Writing a resume. Daunting task for some, simple task of updating for others. There are many excellent bloggers/hubbers on this subject matter, this is just my perspective as an industry professional. Your resume is a snap shot of your career and what you can offer. In essence, it is a marketing tool. It is your personal branding tool. So do yourself a favour and put some effort into it. You can do a traditional resume or try something different and use electronic forms such as providing a link to a webpage that is your resume and takes the reader through your career or a video resume. Admittedly, I haven't actually received a video resume, but I have seen some awesome ones online and I do live in Adelaide so I'm not expecting one any time soon. I am looking forward to receiving one though. I will predominantly focus on the traditional resume in this hub.

RESUME CONTENT AND FORMAT

Remember, this is a snap shot of your career and what you have to offer. Your resume is a tool for you to get in front of the hiring person and make your impression. There are a variety of templates out there which you can follow and choose from to suit your taste. So, I'm not going to bore you with adding more examples for you to look at. I will add one short example at the end and give you a few links to go to for ideas. Whatever format or style you choose, make sure that you

• Make good use of space - don't clutter your resume it makes it hard to read. Space makes it look more user friendly. When you are going through a recruiter or headhunter, it pays to make it look user friendly otherwise they won't read all of it.
• Use dot points. Again, this makes your resume easier to read. It also helps you to get to the point. Most people skim through resumes so dot points make the key points stand out.
• In your skills/experience summary quantify where possible. For example if you have 8 years of joint venture experience, put it down as a dot point. Numbers jump out at people. Be really honest with yourself here because a lot of people short sell themselves on the skills. Sit down and list your skills - refer to my previous hub. Look at your job and your previous jobs and list what skills are needed to perform in them successfully. Ask someone else what skills they think are necessary to perform the job. And if you did the role successfully chances are you have those skills.
• Include any achievements in your previous or current position. Many people overlook this. Or don't put it down because they are too modest and perceive any achievements as "just part of the job". Achievements are good selling points as they demonstrate that you can apply your skills and competencies to exceed expected outcomes. This is especially important at the management or executive level or sales positions.
• Don't just list what your responsibilities were in your previous or current job. List what your goals were in the role or what the purpose of the job was. This will make your achievements clearer to yourself too.
• Don't write essays about what the company you worked for did. A brief summary will suffice. A resume of around 3-5 pages is ideal. Any longer and it's hard for the reader to stay interested.
• Please put time frames on your resume. And not just years either. Put month and year. Such as 02/2006 - 05/2009. My pet hate as a recruiter is when I just get the year on resumes. I feel like the candidate is trying to hide something. Or worse no dates at all!
• Don't falsify information. I've had clients who call every employer on a candidate's resume to make sure they've worked there in the position stated on their resume. Many organisations will do background checks to verify qualifications and criminal records. This may sound straight forward, but believe me, I've uncovered some dodgy things through reference checking.
• Make sure the referees on your resume (if you choose to list them) know you've put them down. It's very embarrassing when I call a candidate's listed referee and this person doesn't remember them. Or worse is annoyed that they've been put down.
• Add your personal touch and always proof read. If you've had multiple versions saved, mark them clearly. I've had an embarrassing incident where I've accidently sent an unedited resume out to a potential employer. I wasn't surprised when they didn't bother sending me a "thanks but no thanks" email. D'oh!

Tailor your resume to represent you the accountant or you the marketing professional. For example, Joe Numbercrunch is a CA with 9 years of public practice experience in business services. He's been workin for mid tier firms but wants to go to a big 4. He wants to position himself as an achiever with strong tax knowledge, management skills, commercial knowledge and client relationship building skills. He also needs demonstrate that he has worked with a varied cross section of clients and industries. So his resume would look something like this (this is a very basic example of something you can put together quickly):

JOE NUMBERCRUNCH

B.Commerce (Accountint), CA

joenumbercrunch@gmail.com

0400400400

CAREER AND EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

• 9 years of business services experience within large mid tier accounting firms
• 5 years of experience in managing teams of 4-10 staff
• Client base includes SMEs (professional services, retail, building & construction, health care with t/o of $100k - $2M), large organisations with overseas subsidiaries (professional services, export, FMCG, energy, mining, financial services with t/o of $2M - $100M)

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES SUMMARY

• Client relationship management
• Team management
• Update knowlege of business tax
• Ability to work under pressure to strict time frames
• Strong commercial acumen and awareness
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated ability to capitalise on new business opportunities.
• Experience with APS
• Proficient in MYOB, Solution 6, Sybiz
• Exposure to SAP and Oracle

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Horwaths 03/2005 - current

Manager, Business Services

My role as Manager included managing a team of 10 staff at various levels from cadet level through to supervisors. My purpose is to

• Review my team's work to make sure the standard is acceptable and up to date
• Ensure all compliance is met
• Prepare every team member for the next stage in their careers
• Manage, review and delegate workflow
• Engage my clients and staff on jobs to make sure my staff understands what outcome the client wants
• Give my staff the technical training they need to perform their responsibilities
• Mentor staff to make sure they are motivate to achieve their professional goals and clients' expectations
• Liaise with clients through out jobs to make sure their desired outcome have been met
• Advise clients on a suitable course of action, business environment, tax implications, tax updates and any compliance issues
• Consult with clients on business expansions, new company set up, overseas set up and compliance

Achievements

• Average personal write-ons of 10-20% in the past year
• Reduce my team's write-off from 15% down to 4% in the past financial year
• Successfully mentored a Senior accountant to be promoted to Supervisor level
• Introduced 5 new large clients with local and overseas business interest to the firm in the last 3 months

PKF 01/2000 - 02/2005

Supervisor 08/2003 - 02/2005

Senior 02/2002 - 07/2003

Graduate 01/2000 - 01/2002

Achievements

• Promoted twice during the 5 years I was with PKF
• Reached 0% write-off within my first 12 months
• Chosen to work onsite with our major mining client on secondment to Singapore

EDUCATION:

CA Program

ICAA completed 2003

Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)

University of Adelaide 1997 - 1999

INTERESTS/HOBBIES:

• Golf
• Windsurfing
• SES volunteer

REFEREES:

Available upon request

Of course Joe is fictitious but if I read his resume even in this raw format, I'd definitely call him. What he can do and achieve is communicated in a direct manner. Some sites you can go to for ideas include www.resumetemplates.org, www.freeresumesamples.org, www.eZreZume.com. Oh and don't forget to proof read. Get someone else to proof read too. Also to avoid making my massively embarrassing mistake, make sure you attach the right version of your resume.

OTHER FORMS OF RESUMES

I briefly mentioned e-resumes (webpages) and video resume. Here are a few links to examples: http://www.uwrf.edu/career/resume-online.htm, http://virginia.confidentialresume.com/JoeUVA, www.resumetube.com

These are really great ideas and are the way of the future. I will have to learn more about them before I can give advice to you. If you are not afraid to take a risk, try one or both out and let me know what the response is.

I hope this has been relevant and useful for you. Message me if you want more details or have questions.