• Quantify your qualifications and experiences accordingly throughout your resume. Cite numerical values and figures such as budgeting, forecasting, money saved, etc. This will reveal your accomplishments and progress related to your previous work history.
• Begin a majority of your sentences with action verbs displaying yourself as someone who gets things done, is motivated and a self-starter.
• Your resume should sell yourself by highlighting your key strengths and relating them back to your relevant work experience. In effect, your resume is an advertisement of you to your prospective employer, so do NOT sell yourself short!
• You should not put EVERYTHING on your resume. You should omit unnecessary items such as irrelevant associations, irrelevant activities, irrelevant publications, second mailing address, sex, marital status, citizenship, age, references ("references available upon request"), previous salary history and previous supervisor names.
• Try to get as many opinions on your resume as possible. The more people who read it, the more chances of someone finding an error in those hidden details! Grammatical and spelling errors, inconsistent usage of words, etc, can make you look really bad when a hiring team is comparing you to another applicant. Getting objective opinions and constructive criticism will create more confidence when submitting your resume for an interview.
• When printing your resume, use a laser printer on plain or off white paper. Try to avoid using matching envelopes or special paper. More likely, your resume will be copied and emailed to a variety of people for their review so this will not prove to be beneficial. However, if you are following up from a second round interview and would like to personally mail (I would recommend overnighting it) a letter with an enclosed resume directly to your contact, then I would spend the extra bucks and provide a matching envelope and nice paper.
• Be concise with your job descriptions. Never use the "I" to describe what you did. Try to avoid drawn out descriptions on projects you worked on and try to limit yourself so that you can fit everything on one page. Consolidate job duties that overlap with another within your job description.

With employers receiving hundreds of resumes you must make sure that your resume hooks an employer's attention within a 5-second glance. A great way to do this is to use job titles and skill headings that relate to and match the jobs you want. For example, compare the headings Roger used in his before resume to the headings used in his after resume.

Before Resume: Accounting / Recordkeeping Administrative Computer Skills

After Resume: Management of A/R and A/P Accounts Computerized Accounting Applications Departmental Administration / Recordkeeping

Which set of headings are the strongest for an Accounts Payable / Receivable Manager position?

Even though Roger's title was Accounting Assistant, he actually managed over 1,000 A/R and A/P accounts. Using skill headings that market the true nature of Roger's job duties will generate him more interviews and higher salary offers

Employers make snap judgments when glancing at your resume. If they see unrelated job titles or skills the likelihood is very high that they will make an immediate assumption that you are not qualified for the job you want. Adding to this problem is the fact that employers don't have the time to read through each of your job descriptions to determine if you have the skills they need.

You Must Do That For Them! The design of your resume must highlight the most important information about your work experience, skills and education. At first glance this information forms the image that employers have of your skills and abilities.

As Roger's after statement demonstrates, using numbers to describe your achievements and responsibilities can greatly expand and elevate your image. Using numbers and quantifying creates vivid images in our mind when we read them, whereas general statements like the before examples are easy to skip over or forget. Typically the more specific you can be in describing your duties the better.

Another strategy that is extremely important in controlling the image that employers develop about you--is to use Power Words or verbs that match the level of position you want. For example, Roger wants to use the experience he's gained to move into a management position. To strengthen his image he should use as many "management oriented" words as possible. Which example below do you think is the strongest?

Typical Verbs: Gave work assignments to staff of entry level accounting clerks.

Power Words: Directed workflow, supervised and trained accounting staff performing posting to general ledger, accounts receivable and payable accounts.

Learning how to analyze the key words that employers provide in help wanted ads and job descriptions is a key element in creating powerful resumes. For example, read the ad Roger found for an Accounts Receivable Manager below and see how many key words, phrases, or skill descriptions that it includes.

Accounts Receivable Manager Seeking experienced A/R Manager to oversee accounts, manage billing and collections, train accounting and clerical staff, develop status reports for management and prepare monthly balance sheets. B.A. Degree or A.A. Degree with minimum of 2 years experience required.

Even though this ad is small it contains 12-13 key words or phrases that should be addressed in Roger's resume. Roger can also key words from an ad like this to create headings for his resume such as:

Key Word Skill Headings Management of A/R Accounts Billing and Collections Supervision of Accounting and Administrative Staff Balance Sheet and Management Status Reports

As you write your resume, keep in mind the level of job and salary you want. Be sure to create an image that presents you at the appropriate level. For example, language used in a resume for an $8 an hour position is much different than the language used for a $16 an hour position. I recently met Lynn, who had held a Health Insurance Claims Management position making $42,000 per year. She had retrained for the accounting field and hadn't yet gained any "direct accounting experience" although she had prepared monthly accounting reports as a Department Manager.

I was appalled when she shared the resume she had been counseled to create. It began with this statement:

Seeking an entry level position in the accounting field.

Now what pay rate do you think this statement would motivate employers to offer Lynn? A much better statement would be:

Seek an Accounting position utilizing my experience: Managing a department and accounting for up to $250,000 in monthly claims.

My goal is to help people either stay at their current salary level or move up--not go backwards. As you can see, the last statement greatly elevates Lynn's image and will be much more likely to generate salary offers comparable to her last pay rate.

You will generate many more interviews by tweaking your resume and cover letter so that they address the specific skills each employer requests. For example, Sally originally wanted a customer service position, then found an ad for a Retail Management opening. How well qualified do the headings in the left hand column present her for the Retail Management position? Do you think the headings in the right hand column will generate more and better interviews for Retail Management positions?

Customer Service Cash Accountability Computer Skills

Retail Management / Customer Service Cash Accountability / Supervision of Retail Stations Retail Accounting Applications

Sally's actual title had been Lead Cashier, even though she managed her own retail cashiering station in addition to 6 other cashiers and stations. Once Sally had created her original resume, it only took about 5 minutes to tweak and relabel her skill descriptions to fit Retail Management positions. This "relabeling" is entirely truthful and is extremely important in landing more interviews because it allows job seekers to apply for, and look qualified for, a wider range of jobs.

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