Free Resume Tips

Free Resume Tips #1: What's a resume and what's the purpose of a resume?

A resume is a document stating your career objective and your relevant skills and credentials, it usually meets your future employer before you do. So your resume is the first impression your future employer has on your and is probably the most important document in your job search. The purpose of your resume is not to get you a job, but to get you an interview. From this point of view, a resume is like a marketing tool to promote yourself.

Free Resume Tip 2: What should I write in my resume?

Since a resume is just a marketing tool, think about what you can sell to your employers: your education, experience, accomplishments and your transferable skills. Organize them in an effective way so that your prospective employers are impressed and want to arrange an interview with you. Your resume is not going to get you a job, so you don't have to write down everything about your work or your life, leave the details to your job interview. A resume only need to get the attention of the readers and arouse their interest.

Free Resume Tip 3: What's a good resume?

A recruiter usually looks at your resume for 10-30 seconds, your resume either survive the initial screening or be tossed away. A good resume should successfully market yourself and stand out from a pile of other resumes. It is clear, concise, logically organized, and attractively formatted.

Free Resume Tip 4: What are some general rules in resume writing?

Remember your resume is a marketing tool? So before sit down and write your resume, ask yourself some essential questions like: Who's going to read my resume? How's my resume going to be read? What's my unique positions that may appeal to the readers? Use the answers in your draft. Your resume should make a good first impression, so the format you choose is very important. Use high-quality white paper and laser-quality printing to make your resume attractive. Keep the layout simple and clear. Use single font like Times, Helvetica or Coutier to maximize legibility and choose 10-14 point. Leave a one-inch margin all around your resume and provide enough white space for notes Your most important experience and skills must be easily detected by recruiters. Use highlighting, indentation, spacing and bulleted statements to make it easy for recruiters to pick up your important information. Use action-oriented words in your statements to make your previous experiences sound as pro-active as possible. Your accomplishments should be measurable, specific and relevant. Proofread your resume and make sure it's credible, accurate and error-free. Omit your personal data, age, marital status from the resume. And if English is your second language, ask someone fluent in English to double check grammar and spelling for you.

Free Resume Tip 5: OK, I'm ready to begin my resume writing, now what's next?

Great, take some time to think about what are your selling points and how you want to present them, choose a resume format that fits your situation, then take a look at some resume templates and resume samples and tailor them into your needs. You can also consider using some resume software to save some time and make your job easier.

However, if you just want to save some time, you can also consider hiring a resume writer to do the work for you.

Please go to Resume Writing Tips and Top Resume Books pages for more help.