Resumes: The Write Way to Present Yourself

Your resume - marketing your product (YOU)

Your resume is an essential part of your marketing campaign. It΄s the promotional piece that advertises your product - YOU. Your resume is a powerful selling tool that not only details your background and experience, it reflects your career accomplishments in a manner that will persuade the reader to contact you. An effectively written and thoughtfully composed resume will undoubtedly translate into interviews.

So how do you create an effective resume? First, let΄s start with the basics:

Components of a professional resume

1. Contact information

Make it easy to contact you either by phone, mail or e-mail. Don΄t make the recruiter track you down. Note: make sure your voicemail message is professional. You don?t want a recruiter to get the wrong impression from a silly message on the recording.

Do not include personal information, such as marital status, here or anywhere else on your resume.

2. Objective/Title

Some experts believe that including an objective may limit your chances of obtaining an interview; if your objective doesn΄t match the recruiter΄s needs at the time, you may miss out on a golden opportunity.

On the flip side, a career objective is useful in communicating that you are proactively managing your career. You know what you want, why not say it?

We suggest taking a broad approach: Instead of writing a sentence like "Seeking a career opportunity as a Marketing Executive?," try a simple title after your contact info, simply "Marketing Executive."

3. Summary statement

First, include your title and years of experience. Second, list special skills. Third, talk about your character traits or work style. Remember that this is a summary; it should only be 2-3 sentences long.

Example:

"Financial Accountant with over 10 years΄ experience with two Fortune 500 companies. Technical skills include P & L, budgeting, forecasting and variance reporting. Bilingual in Spanish and English. Self-starter who approaches every project in a detailed, analytical manner."

4. Professional experience

List each position held in reverse chronological order, going back at least ten years. If you held multiple positions within the same company, be sure to list all of them - you want the recruiter to see how you΄ve progressed. Concentrate on the description of the position - that΄s the meat & potatoes.

The body of the position description has two parts:

1. a description of your responsibilities and
2. your accomplishments