10 Tips To Help You Write Your Resume

Writing a compelling resume is perhaps the most tedious part of finding a job, but is also one of the most important. It's not easy to come up with superior sounding synonyms for creating reports, planning events and travel and maintaining the overall sanity of an office. Research shows that only one interview is granted for every 200 resumes a business receives. So how do you become the one? Follow these 10 simple tips to creating a resume that gets noticed.

Determine your objective

Decide what kind of job you're looking for and what makes you qualified for it. You may have to reorganize your resume if you're considering different career paths. Not choosing an objective for your resume will make you look unfocused to the prospective employer. Your objective should encompass your career goals. Be specific and concise. For example: To manage people and work closely with customers.

Choose a template

Before you get started piecing your resume together, grab the easy OfficeArrow template to help you with formatting. The Microsoft website also has templates for job specific resumes for every version of Word, making it easier for you to spend more time writing and less time drawing tables.

Use headings that get noticed

Free-Resume-Tips.com suggests that you use titles or headings to capture your audience within 5 seconds. When listing the skills that make you qualified for the job, try using titles for the skills you have rather than a description of them. For instance: If you have experience with bookkeeping, try using Management of A/R and A/P Accounts as your heading.

Information you should include

While there are different types of resumes, a list of what should be included is pretty standard. Seton Hall University suggests the following be included in a successful resume:

• Objective - your objective should be clear and concise stating your career goals
• Education - list the schools you attended in chronological order including the type of degree obtained
• Career Accomplishments - list awards you may have acquired or any milestones you've reached in business
• Skills - relevant job skills
• Experience - a chronological list of your last 3 employers and your responsibilities in that positio
• Activities - any volunteering you've done or extracurricular positions you've held
• References - you can always list these as available upon request, but you will likely be requested to provide them. Be sure to list at least 2 professional and one personal reference that can attest to your work ethic and character

Use bullets

Using bullet points rather than lengthy paragraphs makes your resume easier to read. According to Yahoo Hot Jobs, using bullet points on your resume helps you to organize all the little nuggets of you, making your resume more manageable and easier for the employer to scan.

Use keywords and buzzwords

When you're perusing the want ads and find a position you would like to be considered for, choose certain keywords in the ad to include in your resume. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that using phrases like "budget analysis" and "cost accounting" will get you noticed faster than simply stating budgeting and accounting as skills you possess. These words and phrases are also helpful in catapulting your resume to the top of the list for employers who use a database keyword search to organize and review resumes.

Leave out the unnecessary

It's important to keep you resume focused. If you're applying for an executive assistant position, it may not be necessary for you to include your experience serving tables at a restaurant. If it's the only experience you have then you should definitely list the skills you acquired that transfer to the position your looking to interview for. I.e., your responsibilities working at a restaurant might include exceptional customer service skills. Likewise, QuestCareer.com elaborates by saying that if you feel certain information may make you discriminated against; feel free to leave that out as well. In editing your resume for unnecessary information, be sure to leave out any negative information you may feel tempted to include. You should never mention a lack of education or skills on your resume. It is solely for the purpose of marketing yourself and to attain an interview to close the deal.

Avoid clutter

Resume-help.org gives great advice for the length and breadth of your resume. They suggest that while you will likely have a lot of information to include in your resume, you will typically be overlooked if it's cluttered. A potential employer doesn't want to have to weed through a resume, so be sure to keep it short and relevant.

A resume should not exceed 2 pages in length. The industry standard has changed over the years, mostly because job fairs have always requested a one page resume, however, anyone who's worked for 10 years or so usually can't fit their experience on one sheet. Even job fairs are coming around to changing their policy on one page resumes.

Resumes should not be written in any font size smaller than 10, and should use a traditional font such as Times New Roman.

Get third party advice

It's important to test your resume before you send it out. Get a friend to look over it and ask for their honest opinion on what sounds impressive to them, what doesn't quite flow, and an overall sense of where you need to improve. Their feedback will prove priceless when it's time to edit.

Edit

Monster.com offers key parts of your resume to consider editing. Besides editing for spelling, grammar and punctuation, it's important to focus on editing the content of your resume as well.

Condense your work experience by listing the most recent and most relevant to the position you wish to be considered for.
Be careful not to oversell yourself in your objective. Use clear and descriptive terms.
It's important that your skills don't reflect a laundry list. Remember that your resume should be relevant to a specific position, not a broad list of everything you've ever learned.