Tips on Writing a Resume

Here's a quick-hit list of tips on writing a resume.  Of course you don't need to include all of these to improve your resume, but it should at least spark some idea on what you can do to improve it.  Also, if you look for some sample resume templates, you might be able to apply these tips while customizing it for yourself.  Hopefully these will aid you in your job search:

1) Instead of focusing on job responsibilities, focus on accomplishments.  These will speak much more to decision makers in an organization, and guess who is making the decision about hiring you?

2) Focus on you the person, not just on the jobs.  Focus on how you accomplished the job rather than on what was involved in doing the job.  Do NOT extend this to personal, non-job related information.

3) General prefer a chronological resume.  There seems to be a lot of information out there about functional resumes, but except in rare case you'll want to stick to the standard format.

4) Keep your resume focused.  You should be targeting a single job, and maybe even a specific job at a specific company.  It's perfectly fine (preferable, in some cases) to have lots of different versions.  Make sure to keep track of what you are sending to whom.

5) Combine very short jobs if possible.  Let's say you were doing a bunch of contract work.  Rather than list each individually it would be preferable to enter a single item on your resume called 'Contracts' or 'Independent Contracting' and combine all the information.

6) Spice up self-employment.  If you had a period of time that you were self employed, include a company name, job title, and descriptions exactly as you would for any other employer.  You could also refer to it as contract work in one way or another.

7) Include partial schooling.  Just because you haven't graduated or received a degree you don't need to exclude it.  You can include it as 'working towards xxxxxxx degree' or 'studied xxxxxxxxx at yyyyyyyyyy' or something similar.  Do not claim a degree or certification that you do not actually have.

8) Expand on long term employment.  If you were an employee of a company for a very long time (10+ years), you may not have a lot of other positions to list.  That's ok; just expand more on your one job.  Create a subsection for various positions, projects, or periods of responsibilities you had there.