1. Do not count on a personal review of resume. Managers are busier, and more often these days they let systems narrow the field of candidates for them.

2. Find and use key words. Key words are vital and will help applicants get past the initial screening to a live person. To determine what the key words are for a position you are applying, do an Internet search of online ads or job descriptions for similar positions (e.g., by job title: “Chemical Engineer” or “High School Math Teacher.” Scan the ads, and make a list of descriptive words you see repeated (note: expect from 3-4 key words to as many as 10 or more for complex jobs).

3. Salt resume with key words sensibly. Use the key words in ways that make sense and provide a natural, even flow. Use of key words should not be obvious and get in the way of your message.

4. Win the “space race.” Remember, the resume is basically an advertisement. You want it to gain attention, picque interest, and get you to the next stage of the hiring process. Therefore, resist the need to tell your life story. Keep your resume from 1-2 pages in length, with a readable font and some white space. Save the rest of your story for the interviews.

5. Use resume to highlight areas not covered on a job application. Some organizations fail to ask about such things as language skills, technical skills, volunteer work, and professional organization involvement. Including brief mention of these items in a resume can help set you apart.

Designing your resume for the digital age puts you a step ahead.  It’s essential in some places to even have your resume read in the first place and can help you land an interview as well.

1. Do not give reasons for termination or leaving a job on the resume. The reader can invariably find negative connotations to even the best reason. Rather than including this in your professional resume, it is much better to discuss it in person.

2. Do not include items like hobbies, sports and social activities. They rarely help in getting the job, and may bias readers against a candidate (e.g., membership in a hunting or gun club could be viewed negatively by someone who is against guns or in favor of animal rights).

3. Do not include social security number, spouse’s occupation and/or personal philosophies toward religion, politics and related topics (i.e., unless germane to the position applied for).

4. Do not list references on the resume. They can easily be provided separately if requested. There is nothing to be gained for candidate or referencing individuals by exposing names of references to prospective employer.

5. Do not use exact dates (e.g., 10/23/07). Month and year are sufficient.

6. Do not include the date your resume was prepared (i.e., this is auto-formatted in some word processing templates). If your search takes longer than a few months, the professional resumes will appear outdated.

7. Do not include height, weight or remarks about physical appearance or health unless somehow germane to the position applied for.

8. Do not list high school or elementary school if a college graduate.

9. Do not state job objectives on resume unless resume is targeted to a particular job or occupation.

10. Do not use professional jargon unless absolutely sure resume will be read by someone who understands those terms.

11. Do not provide salary information on the resume, but save it for the interview. If required to provide that information, do so in cover letter.

12. Do not lie. If it is discovered before a job offer it can prevent an offer. If it is discovered after being hired, it can result in loss of job.

Avoiding these twelve “Do Not’s” can help you create a better resume and land the job.

Remember Your Audience
When writing your best resume, remember to always think about your audience. Consider your readers based on their: expectations, characteristics (who is the reader?), goals (what are your readers planning to accomplish?), and context.  For what type of situation do readers need this information?.  Be sure to identify information your readers will need and make that information easily accessible and understandable.

Be Persuasive
Writing effective professional resumes involves always being persuasive.  The job candidate who is developing their best resume must have a persuasive goal that shines through in various ways, which is to get a job interview.  A good resume almost always persuades someone to take action.  Since resume writing must be persuasive, candidates must keep in mind:

• Purpose - why the document is being written, the goals of the document
• Audience - who will read the document
• Stakeholders - those who may be affected by the document
• Context - the background in which the document is created

Online Resumes
Professional resumes must be written to be compatible with online recruiting tools and websites.  Online recruiting has revolutionized the way companies recruit employees and job seekers search and apply for jobs.  In a 2008 survey, 73 percent of job seekers used the Internet, compared to 66 percent of job seekers during the same period in 2005.  Initiating contact with prospective employers by telephone or through the U.S. Postal Service has fast become an outmoded technique for candidates looking for a job.  Recruitment is typically defined as the process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers, with appropriate qualifications, to apply for jobs with an organization.  Timely with respect to online recruiting ranges from within a few days to almost immediately.

