Your resume is an important reflection of who you are as an individual and should tell a potential employer in one page what makes you an excellent employee. It’s the one document that can make a hiring manager want you to join his or her team right away or want to toss your resume in the recycling bin.

For these reasons, it’s incredibly important to have a resume that accurately and succinctly reflects your previous employment, accomplishments, and skills, while also explaining why you’re the best choice for the job.

Read the Job Description Carefully & Implement Keywords

One of the first steps you should take when you’re updating or creating a resume for a specific job is to read the job description several times over. Take note of certain keywords or phrases that the employer uses and be sure to work them into your resume. This is especially important because many employers now use tracking software to filter through resumes before they’re ever seen by human eyes.

Highlight Related Work Experience

If you’re applying for information technology jobs, you should be sure to carefully detail the related responsibilities you had with previous employers, but you can condense or eliminate information pertaining to the retail clothing store you worked as a second job. You may even want to consider separating your jobs into “Relevant Experience” and “Additional Experience” sections, which can help a hiring manager quickly and easily pinpoint your experience as it relates to the position he or she is hiring for.

Mention Specific Achievements

Did you help secure a significant alumni gift for a college or university? Did you transform a struggling, underperforming retail store into a money-earning powerhouse? Did the bar you tended see a reduction in costs and losses under your management? Did you surpass your restaurant equipment sales goals multiple years in a row?

These are all important achievements that can tell a hiring manager in concrete terms how well you did your job. When adding information like this to your resume, don’t be afraid to use specific numbers, percentages, and dollar amounts when necessary. For example, if you were instrumental in bringing in grant money for a non-profit agency, specify how much money you helped bring into the establishment.

What to Avoid Putting On Your Resume

There is a lot of information you can include in your resume, but there are some things you should avoid putting on there, including:

– Personal information, such as your social security number, marital status, etc. – An employer will only need your social security number if you get hired, and unless your marital status pertains directly to a certain job, it’s unnecessary to add.

– Hobbies or personal interests – If your interest in poker or building ships in bottles doesn’t relate to the job you’re applying for, don’t put it on your resume.

– A less-than-professional email address – Don’t list your MrFancyPants@gmail.com account on your resume. Take the time to create a new one. It’s fast, easy, and free.

– Old or less relevant experience – If you’ve graduated from college, there’s no need to list your high school in an education section. Similarly, if you’ve been in the job force for a long time, a potential employer won’t care about the fast food job you held as a teenager.

Edit Carefully & Have Another Set of Eyes Take a Look

Before you click “Send” on that email addressed to a hiring manager, take the time pick through your resume meticulously. Check for misspellings, punctuation, grammar, and typos, and make sure your syntax is consistent throughout. Finally, have one or more people who you believe will give you constructive criticism review the document and make suggestions. Send your resume once you feel completely confident that it accurately portrays who you are professionally.

John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, Mr. Soland is able to offer advice and insight on a multitude of topics, including those pertaining to job hunting .

John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, Mr. Soland is able to offer advice and insight on a multitude of topics, including those pertaining to job hunting. http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Laser-Spine-Institute

Author Bio: John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, Mr. Soland is able to offer advice and insight on a multitude of topics, including those pertaining to job hunting .

Category: Jobs
Keywords: job hunting