by Ben England

Created on: June 10, 2009

Just like your birth certificate, your resume is probably one of the most important documents you will ever possess in your lifetime. It represents the professional face of who you are, where you have been, and where you want to go. A well-constructed resume that briefly displays all your relevant information is the Holy Grail for a busy employer who wants to hire the best person as soon as possible.

First of all, not all resumes fall in the same category. Gone are the days where you bundle your entire life story up, staple it together, paper-clip a handwritten cover letter to the front, package it up in an envelope and give it one goodbye kiss for luck before posting it. In these fast-paced and hectic times, employers are likely to give your resume 30 seconds to impress before either short-listing you or consigning you to the bin. Therefore, it's best to think of resumes in two main categories. The one we will discuss in this article is sometimes called a competencies based resume, which is the short, brief resume designed to hook you the interview, as opposed to the longer resume you may take to the interview in order to close the deal.

The key here is to attempt to align the skills you possess to the person they desire in one, or at the most, two pages. The best way to do this is to download or request a detailed job description. When you get this scroll down to where they list the key performance competencies they are looking for in a candidate. This can vary between organisations, but it is usually the section where they list catch phrases like team player, solutions focused or demonstrates leadership skills. What they are looking for here is not just a mere statement that you can do these things, but for you to display how you have applied these skills in the past and the circumstances in which you did so.

This is your time to shine. Most of these are the same questions they will ask you in an interview, so you are essentially trying to get your foot in the door before they even see you. It is important when you list these not to copy the competencies word-for-word from their job description, because they will just assume you are telling them what they want to hear. If they say time management skills then you should rephrase it to something like works diligently to meet deadlines.

The important thing to realise is that the skills you match don't necessarily need to be from a paid job. Have a think about everything you have done in

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