Online – An Ever-Changing Landscape
Online recruiting continues to change at a blistering pace.  New Web sites are constantly being created, sites are merging, expanding, and/or being dissolved.  The growth of Internet recruiters, use of virtual job fairs, corporate career Websites, job boards (i.e., Monster.com, HotJobs.com, CareerBuilder.com, etc.), as well as corporate career websites are all areas of focus to stay current on online recruiting trends.  To be effective in this new digital environment, your resume must make use of key words related to the position of interest, and be written in a series of easily readable “sound bites.”  This means information is conveyed almost exclusively using bullets in short bursts, versus full sentences in paragraph form.

Conclusion
When creating your next resume, keep these three things in mind:

• Be persuasive
• Remember your audience
• Have online resumes as well as traditional resumes

Follow these three guidelines and you’re well on your way to success.

Steps in building this word picture include:

• Study job objective and ask yourself “what are the 4-5 most important skills required?”
• Create a series of columns on a spreadsheet for each of those skills or special know-how areas and label each column.
• Ask yourself, “When did I use those same skills in the past?”  Under each of the skills write action-oriented, simple statements that clearly and concisely describe how you used or developed those skills in the past.
• Assemble the Relevant Skills and Experience section of your resume by putting the contents of those 4-5 skill columns together on one page.

The primary message your professional resumes communicate should be:

• You are generally qualified
• You have the experience
• Credentials
• Basic skills needed for the job
• You are uniquely qualified
• You own unique qualifications in the areas that really matter for this particular job

Examples of what to include are:

• Relevant experience
• Formal training and credentials
• At least one significant accomplishment
• One or two outstanding skills or abilities
• A reference to your values, commitment, or philosophy if appropriate.

A career is a general course that a person chooses to pursue throughout his or her working life.  Historically, a career was a sequence of work-related positions an individual occupied during a lifetime, although not always with the same company.  However, today there are few relatively static jobs.  Career planning must be an ongoing process where an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them.

Individuals in today’s job market must truly manage their careers.  You should not concentrate only on advancement opportunities, since the present work environment has reduced many of these opportunities.  You need to conduct a realistic self-assessment, which can be as simple as a list of strengths and areas needing development.  Such a list becomes an excellent source around which your resume is built.  Since perception is often reality, it is desirable to write the list of strengths as you perceive them, and not what you think others would say.

A second exercise to help you target the right skills to highlight is to develop a list of career likes and dislikes.  This will help you to recognize restrictions you place on yourself.  The size of firm desired, willingness to travel, geographic preference, can all play a part in which skills and knowledge to emphasize.

When done correctly, your resume presents a wonderful word picture of you, captures the attention of hiring managers, and results in you getting the job.

Vision
The term “vision” has become a haggard cliché. It can mean everything or nothing. It is often used to describe the high-level objectives leaders want to achieve, and, other times, is actually a mission statement. Often these are but slogans or lists of desired objectives or “values” that are put up on the wall and left on tables in the lobby, but do not impact behaviors and attitudes.

A vision is a vibrant mental image that depicts your view of the desired future state of the organization in an inspiring way. It is not a statement of mission, a set of objectives, or a list of values. It is a word picture of what will be seen, heard, and felt when the organization fulfills that mission, and achieves results. It’s about the culture, environment, and values. If it’s not inspiring, then it’s not a vision.

