Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Resume Writing

How to write a good resume

How do we define a “good resume”? In my experience, a good resume is pleasing to look at, easy to read, and contains all the information necessary to know whether or not the person represented by said resume can do the job in an effective and efficient manner. A good resume should look professional and reflect the abilities of the person it is meant to represent without a lot of fluff in between the lines.

Your resume is equivalent to a "sales flyer". It should have enough information that the employer wants to meet you, but not so much that he/she doesn't have to. You want to be called for an interview, so don't give too many extra details.

Knowing how to write a good resume could quite possibly be one of the most valuable business skills you can ever learn. Hardly anyone stays in the same job for years and years and years like days of the past. We are constantly looking for new challenges, more money, and more satisfaction, so having the skill of knowing how to write a good resume is something that you will always have. It can mean the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview.

The employer wants to know 3 things: What can you do for me? How can you save me money? How can you save me time? They are making an investment in you and want to make sure they are getting their money's worth.

A good resume will include only pertinent information about you – the job applicant. It is written in a professional and positive manner focusing on abilities, skills, and talents that can benefit your future employer. Of course, that can be a little difficult to do on paper, but not when you know what words to use. A thesaurus can be a life saver here when you are looking for the right words.

Never, ever, make any job sound like it is a mundane, boring position. It doesn’t matter if you are standing behind the counter at your local Starbucks, you can still focus on the positive aspects of that job. For example, when you make the coffee, you are responsible for quality control. When you give it to the customer, you are insuring good customer service. When you ring it up on the cash register, you are responsible for cash flow. Any job can sound much better when you “flower it up” and be creative in doing so!

You can look on the Internet for tools and tips on how to write a good resume. Not only do they have examples of resumes to refer to, there are many articles on how to write a good resume and even resume writing services where you pay a professional resume writer to craft your resume from information you provide to them.

Want to know how to write a good resume? Just be honest, give as much information as possible in the space provided, and then let the resume talk for you.

Keep watching this blog for information on How To Ace The Interview.

Fran Watson
Career Coach

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