The resume – Making It Work For You

There are many different formats you can use to produce your resume:

• the chronological resume, in which a person’s experience is described from most to least recent and focuses on the progression of the person’s career;
• the functional resume, which focuses on a person’s accomplishments;
• the combined resume, which includes a chronology of jobs and which highlights a person’s accomplishments as they apply to those jobs;
• and finally, the skills-based resume, which allows a person to emphasize their transferable skills acquired not only through work experience, but through school projects, volunteering, extracurricular activities and more.

The essential elements of the resume are always required: education, work experience, skills and abilities, references. These elements, however, can be strengthened to project a more proactive, marketing approach to the document.

Here are 6 new ideas to enhance your resume.

Academic Highlights describe different projects or assignments that you have completed and highlight your accomplishments. For example:

• Designed a spreadsheet to depict timelines and critical path for business proposal
  Created a model of a new home design as a team project for architectural planning
  You can mention teamwork, computerskills, research, complexity or what you learned as a result of the work.

Results-Oriented Job Descriptions focus on how you did the job and what you have accomplished as opposed to describing your basic duties. For example:

• Increased productivity in retail shop by reorganizing stock handling
• Investigated the need for and implemented Boot Safety program

Instead of a weak description of your responsibilities at your job, try thinking in terms of how you made a difference in the workplace. You may also want to format your accomplishments beginning with a keyword, followed by a description of your activity. For example:

• TRAINING – designed and conducted workshops for 300 staff on safety process

Testimonial can replace a career objective or profile in a unique manner. Pull a sentence from one of your reference letters and quote a testimonial on your behalf.

Keyword Summary: with the introduction of scannable resumes, content has changed from verb-based to noun-based. When a computer scans a document, it searches for keywords – nouns such as diploma, sales, budget, proposal, report, etc. A summary of skills at the beginning of your resume can give the employer a quick preview of your abilities.

Targeted resumes focus your accomplishments and skills in particular directions. If you have diverse experience in sales, computer programming and golf you could develop a resume for each of these areas and then expand your search for work in different directions. Or combine your experience such as computer software sales or programming for the golf industry.

Technical Contact Information ensures that you have provided the employer with as many access points as possible. With the technical explosion of cell phones, pagers, fax machines, extensions, e-mail, voicemail, and websites, you want to be certain the employer can reach you. At the top of your resume you should clearly identify what each contact number represents.

I hope these ideas have sparked some fresh thinking for you to attack your resume with new energy. A resume is a living document that must move with the times to attract a recruiter’s eye. The resume is your best marketing piece. Make it work for you.