Resume's are called a variety of things (eg, curriculum vitae, CV). There is no universally accepted format. The most important attribute of a successful resume is that it clearly explains to the reader what it is that you can do for them. Your resume should be:

• A well-presented, selling document
• A source of interesting, relevant information
• A script for talking about yourself

The purpose of your resume is not to get you the job. Its purpose is to get you an interview, and after your meeting to remind the person you met with about you. Remember: you are not writing a resume for yourself, you are writing it for the reader. So, as you write your resume, put yourself in the shoes of the intended reader.

This section takes you through the content and detail of effective resumes:

• A standard two-page printed resume
• A one-page summary resume
• An online resume

The decision to recruit is like a buying decision on the part of an employer. This creates a very clear picture of what a resume must include:

• It must meet the needs of the target organisation where possible. This means a single generalist resume is unlikely to be sufficient.
• It must highlight your achievements and how they relate to the job you are applying for. It must give the reader a clear indication of why you should be considered for this role.

To decide what to include in your resume and where, follow these principles and guidelines:

• Generally, the document should contain no more than 2 pages. Sometimes, a one page summary is all that is required.
• Your resume should be honest and factual.
• The first page should contain enough personal details for a recruitment consultant or potential employer to contact you easily.
• Choose a presentation format that allows you to headline key skills, key achievements or key attributes.
• Your employment history should commence with your current or most recent job and work backwards.
• Achievements should be short, bullet-pointed statements and include your role, the action you took and a comment on the result of your action.
• Where information clearly demonstrates your suitability for the vacancy you're applying for, and enhances your chances of being short-listed, include this information near the beginning of the resume.
• Leave out information that is irrelevant or negative.
• Include details of recent training or skills development events you have attended which could be relevant.
• List all your professional memberships and relevant qualifications.

As we work through examples in this section, we will continually refer back to these principles and guidelines.

The most common contents of a resume include:

• Personal Details
• Skills and Career Summary
• Key Achievements
• Qualifications
• Career History

Don't forget: The ultimate test of YOUR RESUME is whether it meets the needs of the person making the buying decision, and whether YOU feel comfortable with its content and style.

The next few pages will provide a detailed description of how to achieve this. When you submit a printed resume to a recruiter or a potential employer, it is likely to be the first thing they get to see or read of yours. Therefore, you need to present your resume well and make it user friendly. For example:

• Use a good quality paper, typically 100gsm in weight and watermarked. In most cases, be conservative and print your resume in black ink on white paper. Covering letters should use identical stationery.
• Lay your resume out neatly
• Don't make the margins too deep or too narrow
• Resist writing lengthy paragraphs - be concise
• Careful use of bold type can be effective
• Typefaces such as Times New Roman or Arial are fairly standard
• Do not use a type size less than 11pt
• Check for spelling or typographical errors - whoever actually types your resume, errors are YOUR responsibility. Don't rely on a spell checker. If you're not sure about a word, resort to a dictionary. Sloppiness and lack of care could be heavily penalised.

Key Skills/Competencies/Attributes:

Summarise the things about you that are relevant to this role. You can present the information as a list of achievements, a summary of skills, or a list of key competencies (this choice should be made in consultation with your career consultant). Give as much evidence as you can to suggest that you are suited to the career that you are pursuing.

A reminder: You will find a list of your skills in the summary pages.

The one-page summary resume may also include one or two of the following sections if you consider they enhance your application.

Preparing your own Curriculum Vitae can seem a daunting task, quite apart from what to put in and what to leave out, describing your own strengths and abilities isn't easy. What we have tried to do with the following guidelines is to make the whole process a much easier one and ensure that you end up with a professional document which shows you how to pitch your skills and stand out from the crowd. In the current economic and employment climate, employers are looking to consistently improve on productivity and match a prospective employee's skills and experience with the job needs, both now and in the future.

Presentation and layout

• Always ensure that your CV is laser-printed on white, good quality paper, use a clean typeface and don't go smaller than 12 point.
• The use of sub-headings (e.g. Personal details, career history, etc.) will help potential employers glean the information they require with ease.
• There should be clear spaces between category headings for easy clarification and definition.
• Your name, address and phone number(s) should form the start of the document.
• If you are giving a work number add the following - 'please use with discretion.'
• Commencing with your present or most recent employer, state your career history. Then list your professional qualifications. If you have been working for many years list your academic qualifications and a very brief mention as to your college or schooling. If you are just commencing your working life, having previously been a student, provide more in depth knowledge regarding your academic achievements to date.

