by Carol Gioia

Created on: September 07, 2008

A resume is a compilation of our education and training, work history, talents and skills, and postive attributes. In essence, the resume is a written portrait of our accumulated work life experiences to date; illustrating our worthiness as a potential candidate for hire.

Our work history and skills can improve, and attributes can increase over time and so the resume is a fluid document, subject to additions as warranted. We start out with a basic resume and as our job experience and knowledge accumulate, we might want to revise our original resume to reflect the changes.

No matter how many job markets we are targeting at one time in our quest for new employment, the current version of our resume will be basically the same. It is the cover letter accompanying the resume that will change to accomodate the requirements of each specific job.

In the cover letters, we can emphasize components of our resume that are applicable to the individual jobs for which we are applying and tailor our comments to perfectly suit each job target.

If a resume is comprehensive and well written to begin with, it will not be a challenge to add and extract specific information.

Here are examples of the components of a good resume:

* Personal information

At the top of the page, list name, address, and contact information, i.e., home telephone, cell phone, fax number and e-mail address. This information should be updated whenever necessary because of a move or change of service provider.

* Objective

The first paragraph of the resume is a couple of sentences listing the type of position being sought and why we believe we are eligible for consideration. Our objective might be reworded if we are changing careers or going into an entirely different field of interest.

* Education

This portion of the resume will remain the same unless further education is obtained. Any specialized training, seminars and classes can be good additions.

* Experience

Past employment experiences, beginning with most recent are listed here. It is advisable to go back at least 10 years and leave no blanks in the time sequence. If unemployment for a period of time is an issue, that must be listed. Reasons can be explained in detail during an interview.

* Special skills and attributes

All skills will be listed and not changed, but possibly will be added to, depending on experiences. Attributes will not change. If one is honest, hardworking, self-motivated and detail-oriented, that will continue to be true no matter how many jobs

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