Free Resume Help and Writing Tips

"Jill, let me answer your question about my satisfaction with your work. I think you did a great job. I passed my resume along to a friend of mine who has a major role in HR at a large corporation, and she said this was the first time she ever saw a resume written by a third party that was this good. She also said the person who wrote it did an excellent job. Thanks, I truly appreciate it." 

Allen B. Distribution and Logistics Manager

Basic Components of a Resume

1) Contact Information – Your name should appear prominently at the top along with telephone numbers and email addresses. (Address information can also appear here or at the bottom in the footer). Note: Give an employer as many means as possible to contact you, provided that these are sources that you check regularly and that you are comfortable responding from.

2) Objective Statement - A brief phrase or sentence that explains what position or role you are seeking. Primarily used for new job seekers or career changers only.

3) Profile/Qualifications/Career Summary – This is one of the most important parts of a resume for most people. The difference between this and an objective statement is that it shows an employer the skills and talents that you have to offer, which is unlike an objective statement that tells an employer what you want.

4) Key Competencies/Areas of Expertise – This section can be included if you possess valuable skill sets that are too numerous to list in the preceding profile. Generally a good addition for seasoned professionals or senior executives, not new job seekers.

5) Selected Achievements – Optional to have this as a stand alone section, but if you do use this, be sure to include at least 2-3 high caliber achievements, make sure that you have some that are recent, and that the reviewer can quickly tell where and when you achieved these.

6) Professional Experience – Provides the highlights of job responsibilities without providing great detail. Achievements can also be listed in this section – these are nicely set off if bullets are used and the responsibilities appear first in a brief paragraph.

7) Education/Training – List highest level college degrees and/or professional training. Not necessary to list high school education or an Associates degree if you received a Bachelors degree.

8) Optional Sections – might include Professional Licenses, Volunteer Activities, (only if relevant to career goals or these help to show specific valuable skills like leadership). Others might include Language Proficiencies and Technical Skills.

Different Types of Resumes - The 2 Most Basic Types

Chronological – This is the most popular format for both employers and job seekers. It provides work history in a reverse chronological fashion (most recent first), which makes it very easy for an employer to scan the candidates’ background and determine what skills and experience were gained at any given time.

Functional – This version is recommended only in very specific situations: for job jumpers, people with several gaps in employment, in cases where someone has been in the same field or company for many years, and needs to minimize the appearance that their career has stagnated. The professional experience section contains skill major skill set areas with pertinent information and a separate work history section provides employer data.

The Resume as a Marketing Tool - This is Your Advertisement!

As you write or update your resume, keep in mind who your audience is – an employer, not your spouse, neighbor or co-worker. An employer wants to know how you can add value to the organization. Can you earn them money, save money, increase productivity, improve customer service, or bring in new clients?

You have less than one minute to grab the reviewer’s attention – many human resource professionals and recruiters attest to giving a resume an initial scan of 20 seconds! This is why your profile or qualifications summary has to be powerful. This is where you need compelling selling points that show how you are a better candidate than others.

Concentrate on your achievements more than daily responsibilities, if possible. Past performance is a good indicator of future results, so if you have a record of being a go-getter or over achiever, a prospective employer needs to know that!

Give the reviewer the most important information right up front and on page one – for example, a new graduate who has just received a degree in Accounting and is seeking a job in that field would place education and related training or internships following the profile or objective and before professional experience – this is far more relevant than part time jobs as a baby sitter or as a waiter.

More Tips For Writing Your Resume – From a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW)

Make sure it has eye appeal – use white space effectively, use fonts that are easy to read and avoid the use of garish graphics. If you use clip art or other pictures, use sparingly and make sure that the impression it conveys is consistent with the message that you want your resume to leave behind.

Never include personal information such as age, marital status, photographs, religion, political preferences and never include reasons why you left a job, or salary history. 

Length – There are very few hard and fast rules, in some cases academic institutions may require resumes used for entry into graduate programs to be only one-page. For the majority of resumes, the rule of thumb should be the relevancy of the data. It is fairly uncommon for a new college graduate to have a resume longer than one page because they typically have little relevant professional experience. Conversely, senior executives can have resumes running to four or more pages.

Be consistent! Limit your use of different fonts to no more than two (maybe use a different one for your contact information and then a different one for the body of your resume). If you capitalize one heading, capitalize all of them. Keep line and paragraph spacing, bullet points, and text spacing uniform.

Avoid using “fluff” terms like “responsible for” and make every word count. For example, rather than saying “provided consulting services to clients internationally” say “consulted to clients…”

Use powerful and descriptive words and stay away from over used or generic terms like “team player”. How many companies want employees who can’t work or get along well with others? One of my pet peeves is seeing the term “excellent communication skills” used in many sales professionals’ resumes – if the person can’t connect or communicate with clients, he or she is in the wrong line of work!

Vary the length of phrases – I can’t tell you how many resumes I have reviewed that came across as enticing as reading someone’s grocery list! Make it interesting and remember the employer focus!

Proofread, proofread and proofread again. If possible, ask someone else to read it also – trust me, it is very easy to miss typos, etc. in your work, and spelling and grammar check will not pick embarrassing mistakes like “manger” instead of “manager”.

If you are snail mailing or bringing copies of your resume to an interview, please invest in good quality resume paper! An otherwise great resume on cheap copy paper can lead someone to think that you aren’t committed to getting the job done right from start to finish, or that impressions aren’t important to you.

Feel free to browse our resume samples. We don't use templates or resume writing software, so each resume and letter were designed with a specific client's job target in mind, and showcases the unique values each has to offer to a prospective employer. Don't forget to check out our resume resources page for some terrific sites that offer an array of information and tools for job seekers of all levels.

Think you need a Professional to write your resume Contact A Step Ahead Resume today to receive a free evaluation of your existing resume or to ask questions about our services.

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