Six Essential Elements of a Professional Resume

Six Essential Elements of a Professional Resume

Writing a resume may not be the most exciting thing you have ever been challenged to do, but it may be one of the most important. Well, it is if you are interested in finding a great job.

There are six essential elements of a professional resume that you must be aware of when drafting your personal copy. While there are a lot of things to keep in mind, these six elements are extremely important to crafting a professional resume that gets read and establishes your credentials in the eyes of a prospective employer.

Take a look at these Six Elements and see how your resume stacks up.

One
The Contact Information section will always appear at the top of your page regardless of which format you choose. It contains your name, address, phone number and email address. Be sure this information is correct or the employer will have no means to contact you.

Two
The Objective Statement is a vital part of the professional resume. It lets the employer know how you will contribute to the organization as well as the specific type of work you are interested in doing. Don’t be vague or the employer may not be able to figure out what you are after.

Three
Accomplishments are the most important things you can list on a resume. This is true regardless of how old you are or how much experience you have. The reason is that accomplishments show that you worked hard, were involved and got things done.

Four
The Education section is presented in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent school you attended is listed first. List your GPA if it is significant. If you haven’t completed your course of study yet, list your expected date of graduation and your intended degree.

Five
Proofread everything until you are certain that your resume contains no mistakes. Also, have someone else read your resume in an effort to ensure it is error-free. Typos and grammar errors are the first things an employer looks for when weeding out the good resumes from the bad ones.

Six
Target your resume to best garner the attention of the prospective employer. According to distinctiveweb.com, "A targeted resume is used to focus your resume toward a specific career objective, performed in a specific industry, and for a specific company. The content of a targeted resume is written to highlight the skills, qualifications, and experience that match the requirements of your job target."

If you are able to incorporate these six essential elements of a professional resume into your personal resume, you stand a much better chance of getting selected for an interview. Other job candidates are doing it, so to compete for those great jobs, you have to do it, too.

Take the time to do it right. You'll reap the rewards.

Self-Assessment Prior to Writing Your Resume

When you begin the resume writing process, take some time to do some self-assessment first. Don't sit down at a computer and expect to type in a few choice words and a few dates with the hope that it will all come out beautifully. Reflect on your past accomplishments and achievements. What can you offer your next employer?

To create a professional resume, you need to sit down and think about your qualifications. What kind of job are you after and how can you write a resume that reflects your past experience in a way that employers will take seriously.

When you take the time in advance to consider your qualifications (work experience, education, accomplishments, etc) – then write your resume – you will be much more likely to win favor with a prospective employer.

If you are going to apply for a position, make it count. Self-assessment is vital in the resume-writing process. It will also benefit you during the interview.

Follow this link for more important resume tips:
Resume Tips

How Long Should Your Resume Be?

The length of your resume is less important than its substance. Remember when you were told, especially as a child, that it wasn't what you wore on the outside, but what kind of person you were on the inside? Well, to some extent, that is exactly the same with your resume.

The length is not as important as the content.

How long should your resume be? The length of your resume should be in direct proportion to your success in reaching your career goals and in pursuing related educational objectives. What does that mean?

Write your resume in such a way that the reader knows exactly what you want and your credentials support that goal. Anything more becomes tedious and takes away from the impact of your true purpose. Anything less and your goal become unsubstantiated by your past experience and education.

Most experts suggest you keep your resume to two pages. If you can fit your skills and accomplishments on one page, that is even better. If you are a professional or executive, two pages should do nicely, but be sure you are using only what best supports your career goals.

The goal of the resume is to get the interest of the prospective employer to the extent that you are sought out for an interview. If your resume does that, then the length of your resume will not be an issue. Write what matters.

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What if Your Future Employer Did a Google Search on Your Name?

Employers are using search engines to find out more about their potential employees.

Are you safe from the scrutiny? What if your future boss does a Google search on your name? What will he/she find?

Recruiters and hiring managers do not have an easy job. They are trying to find the best people to fill vacant positions at their corporations. While many resumes may be sent in to a company, employers have to sift through each of them to determine who the best candidates are to proceed through the hiring process. Once that initial scan is completed, it then becomes a matter of looking deeper to find out which candidates are worthy of an interview for the open position(s).

Why are some candidates eliminated after the initial screening and before the interviews take place? The resume in most instances is not the problem. A job candidate's qualifications may even be a perfect match for a job opening. What can curtail the whole process is a trend that many people, especially younger people, are using to make social contacts on the internet.

To find out if you are at risk, follow this link to:

Resumes and Personal Web Pages

Strange Jobs - Would you want to do this?

Odd Jobs

Some of these are funny and some of them are very odd

All of them are REAL

No, this isn't referring to the "odd jobs around the house" that need to be done from time to time. This is about real jobs that individuals hold, but that most people don’t think about.

For instance:

1. If you work for the Research and Development department of a lawn care product manufacturer, you get to play with bugs. Actually, you get to research chemical products that kill bugs, but for grown-up boys, this is just an extra.

2. Wastewater Treatment Centers need workers, too. Reclaimed wastewater is used on a number of golf courses to keep those greens nice and, well, green. Perhaps you could claim the next 18 holes as a business expense.

3. Who feeds the baby mice to the snakes in the zoo? There's an odd one for you.

4. Someone created a web site called toilet.com. Of course, it just proves that you can find anything and everything on the Internet. They even market a potty that is painted in camouflage for hunters (doubles as a hunting blind). What will they think of next? Will you create the newest most amazing toilet ever? This could be the job for you.

5. At DominoArtwork.com, you can have your portrait re-created using sets of dominoes. Really. It’s actually amazing. Robert Bosch is the designer and uses a mathematical process called integer programming to achieve the results. Seems like a neat way to spend an afternoon. You could learn to do this… maybe.

6. As an Horticulture Agent for a local County Extension Office, one of your tasks would be to identify pest and disease problems for trees and other plants. It isn’t always a pretty sight, but such problems are vital to diagnose for orchards and many other growers. It's not especially "odd", but it's not especially exciting, either.

7. Perhaps you would like to be a Fish Culturist and be responsible for the care of salmon. The pay isn’t bad, but the smell might be. Of course, if you live in the Midwest, you will have to relocate. The last job posting for this was in Alaska.

8. Have you ever wanted to be a steeplejack? That's an odd job title, don't you agree? You can’t be afraid of heights as you would be working on towers, tall buildings, church spires, and such. Usually the position involves repair and/or maintenance, but mostly it involves being able to stay balanced.

As you can see, there are a variety of interesting jobs that people do – or even have created for themselves. Some are more intriguing than others, but all are of value in some way or another. Mostly, the value is in shaking your head back and forth while sipping your beverage of choice and thanking the Good Lord for giving you a sense of humor.

Brought to you by: Professional-Resume-Example.com