by Melvin Richardson

Created on: July 27, 2007   Last Updated: November 13, 2011

When you are preparing your resume keep in mind the main purpose of a resume and that is to make you more marketable than the next person. The resume will help you showcase and market your talents and skills, professional achievements, and educational history, as well as your future potential. Keep in mind that an employer will only review a resume for a quick moment therefore you need some eye catching information that will distinguish you from your competitors. Of course your resume should be put together professionally.

To put together a great resume you need to put some effort, thought and planning into the process. Things you want to weave into your resume is emphasizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses . The process goes like this first of all you need to establish a clear focus in terms what job you are going after or a clear focus on the career path you want to take. If you don't establish this there will be a tendency to include a number of things in your resume that don't accentuate the career profession you desire. You begin to include a broad sweeping range of things hoping your resume will fit the bill for a number of different jobs. This is the wrong approach. Try to determine exactly what you want to accomplish. Perhaps you are transitioning into another career or even seeking a promotion.

Next you want to use keywords that are industry specific. For example if you are applying for a loan officer position you may want to include words like debt to income ration, lending authority, credit limit, credit approval, etc. The reason for the keywords is because some companies are using scanners and they scanners are looking for resumes which have certain keywords. You want to use as many as possible.

Make sure you list your qualifications and skills. Qualifications can be presented in a brief line or two by way of a summary. This lists your best skills and experience.

Also it is a good idea to list your accomplishments. These are things that you have actually accomplished and they are not to be confused with duties or tasks. The following are some examples of accomplishments: "During my employment with XYZ Corporation I was able to increase sales by 50% utilizing my best demonstrated practices" or "I was able to cut costs by 20% within the production department over a period of six months."

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