Resume writing 101

Writing a resume is a simple task that should be kept.... well... "simple"
When writing a resume, follow these steps and it can be one of the simplest tasks in getting your dream job.
Remember that the only goal of the resume is to get the interview, not the job itself, I have been a search consultant for many years, and I have yet to see a hire that was placed based solely on the resume. You will need to be interviewed to get the job.

Do your homework:

First know the company you are applying to and make sure that you understand the “hot spots” that the company has. Follow the lead of the job description and take it to heart. Don’t expect the person reading the resume to “read between the lines” make it blatant. Bullet point the key elements that are in the job description and make sure they are listed in your resume, but DONT LIE!!!

Jack of all trades master of none:

If certain skills are not mentioned in the job description remove them from your resume, you don’t want to be considered a jack of all trades, or worse yet, over qualified for this role. Follow the mantra “Keep it simple” or “Less is more”

If you feel that these skills are worth mentioning, then do so during the interview. The resume is no place for “pie in the sky” skills. Its sole purpose is to get the interview.

Order of operations:

The layout can be in any order (Except the Objective – that must be first) but having said that, make sure that all of the following are in your resume.

• Name and Contact Information
• Objective (should be first)
• Skills Set
• Education
• Work experience (Relevant only)

We will now touch on each of these points, I hope to bring to light what each of these are meant to provide to the reader.

Objective:

The objective is welllll... just that, your “Objective” Its what you want your objective in getting that specific role / job.

Again look to the job description for assistance with this, if the company prides itself on being a fun, dynamic and casual place to work. Then put that in your objective. “I am looking to gain employment in a dynamic, casual and fun place to work.”  (See how I mixed it up a bit) I didn’t make it a complete “copy and paste” of the company profile, I used key elements and made it my own.

Continue to do this with all parts of the company profile found in almost every job description out there.

Skills Set:

The skills set should be a bullet point or matrix of the skills that the employer is looking for in a clean and easy to read format.

The skill, years of use, level of competence and if the skill is current or not

Keep the order of the skills needed in the job description and follow their lead.

Education:

Use chronological order for this and list all your education formal (academic) and company funded in-house training.

Work Experience:

In reverse chronological order, place your “relevant” experience in the most recent companies you worked for. DO NOT LIE!!! Remove all aspects of your roles that are not relevant or are not specifically required by the job description, you don’t want to sound over qualified and you don’t want to sound like you did it all. Because in reality you didn’t, it just might have felt that way.

Now last but certainly NOT least... Spelling... if you have checked your spelling, good for you... pat yourself on the back... and do it again. Bad spelling will get you passed over by recruiters and hiring managers more than any other skill. A person that has all the skills and the experience will be disqualified simply based on bad spelling