Ten Tips to add power to your Resume

Choose a resume objective that fits the job market.

If your resume objective or summary states a job title that is not used by human resources, your chances of having your resume selected for an interview are greatly diminished. With the increasing importance of resume scanning, an applicant's failure to use the right title can be even more of a disadvantage. Use the www classifieds and job banks to see which job title to use in your resume for the type of work you do.

Choose a resume objective that fits your experience and education.

Using a job title in the resume objective or summary that is inconsistent with your experience and education is also counterproductive. It results in your resume being initially selected for openings that you will never get hired for. For example, don't call yourself an engineer if you lack a degree in engineering, even though your previous company may have given you that title.

Focus your resume on accomplishments rather than on job duties.

Many resumes are excellent job descriptions and terrible marketing tools. Most employers know job duties already. Writing them in detail just makes your resume generic and boring. The trend in business is away from job duties anyway. Employers want to see initiative on your resume that is not constrained by a list of written job duties. Directing employers' attention to accomplishments and away from duties should be a guiding principal of presenting yourself in a resume. Limit duties to a couple of lines below the job title, and use bullets and white space on your resume to highlight your specific accomplishments.

Always explain or quantify the accomplishments you use on your resume.

More important than sales figures or increased efficiency is how you solve organisational problems. Your resume should describe exactly what you did, and how you propose to measure your effectiveness. If you doubled sales, use your resume to explain how you analysed the market, identified new customers, and motivated a sales team. Your resume should show you in action as a creative problem solver.

Make your resume easy to read.

Many resumes are poorly written. They contain paragraphs that are too long, fail to use white space, and include meaningless detail. Resumes that are difficult to read make you look ineffectual as a potential employee. In contrast, a well written resume highlights your ability to produce a quality product. If you are a poor writer, get someone else to write your resume for you.

Avoid the perception of career decline in your resume.

Highlighting an impressive position you held of number of years ago can work against you on your resume, especially if you have held a number of short term jobs since then. Careers do peak, and often the last few jobs an older worker holds are a prelude to retirement. You must be less specific about a previous job if it is over shadowing your more recent positions. Omitting such things as the number of people supervised or the actual size of contracts can balance the old and the new in a way that restores a sense of career advancement to your resume.

Don't let your resume show your age.

Give less information about jobs in this section, or even omit jobs altogether. This solution to age discrimination is far superior to eliminating all dates, a sure sign that you are trying to hide your age. Of course, you will eventually have to meet employers face to face, but you have a better chance fighting age discrimination in person than on your resume.

Always strive for consistency from job to job on your resume.

Employers are not particularly sympathetic to many career changes. They fear that you will change again rather than face some negative aspects of the jobs they are offering. Write your resume to emphasise common themes, especially ones related to current skill requirements. As an example, if you are a teacher going into HR work, stress time management, performance evaluation, training of peers and any positions of leadership you have held. Make your work history seem like a natural progression rather than a series of failed initiatives.

Avoid functional or quasi-functional resumes.

The harder it is to match accomplishments to jobs or dates, the more employers think there is something you are trying to hide. Why else make your resume so hard to follow? You must make your resume look transparent while actually emphasising your career accomplishments and eliminating the negatives. That means using a reverse chronological order for your resume that keeps job duties, skills and accomplishments under their respective job titles and dates. Use years rather than months and years to cover resume gaps. Change the format to "Other Positions Held" when you can't eliminate problems any other way. Hire a good resume writer if you can't figure out how to do it yourself. It is money well spent, especially if you have a problem in your work history.

Don't leave entrepreneurial skills out of your resume.

Sure, the dot.coms have lost their glamor. Still in demand is the desire for applicants who can analyse complex and changing marketing conditions, take risks when necessary, and provide the team leadership and motivation to get the job done. Employers are looking for effective consultant of change within their organisations, and your resume should emphasise your successes in this important area.

Special resume hint for executives, upper level managers and professionals: It is important that your resume show increased sales and improvements in the bottom line in a variety of executive, managerial and professional situations. You won't be hired for the repeated application of someone else's concept or strategy. Your resume must demonstrate your own entrepreneurial solutions.