job market
because the contents can be scanned, visually or electronically,
to meet each company’s specific requirements and quickly weed
out unqualified applicants. A resume is not an autobiography, but
a document that can open doors to your next career opportunity via
headhunters, corporate H.R. departments, targeted mailings, answering
ads or internet posting sites.
Key Component Parts of a Resume
A resume should start out with a Summary of Qualifications section
which is a 3-8 sentence overview of your professional background.
The Summary of Qualifications should include strong action words
and highlight your various skills with phrases such as “results-oriented”,
“strong analytical skills”, “excellent negotiation
skills”, “ability to think out of the box”, etc.
The second category that is very important for resumes that are
visually or electronically scanned is entitled Areas of Strength.
This section can highlight the key words that prospective employers
need to see on a resume. The use of key words presents your areas
of knowledge, training, and experience in succinct bulleted captions.
Examples of key words may include “Strategic Planning”,
“Sales Presentation”, “Training & Development”,
and “Financial Administration” under the Areas of Strength
section.
The Heart of a Resume
The major portion of a resume presents your job responsibilities
and accomplishments under the heading of Professional Experience.
Typically, career experience is listed in reverse chronological
order, starting with your present or most recent position. Company
names, dates of employment, and titles held are listed for each
position and a brief synopsis of your responsibilities should be
included under each title.
The most effective resumes include accomplishments as well as responsibilities
under each job description. Accomplishments or achievements can
be presented through brief, bulleted statements which demonstrate
how you increased sales, reduced expenses, expanded market share,
or introduced new training programs, etc.
Brevity is Important
Human Resources professional do not want to read through pages
of information on each applicant. Instead, focus on your most recent
10-15 years of work experience and then summarize or list previous
companies/titles to keep your resume to a strong one or two pages
in length.
Education and Training
The last section of a reverse chronological resume is Education.
In addition to the name of the college or university attended, your
major, and date of graduation should be included. Professional degrees
and industry training are very important and should not be overlooked.
All licenses and certifications should be included under this section.
Computer Skills
A separate section on Computer Skills can be appropriate if you
have a lot of relevant hardware, software, and applications experience
or if this is your career profession. The Computer Skills section
can follow the Education section on your resume.
Addressing Special Needs
Often, a job applicant’s career information may not translate
strongly on paper. For example, military personnel attempting to
present their specialized training in a resume being sent out to
civilian employers may not use the same terminology or job titles
that Human Resources professionals are used to seeing in the typical
job market. Another example may be an applicant with a physical
disability who may need special equipment or an adaptive workspace
and cannot convey this information within the confines of a resume.
In these cases, the information may be addressed in the cover letter
which should accompany each resume.
Cover Letters
While your resume is written to present and highlight your career
experience and achievements, a cover letter’s job is to target
the specific information that you would like prospective employers
to focus on. The cover letter should include the name of the position
you are applying for, list a few examples of how your experience
fits in perfectly with the job description, briefly outline your
related job experience, and refer to the specific sections on your
resume where this can be shown.
A cover letter is the only place where you can address questions
of relocation, pending licenses or certifications, any specific
physical disabilities which you need the employer to be aware of
, or other outstanding circumstances which are not reflected on
your resume. Remember to keep the cover letter brief and professional.
The cover letter can never take the place of a resume but is an
important letter of introduction used in conjunction with your resume.
For a free critique/price quote, email Career Resumes® at Peter@career-resumes.com.
Peter Newfield is President of Career-Resumes.com®,
one of the premier resume writing services in the United States.
He is The Resume Expert for BlueSteps.com, ExecutiveRegistry.com,
NETSHARE.com, DirectEmployer.com and the former Resume Expert for
Monster.com, Spencer Stuart Talent Network and the Career Center on AOL. View samples at: www.career-resumes.com
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