The Resume – Your First Contact with an Employer

Hiring a resume writer is the easiest way to create a quality resume that puts you in the best possible light.  However, it’s possible for you to write a winning resume yourself.  Writing a good resume is much like playing chess:  Anyone can learn how to do it, but only a select few become masters at it.  Ideally, you don’t want to write a lot of resumes because it means that you’re doing a lot of job searching; however, if you’re in the hunt for a new job, the resume is the first contact you’ll have with an employer.

Most resumes aren’t actually looked at until later on in the recruitment process.  Each resume is scanned by a machine to look for certain key words relevant to the job opening.  So, in order to get your resume noticed, it helps to use the same techniques internet marketers use to move their websites up in search engine rankings.  Let’s call it resume search optimization, or RSO.  Sprinkling relevant key words from the job opening into your resume ensures that when your resume is scanned, it’ll move to the front of the line very easily.  As long as it doesn’t seem like you’re “stuffing” keywords into your resume to do such a thing, the likelihood of getting a callback for an interview increase just that much more.

Highlight your achievements on your resume, but make sure that they’re relevant.  The hiring manager doesn’t need to know you were captain of your high school glee club.  Employers want to know about the situations where you were able to save or earn money for your previous company.  After all, businesses are bottom-line oriented, so it helps to show how much of an effect you had on the bottom line.  Cost cutters and revenue increasers are tried and true crowd pleasers.

A resume is the first contact an employer has with you, so it is in your best interest not to make it a bad one.  You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.  It is in your greatest benefit to highlight your strengths in your resume and save any talk about weaknesses for the interview.  A resume is not the place to showcase your shortcomings; those can always be explained away in a face-to-face or phone interview.  Your resume is the key to getting you to that stage, so don’t take it lightly!