Unfocused Vision
Without a clear vision, candidates create a vacuum of understanding and connection with interviewers that undermines their effectiveness.  Why?  Because most interviewers judge actions and words closely and critically, hunting for signals of direction, purpose, motives, and, especially, for the answer to “who is this person?”  Job candidates begin down the path to failure when they do not gain control of their own career objectives.  The result is not effectively getting their messages across, shaping a job plan, or gaining the confidence of those in a position to judge results of their job candidacy. Career objectives need to be clear to the job candidate and presented in both the candidate’s professional resumes and job interviews

Fulfilling Your Vision
To create momentum, you must make some quick successes. By the end of the first six months, at the most, you must have made substantial progress in addressing your job’s most pressing problems. This means marshaling resources to focus on issues that meet three criteria:  clearly defined assessment of financial needs, consciously address issues that employers understand to be important, and strive to make it to the next step in the process.

Vision in the Job Search
Job candidates secure early successes in job interview process by identifying problems that can be tackled in a reasonable period of time and whose solutions result in tangible improvements in performance.   They can supplement these points in their professional resume when identifying skills and creating an objective.  Job interviewees should focus attention on the few key issues that are central.  In doing this, they seek to get results, set the right tone, and energize their candidacy.

In these recessionary times, despite busy-ness and being short-staffed, organizations are checking references more thoroughly than ever.  My heartfelt message to anyone thinking of fudging key information on their resume is DON’T. 

Exactly what untruths are people tempted to claim on their resume?  The U.S. Department of Labor tracks these things, and when you look at the data it breaks according to those who were not hired as well as those who were hired but ultimately terminated due to resume fraud. 

Reasons why those who were not hired because of false claims fell into six categories:

• Education (claim of high school diploma, college degree(s) not earned, schools not attended). 
• Listing false employers (claims of working for large companies, prestigious firms, etc.). 
• Identified jobs that didn’t exist (gave themselves a more interesting job, or job sounding closely aligned with one they want).
• Listing incorrect job titles (better, more impressive titles).
• Misrepresenting why they left a former employer (voluntary versus involuntary).
• Listing dates of employment that were off by more than three months (memory fades and honest errors in accuracy of dates are generally accepted within a three month range; three months and beyond is seen as tracking toward deception).

We still live in an employment-at-will environment, and employers have always reserved the right to terminate employees who lied on their resume.  Sometimes resume “indiscretions” do not surface for months or years after being hired. 

Reasons why those who were hired and ultimately terminated due to something on their resume also fell into six categories:

• Falsifying company records (includes creating false letter of recommendation).
• Failure to list previous employer (candidate simply skips over mention of an employer; this is OK unless there is something about the experience with or reason for leaving employer that hiring organization had right to know about).
• Failure to admit cheating on time reporting or financial documents (includes whether someone was only disciplined versus terminated)
• Failure to reveal a prior felony conviction (key word is conviction; not required that mention be made of accusations for which someone was found not guilty).
• Lying about education and experience.
• Fabricating a college degree (includes instances where employee had degree but claimed one or more additional degrees).

Resume fraud is serious and so not worth it.  The odds of being caught are great; especially for those in executive-level positions.  Once caught, the ripple effects of lying on a resume can continue for years.

Tip 1:  One goal of a well-written resume is for it to be easy reading.  When formatting your resume, one way to make it readable is by: 

• Write primary points without use of conjunctions.  Not appropriate to use in all formats, but in some industries it is fine.  Example:  “Maintained effective, regular communications with all parties involved.”
• The KIS approach (Keep It Simple) certainly applies when it comes to most resumes.  Keeping resumes visually simple; spacing the points so they can be easily read; using a commonly accepted business-oriented font; and making selective use of “bold” or italics to highlight only very important points.

Tip 2:  Be careful in using words that sound alike but have different meanings.  Examples include:

• “Elicit,” meaning to draw or bring out, versus “illicit;” which means illegal;
• “Cite,” meaning to quote, versus “sight,” which means vision; or “site,” meaning a position or place;
• “Taught,” meaning past tense of teach, versus “taut,” which means tight;
• “Capital,” meaning a seat of government, versus “capitol,” which means a building in which a legislative body meets.

