Writing a Great Resume (Cliffs Notes)

Resumes are easy to write and can be completed

quickly. This view has long been prevalent among those

who ignore their resumes until they begin an active job

search. The truth, however, is that writing an effective

resume requires both time and effort. Anyone can do it,

but it takes intensive self-assessment, careful preparation,

and detailed execution, often with several revisions to get

it right. The return on that investment is a resume that

serves you well in the job market and helps you manage

your career successfully.

 Once written, your resume need not be updated or

tailored. Your resume is actually a living document. You

should constantly update and refine it to reflect your

growth and development in the workplace. Continued

refinement can help you gauge your career progress and

ensure that your record is always ready and available for

review, if an attractive opportunity becomes available.

 Page count doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, it does.

Employers have limited time to review your resume and

limited space in which to store it. Therefore, keep your

resume to two pages, maximum, and use your objective

statement to focus on the information that best positions

you to compete for the kind of job you want.

To make sure that an employer correctly enters your

resume into a computerized management system (see

Chapter 1), print each page on a separate sheet of paper,

rather than on both sides of a single sheet.

 The best resume identifies your previous responsibilities.

Employers are less interested in responsibilities

than in work accomplished — what you did and how

well you did it in previous jobs. Therefore, use action

verbs to describe the tasks you performed, the actions

you took, and the achievements you accomplished. For

example, “Performed daily audits of all accounts payable

activities. Corrected errors and updated records to ensure