How to make a stellar resume

You know you need it, but it is intimidating to sit down and polish. The perfect resume is daunting, so read on for tips to make your experiences shine.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Start with a piece of paper and a pen by brain storming your accomplishments and awards at past jobs. Then consider if you have done anything worthwhile in your local community.
   Write a list of all software you know how to use and another list of any skills you find yourself to be good at. Then, make a list of everyone you think would be happy to recommend you and find their contact info. Call them before you even add them to your resume to be sure it's ok you use them as a reference.
2. Choose a template. You can use a basic windows one or one online and you can customize it all you need...it's just good idea to select a layout for yourself first.
3. Start with the basics, like your name, contact info, a basic goal in your job search and your skills. You may want to move or change the skills or goal later on, but it's a good idea to start with them.
   Now, plug in the basics about your past jobs, your position and what city you were working inmost recent first, like the employment dates. Always start with the most recent job first.
   If you have a huge gap in unemployment, it may be good to add a reason.
4. Take the papers you wrote earlier and plug them into your typed resume. Add the details of your past jobs. Add your reference section. Add a community section if needed. Revise your skills as needed.
   Also, be sure all of the resume is in the same tense. Frequently, people will write "answered phones" followed by "typing documents." Either tense is ok, but it's best to stick to one or the other for the whole piece.
5. Enhance. In this step, look at all of your past jobs and consider how you can display your skills and software knowledge in these descriptions. Sometimes you just need to add a sentence at the end, "familiar with Quicken,..." Other times you can include it in other sentences you already have written, "Practiced company accounting (skill) with Quicken (software) in a high pressure, short-deadline environment (skill)."
6. Revise! Never forget to revise anything you write, especially a resume. This not only means spelling and grammatical errors that can completely blow your credibility, but also selecting a good length and look for your resume.
   Always use a professional (easy to read) font and color on your resume, but consider using something a little more unique than the competition.
   If your resume is way under a page, see if you can enhance anything to make it seem a bit longer, or try messing with type.
   
   
   If it is over a page, you're entering debatable territory. Some hiring managers want to see two page resumes as long as they aren't fluff. Some say they will never look at the second page. Basically, if you're applying for a simple job, strip it down. If it's a hard and professional job and your resume is two pages and only includes mandatory job details of your many past experiences, leave it at two pages.
7. Customize it for the job. This is a step many people forget about. Companies do not want to see a generic resume. You will need to have a basic bare-bones structure, but always read it before sending to a job to see if something could be enhanced or cut according to the position you're applying for.
   
   If you are applying for two or more very different jobs, you may benefit from having two or more resumes and tweaking each one as needed. I for example do marketing and writing and have one resume for each. This way, whatever job I apply to, I have a resume that requires minimal tweaking.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget to have a great cover letter as well.