Designing Your Resume

[sajiv]

Purpose
A resume is a self-marketing tool. It is designed with one purpose in mind - to "sell" your skills, knowledge, and experience to an employer so that he/she will invite you for an interview. An effective resume speaks to the employer's needs and requirements and demonstrates a match between what you have to offer and those requirements. It stimulates interest in you by summarizing information: unique qualities, well developed skills, relevant work or academic experiences, or accomplishments that clearly differentiates you from the competition.

Employers want to know about you, not your position. Spend more time describing your duties, responsibilities and accomplishments than describing the size and nature of your organization, although it is important for the employer to know that you have had experience in a similar organization. Your resume should be factual, impressive, readable, and tailored to the position you are seeking. It should describe your experience and achievements to stimulate a positive response. Your resume is an important item in getting you the position desire.

Preparation
In preparing to write your resume, remember that you can only count on an employer to spend twenty seconds scanning your resume before deciding whether to review it further or put it aside. The key is to design the format in such a way that it leads the employer's eye to words that speak to his/her needs. Obviously then, effective resumes are developed by individuals who have thoroughly researched the organizations they want to work for, have identified the specific job they want, and have figured out what they have to offer. In addition, well designed resumes have these characteristics in common:

* Visual appeal, easy to read layout, and high quality reproduction;

* Highlights strengths and links them to employer's needs; minimizes or excludes irrelevant experience;

* Presents the most important information first;

* Entirely free from any errors: spelling, typographical, punctuation, or grammatical;

* Succinct and organized; does not exceed two pages.