For the past several years the job market has been so robust there’s been no need to prepare or update a resume.many of us the necessity of preparing or updating a resume. Sadly that has changed rather suddenly. There are many schools of thought on what’s best but in this post I’d like to share what I believe is a very good way to prepare your resume and get engaged in your job search. I hope you find this useful.

  • Keep in mind that the purpose of the resume is to get an interview. For that reason you should, if at all possible, limit it to two pages
  • Put your education at the front end right after contact information
  • Your summary paragraph is too long and is a narrative. Consider this. People are hired for several reasons which include
    • Will you make me money?
    • Will you solve my problems?
    • Will you save me money?
  • Can you quantify any of your accomplishments. Think about a stock purchase. If someone presented you with an investment idea they would open with something like this has grown 20% a year. While not guaranteed you’d probably think if they did it before then they’ll do it again. For the same reason if you can quantify your accomplishments they’d say WOW, this guy grew my business by 20% of saved me a million bucks or increased our speed to market by 6 months they’d he can do that for me.
    • This should be the stand out portion of your summary. Try to present in bullet points which can be quickly read but would also prompt the reader to continue with the resume.
    • Each time you present a resume you should customize this opening to the particular opportunity you’re looking at. Figure out what’s most important to the reader, then put that in front of them.
    • Research the company as much as you can before sending the resume. Think about the old Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation argument. You know someone or someone you know has a contact at the company.
    • Finally, each resume should be accompanied with a cover letter that expresses interest and why you are the ideal candidates. As stated in the first item, your goal is to get an interview.
    • And of course share your updated resume with us at Dunhill Staffing Systems job@dunhillstaff.com

Neil Whitman CPC