List your technical knowledge
first, in an organized way. Your technical strengths
must stand out clearly at the beginning of your
resume. List as many directly relevant buzz words
as you can which reflect your knowledge and experience.
Make it obvious at a glance where your strengths
lie - whether the glance is from a hiring manager,
a clerk, or a machine.
List your qualifications in order
of relevance, from most to least. Only list your
degree and educational qualifications first if they
are truly relevant to the job for which you are
applying.
Quantify your experience wherever
possible. Cite numerical figures, such as monetary
budgets/funds saved, time periods/efficiency improved,
lines of code written/debugged, number of machines
administered/fixed, etc. which demonstrate progress
or accomplishments due directly to your work.
Begin sentences with action verbs.
Portray yourself as someone who is active and gets things done. Stick with the
past tense, even for descriptions of currently held
positions, to avoid confusion.
Treat your resume as an advertisement
for you. Be sure to thoroughly "sell"
yourself by highlighting all of your strengths.
If you've got a valuable asset that doesn't seem
to fit into any existing components of your resume,
list it anyway as its own resume segment.
Be concise. As a rule of thumb,
resumes reflecting five years or less experience
should fit on one page. More extensive experience
can justify usage of a second page. Consider three
pages (about 15 years or more experience) an absolute
limit. Minimize usage of articles (the, an, a) and
never use "I" or other pronouns to identify
yourself.
Omit needless items. Leave all
these off your resume: social security number, marital
status, health, citizenship, age, scholarships,
irrelevant awards, irrelevant associations and memberships,
irrelevant publications, irrelevant recreational
activities, a second mailing address ("permanent
address" is confusing and never used), references,
travel history, previous pay rates, previous supervisor
names, and components of your name which you really
never use (i.e. middle names).
Have a trusted friend review your
resume. Be sure to pick someone who is attentive
to details, can effectively critique your writing,
and give an honest and objective opinion. Seriously
consider their advice. Get a third and fourth opinion
if you can.
Proofread, proofread and proofread.
Be sure to catch all spelling errors, grammatical
weaknesses, unusual punctuation and inconsistent
capitalization. Proofread it numerous times over
at least two days to allow a fresh eye to catch
any hidden mistakes.
Laser print it on plain, white
paper. Handwriting, typing, dot matrix printing,
and even ink jet printing look pretty tacky. Don't
waste money on special bond paper, matching envelopes,
or any color extravagances away from plain white.
Your resume will be photocopied, faxed, and scanned
numerous times, defeating any special paper efforts.
