Tips for Writing Resumes

This article on tips for writing resumes follows on from my previous article - free resume writing advice. If you have not read this previous article, I suggest you do, as it contains important information to be considered prior to writing your resume.

You will probably find this article quite different from the “shopping list” style of hints and tips for writing resumes that are available elsewhere on the internet. The reason for this is I have a passion for helping people like you, gain more out of life and I want to share with you the knowledge I have gained in over twenty years experience helping people win positions and gain job satisfaction from all walks of life. This will be the first in a series of tips for writing resumes articles that will be available on this site.

The first thing I suggest before making an initial draft of your resume, is to have a crystal clear understanding of what the employer wants, and what qualities they are looking for in their preferred candidate. If you do not do this and just decide to “have a go” you are wasting both your’s and the potential employer’s time. This could also reflect poorly in future applications for alternative positions with the same employer. Employer’s dislike “time wasters and have long memories, so these tips help to avoid you making these common mistakes.

Once you have decided that you meet all the requirements and “can hit the ground running” you then need to decide what the most important requirements of the position are and how you can highlight or align these to your personal qualities or experience. For example an employer may state “essential to work well in a team.” This requirement should then be highlighted in your resume by eg “five years experience as productive retail team member” or “since leaving school have gained over six months work experience in various retail teams”. The point of all this is to identify the employer’s “hot buttons” and target these in your resume. By reading these tips you will learn that employer’s often just initially scan applicant’s resumes and discard those that do not appear of immediate benefit. Once you understand this, you realise how crucial it is to include the qualities that the employer seeks early in your resume, preferably on the first page.

The next important step to work out is the order your information will appear in and how you will present it. I will go into this in detail in the next article entitled “Focusing Your Resume.” To give you a head start on any applications you are currently preparing, I have included a sample resume) that you may wish to use as a guide You may also wish to sign up to my newsletter “Your Place in the World” for additional tips for writing resumes.