Your Resume

After looking at hundreds of resumes everyday, I find the ones that standout as stellar resumes include the following:

• Contact Information. A lot of people continue to only list their home phone number. If you have a cell phone, include it on your resume so we don't begin the phone tag cycle. Include your email too - if I reach a voicemail, I always follow up in an email. More and more, I'm also seeing LinkedIn profiles. I think this is a great advertisement for a candidate if they have a lot of good candid recommendations. If you have a website with work samples, it should also be listed in the contact information. However, if you use My Space or Facebook for personal use, I don't recommend adding this to your contact information in your resume. You want people to 'see' into your world, but not on the first date if you know what I mean.
• Professional Summary. This should be a synopsis of your overall experience and qualifications. If you don't include a lot of good information here, I won't read into the rest of the resume and go on to the next person. If you have expertise in an industry make sure you list it in your summary. The summary can be a small paragraph or a few sentences with bullets of your career achievements. If you specialize in an area, it should be included in the summary. Any technical expertise should also be listed in this section.
• Technical Skills. This can be it's own section or a sub-section of Professional Summary. This section should include all of the technical skills you've acquired and have working knowledge. On really technical resumes, I've seen the technical section broken out by software, hardware, database, etc. If you're not a technical person I would not recommend going into the same depth of detail.
• Detailed Positions. Make sure you have the company name, location, dates of employment (start month / start year to end month / end year - employers will want to see any gaps in employment), your title. You should provide a very brief description of the company, the department you worked in, and your role. Specific accomplishments should be listed as bullets. When you include an accomplishment, it should list what you achieved, how you achieved it and why it was significant to the project / company.
• Education. Include the school, degree and year graduated. You should include if you've received any honors in this section. Also include any post graduate education and any certificates you may have received.
• Professional Affiliations. Include only active organizations you are involved in.
  
• Volunteer / Awards. Include organizations you dedicate your time to.

Proofread your resume. This is sometimes your only shot and you want to make sure words are spelled correctly, you have correct pronunciation, and grammar. Have a couple of people review it before you send it out and start applying for jobs.

Good luck!