Resume Writing Tips

Effective Resume Writing
Here are some tips for effective resume writing.

First A Few General Resume Writing Tips

Your resume writing should be succinct, clear and easy to read. No resume writing that is overly flowery, with hyperbole and superlatives that exaggerate your qualifications. Your resume writing should include lots of organization - bullets, lists and italics that make important points stand out, and plenty of white space.

Make sure that when you do your resume writing you catch all the grammatical and punctuation errors and all the typographical mistakes as well. There is nothing that will get your resume thrown on the junk pile faster than a grammar mistake or a misspelled word. No matter what experience you list or what qualifications you clarify you probably won't get the interview if your resume writing indicates you are sloppy or a poor communicator.

Your resume writing should be focused and powerful. If you don't want to state an objective (which, by the way, if stated, should be very specific) you should at least clarify a job title or industry somewhere up front. Your name and contact information might be immediately followed by "nursing professional," centered on a line by itself, for example.

While your resume writing should certainly be honest and factual you also want to stand out and put your best job search foot forward with the use of powerful words. Starting each sentence with a powerful word is one good way of making yourself unique. Some powerful words are "accomplished," "launched," "managed," "tackled," and "coordinated." See the powerful action in these? This type of resume writing makes you look proactive, strong, focused and determined.

Writing Your Qualifications

Resume writing is first and foremost about stating your qualifications and experience, of course. Here are some tips on writing this section of your resume.

You should always list the positions you held in reverse chronological order. In other words, list the most recent job first and the job you held first is last on the list when you do your resume writing. Those jobs that you held years ago and probably were more entry level than your later positions don't need much detail.

Where your resume writing should be more detailed is in the explanation of your most recent jobs and the ones whose responsibilities and achievements have the most relevance to the position for which you are now applying.

There is no hard and fast rule, when resume writing, about whether to begin each job with the job title or the name of the firm. Just decide on which will most impress the potential employer, and then start with that - and make it bold. Once decided, however, your resume writing must be consistent.

You should never start one job with the job title but the next with the name of the firm. If the firm is not well known it might be wise to parenthetically explain what the company does and is. Your dates of work should come last, and be italicized. There is never any reason, if you were employed more than a year, to include the months. All you need to state are the years of employment.

It is perfectly acceptable, when resume writing - and, in fact, is encouraged - to include volunteer work that is relevant.