Ten Resume Writing Tips You Can?t Live Without


For some job opening, employers receivehundreds and even thousands of resumes.When you are looking for a job, howcan you best promote yourself? Howcan you convince a prospective employerto pick-up the phone and call you foran interview?

Sought-after career coach and authorof the critically-acclaimed book,The Dark Before the Dawn: 70 Secretsto Self-discovery, Theresa Castrostates that you should take into consideration that your resume is the first exposure a potential employer willhave of you. Given this, you shouldn'ttake your resume lightly. Castrooffers a list of ten tips that willassist you in creating a winningresume and increasing your chancesof getting called for an interview.

1. Do address employment gaps brieflyin the cover letter only if the gapsare a significant amount of timesuch as maternity leave. Use afunctional resume to address gapsin employment or changes in fieldof interest.

2. Think from the perspective of yourfuture employer. What's in it forthem? Why should this company callyou? Keep in mind that your resumeis not the only resume that will beconsidered.

3. Recognize that your resume is your"sales person". This "sales person"must convince the prospectiveemployer to pick up the phone and schedule an interview with you. Ifyour "sales person" isn't convincingenough then guess what ? there won'tbe any phone calls. Thus, take thetime to make your resume sell, sell,sell...yourself.

4. Ask a friend or co-worker about youraccomplishments. Some times, we don'treadily recognize or recall the manythings that we have done.

5. Make certain that your contactinformation is correct. It woulddreadful to think that an employerwanted to reach you but you mistakenlylisted the wrong information.

6. Take advantage of internet technologyand place your resume on variouswebsites. There are numerous websitessuch as Monster, Career Builder andHotJobs that allow you to find a jobbased on your particular interests. In addition, there are websites thatwill list jobs that are specific toa particular industry. For example,Medzilla is a website that has joblistings exclusively for the medicalindustry.

7. Demonstrate the key traits in yourresume: leadership, communication,teamwork, decision making and problemsolving. For leadership, how are youan innovator? For communication, areyou approachable? Are you open-minded?Can you communicate effectively orally?In a written format? In regard toteamwork, can you work with others?What examples of teamwork could youillustrate from the past? As far asdecision making is concerned, whathave you done to play into the successof the companies for whom you haveworked? In regard to problem solving,when have you seen the big picture andcreated a change that had a positiveand quantifiable outcome?

8. Each job listing has a particular listof required experiences. If youpossess these experiences, then makesure that you express this in yourresume. You can't make any assumptionsabout what the potential employer knowsabout you or your work history.

9. Read your resume out loud. By doingthis, you will find missing words,grammatical errors or content thatjust doesn't make sense.

10. Have at least three friends review yourresume. You are utilizing theirassistance to ensure that you haven'tmissed something or made an easy to fixmistake.

(c) 2005, Theresa Castro

Theresa Castro, MBA is an executive careercoach and author of The Dark Before theDawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery. Goto http://www.DiscoverYourDreamJob.com to sign-upfor a free 3 day mini-course.