Not one resume in a hundred follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So, even if you face fierce competition, with a well written resume you should be invited to interview more often than many people more qualified than you.

To understand what I mean, let's take a look at the purpose of your resume. Why do you have a resume in the first place? What is it supposed to do for you?

Here's an imaginary scenario. You apply for a job that seems absolutely perfect for you. You send your resume with a cover letter to the prospective employer. Plenty of other people think the job sounds great too and apply for the job. A few days later, the employer is staring at a pile of resumes, which indicates you are facing some tough competition.

So the employer staring at the huge stack of resumes isn't any more excited about going through this pile of dry, boring documents than you would be. But they have to do it, so they dig in. After a few minutes, they are getting sleepy. They are not really focusing any more. Then, they run across your resume. As soon as they start reading it, they perk up. The more they read, the more interested, awake and turned on they become.

Most resumes in the pile have only gotten a quick glance. But yours gets read, from beginning to end. Then, it gets put on top of the tiny pile of resumes that make the first cut. These are the people who will be asked in to interview.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A RESUME

The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview.

A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.

A great resume doesn't just tell them what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do:

If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It presents you in the best light. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career.

It is so pleasing to the eye that the reader is enticed to pick it up and read it. It "whets the appetite," stimulates interest in meeting you and learning more about you. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.

Ten to 20 seconds is all the time you have to persuade a prospective employer to read further.

What this means is that the decision to interview a candidate is usually based on an overall first impression of the resume, a quick screening that so impresses the reader and convinces them of the candidate's qualifications that an interview results.

As a result, the top half of the first page of your resume will either make you or break you. By the time they have read the first few lines, you have either caught their interest, or your resume has failed. That is why we say that your resume is an ad. You hope it will have the same result as a well-written ad: to get the reader to respond.

You do not need to hard sell or make any claims that are not absolutely true. You do need to get over your modesty and promote yourself

FOCUS ON THE EMPLOYER'S NEEDS

Imagine that you are the person doing the hiring.

Ask yourself: What would make someone the perfect candidate? What does the employer really want? What special abilities would this person have? What would set a truly exceptional candidate apart from a merely good one?

If you are not sure, you can gather hints from the advertisement you are answering, from asking other people who work in the same company or the same field. You could even call the prospective employer and ask them what they want. Don't make wild guesses unless you have to. If you are not addressing their real needs, they will not respond to your resume.

Every step in producing a finished document should be part of your overall intention to convey to the prospective employer that you are a truly exceptional candidate.

PLAN YOUR RESUME

Focus your writing efforts. Get clear what the employer is looking for and what you have to offer before you begin your resume. Write your answers to the above mentioned question, "What would make someone the perfect candidate?" Make sure you address each required item in the advertisement.

Before you write your actual resume for submission write down everything you have ever done that demonstrates that you fit perfectly with what is wanted and needed by the prospective employer to get your mind flowing.

The whole idea is to loosen up your thinking enough so that you will be able to see some new connections between what you have done and what the employer is looking for. You need not confine yourself to work-related accomplishments.. The point is to cover all possible ways of thinking about and communicating what you do well. What are the talents you bring to the market place? What do you have to offer the prospective employer?

If you are making a career change or, you are going to have to be especially creative in getting across what makes you stand out. These brainstorming pages will be the raw material from which you craft your resume. One important part of the planning process is to decide which resume format fits your needs best. Don't automatically assume that a traditional format will work best for you.

In the first, you make assertions about your abilities, qualities and achievements. You write powerful, but honest, statements that make the reader immediately perk up and realise that you are someone special.

The second section, the evidence section, is where you back up your assertions with evidence that you actually did what you said you did. This is where you list and describe the jobs you have held, your education and anything else that is relevant. This is all the stuff you are obliged to include.

Most resumes are just the evidence section, with no assertions.

The juice is in the first, assertions section. When a prospective employer finishes reading your resume, you want them to immediately reach for the phone to invite you in to interview. You don't want them informed. You want them interested and excited.

• THE OBJECTIVE
• THE SUMMARY
• SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

OBJECTIVE

Ideally, your resume should be pointed toward conveying why you are the perfect candidate for one specific job or job title. Like good advertising, a good resume is directed toward a very specific target audience – your next employer.

Targeting your resume requires that you be absolutely clear about your career direction--or at least that you appear to be clear. The way to demonstrate your clarity of direction or apparent clarity is to have the first major topic of your resume be your OBJECTIVE.

Let's look at a real world example. Suppose the owner of a small recruitment company puts an ad on SEEK.com looking an experienced recruitment. A week later they have received 500 resumes. The applicants have a bewildering variety of backgrounds. Then they come across a resume in the pile that starts with the following:

"OBJECTIVE - a recruitment position in an organization seeking an extraordinary record of generating new accounts, exceeding sales targets and enthusiastic client relations.

This wakes them up. They are immediately interested. This first sentence conveys some very important and powerful messages: "I want exactly the job you are offering. I am a superior candidate because I recognize the qualities that are most important to you, and I have them. I want to make a contribution to your company." This works well because the employer is smart enough to know that someone who wants to do exactly what they are offering will be much more likely to succeed than someone who doesn't. And that person will probably be a lot more pleasant to work with as well.

Secondly, this candidate has done a good job of establishing why they are the perfect candidate in their first sentence. They have thought about what qualities would make a candidate stand out. They have started communicating that they are that person immediately. What's more, they are communicating from the point of view of making a contribution to the employer.

Be sure the objective is to the point. Do not use fluffy phrases that are obvious or do not mean anything.

Remember, your resume will only get a few seconds attention, at best! You have to generate interest right away, in the first sentence they lay their eyes on. Having an objective statement that really sizzles is highly effective. And it's simple to do. One format is:

If you are making a career change or have a limited work history, you want the employer to immediately focus on where you are going, rather than where you have been. If you are looking for another job in your present field, it is more important to stress your qualities, achievements and abilities first.

