How to Prepare Your Resume

A resume is your first impression to a potential employer, it should be professional, concise, and 100% error free. Many times the initial review of your resume will be conducted by a Human Resources employee who may be checking for nothing more than proper spelling and certain keywords. Don't let your resume get tossed in the trash in the first level of review. Keep in mind e a few things when crafting your resume to get it to the desk of the decision maker and make a good fist impression.

- Keep it simple. The general rule of thumb for resumes is one page for every ten years of experience. If yours is longer than this, seriously consider paring back some of the extraneous information and boiling down to the essentials. If your resume is shorter than this, try to beef it up with more pertinent eye catching information. Remember that the purpose of the resume is to get you an interview, so there's no need to put your entire career on the resume, save something to tell the interviewer in person.

- Keeping it simple also pertains to formatting. Keep the formatting clean, and simple, avoid complicated bullets and outline schemes. Keep in mind that the employer may save it using a newer version of Word, or another word processing software and all your formatting could be lost.

- Be proud of your accomplishments and don't be afraid to embellish a bit, but realize that there's a fine line between embellishing and lying. Were you the only Accounts Payable Processor in the Accounting Department? There's nothing wrong with putting the job title "Lead Accounts Payable Processor", but "Accounts Payable Supervisor" might be a stretch. There's nothing wrong with embellishing, but lying will submarine your chances of getting a job faster than you can imagine.

- Proofread, proofread, and then proofread again. Nothing will eradicate your chances of landing an interview than spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, or incorrect information. Proofread your resume repeatedly over the course of several weeks so that you can keep taking an objective, fresh look at it.

- Have a handful of friends/family/colleagues review your resume before you send it out to potential employers. Other folks will be able to spot mistakes or edits that you may have overlooked. Other people will also be able to critique your resume and offer suggestions to help you improve it. The eye of an unbiased third party will be one of the most valuable tool sin refining your resume for the outside world.

- Never stop updating your resume. Any new promotion you've received, software you've become proficient in, award you've received, or Committee that you chaired should be immediately added to your resume. If your resume is up to date, you can quickly send it out should you hear about a job opening or be laid off from your current job. Many business professionals update their resume every two to three months and add new details of their current job as it is fresh in their mind.

These few simple things can make your resume get through the first line of defense and stand out to the individual reading it. Remember that your resume is the first chance that you have to impress a potential employer, make it a good one.