How I Can Do A Resume

By Alan Leach
Knowing how you can do a resume is a vital skill in today's job market. Research shows most people are changing their careers every 7 or 8 years. For most of us then, getting an interview is an inevitable, if unwelcome fact of life. This is where the resume can come in. Essentially, this is all a resume does, it can get you an interview. If you are successful in getting that interview, it was an effective resume. If not, the resume was ineffective. Here we look at how you can do your own resume and in the process get that all important foot in the door.

It is crucial when learning how you can do a resume to think about what the employer is looking for, and to reflect this in your resume. Read the job advertisement carefully, and do make notes of the key points, especially personality and skills.

Remember, the average resume might get looked at by an employer for 30 seconds if lucky. When you learn how you can do a resume, keep this in mind. You need to grab the employer's attention by the throat, and keep it till he or she has picked up the phone to offer you an interview.



Once you have this information, it's important to plan your work. Write down what you think the perfect person for this position would be like. Then try to draw parallels between this person and you. Where are there points of similarity, where are there points of difference?

It can help if you do an objectives section of your resume, where you state as explicitly as possible what position you are seeking. Of course, you will need to alter this objective depending on the specific job you are applying for. Remember also to mention what you can do for the employer, not what the employer can do for you!

It is important when learning how you can do a resume that you can analyze your past job and personal experience clearly, and you can garner from this analysis the skills and attributes you have gained. In most resumes there is a section entitled something like skills and accomplishments or professional highlights. Whatever the name, the point is you need to delve into your recent or distant past and provide evidence that that you have the necessary skills to perform the work the new job requires.

Providing a list of previous employers and previous education is also a must. Start with the most recent first, and especially in terms of employment history, you can concentrate on things relevant to the current application.

This applies to presentation as much as content. The layout should be visually appealing, and printed on good quality paper. While there is no set length for your resume, the general rule is the shorter the better. Again, do make sure each word you use has a point. If not, delete it and make it shorter.

The last step in learning how you can do a resume is checking. The rule here is absolutely clear. Do make sure there is not even the smallest error anywhere in your resume. Here the grammar and spell check functions of a computer are of limited use and certainly you should not rely on them. Better is to get at least 3 other people to check through it specifically for mistakes. You can even promise them a reward like a coffee if they spot an error!

Time spent writing and checking a quality resume will more than pay for itself in the long run if you get the interview and eventually the position so it's worth the hard work now!

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