Job Tips – Purpose

The purpose of your resume is to describe your work-life experience to your best advantage for the prospective employer. Your resume should be a precise description about accomplishments, skills, and experience so that employers will want to know more in an interview. You will most likely have more than one version of a resume for different jobs, industries, employers, etc.

Think of your resume as a marketing tool. Think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your resume as a brochure about you. Market yourself through your resume. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your resume.

Use your resume to obtain an interview, not a job. You don’t need to go into detail about every accomplishment. Strive to be clear and concise. The purpose of your resume is to generate enough interest in you to have an employer contact you for an interview. Lack of an impeccable resume will result in significant delays and difficulties in obtaining employment.

Lead with your strengths. Since resumes are typically reviewed in 30 seconds, take the time to determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put those strong points first where they are more apt to be read.

Use the key words listed in job postings/classifieds to match them to bullets in your resume. If you have missed any key words, add them to your resume.

Resumes should always include:

•  Your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address

•  Education and training

•  Employers, and dates of employment

•  Specific accomplishments related to performance on the job

•  Activities in professional, civic or community affairs

•  Customize your resume for each employer, make sure that you resume includes keywords that match the skills and experience requested by the employer in the job posting .

•  Be succinct and keep it to one or two pages