The Top 10 The Only Resume You'll Ever Need!

Originally Submitted on 3/19/98.

Excerpts from "The Only Resume You'll Ever Need," a simple, easy-to-follow guide for creating your own concise, powerful, and flexible resume tool. These tips are from client's most frequently asked questions, and the most effective way to immediately improve your existing resume.

1. Replace your "Objective" with a "Career Summary" designed to give a brief overview of who you are and what you do. You can also use this summary as a verbal introduction when asked, "Tell me about yourself."

1. Most "Objectives" sound alike: "Seeking a challenging, interesting position in X where I can use my skills of X, X, and X to contribute to the bottom line." Or something to that effect. It's a "yawner" and the reader will only devote a few precious seconds to scanning your resume. You must grab their attention right from the beginning. 2. Replace it with a summary that immediately gets their attention, and accurately and powerfully describes you as a solution to their problems. For example: "A creative, motivational leader offering 17 years Training and Communications, Call Center Operations, Human Resources, and Sales ecperience. A self-starter, recognized for strong interpersonal, project-management, public presentation and written communication skills, with a 'look beyond the obstacles' approach to problem solving."

2. Use a functional versus a chronological resume.

1. Functional resumes focus on the skills you possess versus a running chronology of where you worked and when. 2. Employers are looking for skills, so set your resume up based on the strengths you offer: Leadership, Operations, Training, Project Management. 3. List your dates of employment and where you have worked at the bottom under "Employment History." The reader can easily look there for continuous employment or employment gaps.

3. Identify Accomplishments not just job descriptions.

1. You can't be an answer to their problems without stating how you solved similar problems elsewhere. Focus on what you did in the job, not just what your job was. There is a subtle difference. For each "bullet" ask yourself this question: "so what?" What was the benefit of you having done what you did? 2. Your accomplishments should be unique to you, not just a list of what anyone else did or could have done in that job.

4. Quantify Your Accomplishments

1. Help the reader get a grasp of the scrope, breath, and depth of your responsibilities. Give them percentages, dollars, number of employees, training classes, units of production, etc. 2. You may need to work backwards to quantify your accomplishments by asking, "If I had not done X, what could have happened?" For example, if you had not reduced turnover through your outstanding leadership qualities, how would it have impacted getting the job done?

5. Make a Master List of your accomplishments.

1. You should tailor each resume you send out specifically for the job you are interested in and their needs. 2. Memory is a fleeting thing, so create a Master List of accomplishments that you can pull from each time you tailor your resume. That will insure you don't forget any of them!

6. Don't "age" yourself by listing years you graduated from college.

1. It's easy for people to count backwards if you tell them when you graduated from high school, college etc. 2. If you recently finished graduate school, it's fine to list that date. However, if you got your MBA in 1978 it not only dates you, but may imply that your education is outdated.

7. Never, ever, ever allow a resume or cover letter to leave your hands with a typo or grammar error!

1. Read, and re-read your materials before mailing. 2. Enlist the help of others to proofread your materials. To a fresh set of eyes, the mistakes fairly jump off the page! 3. Don't just rely on spell-check. We've all seen errors which spell- check didn't catch that are perfectly good words....they just didn't make sense in the context you used.

8. Design your resume for the industry/market you are approaching.

1. Marketing, advertising, and design professionals have license to be more creative and distinctive in the way they design their resume. Unusual paper, fonts, layout are acceptable and expected in those industries. 2. Banking, insurance, manufacturing, etc. won't be impressed and may be turned off by unusual resume design. In these industries, err on the side of being conservative. Your accomplishments, error-free writing, gramatically-correct, clean, crisp type and paper will make the impression for you.

9. Always fill up the entire page(s). Don't leave gaping empty spaces on your resume.

1. Surely you have accomplished enough to fill up one or two full sheets of paper! 2. Leaving big empty spaces sends a subtle message to the reader that you haven't accomplished much. 3. If you only have this one opportunity to impress the reader, take full advantage of it....you might not get another!

10. Eliminate the "References Available Upon Request" listed at the bottom of your resume.

1. It wastes one line of precious space you could devote to one more of your outstanding accomplishments. 2. It's redundant. Won't most people send references if requested? You really don't need to say this. 3. Please don't list your references on your resume. Use that space again to communicate your accomplishments. You wouldn't necessarily introduce your family on a first date, would you? Reserve your reference names until you know there is a serious interest from both parties....you, and the prospective employer.

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