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Many people erroneously believe that the resume is the most important part of a job search. Explained differently, they think that the function of a resume is to "sell" the job seeker to the prospective employer. However, in reality the best and most effective selling tool that the job seeker has is his, or her, self. The resume is nothing more than a screening device, which employers use to decide who they will or will not interview.

This does not mean that the resume is unimportant. Contrarily, the resume is a HIGHLY critical document, which one must prepare carefully and properly if it is to effectively (1) introduce a person's skills and experience to a prospective employer and (2) remind the potential employer of the individual after an interview. Thus, the resume, as a tool, should be both brief and informative. It needs to provide a potential employer with a candidate's capabilities and experience without permitting troublesome questions to arise.

The trick, then, is to tell no more and no less than is necessary to give the potential employer the impression that the job candidate should be interviewed in person. After it has succeeded in getting a person an interview it has done the bulk of its job. However, because interviewers will use a resume to develop the questions that they will ask during an interview, it is VERY important that one be extremely familiar with what is on his or her resume so that he or she provides good answers to an interviewer's questions.

When a person is preparing a resume, he or she should remember that the purpose is to give readers the impression that the individual will "get things done!" Therefore, it is generally counterproductive to merely cite what one's job responsibilities were. The reasons are that readers may question (1) if the candidate did anything above and beyond the minimum job requirements and/or (2) whether the prospective employee lost his or her job because he or she could not even handle the basic job duties.

Rather than focusing on job duties, the resume writer should start each burst with strong active verbs like "Accomplished," "Built," "Created," "Directed," "Established," "Founded," Managed," "Produced," "Sold," "Trained" and "Wrote." However, he or she should avoid passive verbs like "Assisted with," "Helped," "Involved in" and "Participated."

While placing one or maybe even two passive verb phrases toward the end of a resume might show a team spirit, having such passive phrases near the top of a resume raises questions. For example, the person said he helped with a project, does this mean that he or she merely filled people's coffee cups?

Although one can find many helpful books on writing resumes and although there are many good lists of action verbs, the below list might prove helpful as a starter:

Yet, while the above words serve as a starter one should make sure that they are varied and properly used. More specifically it becomes very boring when one sees a whole string of bursts that all start with the same letter or worse yet the same word. Instead of having many bursts beginning with the word "Directed," one can start with the word "Directed" and then work in words like "Managed" and "Supervised."

Likewise, while one should definitely convey that he or she decreased costs and increased revenues, since these are the only two means of improving profits, there are many synonyms for words like "Decreased" and "Increased," some of which are shown in the above list. However, here again one needs to be truthful and realistic.

An essential element of effective resumes is that they quantify achievements, so prospective employers will know how many projects were completed, number of direct reports, sizes of budgets, total cost savings and revenue enhancements in either dollars or percentages. The reason is that as a general rule individuals should be able to generate revenues and/or cut costs by at least five times their salaries. Nevertheless, while more profit is better, a junior manager's saying that he or she elevated the overall profits of a Fortune 500 company by hundreds of millions of dollars will likely raise MANY red flags, if it appears unrealistic.

Because such red flags may not be readily apparent to the job seeker, it helps to have a trustworthy friend read the resume so that errors are eliminated and the flow is improved before the resume is distributed. If the person reading the resume is confused or has questions about it, which do not have good answers, there is a high probability that others who read it will have misunderstandings. (For those who still need individual help with their resumes, Dr. Clark can provide a review for a nominal charge of $100.00, which must be paid in advance before a resume is E-mailed to him.)

Once the resume is finished, it should be either laser printed or alternatively photocopied on an attractive, good quality 8½ by 11 inch white, ivory or gray paper. The reason for photocopying an ink jet printed document is that the ink will "run" if the document somehow gets damp. However, those preparing resumes should not be fooled, since the content of the resume is more important than whether one uses white, ivory or gray colored paper.

Although the odds are low when one relies on computers searching for keywords rather than a network contact, a person may nevertheless want to electronically post a resume that can be readily searched by a computer or send a "scanner-friendly resume" to companies requesting them. The reasons are that individuals are hired via this process and computer databases will often maintain resumes for longer periods than humans, as well as distribute them to those in distant lands.

However, due to differences in the requirements of varying electronic and scanner-friendly resume solicitors, a job seeker should adhere to each entity's stated requirements. Some of these will request that one list keyword nouns at the top of the resume, while others will ask for a specific font (e.g., 12-point Arial and Times New Roman are commonly requested). Moreover, many will prohibit underlining, italic letters, centered words and off-colored papers.

Likewise, when it comes to bullets, there will be those that will want resumes that have the WORD "filled circle" icons (i.e., found on the Insert menu of WORD) and a space after the bullet, while others will not want any bullet icons. (Features like diamonds and dashes are particularly bad since they can cause a scrambling of text.) Additionally, some will ask that one avoid brackets, parentheses and compressed text features.

Yet, regardless of what is asked for in terms of formatting, if one lists an E-mail address on a resume it should be professional rather than cute. Similarly, if a job seeker does send an attached resume, the file should be something like "NameofApplicantResume.doc" rather than simply "Resume.doc."

