Resume Strategies from Expert Resumes

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Before you sit down to write your resume, you need a plan of action. In Expert Resumes for People Returning to Work, Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark lay out what they feel are nine core strategies for writing effective and successful resumes.  I’ve condensed them below:

Resume Strategies

1.  Define who you are and how you want to be perceived

–This means you need to know what you want to be so that you can clearly state your interests and goals

–If you don’t do this first, your resume “becomes a historical overview of your career and not the sales document it should be”

–Allow the beginning of your resume to focus on what you’ve accomplished and the value you would bring to an employer

2.  Sell it, don’t tell it

–Don’t simply state facts

–Give the results of what you did or how what you did benefited your employer, students, team, etc.

3.  Use keywords

–Many employers use keyword scanning.  Identify the key words for the positions you’re interested in and incorporate them naturally into the text of your resume

–Include all the keywords that represent your experience and knowledge

–Search keyword sources or job listings to identify the right terms

4.  Focus on the big things

–New projects, costs savings, increased productivity, etc.

–Save the little for the interview

5.  Make your resume an interview tool

–Leave out details, so you can bring these up in the interview

–Make your resume readable so that an interviewer can use it as a prompt during your conversation

6.  Avoid confusion with structure and context

–Remember, your resume will be read quickly

–Be consistent about listing titles, company names, and dates in the same place for each position

–Clearly define sections with easily readable headings

–Define the context in which you worked before describing activities and accomplishments

7.  Translate your functions (what you did) into what you achieved and you’ll have a more powerful resume

8.  Don’t exaggerate

9.  Be confident