Write a Resume that Gets the Interview – 7 Characteristics to Include

Posted on 24. Dec, 2008 by Bill in Employment News, Interviewing, Resumes

A great resume won’t get you hired. You can only get hired if you get face-to-face with the hiring authority. Your resume has one major function: to get you an interview. Get invited to that important first meeting by giving your resume these characteristics.

1. Focused Content If you don’t know what you want to do don’t expect a potential employer to call. Your resume should be focused on one particular functional role. If your experience could allow you to go in two or more directions, create a different resume for each of your strong suits.

2. Effective Career Statement This is your chance to grab the reader’s attention and propel her through your resume. A strong career statement summarizes your strengths and illustrates what you can accomplish. It is written with the potential hiring manager’s needs in mind.

3. Position Specific Make it easy for the hiring manager to imagine you in her open position. Customize your resume every time you submit your candidacy. Use the job description and position requirements as a guide.

4. Keyword Rich No matter whether your resume has been posted on a job board or forwarded to a recruiter you won’t get found if it does not include keywords specific to the position being filled. Fill your career statement and work history with keywords.

If you don’t already know which keywords to use. Look at jobs posted on the internet. Appropriate keywords are found most often in the position requirements. They may be in the description of duties as well. Recruiters also frequently search for position titles.

5. Results Oriented A dry listing of your duties or previous job description won’t get you in front of the hiring manager. A strong resume is written in a features / benefits format. It ties your functional duties (features) to your accomplishments (benefits) and uses plenty of action verbs.

6. Easy to Scan Your resume must be easy to scan by both humans and computers. Keywords take care of the computers. To make is easy to scan for humans list your work history in reverse chronological order; stick with one clear font; use bullet points and plenty of white space.

7. Error Free No other resume help will matter if your resume contains spelling or grammatical errors. They will send your resume to the round file. (Read that as recycle bin.) Spell check doesn’t catch incorrect grammar. Computerized grammar check is not always right. (That’s especially true when it comes to verb tense.) Proof read, proof read, proof read your resume. Then ask someone else to proof read it.

A strong resume is your ticket to the job hunt. Invest the time and effort it takes to make sure you get in the game.

As a hiring professional with 17 years experience Shirley Ray has interviewed thousands of job hopefuls. Starting as a corporate recruiter, then moving into professional recruiting and finally staffing agency ownership she has successfully placed hundreds of deserving candidates with top companies. Ms. Ray offers job seekers free insider secrets distilled from her 360 degree perspective at http://www.Job-Seekers-Edge.com

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  • At last. Someone who understands that the sole purpose of a resume is to get an interview. Don't why this info isn't out there to all--but the so-called other uses of resumes still seem to surface pretty regularly.
    Congratulations!
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