Career Smart Essential Guidelines for Writing a Great Resume

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Your resume is your marketing document. It needs to differentiate you from every other candidate and demonstrate that you’re the perfect match for the job. Its sole purpose is to secure you an interview. All this within two pages!

To achieve this feat you need to:

Think you're FAB.
Think of yourself as a “product” with Features, Advantages and Benefits and your resume as your promotional pitch. It's communicating your strengths and accomplishments in way that clearly show the benefits you have to offer a potential employer.

Focus on their WIIFM.
An employer is interested in “what’s in it for me” so it's important that you sell as well as tell in your resume.

Target Ruthlessly.
Bombing recruiters and employers with a one size fits all resume won’t work. You need to carefully customize your resume for each and every position you apply for.

This can be a daunting task. It requires a lot of time and dedication too which is why I’ve pulled together a relatively comprehensive set of resume writing guidelines. Use it as your quality checklist while you work on producing your "Great Resume".

Career Smart Guidelines for Writing a Great Resume

The following section includes some of the fundamental guidelines to help professionals produce a quality CV or resume - the primary difference being that a CV is a little longer than a resume.

Before you Begin Writing

1. Get Organised.
Before you begin writing, collate all the relevant documentation and dates for easy reference.

2. Select your layout.
Select a template for your resume and set up your format. Alternatively choose an online resume builder and select an appropriate template from the library. (Refer to the Career Smart 10 Free Tools for Outstanding Resume article below for examples)

3. First impressions count.
The visual presentation of your resume is extremely important. Select an appropriate resume layout for the position and continue to perfect the presentation until your resume clearly communicates that this candidate is a high calibre professional.

4. Tell the truth.
Don’t exaggerate your experience or embellish your qualifications. Be truthful and honest at all times – in print and person.

5. Identify the job requirements.
Read the job description and/or advertisement carefully and highlight all the requirements. This is critical. When you list your work experience, skills and qualifications you’re going to match them as closely as possible to these requirements.

6. Prioritise content.
It's impossible to include everything in your resume nor should you. Draft an outline of what you must include in your resume based on the job requirements and only include secondary things (that are directly relevant) if you have space.

Your Contact Information

1. Include personal contact details.
Your name, address, e-mail and phone number should all be placed at the top of the page. Do not include your photo.

2. Check your email address.
Make sure your e-mail address is businesslike. If necessary create a new account using a free web based service for the sole purpose of job applications.

Sell Your Skills

1. Identify your skills.
List your relevant technical and specialised skills. Be specific and identify the level. Use skill categories and headings to group into relevant clusters. It’s easier to read and provides valuable context. E.g. Strategic Leadership, Operational Management, Software Systems

2. Match your skills to the job.
Focus on matching your skills to the competencies required in the job. Use the same or similar language in the job description or advertisement. Try to cover off as many competencies as you can.

3. Include foreign languages.
List any relevant languages and describe your level of proficiency e.g. basic, conversational, fluent

4. Back it up.
You must substantiate your claims in the body of your resume by illustrating how you applied these skills.

Your Professional Experience

1. Include a Career Summary
Instead of a career objective use a career summary statement and make sure you customise this for each position

2. Emphasize recent work experience.
List your work experience in reverse chronological order i.e. start with your current/most recent job. Generally employers are more interested in what you’ve done within the past 10 years so allocate more space and provide more detail about recent roles.

3. Demonstrate career progression.
Show how you’ve developed and grown through each role either by vertical advancement (up the ladder) or by increasing your expertise through specialisation, or by broadening your skill set and experience through diverse roles across different companies or industries.

4. Demonstrate relevance.
The most effective resumes mirror the requirements of the job description. If you do not meet the requirements your resume won’t make the first cut so you must clearly link your work experience, skills and responsibilities to the position you’re applying for. Use the language, key words and phrases, that appear in the job description/advertisement as much as possible.

5. Communicate responsibilities with results.
Provide context with a brief description of your previous job’s responsibilities then focus on your achievements. Your resume should not only explain what you did, but also why you did it and how it benefited the company. Demonstrate how you created real value for your employer in each role. Use the following format to help you phrase your statements.


Eliminated	redundancy in supplier system	achieved savings of $22K pa

6. Specific and measurable.
Strengthen you statements by quantifying to show the scope of responsibility and results e.g. managed $500K budget, supervised staff of six, managed five large accounts, increased sales by 30%, etc

7. Include voluntary and community work.
List relevant (to the job) work experience, both paid and volunteer, with a brief description of responsibilities, projects and achievements.

8. Unique and interesting.
Where possible try to include something unique or interesting for every job. This will make your resume more memorable and help you to stand out from the masses.