THE SUMMARY

The "Summary" or "Summary of Qualifications" consists of several concise statements that focus the reader's attention on the most important qualities, achievements and abilities you have to offer. Those qualities should be the most compelling demonstrations of why they should hire you instead of the other candidates. It gives you a brief opportunity to highlight a few of your most outstanding qualities.

This is the spiciest part of the resume. This may be the only section fully read by the employer, so it should be very strong and convincing. The "Summary" is the one place to include professional characteristics (extremely energetic, a gift for solving complex problems in a fast-paced environment, a natural salesman, exceptional interpersonal skills, committed to excellence.) which may be helpful in winning the interview. Gear every word in the "Summary" to your targeted goal.

The most common ingredients of a well-written "Summary" are as follows. Of course, you would not use all these ingredients in one "Summary." Use the ones that highlight you best.

• A short phrase describing your profession
• Followed by a statement of broad or specialised expertise
• Followed by two or three additional statements related to any of the following:
• breadth or depth of skills
• unique mix of skills
• range of environments in which you have experience
• a special or well-documented accomplishment
• a history of awards, promotions, or superior performance commendations
• One or more professional or appropriate personal characteristics
• A sentence describing professional objective or interest.

SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In this final part of the assertions section of your resume, you go into more detail. You are still writing to sell yourself to the reader, not to inform them. Basically, you do exactly what you did in the previous section, except that you go into more detail.

In the summary, you focused on your most special highlights. Now you tell the rest of the best of your story.Let them know what results you produced, what happened as a result of your efforts, what you are especially gifted or experienced at doing. Flesh out the most important highlights in your summary.

There are a number of different ways to structure "Skills and Accomplishments" sections. In all of these styles, put your skills and accomplishments in order of importance for the desired career goal. If you have many skills, the last skill paragraph might be called "Additional Skills."

RESUME FORMATS

There are three basic types of resumes: Chronological, Functional, and "combined" Chronological - Functional.

CHRONOLOGICAL

The chronological resume is the more traditional structure for a resume. The Experience section is the focus of the resume; each job (or the last several jobs) is described in some detail, and there is no major section of skills or accomplishments at the beginning of the resume. This structure is primarily used when you are staying in the same profession, in the same type of work, particularly in very conservative fields. It is also used in certain fields such as law and academia. It is recommended that the chronological resume always have an "Objective" or "Summary," to focus the reader.

The advantages: May appeal to older, more traditional readers and be best in very conservative fields. Makes it easier to understand what you did in what job. May help the name of the employer stand out more, if this is impressive. The disadvantage is that it is much more difficult to highlight what you do best. This format is rarely appropriate for someone making a career change.

FUNCTIONAL

The functional resume highlights your major skills and accomplishments from the very beginning. It helps the reader see clearly what you can do for them, rather than having to read through the job descriptions to find out. It helps target the resume into a new direction or field, by lifting up from all past jobs the key skills and qualifications to help prove you will be successful in this new direction or field. Actual company names and positions are in a subordinate position, with no description under each. There are many different types of formats for functional resumes. The functional resume is a must for career changers, but is very appropriate for generalists, for those with spotty or divergent careers, for those with a wide range of skills in their given profession, for students, for military officers, for homemakers returning to the job market, and for those who want to make slight shifts in their career direction.

Advantages: It will help you most in reaching for a new goal or direction. It is a very effective type of resume, and is highly recommended. The disadvantage is that it is hard for the employer to know exactly what you did in which job, which may be a problem for some conservative interviewers.

COMBINED

A combined resume includes elements of both the chronological and functional formats. It may be a shorter chronology of job descriptions preceded by a short "Skills and Accomplishments" section (or with a longer Summary including a skills list or a list of "qualifications"); or, it may be a standard functional resume with the accomplishments under headings of different jobs held.

There are obvious advantages to this combined approach: It maximizes the advantages of both kinds of resumes, avoiding potential negative effects of either type. One disadvantage is that it tends to be a longer resume. Another is that it can be repetitious: Accomplishments and skills may have to be repeated in both the "functional" section and the "chronological" job descriptions.

• WORK HISTORY
• EDUCATION
• EXPERIENCE
• AWARDS
• RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
• PUBLICATIONS
• REFERENCES if required

Most resumes are not much more than a collection of "evidence," various facts about your past. By evidence, we mean all the mandatory information you must include on your resume: work history with descriptions, dates, education, affiliations, list of software mastered, etc. If you put this toward the top of your resume, anyone reading it will feel like they are reading an income tax form. Let's face it, this stuff is boring no matter how extraordinary you are. All this evidence is best placed in the second half of the resume. Put the hot stuff in the beginning, and all this less exciting information afterward.

• The resume is visually enticing.
• There is uniformity and consistency in the use of italics, capital letters, bullets, boldface, and underlining.
• There are absolutely no errors.
• All the basic, expected information is included.
• Jobs listed include a title, the name of the company, the city and state of the company, and the years.
• It is targeted.
• Strengths are highlighted / weaknesses de-emphasized.
• It has focus.
• Use power words. SEE NEXT PAGE
• Show you are results-oriented.
• Writing is concise and to the point.
• Vary long sentences (if these are really necessary) with short punchy sentences.
• Make it look great.
• Shorter is usually better.
• Watch your verb tense.
• Break it up.

WHAT NOT TO PUT ON A RESUME

• The word "Resume" at the top of the resume
• Fluffy rambling "objective" statements
• Salary information
• Full addresses of former employers
• Reasons for leaving jobs
• A "Personal" section, or personal statistics (except in special cases)
• Names of supervisors

POWERWORDS

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