Content
Starting with your current or most recent employment provide details of your position as follows:

• Job title - time that you have held this position
• The key tasks and responsibilities that comprise this role's requirements - notable achievements whilst in the role
• Where possible quantify your achievements with precise facts and figures, e.g. managed junior staff, handled department budget, prepared management reports
• Expand on the skills you are using in your current job which you believe will be valuable in the position(s) for which you are applying

It is not necessary to state the reason you are leaving your current position. This will be a topic for conversation when you are invited for interview or can be covered in your letter of application.

For all previous employment, unless one appointment was more significant than your current or last position, keep details brief i.e. the name of the company, job title, period of employment and the job.

Be sure there are no gaps in your career history - unless for example you took a year out to travel, in which case make reference to this under Interests/Hobbies.

If you are a student just starting work, give any evidence you can to demonstrate your practical skills e.g. school prefect, event organisation, member of sports team, contributor to college magazine or voluntary work.

You are under no obligation to disclose marital status, age or whether or not you have children unless these are specific criteria for selection for a position that you are interested in.

Consider what examples (interests/ hobbies) you can give to show that you match the selection criteria.

If they want someone to work as part of a large team, remember to say if you belong to a local organisation or if you are part of a sports team.

If they want someone who will work on their own for large periods of time, make reference to an Open University course you are considering undertaking.

Your primary objective is to convince the prospective employer that you have the requisite skills, experience and hunger to do the job.

Your CV should be no more than two A4 pages and as every employer is different remember to customise your CV to every job you go after.

REMEMBER - THIS IS NOT A TIME TO BE MODEST! YOU WILL NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION!

By Natalie Kobica

A quick glance over your resume can make or break your application.

All your hard work in selling yourself will be for nothing if your skills, qualifications and achievements do not stand out and aren't easy to get to when an employer or consultant skims over it.

So how do you make your resume easy to read, whether it is online or on paper?

First consider the relevance of information.
Only include information that is factual, shows you have the skills to do the job and is relevant to the role you are applying for. If you don't think it will help you secure an interview, leave it out. There is no benefit in stating you own and drive a sports car when applying for a sales position with a retail clothes store.

Present your details in a brief yet precise manner.
As much as possible use summary words, brief points or titles instead of detailed, lengthy sentences - especially for personal, education/training and membership information. Your work history should be summarised in simple detail. Large blocks of text should be avoided, as they can be difficult to read.

How much relevant information is too much?
Think about when the information relates to. The further back in time you go, the less information you should provide - employers are more interested in what you have done recently or are currently doing. Time itself can make information that you think is important, irrelevant. For example, job descriptions over 10 years ago (or approximately 5 jobs ago) do not need to be included at all. Simply state that details relating to this time can be provided on request.

Include plenty of white space
Don't be afraid to use generous spacing and wider than usual margins if possible. With a brief and precise resume you can afford to add plenty of space and still keep your resume at a reasonable length.

Unless specifically requested by the employer, do not include written references in your resume. They are generally not of interest to the reader at an early stage, instead indicate these can be provided on request. You can even do without any reference to referees - a simple statement that these will be provided on request will suffice.

Do not get carried away with the number of pages
Generally, two pages is a decent resume length - however, shorter or longer resumes may work just as well depending upon the position. More important than page number, detailing relevant information and then presenting it in a succinct, user friendly way is your best chance for securing an interview. Review your layout, space it out evenly and produce a resume that will work for you.

By Rita Fisher
CPRW

What's wrong with an objective on a resume? The problem with objectives on resumes is that a typical objective is self-centered and self-serving; therefore, it is useless. Instead of an objective, use a power statement.

Let me illustrate what I mean by giving examples of both objectives and power statements. Here is a typical objective, one that HR personnel see on top of resumes all the time:

"Customer Service Representative position allowing me to fully utilize my skills and attributes and providing professional advancement opportunities.