Because most managers spend less than thirty seconds in their initial review of a resume, a resume should:

4) Present personal information

5) Have negative information

6) As a general rule tell the reasons for job changes

7) Be "gimmicky" or make attempts to be humorous

8) List references (instead have on separate sheet)

9) Include a photograph

10) Begin descriptions with "Responsible for" or "Duties"

11) Throw your information into someone else's format

12) Be too long, too short or too condensed

Regarding this twelfth point many human resources professionals and hiring managers are used to seeing one-page resumes for those seeking employment right out of college and two-pages for those with more experience.

Listing Volunteer Work Can Sometimes Be Helpful

For recent college graduates, and for those who took time away from the job market to raise a family, the question sometimes arises as to what to list for experience? In such cases, it might be helpful to either list specific classroom projects and/or volunteer work. Although job seekers need to be careful not to list organizations and activities that will offend a potential employer, listing non-controversial volunteer work can help job seekers for at least three reasons.

The first reason is that listing volunteer work may help to cover gaps in time. A second reason is that many of the skills learned and used in volunteer work are often relevant to paid positions. Finally, the third reason is that listing a place where volunteer work was done provides the potential employer with a reference that can be checked. Thus, one should only list volunteer work where any reference checks will yield extremely positive comments.

Excluding the curriculum vita format of resume used by those seeking professorial type positions with universities or think tanks, there are three major formats for resumes. These are the (1) Chronological Format, (click here to see example) (2) Functional Format (click here to see example) and (3) Hybrid (or Combination) Format (click here to see example), and there are advantages and disadvantages to each format. Thus, one might want to read the below information about each type of resume and click on the links before choosing the format, which will make him or her look best to prospective employers. (The character "Betty B. Good" is fictitious, while the background presented for Dr. Clark is real.)

Traditionally, the Chronological Format that listed work experience and education in chronological order was the most common format. It is still a great format when job titles and company names are impressive, the most recent job shows the highest level of career advancement, the length of time at each company is respectable, and there are no gaps in time. (To hide short gaps it is generally best to list years, rather than exact days or months of employment.)

Yet, while the chronological format is terrific for many people it presents problems for some job seekers. Engineers who worked for several different engineering companies or advertising executives who worked for many different agencies may have performed the same types of tasks at their different employers. Thus, if such an individual is using a chronological format, he or she has to either be redundant or eliminate information. If one is redundant the resume does not read well, and if the person eliminates information then he or she appears to lack as much experience.

To combat the problems with the chronological format, as well as to highlight skills that are relevant to the "perfect job," one can use a Functional Format. As one can see from clicking on this link, the functional format helps to hide changes in careers, gaps in employment, and time spent raising a family, which many employment managers with "project driven" firms would not view as problematic even if they were aware of those gaps and career changes. In fact, they recognize that some of the world's best engineers, marketing researchers and advertising professionals will only be with a given company for a few months to a couple of years, since the hiring company only needs that expertise for a short period of time.

Similarly, a Fortune 500 oil company using many different engineering companies to do its work might actually request that a good engineering manager be hired by an engineering firm to set up a team to do its project work. However, once the team is in place and running well, the oil company may want that person to set up its teams at another engineering company, which is doing work on its behalf. Thus, while the person is really doing work on behalf of one oil company, he or she might receive a paycheck from several different engineering companies during a ten-year timeframe.

Unlike the more rigid chronological and functional formats, there are many ways to construct a hybrid resume. On the one hand, some job seekers may want to lean more in the direction of a chronological resume by having "primary headers" that show companies and the years employed and then have "secondary headers" showing the functions performed within each company. However, on the other hand, some prospective employees might want to have functions as the "primary headers" and then have a chronology page at the very end to show that there were not any major gaps in employment.

Should an experienced professional choose to put the emphasis on the functions and then list the chronology with companies, titles and dates separately, this format provides an excellent way to in essence have a three-page resume that looks like a two-page resume. Thus, this kind of hybrid resume offers a very smooth way for a seasoned professional (who does not feel as though two pages do justice to his or her background) to slide in an extra page that shows the positive reasons for career changes while not turning off a screener that is accustomed to seeing two-page, chronological-format resumes.

Dr. Clark Knows that These Tips on Resume Writing Will Help Individuals Get GREAT Jobs

Dr. Clark, who helps companies improve quality as shown by clicking HERE, knows that the information in this section will help individuals write high quality resumes that help them to get GREAT jobs. Dr. Clark, in like manner, knows that the readers of this website will find the other pages helpful.

Dr. Clark began asking (i.e., while recovering from the injuries caused by a drunk, uninsured, illegal immigrant motorist on a Tuesday evening) each and every user of this information to prayerfully consider mailing $5.00 (i.e., the cost of a beverage and a dessert) to P. O. Box 218655 Houston, TX 77218 to help cover the costs needed to maintain this website. In return, it is Dr. Clark's hope and prayer that God will richly bless those who honor this request.

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