Colloquial or conversational word usage refers to types of speech or to usages that are not on a formal level.  Words that are used in easy conversation, without strict attention to set forms, describe ordinary, everyday language.  It is common to see advertising signage with words purposely spelled differently to attract attention.  No matter how trendy or common the usage, please resist the temptation to use words in their misspelled forms.  Examples include:

• “Kleen” instead of “clean;”
• “Boyz” instead of “boys;”
• “Rite” instead of “right;”
• “Nite” instead of “night;”
• “Quik,” or “kwik,” instead of “quick.”

Even when spelled correctly, it is inappropriate to use slang in any form.  “Whatever” and “you know” are easy examples. 

Tip 3:  Do not use abbreviations.  It is better form to spell out words instead of their commonly accepted short versions.  For example, write “Saint Louis” instead of “St. Louis.”    An exception to this occurs within legal circles, when referencing court cases, it is acceptable to write “v.” instead of “versus.”

In this competitive job market, many people are making use of professional resume writers.  Professionally written resumes guarantee freedom from technical issues, and are rich in words that set you apart from others applying for the same position.

Do not let such easily correctable items stand between you and your next career assignment.  If word tense, grammar or the turn of a phrase is not your forte’, consider hiring a professional resume writer.  Such people write resumes daily and the good ones guarantee their work.  Landing the job makes such a move well worth it.

Tip 1: When two numbers are used back-to-back to identify a person, place or thing, write one as a number and the other as a word. Example: “There are 4 two-lane highways in this county.”

Tip 2: When writing a resume or cover letter, do not refer to mysterious sources such as: “Leading experts agree….,” “A search of current literature indicates…,” “Several professors questioned from major universities said they believe…..” If footnotes are in order, as with some technical or scientific references, it is acceptable to include them separately.

Tip 3: Write your resume in response to these common problems:

• Lack of simplicity;
• Use of passive voice;
• Use of faulty grammar and punctuation;
• Failure to accurately proofread text.

Tip 4: When preparing to send a digital resume and cover letter via email or to a website:

• Ensure use of a consistent objective statement;
• Tailor your text to employer’s stated objectives;
• Be creative; your resume should be interesting to read;
• Write in an “active” voice with a friendly style;
• Use a bulleted format to highlight important points;
• Again, proofreading cannot be stressed enough.

Tip 5:  When writing your resume and cover letter, think in terms of “sound bites.” Rule of thumb: 80% of your content can be read and retained within 30 seconds.

Tip 6: Be sure your resume and cover letter:

• Present the “right” message;
• Are coherent; and easy to read;
• Have variety;
• Are upbeat and positive;
• Are concise;
• Use well-placed emphasis on important points.

Tip 7:  Use only “clean” language. Even if you personally know the person to whom you are sending the resume, always, always, always presume that e-mail messages containing your attached cover letter and resume will be forwarded. Do not use any off-color, sexist, profane, or otherwise objectionable language or reference. I cannot think of a good reason why such language should appear in any business communication.

Tip 8: When formatting your resume, make it readable by:

• Writing the main points with bullets;
• Keeping your text visually simple;
• Spacing the points so they can be easily read;
• Using a commonly accepted business-oriented font (e.g., New Times Roman, Ariel, etc);
• Making selective use of “bold” or italics to highlight only very important points. Many people are tempted to squeeze words into every available space. Thoughtful use of white space on a page is an excellent way to draw attention to important points.

In this competitive job market, many people are making use of professional resume writers. Professionally written resumes guarantee freedom from technical issues, and are rich in words that set you apart from others applying for the same position.

