Guide To Write A Resume: 4 Ways To Make Your Resume Stand Out From The Crowd


by Brenda Ballentine - Date: 2010-06-10 - Word Count: 571 Share This!

You've got 15 seconds to tell me three things that make you a great employee.

Now, you've got 10 seconds.

Five seconds.

Buzz!

Times up.

While you were reading that, could you think of even one thing to say?

If you did, I bet it was hard to do in such a short period of time. Yet, this is exactly what your resume has to do each and every time you submit it to a potential employer.

If you were under the impression that an employer will take a few minutes to look over your resume before making a decision about you - you need a quick reality check. The truth is, employers are currently wading through tons of resumes that come in each and every day. Yours is probably somewhere amongst the crowd - fighting for attention.

The average resume gets only a few seconds of time before being cast aside forever, or given a second life down the road where someone WILL spend more time reading it. In the world of resumes, first impressions mean the difference between having a shot at the job, or never hearing from an employer.

Yet, many people think that they can submit a ho hum resume that gives the same kind of clichéd information that can be found in hundreds of others. They think that giving the employer a laundry list of basic skills is going to make an impression. In reality, the person in charge of reading your resume, isn't really reading it at all. They're scanning it for something that jumps out at them.

If nothing catches their eye and pulls them in instantly, your prospects at getting that job are toast. It may not seem fair, but that's the way it is in this job hunting environment. Those who know how to make their resume come alive with personality and passion, are going to be the first ones picked out of the bunch.

Here are some simple things you can do to make your resume more attractive to employers:

Taylor your objective section to a specific career field. Using a general objective statement for different types of industries isn't going to make you look like you're interested in working in a particular field. A job objective is the first thing they'll see, and it should leave the impression that your goal is to be an asset in their field.

Let them see your strengths. Your resume is your only way of showing the employer what kind of quality skills you bring to the table. By the way "self-motivated" and "goal-oriented" aren't marketable skills. Being accurate with numbers, speaking English and Spanish, and giving customer service with a smile are better ways of expressing specific skills.

Keep it short and sweet. You don't need to cram every little thing you've done for the past 10 years into your resume. Just give them the short version. When you land an interview, you can fill them in on the rest.

Use power words. Use action words to describe what you do. For example: prepared, managed, formatted, restructured, rebuilt, developed, etc. Also, if your resume is industry specific, add in some of the industry lingo, so they can see that you're familiar with this type of work.

If you need help in writing a strong resume, I suggest you find a high-quality resume writing guide that can give you lots of tips, and reveal ways that you can make your resume a powerful promotional tool that compels an interviewer to contact you.

Related Tags: guide, help, writing, resume, tips, write, how, resources, tools

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