How to Write an Impressive Resume

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By tiuliucci
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A resume is your first step to getting an interview. What you say in your resume reflects how a potential employer sees who you are. Here are some important steps to take to make your resume find its way to the top of the stack.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

Employers are looking for someone with a plan. Start your resume with an Objective statement. Make sure to indicate in that statement that you are a team player and use the buzz words in your field. Employers want to know that you are current and you know the lingo in the field.
Step 2

Put your work experience before your education. When you start with your education you immediately tell an employer that you have just graduated from your school.
Step 3

Work Experience

In your experience section tell potential employers what you did in your past jobs. You can put this in a list format or paragraphs, but either way make sure it is clear and descriptive. You should put at least the city and state of the company that you worked for on your resume next to the company name.
Step 4

Make sure your experience includes as few gaps as possible. This does not mean that you have to eliminate all gaps, but reduce it as much as possible. One simple way of reducing gaps is to only include the month and year in your start and end dates for employment. If you left a job in January and started a new job by the end of February, it looks like you had no gaps. It is important that your resume put you in a positive light rather than give a potential employer negative questions about you.
Step 5

Make sure to put any degrees, certificates and awards that you have earned in the education section of your resume. While there are some jobs that require less education, showing that you enjoy learning and have taken the time to educate yourself is a great positive in the minds of potential employers.
Step 6

Do not include references in your resume. Make sure to have your references easily accessable. You can either bring a printed copy of your references with you or email them to the potential employer or agency.

Having your references on your resume can lead to an initial investigation before you gain an interview. It might be helpful, but one of your references could sway the potential employer negatively by a comment that might have meant nothing if the potential employer had first met you.

Comments

admiller said

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on 4/15/2009 Impressive resumes are a must in this job market. I agree with you--reread and rewrite over and over again. A resume is a work in progress that should get better the longer your are hunting for a job.