COMPONENTS OF A PROFESSIONAL RESUME
1. Contact Information
Make it easy to contact you either by
phone, mail or e-mail. Don't make the
recruiter track you down. Note: make
sure your voicemail message is
professional. You don't want a recruiter
to get the wrong impression from a silly
message on the recording. Do not include
personal information, such as marital
status, here or anywhere else on your
resume.
2. Objective/Title
Some experts believe that including an
objective may limit your chances of
obtaining an interview; if your
objective doesn't match the recruiter's
needs at the time, you may miss out on a
golden opportunity. On the flip side, a
career objective is useful in
communicating that you are proactively
managing your career. You know what you
want, why not say it? We suggest taking
a broad approach: Instead of writing a
sentence like "Seeking a career
opportunity as a Marketing Executive…,"
try a simple title after your contact
info, simply "Marketing Executive."
3. Summary Statement
First, include your title and years of
experience. Second, list special skills.
Third, talk about your character traits
or work style. Remember that this is a
summary; it should only be 2-3 sentences
long.
Example: "Financial Accountant with over
10 years' experience with two Fortune
500 companies. Technical skills include
P & L, budgeting, forecasting and
variance reporting. Bilingual in Spanish
and English. Self-starter who approaches
every project in a detailed, analytical
manner."
4. Professional Experience
List each position held in reverse
chronological order, going back at least
ten years. If you held multiple
positions within the same company, be
sure to list all of them - you want the
recruiter to see how you've progressed.
Concentrate on the description of the
position - that's the meat & potatoes.
The body of the position description has
two parts:
1.
a description of your responsibilities
and
2.
your accomplishments
Feature-Accomplishment-Benefit
Use the FAB format to organize your
skills and sell your accomplishments to
a recruiter.
Feature:
the actual responsibilities.
Accomplishment:
the performing of responsibilities.
Benefit:
how your performance affected your
employer.
Example:
Manufacturing Engineer
-
Feature: Create and implement
a Certified Inspector program
-
Accomplishment: Reduced the
number of parts inspected upon final
assembly
-
Benefit: Decreased inspection
costs by 45%
FAB Statement: Created and
implemented a Certified Inspector
program that reduced the number of parts
inspected upon final assembly.
Inspection costs were reduced by 45%.
Situation-Solution-Outcome
Consider this format to
demonstrate your problem-solving
capabilities:
Situation:
What situation was your company facing?
Solution:
What did you do to solve the problem?
Outcome:
What was the outcome?
Example: VP of
Business Development
-
Situation: Company wanted to grow
non-government business
-
Solution: Created and implemented
commercial market penetration
strategy
-
Outcome: Increased revenues in
excess of $100 million
SSO Statement: Company wanted to
grow non-government sector business.
Developed business that resulted in the
capture of commercial sales with
increased revenue in excess of $100
million.
Top 12 accomplishments that most
interest employers
-
Increased revenues
-
Saved money
-
Increased efficiencies
-
Cut overhead
-
Increased sales
-
Improved workplace safety
-
Purchasing accomplishments
-
New products/new lines
-
Improved record keeping process
-
Increased productivity
-
Successful advertising campaign
-
Effective budgeting
Other resume components include:
Education, Professional training,
Affiliations/Appointments Licenses,
Technical skills and Languages. Approach
these items from the viewpoint of the
recruiter or employer: How will these
skills benefit the company?