9. Pitch at the right level.
You are trying to ‘sell’ your skills and experience so make sure that you are not pitching either too high or too low for the job you’re targeting.

Your Education and Professional Development

1. Prioritise Educational Information.
As your career progresses the education and qualifications section of your resume will be of less importance than the type and level of practical experience depicted in your career history.

2. List your academic qualifications.
Summarise your education and list your degrees and qualifications. Don’t use abbreviations if there is any chance that the person reading the resume won’t recognise them. Provide an “equivalent to” statement if necessary.

3. List professional licences.
List current licenses that are relevant to the job.

4. List courses and certifications.
Include a list of relevant training courses and certifications that relate to the job you are applying for.

Your Professional Affiliations and Interests

1. List affiliations and awards.
List your professional memberships and include community, sporting and professional awards. You could also include published papers and professional presentations if speaking at meetings and conferences is a job requirement

2. Interests.
As a general rule including this type of information is much less important now than it used to be so only include interests that are relevant to the position you’re applying for or that will demonstrate your fit with the organisation e.g. weekend skydiver if you’re applying for a position with an adventure/tourism company.

Resume Writing and Formatting Guidelines

1. Keep it short.
With the exception of some specialist positions, aim for the optimum of one page for a resume, two pages for a CV - a maximum three. Number your pages in the footer and include your name in the header of page 2. Don’t use a cover page.

2. Aim for clarity and brevity.
Including too much detail is probably the single most common fault in resume writing. Information overload can also confuse the reader who will be scanning at speed. Use short, crisp statements to increase comprehension.

3. Go from general to specific.
Sequence information in sections by beginning with a general statement and then follow up with more specific information to expand on the statement.

4. Use action words.
Start statements and sentences with action verbs. It’s more efficient and makes more of an impact on the reader.

5. Use engaging language.
Don’t overdo it with the adjectives but selective use of descriptive language can help to create an emotional impact and project a sense of your personality. Your resume will be more memorable rather than bland and boring.

6. Make it easy to read.
Keep pages visually clean. Avoid fussy formatting. Use bolded headings for main sections. Break up dense blocks of text with spacing and prudent use of bullet points.

7. Use bulleted lists.
Bulleted information is more readable and tends to stand out more. Use bullet points to organise information into one or two line sentences. Be consistent in style and format.

8. Use a standard font.
Fancy fonts are difficult to read. They may not print well or can revert to default fonts on other printers. This will mess up your layout and alter your formatting. Use Arial, Times New Roman or similar with a font size of 11pt, except for your name or major headings.

9. Forget the graphics.
Unless you’re in a creative field don’t waste time on graphic design. Most resume design features and graphics are stripped out or ignored by automatic applicant tracking systems. Amateur photos, logos or clipart can detract from the professionalism of your resume too. Use the space instead to include more relevant information that strengthens your match to the job.

10. Good punctuation and grammar.
Keep sentences short and don't worry about fragments. You can frequently leave out a, an, and the. Do use proper punctuation though as it aids comprehension and readability.

11. Avoid Abbreviations.
Professional terminology and abbreviations are okay but don’t use obscure abbreviations; if in doubt spell it out.

12. Avoid first person pronoun.
Resumes are business documents so don’t use “I”, “me”, “my” - use the third person.

13. Use quality plain paper.
Most coloured paper doesn’t photocopy or fax well so present your resume on laser printed plain white bond paper, off-white grey or buff.

14. Forget fancy frills.
If you have to post rather than email a hard copy of your resume it’s a good idea to protect it in a light folder but don’t bother with expensive binding or fancy folders. Very often this is removed when your resume is either scanned or photocopied.

15. Proofread to perfection.
Proofread your resume multiple times and get a third party to double check. Check for typos, incorrect grammar, inaccuracies, clarity and relevance of content.

What Happens Next?

Get your Resume Graded

RezScore is an online tool that allows job seekers to upload their resume for analysis using more than a dozen metrics compiled from the recommendations of hiring managers, HR directors, job search experts, and certified resume writers. You simply go to the homepage, upload your resume, and instantly receive a "resume effectiveness" grade (A-F). It's completely free and no registration is required. The paid version offers detailed reports and analysis on things like keyword structure, industry targeting, grammar, length, etc. RezScore has a job-matching tool as well that will instantly analyse your resume and send you relevant job matches, without any effort on your part.

Submitting Your Resume Online?

Career Smart How to Customise Your Resume for Automated Resume Screeners
Most major recruiters and employers use automated applicant tracking systems to manage the large volume of resumes they receive for each advertised position. If you're required to submit your resume through one of these systems you will need to reformat and fine tune your resume to ensure it makes it through the screening process.