Resume Writing Strategies for 2006

• Put your contact information on separate lines. Do not use a Header format. Computer software may not be able to read that type of formatting.
• Be sure you have professional voicemail messages and email addresses.
• You may want to consider setting up a disposable job search email address that can be deleted when you land your new opportunity.

• Studies have shown your resume initially will get no more than 10 to 15 seconds of a recruiter’s attention. The top third of the resume is the most important section for capturing and keeping the reader’s attention.
• Use a Professional Summary of Qualifications section at the top of your resume focused on your job objective. The Summary should be 3 to 5 sentences or bullets long and should highlight your key skills, knowledge and abilities that relate to the specific job posting.
• If appropriate, begin the summary with an appropriate job title or function in bold followed by years or level of experience. Example: Systems Analyst with over 5 years of experience...

• The Professional Experience section of the resume must have statements that give evidence to support the statements made in the Professional Summary section.
• For each company, describe the scope of your responsibilities that relate to the job posting followed by the specific accomplishment statements.
• While it’s alright to describe job responsibilities, the focus must be on accomplishments and results. Show how you made an impact on the organization. Use metrics and numbers when possible to quantify your accomplishments.
• To write an accomplishment statement: Begin with an action verb, followed by the object, end with the result or benefit. You also may want to begin with the result to create more impact. Example: Developed a 4 day customer training program which decreased customer complaints by 15%.
• You can change the order of your accomplishments bullet points to match the specific job requirements
• If your place of employment is not well known, you may consider adding a sentence directly below your title describing the business.
• Do not use months for dates. Only use years.

• Do not put the year you graduated unless it is a recent degree.
• List all relevant classes, certifications and degrees in reverse chronological order.
• Expect your education to be verified.

• The name of this section can be modified to reflect relevant information not found elsewhere on the resume. Use this section to reflect the information you need to highlight for the particular job posting.

Avoiding the Resume Black Hole

• Create a Keyword List to decide which ones to include on your resume by researching job postings, company web sites, and professional organization websites. Write down skills, abilities, titles, industry jargon, buzzwords, and personality traits that appear.

• Incorporate all the Keywords in your resume that are relevant to your objective. Repeat the most important ones a couple of times. State them in your Summary of Qualifications, Experience, and Special Skills sections of your resume. Be sure there is a point to point match between the job posting’s keywords and the ones on your resume.

• Keywords are nouns and noun phrases, not verbs! Examples: customer service, marketing, accounting, invoices, C++. Administrative assistant, software. Not: developed, designed, administered, programmed – those are verbs that are ignored by the ATS software.