by Anony Mili

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

To prepare a resume that will grab the attention of the hiring manager or recruitment individual who screens resumes before passing onto more senior staff you need to ensure that the top half of the first page of your resume speaks volumes. They say it only takes 10-15 seconds of a resume reviewere to decide whether or not they want to progress it. Make sure yours goes in the YES pile!

Starting with all the usual PERSONAL DETAILS such as name, contact details, etc, you should then write a brief PERSONAL PROFILE selling yourself and stating what your aspirations are. The next part should be a bulleted list of your KEY SKILLS which are relevant to the role you are applying for. This is important you should tailor your resume for each specific role you are applying for. Recruiters don't like to see resume that look like you've sent it out to 100 companies, they like to think you're applying specifically to their company as you've researched them and would really like to join them.

If you've recently finished full time education put details of your EDUCATION next including grades obtained if you got good grades. If your grades aren't something to shout about just put in the name of the university or college you studied at and the name of the course and start and end dates of the course. With dates you should state month and year (I'll come back to why you should do that in a moment).

If you've been working in recent times rather than studying you should put your EMPLOYMENT HISTORY next on your resume after your KEY SKILLS. Ensure you put in month and date of start and end of employment. I always get very wary if I see something like 2004-2005 as a date for a job. How does the recruiter know if you worked from December of 2004 January of 2005 (i.e. just 2 months) or from January 2005 to December 2005 (i.e. pretty much 2 years) there's a big difference there and you need to remember to be clear on this. Use power words in your resume such as "led a team in ? project" as opposed to "worked on a ? project" or "trained junior staff to use the customer database" or words like supervised, managed, devised, etc. Show that you have been given responsibility in your role and have been able to handle it.

Mention HOBBIES/INTERESTS but try to be a bit different from the typical "I enjoy reading, swimming and playing tennis". I get really bored seeing this on resumes, as so many people write this. Try to be adventurous when describing your hobbies but don't lie. If you say you're into extreme sports when you're not and you get asked about this during an interview you will look foolish. Also don't say you're into carp fishing when you're not. Imagine if your interviewer is also into carp fishing and asks you about it during the interview you'll be at quite a loss. Whatever you do, don't go making claims that you've won the Nobel Peace Prize (unless you really have) as you'll easily be found out. The silliest thing to put in your hobbies section is that you like drinking! They might assume you're an alcoholic.

Good luck I hope you get that perfect job you've been after!

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