Tip 1:  Resume cover letters must communicate.  Review your letter to be sure it does the following:

• Makes the case that you are the solution to the employer’s problems.
• Gets to the primary subject quickly.
• Solidly connects employer’s job requirements with your background and experience.
• Is written such that all sentences and paragraphs are short and easy to read.
• Makes a solid connection with the needs of the prospective employer.
• Has repeated use of the word “you” (i.e., remember that the theme of your resume is what you can do for them, not the other way around). 
• Minimizes number of fonts used.  One is preferable to me, with sparing use of italics and “bold.”
• Uses a clear and easy to read font that is no smaller than a size “10” or “11.”  
• Makes a simple but clear case that you would like to work for them.
• Expresses a reason why they should contact you.
• Factors in a reason to act sooner rather than later.
• Starts the letter by stating your conclusion upfront.
• Supports your position by presenting a quantifiable objective(s) and briefly mentions why is/are relevant.
• Restate major conclusion in a sentence or two at end of letter.
• Makes it easy to reach you:  provides multiple ways that you can be contacted (i.e., home telephone, email, street address, and/or cell number at minimum).

Tip 2:  If in doubt, keep it simple.  Use an English word equivalent rather than French or Latin terms, and single-syllable words rather than multi-syllable terms.  Examples include:  “per day” instead of “per diem,” “per year” instead of “per annum,” “essential” instead of “sine qua non,” “genuine” instead of “bona fide.”  An exception is if such terms are common in your industry.

Tip 3:  Use specific, measurable terms versus those that are unclear.  Examples:  “we received numerous inquiries,” versus “we received 170 inquiries.”

Tip 4:  Eliminate use of repetitive and unnecessary words.  Example #1:  “assisted in the preparation of…,” versus:  “assisted in preparing.”  Example #2:  “responsible for the directing of…,” versus “directed.”

Tip 5:  Use first-person and second-person words (e.g., “I”, “we,” “my,” “our,” “you,” “your,” “yours,” etc.), as appropriate, to personalize your resume and cover letter. 

Tip 6:  Sometimes it is possible to be too familiar with a document to see it objectively.  Consider having someone else review your resume for you, such as a close friend or family member.

TIP 1:  Do not be too focused on tasks and duties performed at work.  Give yourself credit for accomplishment by including some achievements.  Include such things as:

• Examples of how you performed the job better than others
• Some of the problems or challenges you faced and ways that you overcame them
• Results, results, and results
• Ways that the organization benefited from your performance
• Reference to awards, special recognition or promotions you received

TIP 2:  An objective statement that is too wordy or non-specific.  Many candidates lose their readers at the opening line.  Statements like “A challenging position that enables me to contribute to organizational goals while offering an opportunity for growth and advancement” are cliché’, too generalized, and waste space.  If you are on a career track, replace the objective with a statement stating what you do or something of your expertise.

Tip 3:  A resume should be concise and written in a telegraphic style without using “I” or “me.”  Example:  “Developed new products that added $5 million in sales and increased the company’s gross margin by 15 percent.”  This style gets to the point quickly and communicates clearly.

Tip 4:  Is it “percent” or “percentage?”  Use the word “percent” with numbers, and use “percentage” without using a number.  Examples:  “Over 20 percent of our gross profit came from previous sales.”  “A large percentage of Native Americans live in Alaska.”

Tip 5:  Be careful in choosing the right word.  Example:  Some people write the word “balance” when they mean “remainder.” “Balance” means “a degree of equality,” e.g., “wanting to balance the checkbook.”  “Remainder,” or “what is leftover,” is used in all other situations, e.g., “put the remainder of my food in the dog’s bowl.”

Tip 6:  The expression “a couple of” is usually plural in meaning.  Example:  “A couple of customers have reported a shortage in their orders.”  However, when using the phrases “a couple of days” and “a couple of dollars,” the verb used should be singular.  When the phrase “a couple of” is used in conjunction with a period of time, amount of money, or quantity that represents a total amount, treat the expression as singular.  Example:  “All I need is a couple of days to complete this report.”

Do not let such easily correctable items stand between you and your next career assignment.  If word tense, grammar or the turn of a phrase is not your forte’, consider hiring a professional resume writer.  Such people write resumes for a living and the good ones guarantee their work.  Landing the job makes such a move well worth it.