Resume Writing Advice and Tips

It used to be that there were just a few set rules for writing resumes. The existance of those rules however remain no longer - making the traditional rules useless.

Today, writing a resume can be compared to baking a cake. In a lot of instances the ingredients are bascially the same.

What determines the final product is how all the ingredients are put together, quanitities, and order of the certain ingredients that go into the writing of your resume. There are items that rarely or never go in, and then there are those items that can be added with a special touch of course depending on your very personal tastes.

Do you think that this sounds complicated? More info on how to write a resume is here.

Ingredients of a Resume

• Name - Yes this is obvious but I have seen resumes where people have forgotten to include their name. Remember to include your name the way you would introduce yourself to someone else. (ex. Hi I am Sammy Wight) Do not use your initals, there is no need for Mr. Mrs etc. unless you might have a name that it is hard to tell if the name is female or male.
  
• Address - Just put your complete address here, no abbreviations . You want this to be accurate as this may be how the company needs to contact you.
• Telephone Number - Your telephone number must always be included, with area code. Remember you do not know where your resume is going to be screened. You can also put a daytime number and a evening number if that applies to your situation.
• Email Address - Set-up and email address with your own name if you do not already have one. No employer is going to email someone who has an email of hotspicy@whatever.com
• Job Objective - this is a short one or two sentence area on your resume about the kind of job you want and how you can contribute to the company in return for such a job.
  
• Employment Dates - This is a must as many resume readers will not be comfortable if a resume has obmitted this part. Show a steady work history here in cronilogical order.
• Keywords - Many companies today screen resumes using electronic means. This means a human won't even look at your resume unless they find certain words in them. Examples of how to title a keyword are to put in your resume are: Special Knowledge, Keyword Preface, Keyword Section, Areas of Expertise. This area could increase your chances of getting attention.
  
• Job Titles - This area will provide a generic identification and not reflect exactly waht you may have been called in the past. You could be a bit vague here unless you are applying for a job like a Heart Surgeon.
  
• Company Name - Include the name of your employers here, but there is no need for the addresses. You could include the division of the company as well.
• Responsibilities - This is the meat of the resume. Here you can list your responsibilites but also your special achievements and contributions too. This is a key area.
  
• Endorsements - Quotes from previous employers regarding your work.
• Professional Affiliations - Memberships with assicociations and societies related to your field.
• Languages - Describe any other languages you are fluent in.
• Education - this area can be more or less important to you, it depends on if you just graduated or have been in the working field for a long time.
  

What can never go into a resume?

• A Title - This is redundant so do not include it.
• Availability - This is also redundant why? Because if you are not available for work why are you wasting someones time here.
• Reasons for Leaving - This is something that can be discussed in an interview.
• References - This is considered to be inappropriate.

There are many more things regarding resumes and their appropriate content and ways to lay it out for your job type.

1. The Heading - You will notice on the resume outline is the resume heading. The resume heading on the resume outline is where you place all of your contact information. This includes your name, address, telephone number and email address if you have one.
2. The Job Objective - This is the section where you let the prospective employer know what type of position that you are looking for and how you can contribute to the growth of the company.
3. The Body - The body of the resume outline is where you will list details about your work experience, education and skills. In most cases, you will list this information with your work experience first. In the event that you are using a resume outline based on a functional resume then this would not be the case. Instead, you would categorize your experience in terms of skills categories. Education is commonly listed toward the end of the body of the resume outline.
4. Achievements - The achievement section can contain a variety of different types of information. Yet another area of the resume outline that you can make use of is the special skills section. If you possess special skills that would be of use to the employer then you should use this section.
5. Your References  -  References are not necessarily required and you may need to wait until the employer asks for this information before you actually provide it. Whatever you do, do not list the cliché statement 'references available upon request.' The employer will assume that anyway, so there is no need to take up valuable space with this statement.