by Carol Smith

Created on: August 28, 2008

Your resume is about your ability to do the particular job you are applying for. It should contain information specifically focused on telling the employer why you are the person that should be appointed.

If you are applying for two different types of job then it is essential that you prepare two different resumes.

Let's look at an example. Suppose you are currently the manager of steak restaurant. You have 10 years' experience in the catering trade having started as a waiter 12 years ago. You worked for 2 years in the administration department in a hospital during your college vacations and you had a 2 year break from the catering trade to work as a full time hospital administrator.

You are moving from one town to another and are happy to work either in the catering trade or in hospital administration.

It is said that your resume has 10 seconds to impress a potential employer. The information that is most relevant to the job you are applying for has to be immediately obvious and preferably on the first half of the first page. If that first half page makes an impression then the rest of your resume will be read by the employer. Fail to make an immediate impression and your resume will hit the bin.

It would be easy to get carried away listing all your work experience. Your 2 years as a restaurant manager (plus all the tasks that involves), your 3 years as assistant manager, your 2 years as a hospital administrator, and so on. You get the picture, I'm sure.
Stop think. If you are applying for a job as a hospital administrator does the hospital want full details of all the bar management courses you attended, menu options you've written, group catering skills you've developed etc. No.

If you are applying for a job as a restaurant manager, does the restaurant want full details of the software packages you used in the hospital admin office or the knowledge of medical terminology that you have acquired. Of course not.

Your resume needs to focus on the job you are applying for. Imagine you are applying for the hospital admin job. Give your CV a concise heading. Your name, address, contact details. Under that put an attention grabbing head. "An experienced hospital administrator". "A motivated hospital administrator". Something short that tells the employer you are the person for the job.

Now list a few personal strengths, or personal attributes relevant to hospital administration. Use bullet points. For example "Understands the importance of maintaining patient confidentiality",

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