"What did this objective tell me? The above objective communicated to me basically nothing but for the sake of this case study here are a few points:

A. The person is looking for a Customer Service position. (No problem with that.)

B. The individual's priority seems to be his/her professional advancement within the organization. (Oops, that's not the way to treat a potential employer. That's not what the company wants to hear. They want to hear how you will BENEFIT THEM, not yourself.)

C. The candidate didn't specify skills and attributes thus didn't give any glimpse into what he/she can do for the company. (Not good because employers want specifics.)

D. Self-oriented instead of employer oriented. (Not good at all.)

Let's translate the same objective into a power statement.

"Award-winning highly accomplished and motivated Customer Service professional with proven track record of rapport-building, resourceful problem-solving and communication skills."

What did this tell me? The power statement communicated to me that:

A. The person is a competent, distinguished (award-winning) Customer Service professional who has excellent working knowledge of his/her trade. (Good.)

B. Has a proven track record of relevant attributes. (Good.)

C. The reader can get a glimpse into how the person could benefit the company as a result of mentioning specific skills and abilities that are necessary to do that particular job well. (Very good.)

D. The power statement is employer-oriented, not focused on self.

Remember, when employers look at your resume, they read it with one thought and one thought only in mind: What Can This Person Do for Us? If you include a self-oriented objective, instead of an employer-oriented power statement at the top of your resume, you will turn off the potential employer before they even get a chance to read your entire resume.

The main difference between the objective and the power statement is that while the objective is self-serving and self-focused, the power statement is employee-oriented and results-focused. Employers only care about results - the results you will produce for them on the job whether it will be saving money, solving a problem or increasing profitability. If you can hint within your power statement in a short and compelling way how you will benefit the company, you are on your way to your interview. Go get them!

By Alesia Benedict
CPRW, JCTC

Anything being sent to a decision-maker should sell you, not just state facts. When conducting a job search, your cover letter and resume are in a pile for the decision-maker to review, one by one, along with a vast number of other documents submitted by other hopeful individuals. The odds that YOUR document is the very first ones on the pile are about a zillion to one! This means the decision-maker has probably read X number of cover letters (and resumes) before reaching your set of documents. With that in mind, I never recommend you start the cover letter with the sentence used in so many other letters:

"Pursuant to your recent advertisement in the New York Times for the position of Staff Accountant, I am enclosing my resume for your review."

B-O-R-I-N-G!! Plus, the decision-maker probably just read this same (or very similar) sentence about five dozen times. Remember, you want to GRAB the decision-maker's attention and SELL yourself to them.

Since the cover letter is designed to market you to potential employers, don't state the obvious. If the cover letter does not create a sense of excitement and entice the reader, it is a waste of your time for writing it and a waste of time for the reader reading it.

Keep track of how many times you use the words "I" and/or "my". After you write the letter, take a pen and circle all the I's and my's in the letter: more than five? Time to re-write some of the sentences.

Here's an illustration of how to do that: instead of writing "I am looking for an opportunity for advancement with a new employer. My background is in retail management and I feel well-qualified for the Store Manager position with your company" you can write, "A background in retail management and proven record of obtaining results as a Store Manager are key elements in qualifying me for consideration as part of your team."

Remember the PURPOSE of the cover letter: to highlight your background in the right light, sell your skills, and show the potential employer you are worthy of an interview. Explaining what you WANT throughout the letter doesn't tell the reader the BENEFIT of what you can offer, which is imperative for you to be successful.

One of the techniques I like to use in cover letters is to pull out the top 4 or 5 achievements and mention them in bullet form with the letter. It serves as a wonderful focus point for readers' eyes and draws their attention immediately to your strengths. Here's a brief highlight in what would naturally be a longer cover letter:

...Recognized as a top-performer and dedicated professional, my record of achievements include: á Generating a 58% increase in new business during tenure as Regional Advertising Manager á Boosting client media coverage 50% and developing partnerships with previously unsecured media contacts.

There are many ways to say things but, as you can see, some words have a stronger impact on readers than others. In cover letters, e-resumes, and traditional resumes, you can change the reader's perception in a heartbeat by substituting various words or phrases for more traditional (and outdated) verbiage. See the outline below: