Improve Response to Your Resume

Feel as if your resume is not attracting the attention it should? It is possible that even though you are qualified for the position, something in your resume is keeping you from an interview. Dan Brockman, a professional recruiter, makes these suggestions to improve the responses to your resume:

1. The name of your resume document should be in the form: Last, First. All resumes should be in Microsoft Word format, not PDF or WordPerfect.

2. The cover letter is basically wasted material. This does not mean a cover letter should not be included, but keep it short and to the point. Only basic details should be stated in the cover letter including position you are looking for, salary needs, and possibly willingness to relocate.

3. Your resume should contain many ways that a potential employer can reach you. At the top of the resume should be all pertinent phone numbers—home, cell, work, and alternate. Home email and postal addresses are also essential. Make sure personal email addresses are professional, for instance, last.first@yahoo.com.

4. Pick a standard typeface. Do not use bullets, arrows, or pointers in your text. Eliminate photos, graphs, or long lists of two or three words on each line. Run the document through a virus checker, spell checker, and grammar checker before sending it.

5. The previous four items are imperative. The following suggestions are icing on the cake.

6. Results are numbers, ratios, percentages, and dollar signs of accomplishments and achievements. Put these numbers first. Companies care what prospective employees have done for others and can do for their business.

7. Your educational accomplishments are essential. Make sure the degree format is exactly what you received. The format should be type of degree, field of degree, year received, final GPA, name of institution, city, and state.

8. Your employer’s names are not enough for readers to understand who you worked for. Add at least one sentence after the name of each employer with a description of the business they are in. You could state the size of the company, number of plants, employee union status, multiple state operations, and world wide customer base.

9. Describe your actual job duties, not a list of duties lifted from your job description.

10. Put a few keywords into your resume. Keywords like HPLC or SHA or MBA or CFA or GIPS will be essential to a counterpart who you want to work for in a new company.

To read Brockman's full article visit:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Too-Few-Resume-Responses?-Try-These-Ten-Tips-to-Improve-Results&id=104246