be? ie)% Vp Revamp Your Resume: Six Steps To A Blockbuster Resume by Darlene Zambruski ResumeEdge.com (NAPSA)—A resume has one purpose—to market your skills, achievements, academic history and future potential to a prospective employer. A powerful andeffective resume should provide key information quickly, differentiate you from all other candidates and be attractively packaged. To produce a resume with punch, follow these six steps for success: 1. Focus on your goal and audience. You must have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. The more closely your resume content matches the stated job qualifications, the more likely you will be asked to interview. 2. Format for maximum impact. Your resume must be aesthetically appealing to a hiring manager. Templates should be easy to navigate, and you should always use conservative fonts. Aid using bold text or italics. They are difficult to read and project a lack of professionalism. Aid block after block of uninterrupted text and use “white space” wisely. 3. Summarize your quailifications. Open your resume with a well-written qualifications summary and/or skill set that showcases your expertise as it per- tains to your job search. Provide specific examples of what you can do, quantify accomplishments, indicate past perfor- @ mance results and list promotions to positions of increased responsibility. 4, Quantify your accomplishments. The candidate who contributed the most in past positions gets the job. Specific accomplishments are what separate you from other equally qualified candidates, with one caveat: Your accomplishments must be quantified—that means they need to include measurements such as dollar figures, percentages and time periods. 5. Highlight your professional experience. In the professional experience section, list employers, job titles, and dates of employment in reverse-chronological order. It is best to use a bulleted format to break up large blocks of text and delete unnecessary articles and adjectives. Begin each sentence with an action verb to quicken the pace of your resume and make the text more enjoyable to read. 6. Present your education and training. If you are an entry-level candidate, your academic credentials should be presented first with appropriate details (e.g., GPA, awards/scholarships). As a professional with five or more years of experience, your education should be listed last on your resume without the academic details. For moregreat tips and sample resumes, visit www.resumeedge.com. Darlene Zambruski is the Managing Editor of ResumeEdge.com.
