Employment History – Main Body

It’s completely within your control to tell whatever story you want to tell in your resume. YOU can emphasize certain parts of your background and de-emphasize others in your resume. A Professional Resume Writing Service can help decide what is best for you.

Most resumes don’t address prospective employer’s needs, problems, or organizational objectives. They don’t shout out in their resume why they are the best candidate for the job.

If your summary statement says you have great sales abilities make sure you include sales related accomplishments in your resume

Firstly, try and avoid listing your duties & responsibilities in the resume

  • Job descriptions and responsibilities are usually written by the HR department and will be so specific to your old job that it will not be suitable for any other potential new job.

Instead, focus on achieved accomplishment statements in the resume that are short, measurable and results oriented rather than duties and responsibilities

  • Use a rich assortment of keywords in the resume consisting of action verbs and nouns that clearly communicate your accomplishments to the prospective employer
  • A resume keyword list should be used as part of the editing process for building a resume with real impact.
  • Your goal should not be to create a resume that includes a lot of key words at the expense of an accurate description of your background. Rather it is to make sure your resume is the most powerful it can be, in ways that it will be noticed by employers.
  • The profession-specific noun lists should prompt you to ask the following questions:

“Have I done work in this area?” If yes, ask yourself “Is it in my resume?”

  • Include statistics to show how well you performed

Technical language:

You can be sure it is safe to use words or phrases in your resume that appear in the job advertisement or description. If the employer uses simplified words or phrases to describe some technical aspect of the job then you should stick to the simplified words in the resume.

Do not throw your own different jargon back at them –employers do not want to visit the library

The following approach will help you to think & write your achievements for your resume

There are generally 2 types of achievements depending on your job.

A.      Project –oriented:

  • Where you were faced with a problem
  • How you solved it and
  • How it impacted on the organization

B.      Process-oriented:

  • How you kept the day to day activities running smoothly

In your resume, make your accomplishments independent, that is, your accomplishments should be seen as useful in other companies or industries

Start by listing in your resume all the things that you have actually done

  • All those special successes – where you really earned your salary. If you struggle to list your achievements then think of the times when you really enjoyed doing the work and know that you did well, what your role was, and what gave you the satisfaction and your motivation

The things you did with others, the things you did where the boss took credit. If you are still struggling to find your accomplishments try again and think of the times when you were happy with your job

In your resume write your accomplishment statements in bullet points

  • Write short statements
  • Write them in a way that shows you are very proud of the achievements
  • If they are too long break them up into sub-bullet points

Be prepared to talk about them at the job interview

What was it, how big was it, who was involved / what were the savings to the company. Is there any way I can get a number attached to the feature

Add in the numbers to your resume – a quality, a percentage, anything that can be a quantitative measure

If an achievement has a number attached to it, it looks much more impressive, more credible and more understandable. If it doesn’t sound good don’t use it.

Go to Great Resume Templates to get an idea of a good resume format or visit our recommended free resume builder and Professional Resume Writing Service

From the List rank your achievements in order putting the most impressive relative to the job you are applying for first, second, third, etc.

In your resume, you can play down your recent job and play up the second recent job. This will depend on how you want to position yourself in the eyes of the employer.

Don’t jam a lot of information into a one page resume. Make sure it is readable; otherwise it defeats the purpose.

If it is not a selling point to the majority of the readers don’t mention it in the resume

Your resume is not intended to list every task you performed at every position – employer’s know this. Less is more

The art of the resume is to briefly and clearly convey one’s expertise and evoke enough enthusiasm from the reader to get them to respond and invite you to an interview.

Remember, the key is showcasing your skills and abilities through your achievements. Carefully weaving key words and key phrases into your achievement and accomplishment statements in your resume will help you stand out in the eyes of employers.

Go to Great Resume Templates to get an idea of a good resume format or visit our recommended free resume builder and Professional Resume Writing Service

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