SUMMARY
Seeking a position where 10 years of sales, marketing and management experience will add value to operations.

Now, what employer wouldn't want to talk to someone like you, who's offered to add value to his operations? You could also say: “... will contribute to operations” or “... will add to profitability.” The exact words don't matter. What does matter is your focus on helping the employer meet his goals. If you do that, your career will advance and you'll make more money.

Mistake #3: Focus on responsibilities instead of results.

While it's important to tell the reader what you've done at each job, it's far more important to spend most of your time talking about what you accomplished and how you made yourself valuable to past employers.

It's easy to do. Just think back on your daily duties. What good things happened when you did your job well? Write them down! Focus on results. The more specific, the better!

Instead of saying this:

“Responsibilities included (but where not limited to) implementation of policies and procedures, training of new employees, interfacing with subordinates and vendors, and light correspondence duties.”

Say this:
“Worked with staff and vendors to increase product turnover by 15 percent and sales by 23 percent in five months. Also trained 14 new employees, five of whom were rapidly promoted.”

Mistake #4: Too many big words.

It's a shame how often a good résumé is ruined when the author utilizes a superabundance of polysyllabic terminology, or uses too many big words. Don't hide behind your vocabulary. When your résumé is not clear and to the point, the reader gets bored, time is wasted and your résumé goes in the trash. Simplify! Write as if you were talking to a class of sixth grade students. That's the reading level all journalists are trained to appeal to in their writing. If it works for America 's newspapers, it ought to work for you.

Instead of saying “implemented,” try “adopted” or “set up,” for example. Never “utilize” what you can simply “use.” Don't “interface” with people; “work” with them. And never use “impact” as a verb. (Meteorites hitting the moon are about the only thing that should “impact.”) Try “affect” instead.

Mistake #5: Spelling/punctuation errors.

Your spell-checker is not enough! You must read through the résumé once for accuracy (numbers, dates, city names, etc.), once for missing/extra words, and once more for spelling. Then, show your résumé to several friends and ask them to read it out loud. Listen to where they pause; this could mean you've written something confusing or inaccurate. After you get their feedback, revise the résumé so that it's 100% error-free.

Kevin Donlin owns and operates Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1995, he has provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients on five continents. He's been interviewed by WCCO and WLTE radio, and KMSP TV, among others. His articles have appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly, Home Office Computing magazine, Twin Cities Employment Weekly, the c|net online magazine and others.

To claim your FREE Job Search Kit, “Job Search Secrets Exposed!” (a $25.00 value), visit the Guaranteed Resumes Web site at http://www.gresumes.com .

 

The above is an excerpt from The Last Job Search Guide You'll Ever Need: How to Find and Get the Job or Internship of Your Dreams, which is available for sale for $19.85 in our bookstore or $27.00 at Amazon.com but for free to those who subscriber to our free career newsletter. This hot new book contains job search secrets of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most respected career experts. Learn career planning, job hunting tools and tactics, interviewing, cover letter and resume writing (lots of samples!), networking, and how to find an internship. Written by 149 career experts. To receive a free copy, subscribe to our free career newsletter.

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