Set Yourself Apart from Others with Your Resume

I want to talk to you today about the importance of setting yourself apart from others with your resume.  Your resume is not a one-size fits all document, and you are not a one-size fits all employee.  So let’s look at a few suggestions that will help you with your resume:

1)    More than one page is okay.  That rule came about for college students who were just graduating and had no real work experience.  Two to three pages will be the norm for most jobseekers.

2)    Showcase what makes you a beneficial employee.  When companies interview you they want to see that you will make difference in their organization.  Here are some items to consider:

§  Increasing profit or revenue.

§  Supervising employees (hiring, interview, dismissal, performance reviews).

§  Reducing costs.

§  Managing a budget.

§  Creating or co-creating proposals, policies and procedures, employee manuals, tips sheets, spreadsheets, etc.

§  Dealing with, assisting, or other regular contact with big name clientele in your daily work, like GE, AT&T, 3M, IBM, Bank of America, and Garmin.  This also includes big name companies within your city or region that others outside of the area might not know.

§  Managing inventory.

§  Sales numbers.

§  Building new business.

§  Training and coaching employees.

§  Negotiating pricing (with customers or vendors).

§  Starting a new department or branch from scratch.

§  Improving customer service.

§  Project Management.

3)    Use bulleted points instead of paragraphs.

4)    Use action words/verbs to start each bullet point (manage, develop, implement, systematize, increase, decrease, coordinate), remember to use the proper tense, and not overuse the same action verbs (get your thesaurus out or use the one Microsoft Word provides).

5)    Avoid generalizations like Microsoft Office and instead use each application – for instance:  Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

6)    Proof, proof, proof your document.  Read it to yourself, wait a few hours and then come back to the document and read it out loud (this is a great way to catch syntax errors), and then read it backwards (better to catch spelling, punctuation, and double word errors).

Follow these simple tips and you will have better resume, and increase your chances of an interview.