Resumes and You Attitude

1)  What does the reader want or need to know from reading your resume?

~ The reader wants to know whether or not you are capable of doing the job.  Period.

~ The reader, therefore, wants to quickly know whether you have one or more of the following:

      ~ Have experience doing this job.

~ Have related skills adaptable to this job.

~ Have an education that prepared you for this job.

~ The reader wants to know whether or not to spend the time and money to interview you.

~ Successful resumes get you interviews.

2) How can you use you attitude to help the reader with his goal?

~ Include any and all information that shows you, have done the job, can do the job, or have prepared to be trained for the job.
 

~ Use formatting to emphasize relevant information;  make your experience, skills or education visually obvious.  Resumes are skimmed, not read; they are more like road signs and maps than letters: they are read carelessly at high speed.

~ Only contain information relevant to the position you are applying for.

~ Omit personal information;  you are being hired for your skills and work experience.

~ Omit negative information.  Give yourself and the employer the benefit of the doubt.

~ Use concise writing:  use sentence fragments and lists.

~ Condense information and use graphics -- fonts and layout -- for skimming ease.