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Remember the Purpose of Your Resume. The main objective of having a resume
is to stimulate an employer's interest enough to arrange a personal interview. It
should inform potential employers about your career background, and the person reading
your resume will immediately want to know, with clarity and directness, what you
are looking for.
Create a Strong Summary/Objective. It takes only a minute or two for an employer
to decide whether or not they will read an entire resume. By creating a summary,
you are able to explain in just a few sentences your credentials, skills and qualifications.
The summary should be four to eight lines or several bulleted points.
Entice the Reader. Potential employers are attracted by a well-written resume
that presents the information in an interesting and organized way. Employers will
quickly pass over resumes that are unconventionally formatted, appear to be designed
to conceal facts or are hard to read. Sloppy resumes or those that contain anything
negative will also fall to the bottom of the stack.
Distinguish Your Experience. Be aware of your general experience and background,
and separate your experience into key categories. This will empower you to visualize
and plan how some of those key categories can be transferred to a new position that
could be very different from your most recent experience.
Take Inventory. Take an in-depth inventory of your previous achievements.
Write out 20 to 30 of these accomplishments and see what they reveal about you.
Think about an obstacle, challenge or situation you were faced with, how you handled
it and the direct result of your decision. These achievements will be the foundation
with which you build your resume on.
Give Yourself Credit. Become familiar with your accomplishments. This will
enable you to focus on your strengths and skills, form the foundation for your resume,
help you prepare for your interview and feel good about yourself. This will also
empower you so you will be able to discuss these strengths in a follow-up letter
or interview.
Use Action Verbs. Create powerful accomplishments and quantified results.
Present yourself as a person of action. Use action verbs such as: accomplished;
achieved; completed; conceived; created; demonstrated; earned; established; formulated;
generated; improved; improvised; maintained; organized; performed; simplified; streamlined;
strengthened; succeeded; or transformed.
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