For many, resume writing is a lost art form. These tips for writing resumes are meant to set you apart from the rest of the pack. Sure you can go to a Resume Writing Service, but that can cost you $50 to $1000. Yes, a thousand! A Resume Writer is just that, not a miracle worker, and not all are Career Experts. Word Processing Services are much cheaper, if you have an outline, a snippet of your Master Resume. I say snippet, because you are not going to be sending it out. It will contain your entire work history, all the skills that you have acquired, including skills from volunteering, coaching little league, the PTA, and even your paper route.It will also include your personality traits. Depending on your age and work history, it can be quite lengthy. In your job or career search, you're going to customize your resume to that job. Keep in mind; Employers receive hundreds, if not thousands of resumes. In some instances; human eyes don't even see it, they put it into a resume scanner. This scanner is programmed to pick out the skills that they need. For every 10 resumes you send out, you should be getting 1 interview. If that's not the case, you need resume help! A few more things to keep in mind before I get to the nitty gritty... If you haven't done so yet, you need to post resume with as many online resume banks as possible. Monster is one of the very best, but you need to be on at least 2 or 3. If you feel stuck in a rut, Career Counselling Services are great! The career advice you get is absolutely priceless. It can be the difference between a job and a career. Check my post Second Career. If you're not proficient with word processors, many have resume templates, even better, Resume Software Programs have a much better selection to choose from. Online resume banks have many resume examples too. In the interim, Employment Agencies can help you find a job to tie things over, and get you out of that rut. It will be a great boost in your confidence, even if it's not your dream job.

Once you have your Master Resume, take a look at what skills, and traits are mentioned in the ad, and list them first.- after your contact information. Which should include your name, address, phone number, and email address. Right after your contact info, you want a heading of Summary of Qualifications. This is where you are going to incorporate your relevent skills, along with those listed, and your career object. Be short, sweet, and to the point. No more than 5 or 6 lines. You have about 10-20 seconds to capture their attention. After that, list some of your other skills and charcteristics, such as Other Related Skills and Characteristics. Things like team player, work independently or with little supervision. You want to tie these in with the key skills they are looking for. Use their lingo, you want to show that you're on the same page. After that, Education, most recent first, and any Certificates or Credentials. You then follow with Employment History. Again, most recent first, with a brief description of your duties. Most importantly, no more than 2 pages, and keep a copy with a note as to where you sent this version. This will keep you better organized, and remember what you said where. When you're called in for an interview, review your Master Resume, and make note of any other related experience on the back of your copy. Bring this copy with you to help keep you focused.

Don't forget, sometimes human eyes are not going to see it first, unless the scanner flags it because of the key words that were programmed. Another reason not to use italics, bold, or underlined. Forget about fancy fonts too! Computers don't care about aesthetics. Arial or Times Roman work best. If you happen to know that a prospective employer is using a resume scanner, it's perfectly okay to send more than 2 pages. Their database might match you for some jobs you never thought about. As a matter of fact, call them and ask if they do, then send two copies, one for human eyes-aesthetically pleasing and all (2 pages), and a scannable resume (3 pages is okay). Use a post-it note to let them know which one is which. The first line should have your name only, your address & phone number must be below your name. Use industry terms, jargon, buzz words, hard skills, key functions, personality traits, specific computer hardware & software-list them all, programming languages, fields of study, and foreign languages. Use nouns, and noun phrases relevant to the industry or profession. For example, Self-motivated IT manager with a strong work ethic and problem solving abilities OR Accomplished in Microsoft Office software applications, Excel, Word and PowerPoint. You still need the active verb, but nouns and noun phrases are key. Use this kind of style in your Summary of Qualifications (the one for human eyes), but make it more conversational.

Most importantly, be truthful, check for spelling, and grammatical errors-your resume will be rejected by both human & computer. Using spell check doesn't do it all.  Have a friend and/or a family member go over it. Use them to help with your Master Resume too! They may come up with skills you never thought of!