writing an effective résumé

Consider your résumé as a way to get yourself a job interview

There are so many qualified, competent candidates in the job market today that you have to give your résumé the importance it deserves as the best way to sell yourself to potential employers. This means that you should pay special attention to how you write it: the way you describe your skills and work experience may well determine whether or not a potential employer wants to meet you in person to learn more about you.

To attract recruiters’ attention and get that all-important interview, your résumé should follow a few basic rules:

• Use your résumé as a promotional tool: Sell yourself
• Only provide relevant information and don't repeat yourself
• Adapt your résumé to the job you are applying for
• Demonstrate your professionalism with neat presentation and impeccable grammar and spelling
• Only present true facts
• Offer numbers and concrete examples (e.g., size of budget, number of employees supervised)
• Use action verbs because they demonstrate a capacity to act
• Format your résumé so that it is easy to read and well-spaced
• Provide a short summary of your main work experience, not a long biography

In addition to respecting the above-mentioned guidelines, a good résumé should contain the following sections:

• Name and contact information
• Education
• Work experience
• Any other appropriate information: additional training, volunteer work, computer knowledge and skills, languages spoken and written, membership in any professional associations, etc.

When you write your résumé, always keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to pique the interest of potential employers so that they invite you to an interview.