Make it easy to contact you either by phone, mail or e-mail. As an additional thought outside of your resume, make sure your voicemail message is professional.
Do not include personal information, such as marital status, here or anywhere else on your resume.
2. OBJECTIVE / TITLE
Some experts believe that including an objective may limit your chances of obtaining an interview; if your objective doesn’t match the employer’s needs at the time, you may miss out on a golden opportunity.
On the flip side, a career objective is useful in communicating that you are proactively managing your career.
The solution to this dilemma is to invest the time necessary to tailor your objective to the specific position you are inquiring about or, at a minimum, the type of organization you will be sending your resume to. Find how the opportunity or organization match your future goals and communicate them concisely in your objective.
3. SUMMARY STATEMENT
First, include your title and years of experience. Second, list special skills. Third, talk about your character traits or work style. Remember that this is a summary; it should only be 2-3 sentences long. Make sure that your summary and the remainder of your resume focus on what you have accomplished for each experience and role on your resume.
Example: “Financial Accountant with over 10 years’ experience with two Fortune 500 companies where I successfully helped the companies develop efficiencies that cut expenses by 5% or more. Technical skills include P & L, budgeting, forecasting and variance reporting. Bilingual in Spanish and English. Self-starter who approaches every project in a detailed, analytical manner.”
4. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
List each position held in reverse chronological order, going back at least ten years. If you held multiple positions within the same company, be sure to list all of them – you want the employer to see how you’ve progressed. Concentrate on the description of the position. Your most recent employment comes first. Make sure that you once again highlight your accomplishments within each role and company.
The body of the position description has two parts:
A description of your responsibilities
Your accomplishments
2 ways to highlight your accomplishments
FEATURE - ACCOMPLISHMENT - BENEFIT
Use the F-A-B format to organize your skills and sell your accomplishments to a prospective employer.
Example: Manufacturing Engineer
- FEATURE: the actual responsibilities, e.g. Created and Implemented a Certified Inspector program.
- ACCOMPLISHMENT: the performing of responsibilities, e.g. Reduced the number of parts inspected upon final assembly.
- BENEFIT: how your performance affected your employer, e.g. Decreased inspection costs by 45%.
- F-A-B STATEMENT: "Created and implemented a Certified Inspector program that reduced the number of parts inspected upon final assembly. Inspection costs were reduced by 45%."
OR
SITUATION - SOLUTION - OUTCOME
Consider the S-S-O format to demonstrate your problem-solving capabilities.
Example: VP of Business Development
- SITUATION: What situation was your company facing? Company wanted to grow non-government business.
- SOLUTION: What did you do to solve the problem? Created and implemented commercial market penetration strategy.
- OUTCOME: What was the outcome? Increased revenues in excess of $100 million.
- S-S-O STATEMENT: "Company wanted to grow non-government sector business. Developed business that resulted in the capture of commercial sales with increased revenue in excess of $100 million."
TOP 12 ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT MOST INTEREST EMPLOYERS
